Hi-Rez Highway: Water Lily Russian Recordings and turning the other cheek.... by music@waterlilyacoustics.com

YOU started all this nonsense, not I. You in effect attacked my credibility in a public forum on an issue on which many others, including some experts, have a contrary view/opinion. You have the right to criticise and I have the right to defend myself. I do not agree with you but will simply state my case.
What I have stated from the begining and made very clear, is that the "reality" that Water Lily captures is determined by me and thus my "view". I do hold however, that our view is valid as it is based on a theoratical model that is very sound.
You may know all this, but I am sure that there are some readers who will benefit from the information to be outlined below. The spaced omni mike technique was born out of the research done at Bell Labs in the 20s. Their experiments with Stoky and The Philadelphia Orchestra, wherin rows of mikes placed before the orchesta were in turn linked to corresponding speakers, showed that in effect the same resuls could be achived with just three spaced omni mikes. This "wall of sound" technique was then pioneered by Bert at Everst and addopted by Mercury, Command and much later Telarc. The Bell Labs model was to place the three mikes very close to the orchestra, thus avoiding much reflected sound pick up and then play back the recording in a large, live room, allowing the speaker/room acoustical interaction to provide the "ambiance". The physical nature of this mike placement entails that sounds on the right will reach the right mike before the center and left mikes. So it will be for sound sources on the left. It is this time delay that prevents this mike technique from being able to create a stable stereo image with precise instumental localisation. These time delays also cause a phenomeon knowen as comb filer effects that will further color the sound. There are those who argue that since onmi mikes are in effect directional in the high frequancies (a fact) that the three spaced omni technique can yeild stable, precise images. I have yet to hear this miracle!
The genius of Blumlein is that he realised that the recordeing should capture and presrve the spatial/ambiant information as well. Further, in his mike arrangment, wherein two figure-of-eight mikes are placed coincidentaly, both mikes sample all sounds at the same point in space and thus are phase and amplitude coherent, yeilding precise stereo images and accurate instumantal localisation.
Mercury may not have EQed nor compressed (except for the medium itself doing it) while recording, but they certainly EQed and compressed while mastering the LP. And I am not reffering to the mandatory RIAA EQ required for LP mastering. Also keep in mind that the German tube mikes they (RCA, Decca and EMI as well) used were far from being flat. Thus, this would have to be considerd a form of EQ as well. To this day some of these tube mikes are highly sought after by the pop studios, as they produce a "fat" warm sound that "enhances" the vocals of the popular "divas". The BBC designed Coles ribbon mikes on the other hand are far more nutral and flatter than any of these tube mikes.
Yes, EMI did use the classic Blumlein technique for a very, very short time. (There is an interview forthcoming in TAS wherein I go into all this in great depth and detail.) I have always preferred the EMI "house sound", even after they had abandoned the Blumlein technique. To me the EMI sound was closer to the real thing than that on any Mercury, RCA or Decca recording.
And yes, I will be the first to admit that no recording is "perfect" (limits of technology) and is an exact replica of the musical reality, but some recorings do come convinsingly close. To my ears those recordings are the ones done with coincident and near coincident mike techniques.
As for listeners who have extraordinary pinna structures and are "wired" in such a way, so as to hear "pin point" stereo images from spaced omni recordings, I can only say that not having mastered hyper dimentional physics, this rarefied subject is way out of my league and will have to be reffered to the experts at Area 51. Please drive out into the Nevada desert with Teresa... who knows, you just might hear the sound of "one hand slapping"!
I refuse to comment further on the layout/artwork issue as it is not really germane to the subject at hand.
Again, not having mastered Latin I must revert to the Sufi tradition that I am familer with for my quote: "The dog may bark, but the caravan moves on..." KAVI.