AES Section Meeting Reports

San Francisco - February 12, 2008

Meeting Topic: Stereophonic Techniques

Moderator Name: David Bowles

Speaker Name: Ron Streicher

Other business or activities at the meeting: Call for membership; announcement of next presentation topic and location

Meeting Location: San Francisco, CA, USA

Summary

On 12 February, the San Francisco section welcomed past president Ron Streicher as part of its Distinguished Speaker series of presentations. Of his many lecture topics, Streicher chose "Stereophonic Techniques", based on his well-known book co-authored with Alton Everest. What the book could not provide, however, were the audio excerpts which accompanied Streicher's presentation: early stereo experiments [Alan Blumlein (Columbia/HMV) and Harvey Fletcher/Arthur C. Keller (Bell Labs), as well as the Walt Disney film "Fantasia"], and Streicher's own "grand mic experiments" from Aspen Music Festival.

The presentation continued with another experiment -- but on the listeners, this time! We were presented excerpts played through three different audio networks and asked our opinions. The results, which by necessity will be different with every audience, were revealing and to some pretty surprising. The presentation at Cogswell College was over at 11pm, though many of us wanted more; 60 people attended.

- David Bowles

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