- Thread Starter
- #61
The other end of things, but 2 or 3 years ago Sound on Sound recorded an electronically controlled grand piano in a large studio (possibly Abby Road). They used a couple different pair of mics and each of those when thru AD/mic pre units ranging between $450 and something like $10-12 k. They put the files up and let people vote on them for preference. There was also a discussion on their forums for identifying which was which. No consensus and not many takers originally. Once they had a fair number of votes for preference the results were split pretty evenly. The number one vote getter: the $450 unit. 2nd was a moderately expensive unit, and third was the 2nd least expensive unit. The real take away was no unit got overwhelming support as best. Now this may not mean they sound the same as much as different people had different preferences. However, this along with a few similar tests posted simply for difference finding indicates ADC's at any level from somewhere below $1k is a solved problem. Microphone pre's unless you are looking for character and color are a solved problem. I think the playback end is similar. Pre's, DAC's and such are all a solved problem unless you purposely skew the device for character. Amps come close, but I agree they interact with speakers or at least often can. So they might not be solved for all speakers, but it is getting very close to a solved problem. Transducers are the areas yet to be solved and may be somewhat unsolvable in the near future.
I posted the 8th gen copies and the digital originals using a pair of $400 recording interfaces. That is in my opinion pretty convincing evidence lower price digital does little harm.
Good comment. I would argue that if you couple performance as in the Hypex amps (or performance which comes close) with active crossovers, the amp/speaker interaction is essentially a solved problem by now. Transducers – not so much.