Ray Dolby

[nodtveidt]

Not everyone will really appreciate this, but the guy who founded Dolby Laboratories and was one of the fundamental pioneers of high fidelity sound, has died at 80.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/09/13/billionaire-sound-pioneer-ray-dolby-dies-age-80/

[jperryss]

THX for the memories.

[esteban]

Not everyone will really appreciate this, but the guy who founded Dolby Laboratories and was one of the fundamental pioneers of high fidelity sound, has died at 80.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/09/13/billionaire-sound-pioneer-ray-dolby-dies-age-80/

 1985. I had a rebadged* DELUXE Sony boom box that was truly excellent (and totally NOT PORTABLE with 8 D cells loaded into the behemoth) and I was grateful for Dolby NR when taping/playing stuff.

Of course, I always suspected that NR (noise reduction) was a scam...a button that essentially cut some treble to eliminate the hiss on playback. HELL, I CAN DO THAT WITH THE EQUALIZER, I bellowed to myself.

I'll let the audio engineers fight it out, because, in the end, that humble little gray button DID make cassettes more pleasurable to listen to.

R.I.P.

*Radio Shack's "Realistic" line of goods were probably crap 98% of the time, but this stereo was truly divine. I used it for 15 years, daily use, before the tape decks finally died.

[roflmao]

I still keep a tape deck in my office for the infrequent times I listen to old mix tapes friends made me ages ago and for stuff I just haven't been able to find on CD.

I don't think it has Dolby NR, though, so this post is irrelevant to the topic. 

However, I remember back when I had a tape player in my car that *did* have Dolby NR and I used that option quite frequently, especially with music that had lots of quiet parts (Peter Gabriel, I'm looking at you), and was thankful for the reduction in hiss.  Also, my home theater thanks you.  RIP, Ray.