[[email protected]]

Hi Ian,

Yes, I would like to visit Vonnegut's Chronosynclastic Infindibulum one
day

BTW, on a visit to California, I discovered Kilgore is a brand of
toilet.

Life has its moments ...

Happy Ears!
Al




Ian Iveson wrote:

With the history of music, of course!

I have just finished Ian's Theory of Everything, you may be pleased to know, but
I still have to figure out how to explain it. One interesting thing about the
journey has been how many times I have been able to place a lot of brand names
in some kind of theoretical context. "Musical Fidelity" for example seems
appropriate here. "Audio Note" is pretty much the opposite, but then opposites
can so often turn out to be equal.

I am sure "reproduction" is a red herring, and the whole concept of stereo
reproduction lasted for only long enough to discover it doesn't work.

Delay is immaterial to the argument, everything is live. It's the means of
distributing a performance that counts.

I prefer to see not lines but revolutions. In between there are epochs. In
society, in music, in musical instruments. A story of increasing sophistication
and power of distribution.

There is no reason not to consider your hi-fi system as a musical instrument.
You hope it is faithful to the music. Music is a social phenomenon with a life
of its own. The divisions of labour within have seen many revolutions throughout
history, and each one has added its own estrangement.

The orchestra doesn't reproduce the thoughts of the composer, but nevertheless
hopes for fidelity. Likewise, my hi-fi system is not intended to reproduce some
past event, but I hope to achieve fidelity all the same. Loads of ppl play my
system: composers, orchestras, musicians, sound engineers...and I don't want to
let the team down.

Small engineers have always been rubbish at designing musical instruments. Real
engineers know their limitations, and admit that only history can design a
proper violin. The best we can do is try to explain what our ears discover.

The violin took centuries to get right. Hi-fi has some way to go. Mine has,
anyway.

The term I used to use for the lines, BTW, or at least the process that creates
the divisions, was "diremption", but no-one seems to know what it means any
more, sigh.

Incidentally, years ago you inspired me as the archetypal exponent of
creationism. Perhaps I was wrong, as I now suspect you see both sides, and know
both could be true, if only they both knew it.

cheers, Ian