- Joined
- Jun 19, 2018
- Messages
- 6,652
- Likes
- 9,399
An exchange in another thread got me to thinking about what we hope an ideal audio reproduction system is supposed to do, which I think is a deeply problematic question, with implications for decisions about how we design and use both recording and reproduction systems.
The statement I found interesting (from @FrantzM) was:
I agree completely with the first part of the quote. But I find the second part (which I've italicised) problematic. The implication of this statement seems to be that:
The goal of an ideal reproduction system is to reproduce a performance that would be audibly indistinguishable from the original.***
At face value, this seems to be a legitimate ultimate goal of audio reproduction. But in my opinion, it's flawed.
A reproduction system does not receive a performance and then reproduce it; rather, it receives a signal containing a recording of the original performance. So the first thing to note is that this recording is not itself the original performance.
Moreover, even if a recording is captured by a transparent microphone (or two if we make it binaural) and stored on a transparent recording medium, this recording cannot discriminate between the direct sound and the reflected sound at the point in the performance space at which the microphone(s) is situated.
And it is this mixture of direct and reflected sound which becomes the signal that is then reproduced by a speaker (or headphones or multiple speakers).
How, in light of this, can a reproduction system hope to fulfil the goal of reproducing a "performance" in a way that is audibly indistinguishable from the original?
In the original performance, we have a mic receiving direct and reflected sound from different points all around it in the performance space. Then, on playback, we have a speaker reproducing all those sounds from one point in space.
And if this is fundamentally impossible, what goal do we set for an ideal reproduction system? What are we trying to achieve beyond the specific goals of inaudible distortion etc. etc? If an ideal reproduction system can't reproduce an original performance, what is it supposed to be able to do?
***Apologies to @FrantzM if I'm reading your statement incorrectly.
EDIT: sentence in bold added for clarity.
The statement I found interesting (from @FrantzM) was:
Audio reproduction involves science, lot of it. We don't know it all yet... There is still much to learn. We aren't at a point where our audio systems fool us into believing that a real even is taking place in our home. That is at the bottom the goal of High Fidelity and Science will lead the way ...
I agree completely with the first part of the quote. But I find the second part (which I've italicised) problematic. The implication of this statement seems to be that:
The goal of an ideal reproduction system is to reproduce a performance that would be audibly indistinguishable from the original.***
At face value, this seems to be a legitimate ultimate goal of audio reproduction. But in my opinion, it's flawed.
A reproduction system does not receive a performance and then reproduce it; rather, it receives a signal containing a recording of the original performance. So the first thing to note is that this recording is not itself the original performance.
Moreover, even if a recording is captured by a transparent microphone (or two if we make it binaural) and stored on a transparent recording medium, this recording cannot discriminate between the direct sound and the reflected sound at the point in the performance space at which the microphone(s) is situated.
And it is this mixture of direct and reflected sound which becomes the signal that is then reproduced by a speaker (or headphones or multiple speakers).
How, in light of this, can a reproduction system hope to fulfil the goal of reproducing a "performance" in a way that is audibly indistinguishable from the original?
In the original performance, we have a mic receiving direct and reflected sound from different points all around it in the performance space. Then, on playback, we have a speaker reproducing all those sounds from one point in space.
And if this is fundamentally impossible, what goal do we set for an ideal reproduction system? What are we trying to achieve beyond the specific goals of inaudible distortion etc. etc? If an ideal reproduction system can't reproduce an original performance, what is it supposed to be able to do?
***Apologies to @FrantzM if I'm reading your statement incorrectly.
EDIT: sentence in bold added for clarity.
Last edited: