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RE: Boston Audio Society Strikes Again!

Atkinson wrote:

"Don't let it be forgotten that E. Brad Meyer was doing blind tests at
AES Conventions in the early 1990s to "prove" that TDK's latest cassette
tape formulation produced recordings that could not be distinguished by
ear from the original CDs. :-)"

As I pointed out elsewhere, the only purpose of that test was to surprise people about how difficult it was to pass it. It also proved that I was fairly good at choosing and setting up analog tape decks at the time; the bias and EQ were tweaked periodically throughout. It also proved to be a revealing look into the way people listen and perceive stuff.

There were those who could and did pass the test, which was to get 5/5 identifications correct; we kept track of them and listed the numbers on a tally board. About 3.1% of the subjects should have done this by chance, but the tally was about 7%; some of them were really doing it. I talked to these people when I could, to learn what they were listening for (though they couldn't always tell me, which was interesting in itself). One guy I remember had just finished mastering his classical CD (we let people use their own source if they had one) and he was really good. Tomlinson Holman stopped by, listened to some soft piano music, and got 5/5 in a jiffy by listening to the soft notes fade to noise through the Dolby C encoder.

I don't remember whether you heard about this test from someone else or whether you came to New York for that convention, John. I know you didn't get 5/5 while I was on duty. -- E. Brad Meyer



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  • RE: Boston Audio Society Strikes Again! - EBradMeyer 09/24/0701:46:48 09/24/07 (0)

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