[GTALUG] Landline and Bell revisited.

[o1bigtenor]

On Thu, Sep 7, 2023 at 1:19 PM James Knott via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:
>
> On 2023-09-07 13:27, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
>
> Forgive me for insisting that technical curiosity take a back seat to the real-world medical needs of people. But I will insist. This is a real problem, not an experiment nor a business decision.
>
>
> Doesn't Bell have a department for helping people with medical issues?  Seems to me they used to.
>
> Indeed, that is Bell's problem that it MUST solve. If the transition has broken backwards compatibility (to use our lingo), they must fix the breakage. Their current digital-to-analog solution may work for many users (such as my landline) but clearly isn't sufficient for Karen's needs.
>
>
> How do you know it's Bell's problem.  All we know is something changed when she moved.  I defy anyone to listen to a good analog line and compare it to a digital line and tell me what the difference is, other than perhaps better quality audio on the digital line.  You can consider things like level, frequency response, phase shift, noise, distortion and more.  Incidentally, when digital trunks started to be used, people complained they were too quiet!  They were used to all the noise that accompanied analog calls.
>
> BTW, many years ago, I used to measure those things on various circuits, including the CBC radio feed in Northern Ontario.
>
>
We were on a party line a lot later than 1975.
I can hear the difference between a 12 bit AD conversion and a 16 bit one.
(Its the difference between listing to a solo soprano recorder and a
full Wanger or Mahler orchestra.
I remember hearing the discussion between the differences on
instruments and different materials
in their manufacturer (just in case others think I'm totally
crackers!) if you want detail.)
There are are audible differences between CODECS - - - likely few
people can tell the difference.
To most engineers - - - - well - - - the mythical 'average' numbers
get trotted out.
(Something like the average sized human when talking about airplane
seats - - - another pet
peeve of mine.)
I would suggest not being quite so arbitrary on human capabilities.

HTH