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Analog vs. digital segment on PBS

The show "Wired Science" on PBS this week has a good segment on analog vs. digital with a relatively quick blind panel test on analog vs. digital. I think they replay the show during the week if you can catch it. Nice to see some of the hobby getting some primetime attention, if PBS can be considered primetime of course! They have a couple recording engineers speaking about the merits of each and a blind listening test between a recording group (whose music they use for the test) and some unbiased recording engineers.
Also some info on frozen brains... either way it's a great show for general technology every week.
jimmy2615
edo_musica
113 posts
 
just in case someone didn't post it by 12:45am PST the analog v digital segment video is at pbs.org
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/video/212-audio_files.html
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,333 posts
 
Edo,

Thanks I missed it by ten minutes on TV last night. So I am glad you posted that link.

This was very well done.

=> Analog and Digital can both sound excellent!!!

In this case it seems they were indistinguishable in a short listening test...although they used headphones which increases the chance of hearing a difference)

The Wired Science findings only confirm what we know already (but some people still pretend that Analog is somehow inherently superior - it certainly has nostalgic appeal and may reflect most accurately the way historical music actually sounded when it was first issued).

In fact the main advantages of each format are well presented in the discussion. Glad to see they did not attack either format, as both have their merits.
french_fries
735 posts
 
well then, thank goodness the debate is finally over and done with... (btw, they both can, at times, sound miserable as well).
imho it was predominately more of a "money" issue than anything else.
pawlowski6132's avatar
pawlowski6132
572 posts
 
The Wired Science findings only confirm what we know already...

That Analog is and has been the standard and digital has finally caught up but is NOT superior to analog.
stilljd
151 posts
 
It was interesting and disappointing at the same time.

Interesting was the analog engineer saying that he could incorporate the same "effects" as the digital engineer. Then the digital engineer says - so what - "I can do it quicker and easier and you can't tell the difference". "I can even add effects to make it sound "analog"", which implies he hears a difference.

Disappoining was the short "verse" based testing and the non-blind nature of letting 2 people review at the same time. I can't pick out subtle differences in 10 to 20 second listens (tin ear, low res system?). Can you? Standing side by side and showing your choice visually has to exert some influence on the other listener.

I would have been a lot more anal about the test procedure.

Jim S.
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