Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/15

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Subject: Re: 35mm Asph./ASPHERICAL
From: dlevy@worldy.com
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 20:42:24 -0400

At 02:59  15/10/96 +0100, you wrote:

>Then, to come to the point: Testing high end equipment leaves the 
>range of measurable data. Wer'e talking about top quality equipment 
>(and it wouldn't be top quality/high end/call it as you like if you could
> _measure_ a flaw!). It's the same case for high end hifi equipment 
>BTW, all units will deliver excellent test results.
>

Unfortunately, this is not true regarding high end excellent sounding audio
equipment. You can design equipment which will test excellent on the bench
and sound terrible. Early transistor designs were a proof of this. The were
designed to have both thd, im distortion and frequency response which would
beat tube equipment, but sounded absolutely terrible. Even today, most
transistor designs of low and mid hi-fi components have tests results which
are better than say Audio Research, new Dynaco, etc., but the tube equip
still sounds better. Also, there are very good solid state designs today
which don't test any better than the mid-fi equipment, but kill it sonically.

Both audio equipment and lenses exhibit certain nuances which I think to
date can not of have not been quantified by objective criteria. I am not
sure that given the state of technology and its current direction that
either industry is actively working on developing these tests.  When I was a
comptroller for a speaker manufacturer in New England, we had a lab full of
equipment and enough R&D budget to develop almost anything. As each
prototype was developed, the 'golden ears' of the company and others in the
community would do blind tests on the speakers. At the end, the speakers
were modified to reflect the consensus of the listeners, regardless of what
the numbers showed. Oh, the speakers were not on the cheap end of the
spectrum. It wouldn't surprise me that lens design is not done in a similar
manner considering that I remember in several readings that there are Leica
prototypes occasionally showing up on the block.
Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto, Ont.
dlevy@worldy.com