Can We Agree to Disagree? (LP vs CD)

Can We Agree to Disagree? (LP vs CD)

Dec 21, 2008 First Published:Aug 02, 1990

I had a wonderful chuckle while reading the reviews of the Finial Laser Turntable in the May 1990 issue of <I>HFN/RR</I>. Perhaps I should preface this by saying that, in the entire quarter-century since I became intensely involved in audio, I have always found the LP an unsatisfactory playback medium for music. As a regular concert-goer in Boston and an addict of WGBH-FM's simply miked, virtually unprocessed live broadcasts of BSO concerts direct from Symphony Hall, I never learned to ignore the many anti-musical distortions endemic to LPs&#151;the ticks and pops, the inner-groove congestion and tracing distortion, the harsh mistracking of high-level climaxes and overcut grooves, the persistent static in dry winter air, the constant slight wow due to off-center spindle holes, the muddy bass due to resonances and feedback, the universal cutting engineer's practice of blending low bass into mono (which wipes out low-frequency hall ambience).

Vinyl vexation

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General Rants 'n' Raves
Submitted by Frank Noonan on

I recently read Bob Bairds article on the recent revival of a record pressing plant in Brooklyn, NY.
Looking at some of the photos, it appears as if the vinyl compound is the same schwag that's been used for the past 60 or so years.

Hasn't chemical engineering advanced just a little since 1950? Or is vinyl LP manufacture regarded as a "poor relation" that is simply not worthy of further development?

The little Sony Playstation-dang!

Forums
Tweaks 'n' Tips
Submitted by Stephen Scharf on

I don't know if this would be classified as a tweak, but I guess it could be considered a tip, so I'll post here.

The last day or so, I've been listening to a CD burned from a download of the Ultimate Demo Disk 2 from Chesky Records.

I downloaded it as a set of FLACs and converted them to AIFF with Max, and burned a CD in iTunes. Been listening to the CD the last few days on my state of the art Sony Playstation, SPCH-101. I bought one of these for a whopping $34.95 on eBay after reading Art Dudley's review of it in October.

Developing Critical Listening

Forums
The Entry Level
Submitted by sbkrige on

I've been ripping CD's to my computer at different qualities and playing the same song with different bit rates, and I can definitely hear the difference between the higher and lower quality rips, but I have trouble describing and isolating what exactly are the differences.
I can also do the test on random (so not knowing if I'm listening to the higher or lower quality rip) and I can still tell which one is the better one or not (up to a certain extent, I limited buy my equipment at the higher quality).

Were Those Ears So Golden? (DCC & PASC)

Were Those Ears So Golden? (DCC & PASC)

Dec 20, 2008 First Published:Apr 01, 1991

The whole field of subjective audio reviewing&#151;listening to a piece of equipment to determine its characteristics and worth&#151;is predicated on the idea that human perception is not only far more sensitive than measurement devices, but far more <I>important</I> than the numbers generated by "objective" testing. Subjective evaluation of audio equipment, however, is often dismissed as meaningless by the scientific audio community. A frequent objection is the lack of thousands upon thousands of rigidly controlled clinical trials. Consequently, conclusions reached by subjective means are considered unreliable because of the anecdotal nature of listening impressions. The scientific audio community demands rigorous, controlled, blind testing with many trials before any conclusions can be drawn. Furthermore, any claimed abilities to discriminate sonically that are not provable under blind testing conditions are considered products of the listeners' imaginations. Audible differences are said to be real only if their existence can be proved by such "scientific" procedures (footnote 1).

Holiday Wishlist

Forums
General Rants 'n' Raves
Submitted by linden518 on

Everyone post! I'll start:

1. The 14CD-Messiaen 100th Anniversary box. I'm sure I'll go get this before the year's over.

2. The Wagner Ring (Keilberth) on Testament, the LP set... I already own the CD set. 19 LPs, $500 (holy crap.)

3. Alfred Brendel's His Vanguard & Vox Recordings (36 CDs)... I grew up with Brendel's Beethoven set on Vox. I've heard better versions of Beethoven sonatas, but none are more dear to me than the early Brendel accounts. The thing is, I listened to the cassettes back then... so this is definitely one to buy & keep near me...

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