The Clarinet BBoard

Re: Forget about barrels, mouthpieces, reed conditioners

Author: CEC  Date:   2007-04-12 18:45 1) The assertion made at Snopes is that the marker tweak is somehow affecting bit count. This is obviously incorrect. Ed Meitner discovered that the marker affected the ***timing*** of the data (commonly refered to as "jitter", which later causes amplitude errors in the analog domain). Presumably by reducing light scatter. 2) I have close to two decade's worth of experience experimenting with these types of tweaks. Note that all of the referred articles were written in 1990, when the concept of jitter was scoffed at by most in the industry. Since then, the importance of accurate timing throughout digital playback and recording chains is recognized by all within the industry. Vibration control, temperature control, more accurate data clocks (from steady refinement of Input Receivers by Crystal Semiconductor, TI, et al, to brute force approaches such as Don Moses' Rubidium Plasma Master Clock), reclocking technologies such as the use of Phase Locked Loops, First-In, First-Out buffers, more sophisticated means of moving data between and within components (separate data and clock lines, impedence optimized transmission lines, etc.) and many other factors have been proven to have effects on both playback and recording quality (Meitner's measurements, Bascom H. King's measurements of jitter spectra and periodic jitter. Bob Stuart, Paul McGowan, Kevin Halverson and others have demonstrated these phenomena via measurement). Interestingly, as these mechanisms of jitter induction became better understood, less expensive playback equipment (not just crazily expensive, ridiculously over-built high-end "salon" products) became dramatically better sounding. 3) As jitter became widely recognized and dealt with in a more and more effective manner by engineers in their design of components, the effectiveness of peculiar approaches to jitter control such as green pens, became less and less. 4) There is plenty of snake oil in the high-end hi-fi biz, no doubt. It was not the case in this instance. 5) I have no desire to get into an argument over this. Regards, Chris Post Edited (2007-04-12 20:02)

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