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(TV) MM heard thru ran orange juice can
Joe,
Despite my love for TV on Japanese vinyl and the tube-sound in general, I also would have to categorize myself as 'Mid Fi' audio-wise. Being a humble government 'Public Servant', I receive a commensurate humble salary. Given that diminishing returns for musical fidelity systems sets in very quickly, I instead choose to spend my money on the recordings themselves.
Over the years, I too, have heard some very expensive music systems (both digital and analogue). I agree that many people strive/worry too much about perfect sound instead of listening to and enjoying the music itself.
I'd rather listen to 'Marquee Moon' or 'Breakin In My Heart' thru an empty orange juice can tied to a taut piece of yarn (or a even a tinny 1970's transistor radio) than listen to a $300,000 system playing 'bad' music.
I remember several years ago listening to a couple of these state of the art audio systems where one visibly excited owner played us a recording of (I'm not making this up) the sound of an electric garage door opening and closing-----because he said it was the recording that best demonstrated the capabilities of his system, and another gear-head who listened passionately and almost exclusively to recordings of gongs, because his system was so accurate he claimed it was too distressing to listen to the deficiencies in the recordings of other music. Another claimed to possess golden ears and said he could detect musical differences and gradations between a vinyl record played on his system after first being cleaned (with an expensive vacuum machine) using one precious brand of record cleaning fluid, versus the sound of the same record after being cleaned by an alternate concoction of fluid! (He used descriptive phrases very similar to those that wine connoisseurs use to describ!
e the differences in brands or types of wine).
I agree CDs are much more convenient, but I am still very disappointed when---- as Maurice commented----- companies '...lazily reusing vinyl masters
for a CD is criminal, but sadly common....' I also agree with Jeff about the digital sampling rate standard having been set too low --- how can an 18k hertz overtone or harmonic from a Verlaine or Lloyd guitar solo really be adequately reproduced from only 2 (or 3 = 44,000/18,000) samples of information per second?
Leo
Full Disclosure: I love the 'middle-fi' audio system in my home, but given the length of my commute to work, I spend a lot of time listening to music in my car-----, especially a cassette tape I made in 1979 of TV's 1st solo record (and with 'Ain't That Nothin' and 'Marquee Moon' also squeezed onto on the same Side A). I am so sentimentally attached to this cassette and the memories it conjures up that I usually don't even hear its defects.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joe Hartley [SMTP:jh@brainiac.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2000 9:07 AM
> To: tv@obbard.com
> Subject: (TV) Re: MM Vinyl v. CD
>
> I have to be counted among those in the MidFi camp. I've never had more
> than $1000 invested in a stereo system (though the _number_ of systems
> I have is surprising!). I've heard some great stereos, and have noted
> differences, but not enough to make me spend 15x-20x more than I have.
>
> I'm not Neil Young; I don't really hear the digital artifacts in CDs;
> it takes a much lower sampling rate to become audible to me. As far
> as I'm concerned, this is a good thing. People I know with the huge
> systems seem to focus too much on the reproduction of the music and
> not enough on the music itself.
>
> Me: "Wow! That's a blistering guitar solo! What emotion!"
>
> Gearhead: "Yes, but there's an odd peak at 8k that I have to equalize
> out, and you can hear some breakup in the middle..."
>
> What I love about CDs is that I have a single thing to play wherever I>
> want, including the car. Back with vinyl and cassette decks in the car>
> (and even CDs before CDs in car stereos became common), what you listened
> to in the car was either stuff you liked so much you made a tape of it,
> or (more frequently) stuff that you thought was good enough to tape
> from a friend but not enough to buy. Playing the same physical thing
> in the home system, the car and even the CD at work has really made a
> big difference in what I listen to.
>
> "Michael Olcsvary" <olcsvary@icehouse.net> wrote:
> > This vinyl vs. CD debate reminds me of the tubes vs. transistors guitar
> > camps, and I'll just point out that Richard Lloyd's using a Line 6 Flextone
> > these days.
>
> I *can* hear the difference in amps in a live setting. My Ampeg
> Reverberocket II sounds worlds different than the Peavey I occasionally
> play through. Whether those nuances make it through the recording
> process and survive reproduction is another thing entirely.
>
> I believe it was Phil Spector who always made a point of listening to his
> mixes at some point through shitty speakers to see how it'd come across in
> cars and in the bedrooms of teens across the country. A wise thing to do,
> I always thought.
>
>
> ======================================================================
> Joe Hartley - UNIX/network Consultant - jh@brainiac.com
> 12 Emma G Lane, Narragansett, RI 02882 - vox 401.782.9042
> Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa
>
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