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Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics. |
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Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics. |
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In Reply to: So we have reached the end point in different world views posted by Commuteman on August 24, 2004 at 08:28:28:
Real world engineers overdesign because they know that there are unknown variables that their designs may have to contend with that they haven't anticipated. When you say "good enough" I get the sense that you are implying that you mean that once something meets the strictest criteria even when all of the variables are known, the results are still mediocre. Why not extrapolate your assumption to every other aspect of audio equipment. Why not design amplifiers and speakers to reproduce frequencies up to radio frequencies, microwave frequencies, or light? Why not continue to build loudspeakers to be able to reproduce peaks to 150 db, 200 db, 500 db? Is there a point where the design satisfies the criteria and no further improvement is of value? I'm not talking about the point of diminishing returns. I'm talking about no value whatsoever. In fact, it was once the philosophy to design audio amplifiers to have flat frequency response into the hundreds of kilohertz and even megahertz range. This was in the early days of solid state when that was suddenly possible. Remember adds which promised "flat response from DC to light?" But the reality was that not only didn't it add anything of value, it was actually a detriment, a poorer design, a bad idea. There were unsuspected penalties to be paid. Often all things are not equal. All designs are tradeoffs. To get something, you sometimes have to give something else up and knowing when what you get is worthless while what you're giving up is valuable is what engineers are supposed to know. That's why they have design criteria. That is the first step to designing anything. Setting the performance specifications which are to be met.I hope this is "classic engineering thinking" as you put it. If this gives us different world views, then that's the way it is. There is no rule that says everyone has to see the world the same way.
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Follow Ups
- Re: So we have reached the end point in different world views - Soundmind 08:55:41 08/24/04 (0)
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