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Re: (TV) MM heard thru ran orange juice can



Couldn't agree more. It also makes me think a bit of the kind of people who
think a band must be fantastic if all the musicians are
excellent.................I think not.
-----Original Message-----
From: Casey, Leo J <CaseyL@volpe.dot.gov>
To: 'tv@obbard.com' <tv@obbard.com>
Date: Thursday, September 14, 2000 10:03 PM
Subject: (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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