Re: [ARSCLIST] Internet audio: What do you expect of it ?

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Cox" <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Hello Steven
> On 18/12/07, Steven C. Barr(x) wrote:
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Roger and Allison Kulp" <thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx>
> >> I see it as a latter day version of the all-tube FM tuner,rather than
> >> the
> > CD/phono amp.
> >> 
> > Keep in mind that the appeal of vacuum-tube audio equipment is NOT its
> > "perfect" reproduction (which probably doesn't...in fact,
> > CAN'T...exist?!) but rather the fact that the distortion it generates
> > is much more enjoyable for steady listening than its solid-state
> > equivalent...?!
> 
> Yes, but if you feed an unpleasantly distorted signal into a box with a
> tube in it, the tube will not magically remove that unpleasantness.
> 
> Remarkable things can be done with software to improve a nasty
> recording, and I expect such software to improve in the future, but a
> simple tube based amplifier stage cannot make a silk purse out of a
> sow's ear.
> 
That, actually, was my point...! If an audio signal has been, at any
point in its life, been subjected to solid-state distortion...

1) The listener has my deepest sympathy...

2) AND...the signal will never again sound good, regardless of what
it is played on/through...!

Steven C. Barr