Here are some audio and video trends for 2019:
The global Hi-Fi Systems market was valued at million US$ in 2018 and is expected to grow. EISA Awards has selected Hi-Fi product category winners, but I did not see anything really fancy new innovations that would excite me there. The Hi-Fi speaker market has seen considerable consolidation over the years but is expected to grow. The global Hi-Fi speaker system market is highly competitive. Various established international brands, domestic brands and as well as new entrants form a competitive landscape. The market is expected to have higher growth rate as compared to the previous years due to the booming electronic industry globally. It is due to the rising income of individuals globally and increasing affordability of technology products globally. Due to technological adoption and smart gadgets, North America region is showing steady growth in the Hi-Fi speaker system market. On technology standpoint the Hi-Fi market is mainly based on pretty much stabilized technology as class D amplifiers have been on mainstream for many years.
Smart TVs are everywhere. The vast majority of televisions available today are “smart” TVs, with internet connections, ad placement, and streaming services built in. Despite the added functionality, TV prices are lower than ever. Your new smart TV was so affordable because it is collecting and selling your data. It is clear that TV companies are in a cutthroat business, and that companies like Vizio would have to charge higher prices for hardware if they didn’t run content, advertising, and data businesses. Google wants sensors and cameras in every room of your home to watch, analyze, you, patents show.
Streaming services competition stays high. Apple’s embracing the TV industry for the first time: Vizio and LG TVs will support AirPlay 2 and HomeKit, while Samsung TVs will get an iTunes Movies & TV app, as well as AirPlay 2 support. Google and Amazon are playing are important players on smart speaker markets.
4K video resolution is still as hot as in 2019 – it us becoming mainstream and getting cheaper. Peraso showcases 4K wireless video at CES 2019. LG has produced a market-ready rollable OLED TV. The new 75-inch 4K Micro LED TV announced at CES 2019 proves Samsung is serious about scaling the technology to do battle with OLED. But it seems that even in 1029 “4K” trend remains woefully deficient from a compelling-content-availability standpoint. CES 2019 is already full of weird and wonderful monitors.
But new higher 8K resolution is being pushed to market. The “8K” (resolution) tagline was apparently everywhere at CES this year. Samsung announced a 98-inch 8K TV because why not. LG has come strong to CES 2019 with an 88-inch 8K OLED TV, a 75-inch 8K LED/LCD TV, HDMI 2.1, new auto calibration features, Alexa built in, and many more features. It seems that this ongoing evolution is occurring out of necessity: as a given-size (and -pixel-dense) display becomes a low profit margin commodity, manufacturers need to continually “up-rev” one or both key consumer-attention-grabbing parameters (along with less quantifiable attributes like image quality) in order to remain profitable … assuming they can continue to stimulate sufficient-sized consumer demand in the process. I am not sure if they can stimulate 8K to mass market in next few years.
Wall size TVs are coming. Samsung announced a modular TV at CES. Samsung first showcased this MicroLED TV technology at CES 2018, showcasing how the screens were composed of millions of individual LEDs. Individuals screens could be combined to create massive displays, which the company calls The Wall TV. The wall-sized displays shown in recent years at CES are, in my opinion, quite ridiculous, at least for the masses.
HDMI updates are coming. At present, the HDMI equipment uses the 2.0 standard (adopted in 2013) tht provides support for example for 4K video. HDMI Forum announced a new 2.1 standard already in November 2017, but it just starter showing in CES in January 2019. 8K fiber-optic HDMI cables seen at CES 2019. The 2.1 standard is a big change in technology at the bus bandwidth increases from 18 gigabit to 48 gigabits per second. This enables up to 10K video transmission and up to 120 frames per second.
Bendable displays are really coming to PCs and smart phones. LG’s “rollable” display shown this year neatly showcased the technology’s inherent flexibility while also addressing the question of how to hide a gargantuan display when it’s not in use. Several foldable smart phones have been shown. Chinese company Royole was showing off the FlexPai at CES in Las Vegas.
Micro displays for VR and AR glasses have developed. MicroLED is better looking, more efficient and more versatile than any previous display tech. Now all Samsung, Sony, LG and others have to do is figure out how to manufacture it affordably.Nanoco Technologies and Plessey Semiconductors have partnered to shrink the pixel size of monolithic microLED displays using Nanoco’s cadmium-free quantum-dot (CFQD quantum dots) semiconductor nanoparticle technology. Microchips and organic LEDs that deliver 4K-like high resolution displays a quarter of the size and half the weight of existing virtual reality (VR) headsets have been developed under a European Union project. Marc Andreessen says VR will be “1,000” times bigger than AR even though VR seems to be the popular whipping boy amongst the tech community.
There seems to be no shortage of angst with the current (and unfortunately burgeoning) popularity of usage of the term artificial intelligence (AI). Intelligence has been defined in many ways which makes it hard to get good picture on what is going on. I am still waiting for sensible intelligent AI to do something useful. But the ability for a sufficiently trained deep learning system to pattern-match images, sound samples, computer viruses, network hacking attempts, and the like is both impressive and effective.
Potential problems related to the coming of self-driving car technologies and cameras are expected. A man at CES in Las Vegas says that a car-mounted lidar permanently damaged the sensor in his new $1,998 Sony a7R II mirrorless camera. Man says CES lidar’s laser was so powerful it wrecked his $1,998 camera because the LIDAR laser power rules ensure lasers are safe for human eyes—but not necessarily for cameras. Is this something that camera and car manufacturers need to figure out together?
2019 Will Be the Year of Open Source from software and even hardware. Open source video player app VLC has now reached 3 billions downloads.
When almost all AV products are pushing more and more features, it seems that almost Everything is too complicated for an average Joe.
1,491 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adding Real Lenses To An Instant Camera
https://hackaday.com/2019/03/04/adding-real-lenses-to-an-instant-camera/
The Instax SQ6 and Fujifilm’s entire range of instant cameras are fun little boxes that produce instant photos. It’s a polaroid that’s not Polaroid, and like most instant cameras, the lenses are just one or two pieces of plastic. A lens transplant is in order, and that’s exactly what [Kevin] did to his Instax camera.
Instax SQ6 Lens Transplant
https://hackaday.io/project/158654-instax-sq6-lens-transplant
Adding a “real” lens to Fujifilm’s first (and only) analog square format instant camera.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can You Recover Sound From Images?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUzB0L0mSCI
Is it possible to reconstruct sound from high-speed video images?
This video was based on research by Dr. Abe Davis and colleagues. I found out about this work years ago and was fascinated by the way he was able to capture vibration information in image-only video. I always imagined the motions of objects would be visible as when recording a tuning fork in slow motion – so deriving sound from high speed images seemed a feasible task. But the reality is much more difficult.
Sound vibrations only cause objects to wiggle by about a micrometer. This is much smaller than a pixel, so the algorithm must understand the characteristics of the image.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Are passive preamplifiers OK?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM1pjt7rOfA
It seems like a passive preamplifier would have the least amount of sonic coloration. So, are they the best to use over an active device?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why do manufacturers hide their prices?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kv2ywR-hYg
Sometimes it’s difficult to find the retail price of products, especially higher priced stereo equipment. Why do manufacturers hide their pricing from the public?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is equipment burn in real?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJFnlDTtsBA
You’ve heard that equipment needs burn-in time to sound its best and you’ve also heard it’s the listener burning in not the equipment. What’s the truth of the matter and why?
Tomi Engdahl says:
How different is buying high end audio In 2018 than It was in 1978?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN6bKzhrccI
Andy Singer has seen and heard it all, so I picked his brain about how high-end customers have changed over the decades.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Small speakers vs. big ones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu6Bv-CPX9Q
Smaller speakers have great advantages over larger floor standing models and yet Paul argues in favor of the bigger ones. Find out why in this insightful video conversation
Tomi Engdahl says:
The CD Is 40, The CD Is Dead
https://hackaday.com/2019/03/19/the-cd-is-40-the-cd-is-dead/
The Compact Disc is 40 years old, and for those of us who remember its introduction it still has that sparkle of a high-tech item even as it slides into oblivion at the hands of streaming music services.
The format had its roots in contemporary consumer video technologies, with which in parallel research programmes both Sony and Philips were working on next-generation audio products. Sony had showcased a digital audio system using its video tape format in the early 1970s, while Philips had investigated an analogue system similar to LaserDisc video discs. By the middle of the decade both companies had produced prototype optical audio discs that were not compatible but were similar enough for them to investigate a collaboration. The 1979 prototype players with their 120 mm polycarbonate discs containing over an hour of 44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo audio were the result, and books and magazines with a futuristic outlook featured the prototype players along with the inevitable rainbow shot of a CD as the Way of the Future.
TV shows such as the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World made extravagant claims about the new format’s durability compared to vinyl LPs, leading to an expertly marketed fever pitch of expectation
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disney closes its $71.3B Fox acquisition
https://tcrn.ch/2TYQiSp
As of 12:02am Eastern today, Disney has closed its acquisition of 21st Century Fox.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is it dangerous to run an amplifier without a load?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0DxXZjBahk
What happens when a power amplifier is at maximum output level and there’s not speakers connected? Is it dangerous or alright to do?
Comments:
What about tube amplifiers? If you don’t connect a speaker load, you will break the output transformer! I think that’s important to remember this. Some people have tube amplifiers, mostly musicians.
Running an amplifier which has a vacuum tube power output and an output transformer can most definitely have the potential for damage. While there are a few amplifiers where this is not the case, in general, do not tempt fate. The output transformer can be damaged.
Solid state, not generally a problem, but there must be exceptions.
Tube amps, most defenately YES. No speaker load on the output transformer causes the output tubes to “play” into a wildly wrong impedance. Also the wrong impedance speaker (s) can be a (big) problem also, especially if it’s too low. This can overload the output transformer and overcurrent the output tubes…. Generally, output tube are already biased at roughly 60% of designed plate disipation with no signal source at all. They can/will overcurrent, maybe red plate and, at the least, will have a shorter useable “life”.
There are always examples of equipment that can “take it”, but maybe not at full throttle for long periods. Not worth the risk in $$.
Most of my experience is repairing guitar amps and pro sound equipment…. butt….
I would NEVER run my treasured Mac 225 stereo tube amp at no- load or wrong-load, just saying.
Tube amps !! Yes .. no mention of these without a load … just watch the sparks fly with them at full power and no load lol !! Some high end tube amps incorporate no load protection circuitry to protect the output stages
All guitar players should know to never use a tube amp without load. Some may have protection designed in, but many don’t. Better not to risk it.
Yes, always have a pair of speakers connected to a Tube Amp or a Dummy load, or you’ll likely burn the output transformers out!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why do people abandon their power conditioners?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oFlgPPp9XA
It seems the typical pattern is for audiophiles to purchase expensive power conditioners only to then sell them later wishing they had never installed them.
How important is clean power?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD_2RKpWkYw
Clean power is said to be critical to the performance of high-end audio equipment, yet is that so? Power expert Paul McGowan gives us a slightly different viewpoint on the subject, one that’s going to be surprising to many. H
Tomi Engdahl says:
Are diffusers best for audio?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYjyvwgdKQk
There are many ways to acoustically treat a room but one of the best is called a diffuser. What are they and when should be used?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Andrew Liptak / The Verge:
MPAA: streaming video subscriptions surpassed those for cable TV for the first time in 2018 globally, rising 131.2M or 27% YoY to 613.3M, as cable fell to 556M
The MPAA says streaming video has surpassed cable subscriptions worldwide
But cable TV still rakes in more money
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/21/18275670/mpaa-report-streaming-video-cable-subscription-worldwide
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) reported today that the world’s entertainment market — encompassing both theatrical and home releases — grew to a new high in 2018: $96.8 billion, 9 percent over 2017. In particular, it highlighted the rapid growth of streaming video, which grew to 613 million subscriptions worldwide, an increase of 27 percent over 2017.
The report lays out the health of the entire motion picture entertainment industry, and it reports that consumers spent $96.8 billion on entertainment around the world. The international theatrical box office grew to $41.1 billion (spending in the US and Canada grew to $11.9 billion), while home entertainment hit $55.7 billion internationally.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
Report: for the first time, music streaming accounted for more than half, at 54%, of UK record label income as it hit £468M in 2018, up 35% YoY
Streaming accounts for more than half UK record label income
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/21/streaming-accounts-for-more-than-half-uk-record-label-income
Revenue from Spotify, Amazon and Apple rises as CD sales continue to fall
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Multichannel Field Recorder You Can Build Right Now
https://hackaday.com/2019/03/22/the-multichannel-field-recorder-you-can-build-right-now/
Field recorders, or backpackable audio recorders with a few XLR jacks and an SD card slot, are a niche device, and no matter what commercial field recorder you choose you’ll always compromise on what features you want versus what features you’ll get. [Ben Biles] didn’t feel like compromising so he built his own multichannel audio DSP field recorder. It has a four channel balanced master outputs, with two stereo headphone outputs, eight or more inputs, digital I/O, and enough routing for multitrack recording.
Multichannel Audio DSP Field Mixer Recorder
https://hackaday.io/project/7041-multichannel-audio-dsp-field-mixer-recorder
USBmidi, bluetooth app controll 8 chan portable DSP mixer.balanced audio IO,phantom power,flexible routing,ISO recording. networked
Tomi Engdahl says:
If Educational Videos Were Filmed Like Music Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G025oxyWv0E
There’s a reason music videos look strange. I could just talk about framerate, cuts and continuity… or I could get an actual music video director. And a leaf blower.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Community > Blogs > Brian’s Brain
Display technologies: Refinements and new entrants
https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4461712/1/Display-technologies–Refinements-and-new-entrants?utm_source=Aspencore&utm_medium=EDN&utm_campaign=social
Fast-forward nearly a decade, and in one sense the largely evolutionary changes in the intermediate years have been pretty predictable. Screens are trending larger, as well has exhibiting higher pixel densities (i.e. resolutions for a given screen size), and LCDs remain dominant. LG in particular continues to push the OLED alternative hard into televisions, retail displays, and other large-screen applications, as traditional color-balance shifts (blue-spectrum in particular) over time, visibility issues in high ambient light environments, and other historical shortcomings are alleviated with technology advancements.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Morphin instantly Deepfakes your face into GIFs
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/20/morphin-avatars/
Want to star in your favorite memes and movie scenes? Upload a selfie to Morphin, choose your favorite GIF and your face is grafted in to create a personalized copy you can share anywhere.
Morphin started three years ago with the intention to build personalized avatars for games and VR so you could be a FIFA soccer player or Skyrim knight.
Morphin’s tech no longer requires 3D scanning hardware and it works with just a regular selfie. You just snap a headshot, select a GIF from its iOS or Android app’s library and a few seconds later you have a CGI version of yourself in the scene (with no watermark) that you can export and post. “We wanted it to be super straightforward because we wanted people to relate to the content,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
MySpace Loses 12 Years of Music
https://www.pcmag.com/news/367232/myspace-loses-12-years-of-music
The data loss apparently extends to any audio, photos, or video uploaded between 2003 and 2015, which means over 50 million songs from over 14 million artists have been lost.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.arttusilvast.com/audiobranding
Tomi Engdahl says:
The current state of free music in 2019
https://opensource.com/article/19/3/free-music-guide?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
Find free music available under Creative Commons and similar libre licenses with this comprehensive guide.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Good Is Your Color Perception? Take This Quiz And Find Out
https://www.iflscience.com/brain/how-good-is-your-color-perception-take-this-quiz-and-find-out/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sound May Be Carried by Tiny Particles With Negative Gravity
https://futurism.com/sound-waves-particles-negative-gravity/
Long thought to be weightless, new research suggests sonic waves have mass.
Important Update
Conventional wisdom in physics dictates that sound waves are massless fluctuations in pressure that travel through materials like air, water, and eardrums — and can’t travel through empty space.
That’s why the recent discovery that sound waves actually do carry a trace amount of mass is so shocking — it’s been right under scientists’ noses for centuries
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Fool IR Security Cameras
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fywvB4Unjv4
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why do car stereos sound better than home systems?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUmMjOx5d1k
Many people believe the systems in their automobiles outperform those in their homes and, for some, that is likely true. But why?
Tomi Engdahl says:
This high-end dealer doesn’t recommend expensive cables!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G_mhAbSs8M
Sound By Singer’s Andrew Singer recommends against spending a lot of money on cables, especially in under $10K systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How not to fall down the rabbit hole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qS_SSSYu9U
Upgrades and tweaks can often seem like they have no end to them. How can you decide when it’s good enough and stay out of the rabbit hole?
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2019/03/26/taittuva-digikamera-180sta-360-asteeseen/
Insta360 EVO on uudenlainen taittuva digikamera, jolla pystyy kuvaamaan sekä 180 asteen 3D-videoita että 360 asteen videokuvaa. Uudenlaisella toimintakameralla voi olla laajemmin käyttöä myös ammattisovelluksissa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nvidia Brings AI to Makers with the Jetson Nano
https://www.designnews.com/electronics-test/nvidia-brings-ai-makers-jetson-nano/196322949860468?ADTRK=UBM&elq_mid=7930&elq_cid=876648
Nvidia’s new Jetson Nano is a single-board computer aimed at bringing powerful AI computing to the maker community.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Doesn’t Cable TV Buffer?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQC9iqxcbcg
Cable TV these days is all digital, and comes into your home over the same wire that carries cable internet – so why doesn’t it suffer from buffering or slowdowns, like streaming video?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jules Wang / Android Police:
Google Podcasts is auto-transcribing podcast episodes and using those transcripts as metadata to help listeners search for shows
Google Podcasts in-episode search is coming, shows now being fully transcribed
https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/03/26/google-podcasts-in-episode-search-is-coming-shows-now-being-fully-transcribed/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chris Welch / The Verge:
BBC pulls podcasts from Google Podcasts and Assistant, blaming Google for not providing enough audience data and sending podcast user searches to its own app — It says Google isn’t providing enough audience data — The BBC has removed its podcasts from the Google Podcasts app …
BBC pulls its podcasts from Google Podcasts and Assistant
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/26/18282436/bbc-podcasts-google-assistant-home-block
Tomi Engdahl says:
Manish Singh / VentureBeat:
BitTorrent says it is relaunching BitTorrent Live, its defunct Sling TV-like service, as a Snapchat-like social media app for iOS and Android, currently in beta
BitTorrent Live returns as a Snapchat-like social media app
https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/27/bittorrent-live-returns-as-a-snapchat-like-social-media-app/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Display technologies: Refinements and new entrants
https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4461712/Display-technologies–Refinements-and-new-entrants
Screens are trending larger, as well has exhibiting higher pixel densities (i.e. resolutions for a given screen size), and LCDs remain dominant. LG in particular continues to push the OLED alternative hard into televisions, retail displays, and other large-screen applications, as traditional color-balance shifts (blue-spectrum in particular) over time, visibility issues in high ambient light environments, and other historical shortcomings are alleviated with technology advancements.
But somewhat surprisingly, as I noted in my coverage of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, LG’s primary legacy OLED competitor Samsung is seemingly redirecting its large-screen efforts at two alternative technologies, QLED and microLED. They might sound similar, but they’re really not. And inherent in their implementation details, both relative to each other and to LCD and OLED alternatives
The fundamental strength of LCD technology is its longevity, said another way its maturity, given that it’s been under active development for many decades
Tomi Engdahl says:
Genelec promises monitor-like audio realism from headphones
https://newatlas.com/genelec-aural-id/59066/
Aural ID creates a personal audio fingerprint that allows audio engines to deliver faithful and accurate reproductions of sounds
Finland’s Genelec is looking to inject more realism and accuracy into headphone sound reproduction with some software and a smartphone camera.
Exactly how we hear the sounds around us depend on something called the Head Related Transfer Function (HTRF)
Initially, Genelec is pitching the technology at academics and VR games developers, but it could evolve for use in home hi-fi systems too
https://auralid.genelec.com
Tomi Engdahl says:
Do we need to rethink stereo?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib9VCQ2IkIg
Two channel audio has its flaws and the question is should we scrap it and rethink the entire process of sound reproduction in our homes?
Comments:
Using one speaker per performer still wouldn’t be enough since every instrument has its own dispersion characteristics. You’d need many speakers per performer.
I seriously thought this was going to be an april fool’s day video. I guess it wasn’t. OK, so, rethinking stereo. Well, there have been attempts to replace stereo in the past and they rolled out but there’s a number of issues in the way that make the market divert back to two channel. Quad was a thing for a while. Today we have 5.1, 7.1, and Atmos style systems, but the problem is that you have to have a dedicated listening room, the music has to be mixed or algorithmically rendered to split 2 channels to many, and it has to be set up a certain way. The general consumer market doesn’t care to purchase a system more complicated than two channels due to all the extra setup and complication associated with a higher channel count. This pushes audio companies to follow suit and provide two channel setups with fewer higher channel options.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2019/04/02/uusi-mittausratkaisu-parantaa-kuulokekuuntelua/
Genelec Aural ID brings sonic truthfulness to headphone reproduction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL6Ws7Id-RA&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
Streaming accounted for nearly half of music revenues worldwide in 2018
https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/02/streaming-accounted-for-nearly-half-of-music-revenues-worldwide-in-2018/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Google pilots a row of ads on the Android TV home screen of Sony smart TVs, NVIDIA Shield TV, others; users say they cannot disable the ads
Android TV update puts home-screen ads on multi-thousand-dollar Sony Smart TVs
Users are reportedly not enjoying Google’s “pilot program.”
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/google-pilot-program-puts-a-row-of-ads-on-the-android-tv-home-screen/
Google is trying out a new “Pilot Program” that puts a row of advertisements on the Android TV home screen. XDA Developers was the first to report on the new phenomenon, saying, “We’re currently seeing reports that it has shown up in Sony smart TVs, the Mi Box 3 from Xiaomi, NVIDIA Shield TV, and others.”
The advertising is a “Sponsored Channel” part of the “Android TV Core Services” app that ships with all Android TV devices. A “Channel” in Android TV parlance means an entire row of thumbnails in the UI will be dedicated to “sponsored” content.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why is analog easier to reserve than digital?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VgOsWHlkG8
Preserving the qualities of analog through digital recording is a snap but it seems the opposite isn’t true. How can that possibly be true?
Comments:
Paul is telling the truth, on a really good system a DSD recording is close to identical reproduction of a tape source (though PCM below 24/192 not so much), and with DSD you don’t get any of the qualitatively harsh or cold sounds that engineers used tape or processors to soften and warm up. It’s like true analog, without any of the tape noise or artifacts.?
I’m sooo glad to hear from Paul that all my suspicions about original PCM recordings (inferior sounding to analog ones) were true, BUT WITHOUT that meaning that digital had been inferior to analog. I wish to add one opinion more: Having enjoyed quite a few analog records (and tapes) transfered to digital, from my fully digital system, AND experiencing (and aknowledging) all the well known and well praised by their afficionados qualities of analog (but heard through their digital copies, sometimes with different cartridges etc), I tend to believe that YET another reason why “analog sounds better” (in fact, it does) IS because, through its overall narrower “acoustic envelope”, IT STRESSES OUR SYSTEMS MUCH LESS (requires less, that can easily be provided by our equipment and rooms). One such example is the bass, which, although quite compromised in analog, is also more satisfactory when played back through analog. I tend to consider analog as a magical compression recipe, yet to be decoded and, perhaps, copied. ( I’d like to know what Paul thinks about this).?
I’ve been in a recording studio, sitting next to the engineer behind the console (was an Otari w/ 2” 24-track deck & Meyer monitors, btw) and the live sound had more of what we ascribe to modern high-quality digital recordings than the playback from tape did… going thru that bandwidth and dynamic range limited storage really does change the sound. (Note that I’m specifically excluding the early direct-digital recordings; because the early ADC chips had known, substantial flaws) ?? Personally, I like the modern digital sound better than the analog tape/vinyl sound, but individual tastes vary…
Analog tape recording is like a signal processor that we happen to like the sound of. It does change the sound: the frequency response, the dynamics, and the transients. It depends on the music and the application as to whether we like the effect or not, but it’s an artistic choice. Good digital recording has no sound of its own. It’s utterly transparent. If you are 100% happy with your source, then stay digital. But sometimes you want that bit of color & saturation that analog tape can give you, just like your favorite EQ, compressor, or other audio processor.?
Recording straight to digital captures the sound much more pure and clean, while people tend to love the distortions that come from recording to analog (tape, vinyl, trafo’s in tube amps etc)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Print Your Own Large Format Camera
https://hackaday.com/2019/04/04/print-your-own-large-format-camera/
Tomi Engdahl says:
8K vs. 4K vs. HD – Deep Dive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWRpLQDzycc
4K TVs may seem relatively new, but there’s another even higher-resolution display technology already here: 8K TV. Should you upgrade? We’ve got the answers to that question and more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OLED vs QLED | What’s better? | Trusted Reviews
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pc9Tfa2gr0
OLED? You’ve got the potential of burn in. QLED? It’s expensive and only Samsung makes it. But which one is better?
LG OLED vs Samsung QLED – TV Technology Shootout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxjbIK8zCZQ
The names may look almost identical, but OLED and QLED are two entirely different beasts. In our QLED vs. OLED battle, we dissect the differences between these dueling TV technologies and help determine which might be best for you.
Samsung’s QLED line of TVs is a series coined by the company that means “quantum light emitting diode”. The branding is an attempt to distinguish this TV as Samsung’s most premium television and has the capacity to produce an image that’s brighter than an OLED TV.
With LG’s OLED TV, the image is produced by starting with perfect black. With true blacks being produced, it’s hard to beat the OLED in terms of picture quality. The color is spot on straight out of the box, and its motion is smoother than the QLED.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Best Speaker Cables | Are high end cables worth it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ary7DYmaYk0
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Biggest Mistake Made in Hi Fi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DtUxoF_AjI
My opinion with links to other videos of people you might be interested in
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.43rumors.com/cipa-report-the-problem-is-not-sensor-format-the-real-problem-is-the-market-is-dying-rapidly/
Nikon, Canon and Panasonic launched new FF mirrorless cameras in the hope to revive their sales. And if you thought Full Frame mirrorless could be the one solution to save the market you were probably wrong.
The latest CIPA data shows that in February we had 35% less system camera shipments compared to last year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Should rooms be live or dead?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHjrdZHEM5U
Reflections in the room can be problematic for stereo systems. Is it better to have a live or dead room to keep these reflections from causing sonic damage?
Comments:
Rooms should actually be Dead or Alive.
The room should be neutral. Anything else is coloration.
Recording studio control rooms have been built around LEDE (live end dead end) designs for decades, and with all due respect, they are ALL exactly the opposite of Paul’s first description. The concept is: Absorption at the front, diffusion at the rear. This is almost universally accepted by acousticians to be the best compromise between a room sounding neutral and natural. It is however important to consider that studio control room acoustics are designed around the mix position, which is (ideally) about one third the length of the room back from the front wall, and the main monitors (speakers) are soffit-mounted IN the front wall itself, with the front of the cones flush with the wall.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is the fastest music humanly possible?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3kqBX1j7f8
Tomi Engdahl says:
Interaural time difference and how to find your phone instantly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqB95rj_txI
The science of sound localization is really interesting. This video is specifically about interaural time difference and how mobile phone ringtones are badly designed for the way our brains detect sound direction. You can make you phone easier to find by changing the ringtone to white noise. Also, emergency vehicle sirens like ambulances are badly designed for the same reason.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony Creates Colossal 16K Screen In Japan
https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/19/04/09/2218228/sony-creates-colossal-16k-screen-in-japan?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
Sony has unveiled a display that contains 16 times as many pixels as a 4K TV and 64 times as many as a regular 1080p high definition TV. “This will let viewers stand close to the unit — which is longer than a bus — without its image looking blurred,” report the BBC. From the report:
Sony creates colossal 16K screen in Japan
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47867038
The biggest 16K screen of its kind will shortly go on show in Japan.
The 63ft by 17ft (19.2m by 5.4m) screen is currently being installed at a new research centre that has been built for the Japanese cosmetics group Shiseido in the city of Yokohama, south of Tokyo. It is so large it will stretch between the first and second floors.
The development was announced by Sony at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show, which is currently being held in Las Vegas.