As one who has over 400 vinyl LP's and noticed that a good turntable these days goes for several thousand $$$, I appreciated this article.
Maybe it's just like keeping an old suit... It'll come back in style!
JT
I've got 8-tracks,cassette tapes,reel to reel,an i-pod and mp3s on my computer,so whatever comes back,I'm ready! I will say this though,vinyl has a much warmer sound than the digital stuff,granted there are pops clicks and scratches to deal with(hell some artists actually put those sounds in to make it sound like a record!)but there are sprays to get those out too. Lou
Digital processing just is not an equal to high quality analog.
Many of the the higher frequency complimentary harmonics are lost and a sharp ear will pick up on this with much difficulty.
Back in the late 1980's, I recorded and produced a fund raising cassette tape for the continuing restoration and maintenance of the Wurlitzer at the PPAC in RI. Though recorded on a "low mileage" Sony reel to reel recorder, the intial post production was a digital conversion and the result was unsatisfactory to me and we went straight analog. Digital just falls short in sampling.
JT
With near 1,000 albums stashed away and totally enjoying my OCB in gathering them I will continue to be the "weird guy who collects this junk"(that is how one person asked me over the phone if I wanted a small collection)
Bob40...got Blues?
As I opened this thread I was listening to Columbia CL883 Concert by the Sea. EG at his peak. Not a scratch on it. Next in line is The Best of the Brass By Herb Alpert and the TJ Brass. (Were I a bit closer, they might even hear it in TJ! ) Before Erroll Garner, it was music from Never on Sunday. That movie is also in my VCR in the next room - in Greek, no less. (I wish I uderstood it.) When I'm down, viewing the first 15 minutes of that always cheers me. Any other 6th fleet guys feel that way?
Karl (Studebakers aren't the only way I'm living in the past!)
living in the past....jethro tull....lou
OK, I'm stuck in time.....state of the art sound system, circa 1976 (running about 560 watts thru 4 RTR 280DR towers - plus subwoofers....the DBX boom box, "dynamic processor", "imager" compander, etc, etc, etc). and a basement full of 78s going back to acoustic, 45s, lps, etc.
but.....got my first CD player maybe 20 years ago....and as soon as I listened to the first disc I couldn't stand to listen to my albums any more (but Grumpy, I loaded-up on turntables when they were a dime a dozen at Goodwill). the noise is just too much to take........even a great CD....like Mercury Living Presence reissues - have too much noise from the original tapes.
I made decent cassettes out of all my 45's and old albums years ago and listen to them when walking - the cassettes manage to lose a lot of the noise but eventually my last Walkman will die, so:
question: I understand the analog/digital argument but my old ears can't hear a problem with digital and the absence of noise is the big thing for me. I know nothing of mp3, iPod etc., etc. just seems to me that anything that compressed, that can be downloaded in less than real time must lose something. Comments? I'm guessing that fidelity doesn't matter much with the crap the kids download.
BUT.....my cars have nice stereos (the new Mustang has speed controlled volume level - just like Mom's '57 Turnpike Cruiser......and I have an old Chrysler LHS with an Infinity system that's great).......but nothing sounds as good as an old tube-type AM radio shaking the dashboard!!!!!!!!!!
The kids today grew up with digital, so they don't have a lot to compare to. I think it boils down to the listener's ear,if it's tin, then it won't matter...lou...p.s. a great stereo does improve the fidelity though.
I really don't have a problem with CD(s) but only take issue when it comes to fine reproduction capability. I have a (relatively small) CD collection strictly for "easy" listening. Most of my serious stuff is still on reel to reel tapes.
You can convert these to CD(s) pretty easy. I've burned a couple on my Mac and they turned out fine for everyday use.
Truth be spoken is that a lot of wattage doesn't make it better.
I have a old Marantz four channel driving four E-V 15" TRX 15's that provide a more realistic reproduction that consumes less than 100 watts and it's LOUD!
Better yet, these speakers still have their original cones which are more than forty years old.
I don't know about the AM radio as I think that band was/is pretty dismal. But I would guess that an older 40 watt cassette/radio driving four E-V SP 8(s) would be pretty awesome and durable to boot. Today's speakers have a relatively short shelf life due mostly to the foam surrounds which fall apart pretty quickly in the harsh automotive environment.
I guess that I'm stuck in the past but I like it that way...
JT
The most critical component is the choice of speaker. It's a waste of time and money if the output is gonna be crappy. Today's Boom/Boom stuff much of which consumes kilowatts of power simply are not accurate reproductive devices... (Oooops, look for Calvin to comment on this!)
JT
FWIW, what I've been doing a lot lately is record streaming audio from Internet radio stations, and then cleaning up the program by editing with Audacity (freeware), and saving as an .mp3 file. Then I load a swack of .mp3s on my Sony Network Walkman (their counterpart to an iPod), and play them in the Suburban via an iRiver FM modulator.
I can get close to 19 hours of music on the little gadget. "Cleaning up" the program, in my case, consists of removing dead air in cases where the stream gets interrupted, and/or taking out advertisements and non-relevant DJ chatter. One can use Audacity to remove clicks and pops from vinyl record transcriptions, too.
Fidelity is OK for casual listening. YMMV.
Gord Richmond
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