Harman International De-Compressing MP3's for Higher Fidelity

I've downloaded the podcast and will listen to it tonight. But it seems to me that decompressing an MP3, although it could conceivably make it sound better could not possibly improve fidelity.

Dave, the link just brings up a short teaser. Where's the rest of it? I was unable to find any more information about this, even on cbsnewyork.com, mentioned in the teaser.

(Although my googling did take me to this well-written AES presentation on the loudness war that was good enough that I downloaded a copy to keep on hand.)

I did a little Googling:

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Interview-Harman-International,review-1503.html:

Paliwal: We have some very fundamental research going on when it comes to digital music. Internally we call it Quantum Logic. What has happened since MP3 players have come into play? In my view, a whole generation is being deprived of what the true music quality is, or what it should be. We complained when the CD came because it chops up the fidelity of the music Now we have the MP3 players, they do further distortion. We are dealing with a lot of compression and decompression of audio. So we are developing a kind of software filter which has the capability to read the DNA of the originally recorded music, and if it can recreate the chopped off wave amplitude, and then reproduce the music. We've gone to Apple, the single largest distributor of songs today, with this technology. They understand that people are listening, and there's a shift coming already, a lot of people are starting to say, "I want my turntable back because I want to hear true quality." Our solution: we can give you a technology which, in a miniaturized version, can give you the richest sound of turntable or a surround sound system.

For implementation, we aren’t sure yet. It might be proprietary, so you will have to buy a Harman product to be able to enjoy fully decompressed music, not the compressed version you get in the marketplace. Or we can license that through partners like Apple or others. We have not decided yet.

Most references to "Quantum Logic" refer to creation of surround sound from stereo, mostly in a car systems for Ferrari and such. Here's something from the Harman site:

http://www.harman.com/automotive/en-us/products-innovations/innovations/acoustics/Pages/default.aspx:

HARMAN has also achieved a quantum leap in terms of surround sound: The latest QuantumLogic™ technology transforms any stereo or multi-channel audio source into an astounding 7.1 channel surround sound experience. QuantumLogic™ technology sets a new benchmark in audio signal processing excellence.

QuantumLogic™ surround technology gives audio tracks a controlled sound quality by introducing revolutionary new audio algorithms to extract signal streams and impulse responses from the original recording. Individual voices and instruments, as well as embedded reverberant spatial information, are identified then re-authored into a precise multi-channel soundstage. Unique to QuantumLogic™ is its “aesthetic engine”, which scientifically combines the individual signal streams and patented spatial filter bank technology with psycho-acoustic modeling for transparent digital processing and perfect acoustic reconstruction. The result is a stuningly immersive playback system with refined clarity and detail.

QuantumLogic Surround introduces a new benchmark in surround sound technology that is designed to meet the demands of music industry professionals. Maintaining the integrity of source material mixed by professionals, and delivering that in the most beneficial manner to HARMAN’s customers’ listening environments, represents "the HARMAN commitment to sound".

So it doesn't really decompress as much as look for indicators of possible lost information and tries to re-synthesize stuff.

OK, so Dave's intuition was right: voodoo.

The only reason my curiosity was piqued was because it involved Harman, a company that has contributed a great deal toward the greater body of audio knowledge. Oh well.

Harmon the Audio oligarchy :) in my opinion.

What mp3 does to audio seems to me is take the bit depth and truncate it to death so that the under lying smear, phase, and complexity gets stripped away. Leaving a nicely polished surface, too much amplitude, lack of dynamic range out of the product. Shiny crap that looks good at 40 miles an hour, but don't stop and take close look - you might not like what's really there.
           Than again: you can always go to MY soundclick and hear the nice shiney crap I have for your listening pleasure. 

bitflipper said: it involved Harman, a company that has contributed a great deal toward the greater body of audio knowledge. ... ... ... ... ... I say: Harman has bought up all the best audio companies who employed the best engineers. To their credit, they still employ the best engineers. They also employ the "best" marketers. Sadly, Harmon does their best to only let the marketers give out info on their projects. If you ever get a chance to get info out of one of their engineers, it's a real treat. They will tend to cut through the marketing drivel. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... re: the Lexicon re-badged DVD player. A case of marketing doing an excellent job: Getting people to buy stuff at the highest price point the company can get away with. I recall a Telefunken mic in the same situation. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... edit: bit beat me to it.

We may be getting there slowly... Saw an add on Facebook not too long ago for Metallica's Black Album audiophile version, 24 bit/96 khz. Nine Inch Nails offered that too for some of their last albums. I'm sure there are others.

I guess it's a matter of creating some hype around HiFi instead of relying on actual quality and facts. Most won't really hear much difference, but if the know it's better, they'll buy into it anyway.

Investing time and money in researches to improve degraded audio seems like a plan for someone trying to sell a technology and cash in on an issue that really shouldn't be one anymore.

I'm sure audio fidelity is at the top of every Ferrari customer's wish list!

They're not exactly quiet cabins, and the interior is cramped - where would the speakers go, or more important, where would you find sufficient air volume behind them for flat/extended bass? The idea of putting hi-fi sound into any sports car (or any Italian-built car) is kind of silly. In a Lexus, OK.

i call "Fail"