Is music important to all humans? I would say so, and it explains why <strong>the</strong> first humans began to make music even before <strong>the</strong>y discovered fire, or weapons with which to kill o<strong>the</strong>r humans. We know, because we’ve found remains <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir instruments. We also know that music is not listened to <strong>the</strong> same way by every<strong>one</strong>. For a substantial portion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> world population, music h<strong>as</strong> a deep importance, and is listened to with a certain intensity and concentration. That would be <strong>the</strong> c<strong>as</strong>e <strong>of</strong> audiophiles, <strong>of</strong> course. For o<strong>the</strong>rs, it is <strong>the</strong> superficial <strong>as</strong>pects <strong>of</strong> music that are important. I suppose that may explain <strong>the</strong> success <strong>of</strong> “Rhythm” FM stations…stations, <strong>as</strong> <strong>one</strong> wag h<strong>as</strong> it, “for people who can’t listen to music without moving <strong>the</strong>ir hips.” But earlier this year I came across a clue to <strong>the</strong> mystery: why doesn’t every<strong>one</strong> get involved with music <strong>the</strong> same way, and (by extension) why not all music reproduction systems are “involving.” When I’m on an airplane I don’t buy <strong>the</strong> headph<strong>one</strong>s and listen to <strong>the</strong> airline’s canned music channels. But when I w<strong>as</strong> on my way to Veg<strong>as</strong> in January, I brought along <strong>the</strong> magazine’s iPod, chock full <strong>of</strong> albums encoded in lossless compression. I also brought along a pair <strong>of</strong> headph<strong>one</strong>s with noise cancellation: a little microph<strong>one</strong> picks up ambient rumble and reproduces it in reverse ph<strong>as</strong>e to cancel it out at <strong>the</strong> ear. On <strong>the</strong> first aircraft, a Boeing 737, that worked well. But after changing planes at Detroit I found myself near <strong>the</strong> tail <strong>of</strong> a 767, and <strong>the</strong> headph<strong>one</strong>s could no longer do more than make a minor dent in <strong>the</strong> noise level. The result w<strong>as</strong> a disturbing discovery. Every<strong>one</strong> w<strong>as</strong> singing out <strong>of</strong> tune! No, not really out <strong>of</strong> tune, but I could no longer tell whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y were in tune. I tried some recordings by singers whose pitch I knew to be particularly accu<strong>rate</strong>: soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian doing <strong>the</strong> songs <strong>of</strong> Pauline Viardot (on Analekta), or Margie Gibson singing Irving Berlin (on Sheffield). For all I could tell <strong>the</strong>y might be way <strong>of</strong>f <strong>the</strong> right note. What 0 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine State <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Art by Gerard Rejskind w<strong>as</strong> going on here? Is this what it’s like to have a tin ear? Now I need to be careful here, because “tin ear” is <strong>one</strong> <strong>of</strong> those epi<strong>the</strong>ts you don’t toss <strong>of</strong>f at any<strong>one</strong> bigger than you. It’s a value judgement and it will be taken <strong>as</strong> such. I have a good ear for pitch, and <strong>as</strong> an audiophile you almost certainly do too. With <strong>the</strong> subterranean rumbling <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 767, however, I w<strong>as</strong> no longer sure <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> pitch I w<strong>as</strong> hearing, and that made music way less interesting. I wound up looking for o<strong>the</strong>r music and finally settled on <strong>the</strong> latest Coldplay album, on which <strong>the</strong> dominant element is — you guessed it — rhythm. And even that w<strong>as</strong>n’t so hot. This curious experience got me thinking about a question that audiophiles like to talk about: <strong>the</strong> ability <strong>of</strong> a music system to deliver accu<strong>rate</strong> pitch. As nearly <strong>as</strong> I can recall, Linn w<strong>as</strong> <strong>the</strong> first company to talk about this, advising listeners to try to repeat a melody in <strong>the</strong>ir heads. The e<strong>as</strong>ier that w<strong>as</strong>, <strong>the</strong> better <strong>the</strong> system. Now that piece <strong>of</strong> advice made critics <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> high end movement snicker, espe- STATE OF THE ART: THE BOOK Get <strong>the</strong> 258-page book containing <strong>the</strong> State <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Art columns from <strong>the</strong> first 60 issues <strong>of</strong> UHF, with all-new introductions. See page 4. cially in <strong>the</strong> years since digital became <strong>the</strong> common home music source. Now that wow and flutter and o<strong>the</strong>r speed variations are a thing <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> p<strong>as</strong>t, how can <strong>the</strong> pitch <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> music be wrong? It can’t actually be wrong, but it can certainly be ambiguous. That w<strong>as</strong> what I experienced on <strong>the</strong> plane, and also what I experience when I listen to a system that doesn’t seem interesting. Maybe <strong>the</strong> music is on pitch and maybe it’s not, but you have to make an effort to tell <strong>one</strong> way or <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r. And that realization brought me back to a phenomenon I came across many years ago: Shepard’s t<strong>one</strong>s. First demonst<strong>rate</strong>d in 1964 (though possibly it had precursors) by R. N. Shepard, <strong>the</strong> t<strong>one</strong>s are a series <strong>of</strong> notes going up <strong>the</strong> scale, seemingly forever. How is it d<strong>one</strong>? Shepard used a computer to manipulate <strong>the</strong> harmonic content <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> notes in an interesting way, so <strong>as</strong> to make <strong>the</strong> exact pitch ambiguous. The result is that you always know what note you are hearing, but you lose track <strong>of</strong> what octave it belongs in. You can hear <strong>the</strong>m at www.uhfmag.com/Tech/ Shepard.html. Once <strong>the</strong> plane had landed I w<strong>as</strong> relieved to find that my sense <strong>of</strong> pitch had recovered just fine, and <strong>the</strong> music packed into my iPod w<strong>as</strong> enjoyable once again. The fundamental building blocks <strong>of</strong> music, which give music both its meaning and its emotional impact, are melody, harmony and rhythm. Muck <strong>the</strong>m up, or even make <strong>the</strong>m ambiguous, and you’ve just got less music. Ei<strong>the</strong>r you need to make an excessive effort to get involved in what you’re hearing, or you can’t make it out at all. This w<strong>as</strong>n’t new to me, to be sure. I’ve long used <strong>the</strong> word “musicality” to refer to a system’s ability to communicate music’s powerful message. You have too, possibly. What <strong>the</strong> experience on <strong>the</strong> plane gave me w<strong>as</strong> a clue <strong>as</strong> to why some systems with great specs can’t do it. It’s not that <strong>the</strong>y get <strong>the</strong> music wrong, it’s that you can’t be sure if <strong>the</strong>y get it right or wrong.
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No. 76 $6.49 ISSN 0847-1851 Canadia
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Issue No. 76 Cover story:A new look
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DOG-EARED MAGAZINES? PHOOEY! How’
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I’d like to thank you for publish
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Free Advice Box 65085, Place Longue
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Probably not, Michel, because the V
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up radio-frequency noise and feedin
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I just picked up your magazine for
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system. The Audiomat Opéra, with i
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zzriliq uipisis dolorem quating exe
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Rather more formidable is the highe
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Good enough UHF uses them! This rem
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Aurum Acoustics (from Newfoundland)
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Touring the Old/New Show “Lo ok a
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cin el in velesto dit utat. Ut luta
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- Page 43 and 44: THE UHF CLASSIFIEDS Run your own ad
- Page 45 and 46: THE ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION: Issues
- Page 47 and 48: we know well, and listened to them
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- Page 51 and 52: Power On the Go It struck us when w
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- Page 73 and 74: paying for it, a detail that subseq
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- Page 77 and 78: On the other hand, he was able to h
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