Holographic imaging

I carry "memories" of live music, and still attend performances from time to time (but recently I hardly ever get the time) but I tend not to use live music as a benchmark except for some classical music - specifically chamber music. For me, there are very few times when I have been able to get the seat at the venue I would have needed to get in order to achieve the sound I can get at home. In addition, a lot of performances are amplified and the music sent out over speakers and the music competes with the girl next to me shouting to her boyfriend how TOOOOHHHHTALLY AWESOME the whole thing is, the guy in front puking his guts out, and the person behind me spilling beer he smuggled in. So much for rock concerts.

Jazz is OK, but jazz and classical concerts for me are so much more about appreciating an interpretation of music you already know. There are, as Detlof knows, umpteen versions of the Goldberg variations, and I'd swear I can hum along with the best of them and not get a note wrong, but I can still be surprised by little things when I hear a performance, and it is the interpretation, NOT the sound, that I seek when I go out of my way to listen to live music. And THAT benchmark is tough to emulate at home.

My personal 'benchmark' for my system is more an 'image' of what that particular performance SHOULD sound like. It may not be a memory per se; instead it may be an image created in my head, a mishmash (partly based on memory) of knowing what a given musician should be able to do with a given piece of music and a given group of people, along with the instruments, the temperature, whether it was the first take or the 5th, and trying to figure out whether the conductor or ensemble really was satisfied with what they did. Indeed, the chance to actually compare live with 'memorex' is indeed very small, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest - the live performances I appreciate the most are the ones which would lose their charm if repeated anyway.

Doppler effect??! I would think that if there is any doppler effect in the recording, you would certainly **not** want to compensate for it. Otherwise you would not be playing it back right :)

I get the feeling that a lot of these holography systems that have appeared over the years are aimed at those who have a lack of resolution in their systems- and can stand listening to an effect, rather than the music.

Sorry for the criticism, but I've always felt bad for people who've laid out the cash over the years for such things. IMO/IME the best performance in the audio system will be when there are as few processors/audio building blocks between the recording microphones and the playback speakers as possible.

I don't know for sure whether the H Cat does what it claims or not since I've never heard.

But my understanding from their web site is that they sold early models of a device that requires adjustment to work right without any way to perform the needed adjustment.

Oops????

Amazing that an ego attached to a design such as the original H-Cat would attest to a possible flaw and then decide to publish a fix. I think thats great! Live and learn and learn a whole lot more. So many designers and manufacturers never fess up to their mis calculations in design or production. I think this is a progressive reality of the ongoing design process and not a flaw but a tribute to the designer/builder. Tom

Theaudiotweak,

I agree with the merits of fessing up to a mistake, but given the apparent severity in this particular case, what other option is there?

At least it sounds like it has a chance to work now if adjusted properly.

I guess the only way to know would be to listen and compare.

Still not sure though how this is better in practice than negative feedback? Sounds like a tricky proposition to get right, certainly harder than providing an adjustment.

Need to give it some more thought.....