Dr. AIX & Home Theater Geeks TODAY!
I’ve been invited back to appear on Scott Wilkinson’s “Home Theater Geeks” show, which will be webcast live at 2:30 pm Pacific Standard Time today (click here to view it live). If you miss the live broadcast you can see the edited program at click here. I think this is my fourth time on his very popular show and I always look forward to it. He reaches a lot of people from all corners of the globe.
Scott and I have been friends for a very long time. He was a trombonist and I was a composition major at California State University at Northridge in the mid 80s. In fact, I recorded his senior recital. Scott migrated to the new computer music lab at the school in addition to his brass playing. Dr. Beverly Grigsby managed to get a hold of a mainframe computer and then a Fairlight 8-bit sampler. I didn’t spend much time in the computer lab because I ran the analog electronic music studio upstairs, which was run by another faculty member…and the two of them didn’t get along. But we had fun programming and experimenting with the new equipment in both labs.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 30 years, but as they say time waits for no one. Scott and I have resided in Southern California all these years and have stayed in touch. His path took him into journalism with a specialization in home entertainment systems and I have combined audio engineering and university chores into a very busy career. Although, these days it seems I spend a lot more time tapping away at a keyboard.
I chatted with Scott briefly yesterday and today about the emerging world of high-resolution audio. He’s been following Neil Young’s Pono project and knows a great deal about the technology behind CDs and other optical discs. However, I found it curious when he started asking my thoughts about Monty’s (Christopher Montgomery) articles over at xiph.com. Monty has written quite forcefully that high-resolution audio is completely unnecessary. He doesn’t believe that 192 kHz and 24-bits enhance audio recording and playback. He actually believes that 192 sounds worse than standard resolution audio.
Scott…and I know a lot of my readers…wanted to know how I respond to the articles. We’ll certainly be discussing that on the show today. As a teaser, let me share that I agree with much of what Monty asserts but he restricts his thinking to the realities of the current commercial music business and doesn’t seem to recognize that there are a large number of audiophiles that are interested in more than heavily compressed audio files. And he seems unaware that there are crazies like myself and Morten Lynberg that make recordings that exceed CD specs.
I’ll also share my reactions to the recent AXPONA show and reflect on my meeting with John Hamm of Pono. Please stop by and join us. It’s not everyday that you get to see me talking about high-resolution audio live. It will be fun.
Thank You for the education I receive every day when I read your articles.
I am an avid follower of Scott Wilkinson and I cant wait for the rousing
good time this afternoon. Thank You again for making the effort to raise
our understanding.
Best Regards
Wayne Lacina aka RustyBones
I missed the first 10 minutes of the podcast but I did enjoy the rest of it.
I was disappointed to hear you consider 5.1 audio a ‘lost cause’. I was hoping that with the dvd-a/SACD format war being over, and blu-ray/5.1 video ht equipment becoming widespread in homes that blu-ray audio would stand a good chance of catching on. I’ve been trying to get surround sound audio going at my place since the days.of Dolby matrix/SQ/QS LPs but time after time it fails for one reason or another. 🙁
I haven’t given up…but there is very little interest at the labels and amongst the artists.
Our best shot remains live concert videos I guess. David Gilmour’s Remember that Night sounds pretty good at 48/24 Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Blu-Ray. Just turn off the TV and all the lights and it’s almost like being there. 🙂
Great interview, Mark. I really hope that surround sound is not a dead issue. I know part of the problem for me is that I have a few “surround” mixes that sound very much like synthesized ambience in the surrounds. I don’t like that and believe that most would be underwhelmed by that kind of presentation. The other thing that echoed in my head was the Smyth Realizer. I know you had mentioned it before, but I would like to actually hear what one sounds like calibrated to my very dense head.
The Smyth Realiser is very cool…best I’ve heard when measured to your own head.