hi, I just found some info on a new audio gadget:

http://intunition.com/tech/tech.html

So what do you think of this?

Can it really do what it claims?

This is what everyone knows, digital audio is bad!!! It is unnatural!!! It is harmful!!! Vinyl is what we need!

I think this is a compressor so reducing the dynamic range and maybe some high off filtering. So it probably does something audible. If the effect is strong, this might be the ultimate gadget to get AM-radio sound from your iPod.
A better way to cure hearing fatigue is to shut the damn thing off.

What the heck are these "most people" using to encode their MP3s with!

Cheers, Slipstreem.

This is the sort of language which makes me wonder about this thing's legitimacy - using technical terms like "impedence" where they convey no information whatsoever. Sure, this does mean something - but not a whole lot more than "it doesn't catch fire when you plug it in". Any decent audio device will be designed "to operate within the voltage and impedance constraints" of the required application.
Wow! Semiconductor chips! That would have been really cutting edge in the 70s.
So it compresses peaks, but doesn't change the music's dynamic range? Does it also reduce the amount of fuel your car uses without changing it's fuel consumption?
Ok, that's interesting.
Does it? That's not something that I have noticed in MP3 files - but I might be wrong.

Utter nonsense. Avoid.

any audio 'commercial' that talks about it's aging founder is smelly by default, that's what i noticed anyway. (i bet version 2 of this device will have the ability to improve AAC edginess as well, but then you will have to upgrade...)

I found this one to be more creative than "Creative"

At least, they don't use graph.

I'm sure that the thing will do something but what does it do? well, who know..

Just what we need... A few more dB of compression. Actually, this is likely to increase "listening fatigue".

Here's a 'gadget' I use to improve audio clarity and lessen hearing fatigue:



Hehehe. Nothing beats a good night's sleep

Hmm... there's an available downloadable PDF review on that site, from a guy at SlashGear where the reviewer claims it actually improves the sound. He said he even noticed a difference (read: improvement) when using it with his iPod and 320 kbps MP3s.


EDIT: Anyone care to try it for 30 days free as offered on the site?

well, ask her;

she seems happy, obviously it works.

I love this sort of thing, fair play to people extracting money out of idiots.

It's not the encoding: they listen to over-compressed pop rock. After 30 minutes of listening to Franz Ferdinand, I get hearing fatigue too. Compressing dynamic range further certainly won't help.

lol

They bargain that once you realize that this sentence does not make sense, you'll blame your own lack of understanding.

It reads like a tube-amp, or LP simulator.

I'm taking no position on value. If there is any difference in the output, we're in preference-land.

If a person says to me that they like vinyl and knows that it adds BS to the sound, that is fine with me, it is a preferred thing, but then they say that it is truer, that is when I have problems.

Paul

Digital waves are like, totally jagged, and they can cut your eardrums.

Turning the volume down will do more to prevent listening fatigue than just about anything.

well in fact if it is a compressor, it can be useful.
For some podcasts (talkshows), it could help to keep the overall
volume more stable.
I mean, when some people talk too loud
or soft and this device could make it all at the same volume.

Hmm, I've emailed them asking for more info....no reply amusingly enough!

I'm gonna ask how much money there is in something like this, good little earner I reckon

there are no software DSPs for IPODs?

The problem with compressors is that they add harmonics, which is distortion, which seems to kill the whole idea of high fidelity. The problem with a lot of popular music today is that it is compressed already.

Paul

Whether or not the harmonics generated are a problem to the listener is going to depend upon the 'flavour' of the harmonics to a large extent though. If the harmonic distortion is predominantly even harmonics then the ears and brain perceive it as harmonious distortion as opposed to dissonant distortion, if you get my meaning.

This is pure conjecture, but I'm beginning to wonder if the advertised device is removing or attenuating original high-frequency content from the 'offending' MP3 and then replacing it with an artificially generated 2nd-harmonic distortion which could, in theory, be cleaner (ie, less distorted when compared to a pure sinewave) than the original HF content.

I'm not defending the deliberate introduction of any form of distortion as it's a perversion of the original signal, but, not all forms of distortion are equally unpleasant or equally intolerable.

Cheers, Slipstreem.

I more then understand this on distortions not being equal, but it is false advertisement if nothing else. It adds sound Quantity, not, improves sound Quality.

Paul

"Possibly improved perceived sound quality" would have been my way of phrasing it in the advertising literature. Not quite so catchy for the numpties who buy into this kind of stuff though, is it?

Cheers, Slipstreem.

a device which could add sidebands, compression and tiny distortion
like an analog tape machine would be fine...