Category Archives: Audio

The Box – Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio?

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

… or both. The latest Richard Kelly movie, The Box, will be appearing on Blu-ray in Australia from Icon Film Distribution on 10 March 2010. Last night I examined the disc and found it to be the first disc I … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, Disc details | 8 Comments

Cable Controversy Podcast

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Well, it isn’t really a controversy, but I never was very good at headlines. Anyway, ages ago I downloaded a Quick Hitts Podcast entitled ‘Audio Insanity’, with a tagline of ‘You may think you’ve got a great audio system, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Cables, Equipment, Mysticism | Leave a comment

iPod weirdness

Posted on January 30, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

After my rave about the iPod a couple of posts ago, I should note something rather weird that happened this morning as I undertook my morning stroll. I’ve gradually been working through an interesting series of Podcasts called the Skeptics Guide … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Portable | 2 Comments

The amazing iPod, shrinks and expands simultaneously

Posted on January 29, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Eventually someone will sue Apple Inc in some kind of ‘anti-trust’ action, just as Microsoft has been sued in the past. It will be because Apple produced such a great product that it has come to dominate the market. That … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Portable | Leave a comment

The Whole Tangled Mess

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Go into any number of specialist home entertainment equipment retailers and you can easily spend hundreds of dollars on high quality cables to carry digital audio from your DVD player to your home theatre receiver. It is alleged that these … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Cables, How Things Work | Leave a comment

Paternalistic Protection Partially Averted, but high sensitivity earphones a’comin

Posted on January 4, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

In December it was widely reported that the European Union is to require that MP3 players have a default maximum level of 85dB. Whatever the hell that means. 85dB average? Peak? A-weighted? C-weighted? Apparently some kind of over-ride will be … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Portable | Leave a comment

Busy, busy, busy!

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

As the title implies, I’ve been very busy the last couple of weeks. Still am. But here’s one thing that I reckon is interesting: an Audio Engineering Society Convention Paper from 2004, entitled ‘DVD-Audio versus SACD: Perceptual Discrimination of Digital … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Audio, Blu-ray | Leave a comment

The Academy Curve

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Look at the following graph. It shows the frequency balance of a musical section in a 1951 cartoon, ‘Symphony in Slang’, which appears on the Warner Bros Blu-ray release of An American in Paris. The scale on the right shows … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray | Leave a comment

A Decade of Tuning Tips (Part Two) – 2

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Perhaps ‘the worst book ever written‘ was actually the second worst. A while back I mentioned this little pamphlet, and promised to come back to it. Well, here goes. First, the claim by the author, Jimmy Hughes: I have experienced … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Imperfect perception, Mysticism, Rant | 1 Comment

The Perils of Double Blind Testing

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

While in Japan I had an interesting discussion on whether or not one can hear the differences in cables. I am not in the ‘can hear a difference’ camp. To quote from one of my own articles: The first and … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Mysticism, Rant, Testing | 2 Comments