FACT: Analog tape compresses dynamics and adds distortion, which can be a pleasing sound for many people. But modern pro-quality digital wins hands-down for faithfully every nuance of fidelity. It IS true that when digital audio is recorded at too low a level, the result can sound grainy, due to poor use of the potential of digital resolution, but this is analogous to the noise artifacts often introduced in analog recording.

MYTH: Gold-plated connectors sound better than connectors made with tin or nickel.

FACT: Gold doesn't tarnish, and tarnished connectors can cause problems, but there is nothing inherent in gold that makes it sound better than a clean connection using standard materials. Also, it's possible for connections using dissimilar metals to oxidize and deteriorate more quickly than if the same metal were used. So, mating a gold plug with a non-gold jack could theoretically make things even worse! Moreover, connectors plated with gold often use a very thin coating because of gold's high cost, and that plating can wear off with repeated plugging and unplugging. So, while it would be unfair and untrue to say that gold connectors are a bad thing, unless both connectors are gold they are at best a waste of money and at worst a potential for eventual trouble.

MYTH: Using audiophile speaker cables improves the sound, compared to an equally heavy gauge of normal electrical wire.

FACT: The most important feature speaker wire can possess is low resistance at audio frequencies. The makers of expensive audiophile speaker cable claim their products are better because they have a frequency capability that extends into the MHz. range. But there is no evidence that wire capable of carrying frequencies many times higher than what it will actually carry is useful or worth the extra money.

While low-resistance wiring can be quite important, nearly any sufficiently heavy wire will suffice for a speaker cable in the lengths used by most recording studios. Heavy gauge zip cord is ideal for runs of twenty feet or less, and it's readily available in #14 and even thicker gauges.

MYTH: Tube amplifiers sound better than solid state designs, and a good tube preamp can even restore clarity and warmth that has been lost in the digital recording process.

FACT: Both types of amplifiers can have a frequency response flat enough for audio reproduction. But modern solid state amplifiers have measurably lower distortion than any tube-based design. Most tube-based power amplifiers also require an output transformer, which increases distortion--especially at the frequency extremes. Further, solid state power amps always have a better damping factor.

While some of the harmonic distortion can be pleasing to the ear, understand that they simply cannot restore any quality that was lost earlier in the recording process. All a tube preamp can do is add an effect that you may find pleasing.

Studio monitor amplifiers should never have a "sound;" if they do, they are defective. Tube circuits can affect the sound in a way that is similar to analog tape recorders, which may be a pleasant characteristic, but all distortion adds intermodulation (IM) products that are not harmonically related to the source material, and are thus decidedly non-musical.

Have something you want to know about and would like to see it in the Producer's Corner? Email me at info@bluebearsound.com and I'll feature it in an upcoming spot.

Until next month!
Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound Recording Studios
"Putting the sound back into recording!"