AES British Section lectures - March 2007
An Evening with Rupert Neve
Rupert Neve
www.rupertnevedesigns.com
On March 13th the UK Section of the AES hosted "An evening with Rupert Neve". Considered by many to be the father of the mixing console, Rupert has significantly contributed to the design of analogue audio equipment for over 60 years.
The main topic of Rupert's lecture was the direction of the audio industry and the question of measurement versus listening tests. Modern measurement equipment still produces incomplete information for assessing audio equipment. Added to the fact that system designers have no control of the signal after it leaves the loudspeaker, it becomes apparent that there is little point in trying to define audio quality in terms of equipment measurements.
Rupert then diverged into how he became "addicted" to audio, including some very interesting stories of meeting Winston Churchill and setting up a sound re-enforcement system in Kings College Chapel.
Rupert continued back on his main topic by stating that the audio industry's goal must be to bring the enjoyment of sound to the home, including the whole of the sound experience. This includes creating an immersive environment with the minimum of disruption to the home.
He then went on to talk about our ability to perceive audio outside the audible range and pointed to past experience and research which demonstrated that people can perceive harmonics well into the 60kHz range. These harmonics seem to have an effect on the emotional state of the listener. This lead Rupert to plead for extended bandwidth and dynamic range to improve the listening experience.
Rupert discussed the problems of cross-over distortion, which has lead him to only use single-sided amplifiers. He made a more general point that the techniques used to design audio equipment were the choice of the designer and was their art.
Rupert concluded with a hope that the war of the systems will cease and that more analogue audio will come back into the industry, challenging the next generation to "drop the specs and dream".
There followed a lively question and answer session. A recording of the lecture is available from the UK section website at www.aes.org/sections/uk/meetings/a0703.html.
Report by Tim Harris