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Wednesday, May 04, 2011, 03:55 pm
Inventor of THX sound system hired to run Apple audio - report
Apple has reportedly hired Tomlinson Holman, inventor of the Lucasfilm THX high-fidelity audio system, to be its new audio chief.Leo Laporte of the TWiT Netcast Network wrote on his official Twitter account on Monday that Holman is joining Apple to "run audio." The post, highlighted by GigaOm, described Apple's hire as a "major upgrade."
In addition to creating the THX sound certification for Lucasfilm, Holman was also behind the world's first 10.2 surround sound system. He is currently a film sound professor at the University of Southern California.
Apple has not confirmed the alleged hiring of Holman, and what projects he will play a role in at the secretive company are not yet known. In addition to experience designing loudspeakers and amplifiers, he has also won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in motion pictures.
Holman's hiring could also play a role in hardware development, ranging from the headphones that ship with all iPods and iPhones, to integrated speakers on devices like the iPhone, iPad or Apple's line of MacBook computers. He could also play a part in the software Apple writes for media playback on devices ranging from iPods and iPhones, to Macs, the Apple TV.
In February, it was alleged that Apple is looking to offer higher quality music on its iTunes Music Store. The company is said to be in negotiations with studios to offer tracks in a 24-bit high-fidelity format, which would be higher quality than the 16 bit currently available on iTunes or with a compact disc.
Many Macs and some PCs already support 24-bit sound, and the iTunes media player software supports 24-bit files. Audio tracks are also recorded in 24 bits by artists in the studio, but they are downgraded to 16 bits when they are pressed to CD or made available to iTunes.
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Previous Comments View All
Awesome. Been looking foreward to better audio solutions from Apple.
I'm running a Logitech Squeezebox and love it. I've heard Sonos is good, too. I think Apple dropped the ball in not entering that market -- meaning, something with a halfway decent DAC for stereo and home theater use.
EDIT:
Come to think of it......given the quality of music the almighty Steve listens to and uses for his product launches.....I can see why good audio performance hasn't been a priority! 
This is what I like about Apple. They know what they're doing. They know who to get. And they don't gloat or boast about it as much that we have to find this kind detail through rumor sites.
24 bit won't make MP3 or other lossy formats magically (ha) sound better, unless its also lossless (preferably FLAC, but probably never gonna happen). And also, I doubt comparatively low fidelity devices like iPods will be able to take advantage of the expanded range of 24 bit. Will mostly be marketing gimickery, IMO.
THX is all about a pleasant listening experience at the theater or certifying hardware actually does what it is supposed to do. Whether or not this means better audio in apple products remains to be seen. Their ipods don't suffer hardware quality issues; it's all in their poor eq's. Change the eq and the sound turns to crap.
10.2 surround? I stopped caring at 5.1.
24 bit won't make MP3 or other lossy formats magically (ha) sound better, unless its also lossless (preferably FLAC, but probably never gonna happen). And also, I doubt comparatively low fidelity devices like iPods will be able to take advantage of the expanded range of 24 bit. Will mostly be marketing gimickery, IMO.
You never know, maybe that will be the lead feature of the next gen iPod
24 bit won't make MP3 or other lossy formats magically (ha) sound better, unless its also lossless (preferably FLAC, but probably never gonna happen). And also, I doubt comparatively low fidelity devices like iPods will be able to take advantage of the expanded range of 24 bit. Will mostly be marketing gimickery, IMO.
You don't hire Tomlinson Holman to enable "marketing gimmickry." He's a supremely talented hardware/software/audio guy, one of the best in the business. Honestly, they couldn't have gotten a more seminal talent if they had hired Ray Dolby himself.
I'm excited by this news-- audio quality doesn't seem to have been a high priority with Apple as of late, having defaulted to "good enough" for their various portable devices. A big upgrade across the board on that count, from iTunes encodes to iPod ear buds to the speakers and amplification in the iphones, iPad and laptops would be most welcome.
If this is true, it's a big step. I know this guy, and he's brilliant. For those who think that THX is not such a big deal, you're wrong. It's one of the biggest of big deals. It's focussed on theater and home theater sound, and it's not intended for the purpose of pure music reproduction, though the standards set there will work well, if you have THX certified equipment, and you set it up properly.
But he's not just "Mr. THX". His knowledge of music and audio reproduction goes well beyond that. I hope this rumor is true.
You never know, maybe that will be the lead feature of the next gen iPod
They could always surprise us I guess. But I just don't think they are giving as much attention to iPods in the area of audio ironically enough. 24 bit files + their current fidelity = zero gain. CD quality is 16 bit, think about how much high end equipment you need to hear a difference between that and SACD. In an iPod? I can't see it making any difference apart from a marketing point.
You don't hire Tomlinson Holman to enable "marketing gimmickry." He's a supremely talented hardware/software/audio guy, one of the best in the business.
Which isn't what I said, I was talking about 24-bit audio files.
Awesome. Been looking foreward to better audio solutions from Apple.
I'm running a Logitech Squeezebox and love it. I've heard Sonos is good, too. I think Apple dropped the ball in not entering that market -- meaning, something with a halfway decent DAC for stereo and home theater use.
EDIT:
Come to think of it......given the quality of music the almighty Steve listens to and uses for his product launches.....I can see why good audio performance hasn't been a priority!
You don't know much about it, do you?
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