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The typical audiophile would be shocked by what goes on in the typical studio

But, really, it's like anything else -- those who care about quality achieve it, the others, well, don't. Which is why we have good recordings and recordings that could double as paint remover.

Most of the audio engineers I've known did care about quality, and were very attuned to the sound of equipment. But there are practicalities in a professional environment and even more producer and commercial pressures that mean that what we get at home is typically less than it could be.

Which said, yes, you will hear the differences good equipment make in the home. Not all of it -- there's certainly some flimflam out there. But a better amplifier, better speakers -- clearly audible, or you're wasting your money.

That's because distortion is cumulative. Sometimes, a very high distortion source can mask distortion in the reproducer (or worse, be more accurately reproduced by it). But usually, you're just adding one kind of distortion on another -- and sometimes worse than that, as you can create a mess of distortion products that sounds discordant and awful.

Improvements? Well, if we assume good recording technique and the absence of loudness wars compression, etc. there's plenty of room for improvement in just about every area of audio, from microphone to listening room.

Speakers, being the weakest link in the chain, are always in need of improvement -- though honestly, if your interest lies in the realistic reproduction of acoustical music, you can do a lot better than many of the high end speakers out there, for a lot less.

Converters still need work -- they should be completely transparent devices, and they aren't, although they're remarkably better than they were a few years ago.

But to me, the sorely needed advance is in spatial reproduction and the rejection of room acoustics. Two channel stereo can be remarkably good, three channel even better. But they will never transport you to the concert hall, and neither will conventional multichannel. To do that, we will either have to use convolution and wave field synthesis or crosstalk cancellation and HRTF compensation.

We're at the point where the cost of processing is making these technologies feasible, and that they will be as great an advance in realism as two-channel stereo was.

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  Kimber Kable  

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