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Ken Kessler Article In Christopher Ward Watch magazine

JTC said:
Having taken part in an unsighted format test back in November, I actually thought hi-res streaming sounded better than the R2R of the same recordings. And I assumed the streamer was the R2R and the R2R was the streamer!!!
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The proper use for a Reel to Reel machine is to record live music, or to play master tapes, or high resolution copies of master tapes, not to record streaming services or CDs, or vinyl records for that matter. What would be the point of that? It's a complete waste of tape. Good quality tape these days sells for £60+ a reel...

Also too many variables for your test: machine quality, type of tape used, age of tape, was the tape machine calibrated, also calibrated to match the tape being used. Without knowing this your unsighted test is completely useless and irrelevant. If you had a known master recording on tape played on a recognised tape machine like a Studer etc, at 15ips (with confirmed calibration of tape and equalisation) of a specific piece of music, then you could compare this with the same piece streamed from your streaming service. Then you would have a more relevant comparison.
 
The tapes were apparently made for the test from early gen master tape by someone at Abbey Road. Can’t confirm that, that’s just what we were told.
 
paulfromcamden said:
It's a lifestyle-y bumpf piece in a magazine for people who like mechanical watches i.e. consumers who likely have a preference for older technologies. He's sensibly writing for his target audience.

Well, everyone who likes any half-decent watch then? I suppose you're right but a quartz watch just doesn't have the appeal of a mechanical one, despite the fact that you can't see what's inside mot of the time. Nuts really. I've got 6 mechanical watches and a fully digital hi-fi. I just can't make my mind up....!!
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Vinyl is really good or better than early digital only if everything was analogue along the recording/cutting chain.
Recent vinyl issued from digital tapes doesn’t make any sense, but then there’s always the pleasure given by the records themselves of course – you know, taking a record out of its sleeve and placing it on that wonderful turntable. That can’t be denied!
 
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zarniwoop said:
It’s surprising that someone who’s been in the business as long as Ken still doesn’t understand digital.



It’s fine if people aren’t interested in what’s going on but annoying when when an audio journalist is furthering misunderstanding.
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Don't see a problem wthat statement. The absolute perfection of digital sampling woube an analogue wave-form
 
What all digital playback systems, including CD, streaming and downloading, do to the original recording is what a jigsaw puzzle does to a picture. No matter how fine the pieces, it cannot be a perfect nor even a near-perfect facsimile of the original.

This was the post I was replying to...
 
G T Audio said:
Ken is not a technical journalist like Martin Colloms or John Atkinson, but the point is he doesn't need to be to know what gives the best sound, or audio performance and articulate this into verse...
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Fair enough, but it was his flawed jigsaw analogy I was objecting to. I disagree with the central premise of the article too but I wouldn’t have commented just on that.
 
robbyd said:
What all digital playback systems, including CD, streaming and downloading, do to the original recording is what a jigsaw puzzle does to a picture. No matter how fine the pieces, it cannot be a perfect nor even a near-perfect facsimile of the original.

This was the post I was replying to...
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Yours is a common misunderstanding even after all these years,

Keith
 
zarniwoop said:
Fair enough, but it was his flawed jigsaw analogy I was objecting to. I disagree with the central premise of the article too but I wouldn’t have commented just on that.
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Well yes and one might point out that Ken posts the pseudo-technical drivel because without it, even the dumbest reader would immediately see that he was dressing up opinion as fact.
I would venture to suggest that the jigsaw analogy is not really the most objectionable part of that passage- the implicit suggestio falsi is that the analogue recording (let alone a copy of it) could ever be a perfect facsimile of the original or that the process of encoding sound pressure as voltage levels, voltage levels as arrangements of magnetic particles, magnetic particles as grooves in vinyl is somehow natural and perfect.
This is not a quibble, he literally can’t make his “point” without the background nonsense.
Ps- if a digital recording is like a jigsaw, then how come a digital picture isn’t?
 
You know what's really weird?

Audio perception is a mix of Heath Robinson–like analogue capture, signal propagation and conversion (all the steps between vibrating the eardrum to wiggling the stereocilia in the cochlea), followed by propagation of electro-chemical digital signals (i.e., the action potential in neurons) along the auditory nerve that needs a brain the size of a brain to decode and process.



Quite frankly, I'm surprised it even works, let alone is good enough to distinguish a fart from a tuba.

Joe
 
robbyd said:
Don't see a problem wthat statement. The absolute perfection of digital sampling woube an analogue wave-form
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I hope I'm not misinterpreting what you say, but this isn't how digital sampling works. It is only necessary to sample at double the maximum frequency contained in the source to get a recording from which the original signal can be reproduced perfectly. There are some other considerations around how to limit the bandwidth in the source which in practice means sample rates a little higher than double the maximum frequency you want to reproduce, but Ken's implied claim that there is no sampling frequency high enough to capture the signal perfectly are nonsense.

It is counter-intuitive though.
 
Ive always had a lot of time for Ken Kessler, he's experienced, has great ears, loves vintage stuff and is a huge enthusiast. His recommendations have always worked well for me..... unlike more 'technically skilled' reviewers
 
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