[BC] Achieving good S/N

[Kevin Tekel]

Bob Orban wrote:
> It replaced a Gates pre-emphasized clipper (I forget what its actual
> marketing name was) that splattered on every "ess." The Gates only
> lasted a week on-air before I sent it back.

I have one of those.  It's the Solid Statesman FM Limiter.  Yes, it sends
pre-emphasized audio right into a wideband diode clipper.  When I had one
in on-air service I modified it to place the pre-emphasis ahead of the
broadband limiter (with a speeded-up recovery time).  To me the HF
"ducking" was more tolerable than the brute-force clipping, at least on
pre-Disco-era music.

> However, the Conax would have a lot of problems with the HF content on
> today's CDs. As program material gets brighter, one can no longer rely
> on clipping alone to control HF energy. When I was designing the 8100,
> I was originally hoping to be able to use distortion-canceled clipping
> with no program-adaptive-filter-type HF limiting in the 8100 design, but
> I found enough material even back then that made the "clipping-only"
> solution sound too distorted.

I have a couple modern-era 45's which sound like they were mastered using
clipping to hack off anything boosted by the RIAA curve.  The treble is so
distorted, it sounds like you just busted your stylus.



	
		
__________________________________ 
Yahoo! for Good - Make a difference this year. 
http://brand.yahoo.com/cybergivingweek2005/