Hello Jeff,
Yes, stereo is an illusion! One of the best ways
to visually describe it is to view a stereo PHOTOGRAPH.
In no way is the picture truly three-dimensional but,
when viewed -- there it is and is quite striking! With
critical viewing, though, the faults of the technique become
obvious and the "3D" objects take on a cardboard cutout
quality. Still, when PROPERLY done the illusion is uncanny
and verges on lifelike -- when misused or used for effect the
results are exaggerated (cardboard cutout) and the merit is up
to the viewer.
I believe the same is true for stereo recordings. Binaural
recordings can be extremely lifelike when listened to properly
and the soundstage almost spooky, whereas, some rock-n-roll
recordings use stereophony for effect only with NO attempt at
being "realistic". As with the "effects" photographs, the
artistic merit of "effects" stereo is up to the listener.
Best regards,
Paul Bigelow
--- In SAE_Talk@..., jgross@n... wrote:
Interesting how you say stereo is an illusion.
In thinking it through, in order to reproduce
the sound (of a live performance) exactly in a stereo environment,
wouldn't the speakers have to be placed at almost the exact same
point
where the microphones were placed, and you would also need to
be in exactly the same room with exactly the same stuff in the
exact same
places? Or am I not thinking this through enough?
-=Jeff=-
On Mon, 15 May 2000, James Bongiorno wrote:
Dear Paul,
Sorry for the late reply but I had to think about this one for a
while.
High end audio has turned into a fiasco in the sense of "what
have you
done for me lately" and the answer is: absolutely nothing. There
is much
truth to what you said. There is a lot of idiotic nonsense
propagated by
dilettantes such as "the brick". Remember that one? I threw up my
hands
a long time ago. You can talk 'til you're blue in the face, but
the wall
is still there. One of the biggest problems in our industry is
"ego". No
one wants to admit that they don't know. This is akin to what
psychologists call "protection on one's belief system". Well, you
can
believe all you want but it doesn't make it right.
The truth is, Audio is a big paradox. It's a phony. Stereo itself
is an
awful format to begin with. You MUST know that all sounds in
nature are
created in MONO, not stereo. Therefore, stereo is an ILLUSION,
and a
fairly poor one at that. Until this industry gets its collective
act
together and realizes that this format has nowhere to go but
sideways,
there will be NO improvements. Period.
You suggest that Stereophile should get ahold of a Thaedra for
comparison. What a fiasco that would be. You can't possibly
believe that
they would ever conceive of doing something like this let alone
be
scientifically fair and correct as to the evalutation. Talk about
the
"halo" effect--Big time. Could you imagine that aboslute slap in
the
face that would be created if by some chance that my preamp would
outdo
those megabuck insanities that are produced today. What an uproar
in the
marketplace. The magazine would never go along with this and even
on the
mere remote possibility that they would, do you honestly think
that they
would do it right.
Since they are absolutely against any form of A-B testing, there
would
be no way to eliminate the "haloes". Not possible. Another term
for this
is right-brain, left-brain syndrome. Of course, Stereophile
should not
be singled out as I'm positive that every other magazine would
have the
same identical responses. This is a battle that cannot be won.
Out with
the old, and in with the new.
The biggest problem of all however, is trying to teach people
"HOW TO
LISTEN" properly. Since we are dealing with a phony illusion to
start
with, our ear-brain link instantly compares everything with real
world
situations. Not only do we need to listen correctly, but people
need to
learn how to set up loudspeakers correctly. This is another
disaster
area. I don't think that one person in fifty truly knows the
proper way
to set up speakers. It ain't easy. I would refer interested
parties to
an older issue of the Audio Critic for a list of the evils of
audio.
Peter Azcel may be a bit sarcastic and cantankerous but he knows
what
he's talking about in this particular instance.
I could write a novel about this whole situation however, I've
got to
get back to work so that's all for now.
James Bongiorno
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