From: ankleand@mtl.mit.edu (Andrew Karanicolas)
Subject: Re: Digital critics - sampling argument is nonsense
Organization: MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 20:14:59 GMT

In article <30641@castle.ed.ac.uk> sss@castle.ed.ac.uk (S S Sturrock) writes:
>What does please me is that the designers of digital designers are finally
>coming down off their high horses where they have sat for so long claiming
>that digital is perfect and are now listening to those of us who have
>complained about the sound and they are finding that we may well have a
>point and are *DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT* rather than declaring us all
>loonies who want to live in caves or whatever.  HDCD no doubt stems from a
>lot of learning between both camps and I openly welcome it.  If at last it
>gives me CDs I can happily live with then *YIPPEE!* is all I can say.
>Until it becomes freely available though I will keep spinning and buying
>vinyl because I find it captures the sound in a way that communicates with
>*ME*. 


I've stopped reading rec.audio about a year ago for many reasons.  But
today, I figured what the heck, let's see what's brewing these days.
The same old CD vs LP war!  As I was paging through the articles, I
wanted to respond but felt it would be better for a new generation to
recycle the same old garbage.  At some point, I could not take it
though, this article by S S Sturrock, for example.  Because it is so
difficult to communicate in normal English language on wreckage.audio,
I use BOLD and needless repetition to ensure that my point gets
across.  When confused at seeing the bold, take a deep breath, wait a
few seconds, then continue.  Ready?  OK.

To S S Sturrock: wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG :)  First of all, data
conversion systems are NOT designed by digital designers.  They are
not designed by the group of people who build 486 CPUs.  The digital
designers who accomplish such feats as the 486, etc, are remarkable
designers in building complex, manufacturable systems.   However, it
is important that the term DIGITAL AUDIO is understood to refer to the
DATA CONVERSION and MEDIA STORAGE aspect.  Data conversion systems are
designed by ANALOG DESIGNERS who must deal with analog as well as
digital design techniques.  The point is not to draw a line so much as
to recognize that people who design data conversion systems must draw
from a wide source of knowledge that is very different than that
needed to design 486 CPUs.  Data conversion are ANALOG CIRCUITS.  Yes,
ANALOG CIRCUITS.  Yes, even the 1-bit ADC and DAC modulators are
ANALOG CIRCUITS.  The decimation filters are digital systems however,
IN CONTRAST.

The improvement in digital audio has practically NOTHING to do with
learning about LP or related systems.  NOTHING.  The improvement has
to do with recognizing the limitations of digital audio in terms of
INTEGRATED CIRCUIT design and manufacturing.  Yes, ICs, not discrete
elements.  The improvement has to do with the use of different data
conversion architectures, such as oversampling modulators.  The reason
why manufacturers have embraced these new techniques is that, at this
time, they represent a cost effective solution to the difficult problems
of data conversion.  So, it is true, the digital audio system was not
perfect, from the beginning.  It's not perfect now.  However, it has
capabilities that LP systems do not have and it has vastly superior
performance ADVANTAGES.  

Now, if you want to listen to vinyl, fine.  However, you should not
live in a fantasy world about the digital audio community catching up
to LP.  The goal of digital audio is NOT to equal the LP but to
completely obliterate it, and other archaic technologies, into
musuems, where they belong.  The quest is SUPERIOR AUDIO and digital
audio has much promise.  LPs do not have any promise for improvement
at this time as far as a practical entity that people can buy at any
cost.  As it is, the CD itself will at some point become obsolete as 
semiconductor memories become more dense and cheaper.  The era of 
non-mechanical media for consumer audio is not too distant.  Data
conversion design WILL NOT STAND STILL.  The LP format is FIXED and
will disappear.

Cheers,

-- 
Andrew Karanicolas
MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratory
ankleand@mtl.mit.edu
Newsgroups: rec.audio