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Ken Kessler Article In Christopher Ward Watch magazine

MikeMA said:
There is a significant number of people with an interest in what you might call analog photography - wet film - who would argue that it is exactly that. Much digital photography, including cinematography is, like digital music, flat and lifeless.
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Sure, in every field some people like old technology. There are shaving forums devoted to the appreciation of old safety razors. And loads of people love steam trains.
That said I’ve never heard anyone complain about digital tv.
 
davidsrsb said:
Your analogue CRT TV was still sort of digital due to the tube colour pixels.
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I’m assuming the luminance is analogue in a CRT TV though. Less sure about chrominance but I’m guessing so(?)
 
I do not think digital was developped to improve a musical signal. The only reason is the pursuit of profit.
 
TLS said:
I do not think digital was developped to improve a musical signal. The only reason is the pursuit of profit.
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No, the goal was that after digital you can copy perfectly and post-process in a predictable way.
I used to deal with analogue TV and audio broadcast and the build up of distortions in a studio was significant
 
davidsrsb said:
Your analogue CRT TV was still sort of digital due to the tube colour pixels.
The studios were digital as well, so a bit like a vinyl LP cut from a digital file
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Do you think modern vinyl is cut from digital files? Reason I ask is my double ten inch radiohead kidA sounds exactly like my cd version? Or it could be that I am imagining this?
 
paulfromcamden said:
And all those gorgeous R4 FM concert broadcasts? Sent through digital lines to the OB van, mixed on a digital desk and sent digitally to the studio.
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Which then broadcast it on FM...is the mystery, the quality of the conversion from the digital files? Or is it the actual physical sending of the signal? The signal emits from the transmitter and as it wafts through the air to my radio..a magicness appears and rubs the signal of its harshness and when I listen to those fabulous broadcasts..they sound lovely and smooth to my ears...sorry if I sound a bit thick? But I don't really understand this..digital, analogue, and science gobbledygook..I just listen..yes old fashioned...one day the old fashioned will be forgotten..but in the meantime? Let's argue about cables! :p
 
zarniwoop said:
It’s surprising that someone who’s been in the business as long as Ken still doesn’t understand digital.
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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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Annoying - yes, but KK is an experienced journalist and has likely tailored the article well to the expected audience.

My assumption is that enthusiasts for mechanical watches (I am), if also interested in audio (I am), are quite likely to be enthusiasts for analogue sources (I was but now it's all digital). His digital comments may be less to do with the misunderstanding they are, and more to do with what resonates with the beliefs of the likely reader. It's good marketing for brand KK as well as for Christopher Ward; and "the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about".

KK's misunderstanding is quite benign compared to some I have seen. I was somewhat outraged at a Noel Keywood technical article in HFW in July 2008 called "Dirty Digital". I posted a mild rant to newsgroup uk.rec.audio which was then discussed. And @Jim Audiomisc wrote a page called "Dirty Digital Delusions".

I had not viewed the Monty Montgomery video linked earlier for a long time, but on watching it just now I was reminded that it's a seriously well scripted, argued and demonstrated answer to KK-like and NK-like misunderstanding. However, unfortunately, reality in largely obscure engineering rarely intrudes into normal human belief.
 
John Phillips said:
However, unfortunately, reality in largely obscure engineering rarely intrudes into normal human belief.
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Ain't that the truth.
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adamdea said:
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?
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One curio here is that the magnetic domains on a tape may be bigger than the molecules in vinyl.
 
the caretaker said:
Do you think modern vinyl is cut from digital files? Reason I ask is my double ten inch radiohead kidA sounds exactly like my cd version? Or it could be that I am imagining this?
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VInyl has been (always/mainly/sometimes) cut from digital files for much longer than you would imagine. And there is the small matter of digital delay lines even in otherwise analogue recordings. It would be a bold claim that the presence of digital in the chain can immedately be detected.
However..
let's not forget one man's tireless battle in the face of public indifference....
https://drjohndiamond.com/what-interests-you/human-stress-provoked-by-digitized-recordings/
"Just suppose that digital sound is a major negative force attacking our very civilization."
 
It is certainly interesting that R3 FM does sound so good, given a decent tuner and reception. According to many factors it should be dissed as rubbish. e.g. goes via 'digital' with less than 16 bits / sample at a mere 32k sample rate. Also high levels of HF distortion on the L-R signal with a very complex pattern of non-harmonic distortion products. Noise floor about 20 - 30dB higher than a CD, etc. Maybe people like the level/peak compression. The main 'features' of analogue tape tend to be weird distortion and noise behaviours that no-one likes to mention.

Yet people seem to hate the possibility that they *like* added noise + distortion if it has an 'analogue' character... :)
 
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