THE SCIENCE AND APPLICATIONS OF ACOUSTICS - H. H. Arnold ...

570 19. Sound ReproductionAlbert, and Sam) in collaboration with Western Electric introduced a new soundon disk system that worked in synchronization with the film. In order to exhibitthis new technology, the Warner Brothers Studios released Don Juan that provedto be a box office hit, but many studios still refused to adapt to talking picturetechnology. However, in October 1927, the premiere of The Jazz Singer starringAl Jolson really triggered the talking picture revolution. Even though The JazzSinger was not the first movie to use sound, it was the first film to use spokendialog and music as part of the action. The advent of cinema sound was furtheredby the introduction of photographic sound tracks that vary in transparency andimprovements in playback equipment.The genesis of the tape recorder occurred when a German chemist Fritz Pfleumerreceived a patent in Germany in 1928 for application of magnetic powders to stripsof paper or film. Three years later he and the German company AEG began to constructthe first magnetic tape recorder, and in 1935 the first public demonstrationof the BASF/AEG “Magnetophone” was given at the Berlin Radio Fair. The followingyear, the first BASF/AEG tape recording of a live concert was made, withSir Thomas Beecham conducting. In the United States, Marvin Camras developedindependently the wire recorder in 1939 at the Armour Foundation. The inventionwas sold to the military during World War II, and wire recorders were popular withamateurs until the late 1950s. In 1945, after the German surrender, U.S. SignalCorps Captain John Mullin found Magnetophones at Radio Frankfurt and 100-mreels of 6.5-mm ferric-coated BASF tape with 20-min capacity per reel. He mailedhome two machines with 50 reels of tape and worked on them to improve theelectronics. Alexander M. Poniatoff (1892–1980) learned about them and beganwork on developing a U.S.-made magnetic tape recorder. In 1948, his first model,the Ampex 200, was used to record a Bing Crosby radio show on 3M Scotch 111gamma ferric oxide-coated acetate tape.Since then, the magnetic tape recorder has evolved into other formats, such as8-track tape (now defunct), DAT, and the cassette. While the cassette is still inuse, it has given way to the compact disk (CD) and, later on, the digital versatiledisk (originally called digital video disk and abbreviated as DVD). The CDs andDVDs also come in recordable formats, thus enabling the average person who hasa personal computer and/or recording/playback equipment to operate a recordingstudio in the comfort of his/her home.The term high fidelity refers to sound recording and reproduction that result inlow harmonic and intermodulation distortions and a frequency response coveringmost, if not all, of the entire audio range of 20 Hz–20 kHz. A monophonic, stereo,or a multichannel system cannot be termed high fidelity unless it reproduces soundfaithfully. The high fidelity (or audiophile, using the more modern terminology)industry got under way when Avery Fisher (1906–1994) introduced high-qualityequipment in the late 1930s. After World War II, the industry truly began to flourishwith Sidney Harmon (1920–) developing the first high-fidelity receiver; Sonyco-founders Akio Moria (1921–1999) and Masara Ibuka (1908–1997) introducingconsumer-type tape recorders, James B. Lansing (1902–1949) building qualityspeaker systems, and Saul Marantz (1902–1997) hand constructing quality amplifiersand preamplifiers (that remain classics to this day).