Micpre evaluations - interesting article

[TimS]

found this online..
thought some of you might enjoy the read
http://www.johnhardyco.com/pdf/MicPreampEval.pdf

other articles at the following link as well
http://www.johnhardyco.com/links.html

[Milo]

Good reminders of how difficult it is to get a straightforward measurement.
I wonder if SF considered all this when they published these results:

http://www.thelisteningsessions.com/micpregraph.htm

Whether or not they did, this graph was good enough for me to accept/reject some preamps due to the application I needed, and I bought one from the list, and it was the right one!

[TimS]

Cool link also - now I can see where some of my mics sit..
Thats a great concept though...

[rob]

that graph makes no sense to me

R:(

[jkhuri44]

here's an awesome test,

plug in the mic pre....and check to see if you're enjoying yourself....hehe,

rofl at that graph...the only way that graph would really work is if colour was constricted to the same frequency range...

other than that, its a colour free for all.

[beatmad]

I thought it was interesting in regard to recorded examples being the basis of so many mic pre evaluations on forums like Gearslutz, John Hardy said this "...for the most accurate evaluation of a mic pre-amp, the recording process should be avoided because it is a source of further error." In regards to digital systems he talked about low sample rates, bit depth and anti-aliasing filters being a problem. In a good digital system now I can't see these factors being a problem but would the error introduced still be significant enough to render the recorded results inaccurate?

[rob]

the baffling thing is so many people talk about the "sound" or "colour" of a 1073, but Rupert worked very hard at designing a high performance, high quality, low noise, low distortion mic pre. And...it is! The fundamental problem is all this verbal description of how things "sound" is no one can remove the biggest factor out of the equation...and that is the human brain. If you've been told since you were sitting on your daddy's knee that a 1073 is coloured, how do you reckon you'd descibe the sound of a 1073 twenty years later when you actually get one? I know we have to communicate about these things with words, but the words are such a poor tool for sharing a listening experience.

R

[rick]

its not my quote but apparently
- talking about music is like dancing about architecture

[TimS]

just as well it's not your quote then Rick...
;-}

[rick]

if i could remember where i stole it from i would gladly give over the name...

probably the same guy that said

" digital is to sound what fluros are to light "

[jkhuri44]

talking about music is like dancing about architecture

i do believe that was a quote from the late great Zappa :)