Hi Steve, Even the best digital restoration software generates artifacts so, I use both when applying a digital process just to make sure that I'm not being too aggressive with the application. My advice would be to use your best judgment. More often than not, you have to walk the fine line between customer expectations and what is actually possible before the life gets sucked out of the material. FWIW, A few years ago, Stanford University did a study that involved incoming freshmen. The new students were presented with the same audio file. The data rates ranged from very high fidelity to an average MP3. The volunteers overwhelmingly preferred the MP3. When asked why, the most common reply was: "That's what I'm used to so, it sounds the most normal." Cheers, Corey Corey Bailey Audio Engineering www.baileyzone.net On 2/1/2019 3:26 PM, Steven Smolian wrote: > I'm wondering as to the criteria used by those restoring old recordings > regarding the target listener is a speaker or headphone user. This affects > the amount of background noise that has to be removed to give the younger > listener unused to 78s a comfortable listening experience. My focus here is > on acoustically recorded laterally cut 78 sides. It seems to me that the > younger users are either listing through decent earbuds or terrible > computer speakers. Comments? > > > > Steve Smolian