-----Original Message----- From George Brock-Nannestad: "...The creation of standards for recording and reproduction may have been a lovely ideal, but in practice if floundered, and this was realized by the standardization bodies themselves..." The consumer electronics industry rarely paid close attention however every mastering professional I know of paid very close attention and there weren't all that many of us! The standard IS the RCA test record. We measured it and matched our cutting systems to it within a few tenths of a dB. There were also only a handful of different devices employed. If one's goal is accurately reproducing the recordings, this can be accomplished simply by calibrating one's playback system to the RCA test record. I think most people would be shocked by how accurately what was on the master tapes along with any "creative" extra eq. or compression was reproduced. I've always thought the endless papers about math formulas and standards are utterly absurd because mastering has been practiced in a very consistent manner throughout the industry. Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined! 615.385.8051 http://www.hyperback.com http://www.thewombforums.com