Audio Mythbusting
The next meeting of the Chicago section of the Audio Engineering Society will be held September 16th 2008, at Shure Incorporated, 5800 Touhy Ave, Niles, Illinois. Members and non-members are welcome. Tom Nousaine will give a presentation on audio myths.
There is a tendency for mythology to blend into performance claims in modern consumer product categories. This is especially true for audio equipment at least partly because reproduced sound can easily be demonstrated to have magical properties. Take the stereo phantom center image, for example. One knows that there is sound being generated by the left and right speakers because one can hear and even feel the speakers vibrating. But one can also hear an image between them even though one “knows” that no sound is being produced there. In other words, the normal human hearing mechanism has been defeated. Thus it is relatively easy for people to psychologically invent sound quality attributes that are not factually present and to market and sell products based on those qualities. Indeed, consumer and audio equipment merchandising is often based heavily on mythology.
Tom Nousaine has spent over 20 years examining audio Truth and has found the mechanisms for developing Audio Urban Legends, the natural human bias characteristics that allow this to happen. He will discuss a number of Urban Legends which are false but continue to be re-discovered in normal discourse. Some common audio myths include:
• Products Need to be Broken In
• Small Amplifiers Burn Out Tweeters
• Special Wires or Parts Improve Sound Quality
• All Amplifiers Have their Own Special Sound Quality
• High Resolution Audio Improves Sound Quality
• Vinyl Recordings Sound Better Than Compact Disc
• Vacuum Tube Equipment Sounds Better Than Solid State
• Data Reduction is Always Bad
• Equalization is Always Bad
• Analog is Always Better than Digital
Dinner (optional) will begin at 6:30pm. Reservation required, contact Treasurer Mike Lester at lester_michael@shure.com by Monday, September 15 to RSVP. Pizza will be provided. Price is $7 for nonmembers, $5 for members and students.
Meeting Location:
Shure Incorporated, 5800 Touhy Ave, Niles, Illinois.
When arriving by car, approach from the east by heading west on Touhy, then turn right into parking lot just east of the Shure building, which is on the corner of Touhy and Lehigh. Enter at the employee entrance on the east side of the building and register at the guard desk. A valid driver's license must be presented at the guard desk when registering.
ABOUT THIS MONTH'S SPEAKER
Tom Nousaine is presently a Contributing Technical Editor of Sound & Vision, the largest
audio/video publication in the world, and holds a similar position with Professional Audio
Review. In the past 25 years his work has appeared in Stereo Review, Audio, Sound & Image,
Video, Car Stereo Review, Mobile Entertainment, Road Gear, Audio/Video International, The
Audio Critic, The $ensible Sound, and Telephony magazines. Tom operates TN
Communications, specializing in loudspeaker measurement, expert listening evaluation and
business communications. He also operates Listening Technology which conducts expert 3rd
party listening evaluations for magazines, manufacturers, OEM automobile companies and their
suppliers.
He is a past Audio Engineering Society Central Region Vice President and past Chairman of the
AES Chicago Section. Tom founded the Prairie State Audio Construction Society, the Society
for Depreciation Professionals and has been a long time member of the Southeastern Michigan
Woofer and Tweeter Marching Society. Previously he was Director of Capital Recovery for
Baby Bell Ameritech and holds Bachelor and MBA degrees from Michigan State University.
UPCOMING MEETINGS
September 16th 2008:
Audio Mythbusting by: Tom Nousaine
Reviewers welcome. . .
Anyone interested in helping our section by writing a review (like the ones on this web page) following one of our meetings, please notify an officer. Reviewers will get a free AES coffee mug -- plustheir work will be published on the AES web site and in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society!. You can't beat press like that!
Openings for Presenters
If you or someone you know is making strides in audio, please alert any one of the section officers. We are still organizing programs for this year's presentations and are looking for interesting topics.
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