week of: 10/05/2010

Potential test audio for the project has been provided to project members for review. The four albums are: Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon, Holst: The Planets, The Alman Brothers Band: At Filmore East, and Santana: Abraxas. We will now select from the 4 albums excerpts that will be appropriate for the study. Previously we discussed finding musical examples that express a clear picture of the dynamic range of the recording, space, as well as rich and deep bass, and shimmering in high percussion.

The next stage of the process is to perform a pilot double-blind test to determine if the audio from the 2 tests is similar enough to begin actual testing. As well as taking the test ourselves, we will ask my labmates in the DDMAL to take this test in the next week. At present we are adjusting the MAX patch used in prior studies to work with our current study. Once done, we would like to use a listening room in the MPCL. I will contact Ichiro about this tomorrow.

NOTE: looking back I cannot find anywhere that I have mentioned that we have decided against a comparison of MM vs. MC cartridges. We have replaced the Ortofon OM20 (MM cartridge) with a Denon DL-103 (MC cartridge). We have also added an Elevator EXP as a step-up amplifier. This decision was made in an attempt to find a closer match between the outputs of both systems. After connecting the expensive turntable (w/ expensive cartridge) to the moderately priced GSP Jazz Club and GSP Elevator EXP. The result was that the output of this hybrid system sounded much more similar to the expensive system than the fully moderate system. We then assumed that the only remaining variables were the turntables themselves and the cartridge/step-up amplifier.