[Randy]

   FM is a good choice for different music.  Listen to FM quite often. Interesting that we have some local stations that play LPs on the air. Vinyl hour. There is a definite difference in sonics. Reminds more of a live broadcast then digital playback over the airwaves.


charles
 

What FM?  If you live in Wyoming, like me, if isn't an option. 20 years ago, it might have been, but as our society continued to dumb itself down, that option evaporated, even on the worthless NPR stations.

[J Fallows]

Hey, here in Detroit, WOMC has Turntable Tuesday's.
I'm not sure what the format is but a visit to the website shows records spinning.

Rare Earth
Frieda Payne
Smokey Robinson

It looks like big fun to me. 

[doug s.]

yust the tip of the iceberg... 

doug s.

[lazydays]

digital is certainly better than it was in the earlier years.  as i said prewiously, i have been able to enjoy digital now for some 10-12 years.  re: hi-rez, i simply do not have the experience w/it to offer an intelligent opinion.  (tho it is interesting to read those who say hi-rez offers no more fidelity than redbook - this i simply have a hard time believing, even tho i don't have 1st hand experience.)

not sure, honestly, if hi-rez is gonna happen any time soon chez-sedon.  unless a hi-rez format is chosen that is uniwersal like lp was, and then like cd was (and still is?); i am simply not gonna participate.  i already have enough software to keep me happy, and there's more still out there than i could ever possibly purchase that i don't have.  that, and there's still a coupla fm stations broadcasting quality format and content that keep me happy.

i know, i am an anomaly here; most of my serious listening is to fm; pretty-much no one else on a/c listens to fm anything more than casually.  i remember many occasions where i'd be planted in the sweet spot w/the system cranked up; someone would come over to wisit - friend/neighbor/guest/relative/etc - and they'd walk into the room and say wow, that sounds great - what record is that?  they would be floored when i said "i dunno, it's the radio".  yes, the sound of fm can be as good as any redbook or winyl rig, when the broadcast is quality and the tuna is quality...  talk about blasphemy and/or being duped!   

doug s.

the majority of high end audio equipment manufacturers regard Hi-Rez as a dead format wether it be SACD or DVD-A. I use all three, and prefer the SACD, but still I've also learned that a good analog recording remastered to SACD usually is not what I want to hear. (there are a few exceptions). My prime example is the Kind Of Blue recordings. The first CD's simply sucked. Then they did a complete remaster, and it was very good till I found out what was really going on when it was recorded. The SACD in my system didn't sound any better in in some areas was slightly worse. The samething for the Allman Brother Live At The Fillmoore East. I hear little advancement with the Hi-Rz discs verses the redbook, but doing the LP verses the others is a no contest. The LP simply smokes them everytime. Yet the RCA SACD's they did a few years back are very nice analog remasters in most cases.
gary
gary

[macrojack]

I only have 3 tunas and I only use one. It would seem that Doug is saying more tunas sound better than fewer tunas. Sounds fishy to me. That Sansushi tuna is beautiful, Doug.

Any way, it's a shame Randy has to live in Wyoming, however, if you have high speed internet, you can look for those stations I listed.
And its not the dumbing down that created this problem. A party not to be named saw fit to lift the FCC regulation that limited the number of media outlets one entity could own. This resulted in a near monopoly by the odious and sterile Clear Channel. They are the reason commercial radio sucks so bad. Diversity good. Consolidation bad. It's in the Bible.

[J Fallows]

That's an incredible stack of tuner history there!
What does that Harmon Kardon at the bottom sound like?

[Æ]

I only have 3 tunas and I only use one. It would seem that Doug is saying more tunas sound better than fewer tunas. Sounds fishy to me. That Sansushi tuna is beautiful.

You can tuna piano, but you cannot tuna fish.

[doug s.]

That's an incredible stack of tuner history there!
What does that Harmon Kardon at the bottom sound like?

hk 15 is a fantastic sounding tuna.  not as nice as my hk 18, but my 18 has extreme refurb/mods.  i suspect if the similar treatment were given to the 15, it would be similarly excellent.  the hk 14/15/18 are all wery similar.

doug s.

[doug s.]

You can tuna piano, but you cannot tuna fish.

you can also tuna tuna!   

doug s.

[geezer]

It was about 15 years ago when I gave away my turntable and all my LPs. Unlike almost everyone here, I found CDs as good or better than the LPs. I wonder why my experience is so different than others'. I've thought that maybe it's because I listen only to classical music, and perhaps the quality of classical CDs is higher than the popular. Or, maybe I just don't have a sufficiently discriminating ear.

But with opera specially, I do find a distinct advantage of CD over LP, probably because opera requires much greater dynamic range.

I wonder whether others hear the same difference with classical music?

[Rclark]

I found CDs as good or better than the LPs.

I have quite a few damn good sounding cd's as well.

@ Lazydays ...I have the 2009 Legacy edition of Kind of Blue, and it sounds real, breathtaking.

[macrojack]

I believe that having a discriminating ear is only a part of the issue. Attitude plays an important role as well. If you are happy with the music you hear, it is not necessary to look for improvement. The audio hobby, as most of us seem to practice it, requires ongoing or, at least, intermittent dissatisfaction. Always there is a quest for a higher high, a better fix. It is often joked that audiophile is a disease -- but maybe the joke is on us. Maybe there is a psychosis precipitating all of our irrational behavior. Is it merely eccentric or something more complicated and self-defeating?

For the answer to this and other questions, stop in the lobby on your way out and pick up a copy of my new book. It's all in there.

[jimdgoulding]

I have quite a few damn good sounding cd's as well.

@ Lazydays ...I have the 2009 Legacy edition of Kind of Blue, and it sounds real, breathtaking.

My daughter bought me that a couple Christmas ago.  It does sound very becoming. 

[Rischa]

O.P. here...

Wow, glad to see my post sparked some good discussion! I've learned a lot reading through these replies.

Regarding CD's, I have to admit there are some recordings that do sound great. Duke Ellington's Far East Suite: Special Mix, the RVG remaster of Birth of the Cool, and pretty much anything on the ECM label are all examples of CD's that, to my ears, sound fantastic. I even have a Definitive Records 2 CD set of Benny Goodman: Complete RCA Victor Small Group Recordings that I swear was remastered through some sort of blood pact with the Devil for how good it sounds.

As a music lover, I certainly feel lucky to have both formats to choose from, even if I'm neglecting my CD's at the moment in favor of vinyl.

[macrojack]

Maybe the sound quality of mass marketed modern redbook recordings is what it is because CDs came into being in the midst of the boom box craze.

By the way, where did the name "redbook" originate?

[PSB Guy]

By the way, where did the name "redbook" originate?

From the "Rainbow Books", the collection of standards books which define the formats of the various disc types. The one about CD has a red cover.

Cornelis

[macrojack]

Now I know - thanks.

The term just appeared under my nose one day. It was very familiarly used by nearly everyone so I learned quickly what they were talking about but never bothered to inquire why they were using it - til now. Thanks again.

[FullRangeMan]

   FM is a good choice for different music.  Listen to FM quite often. Interesting that we have some local stations that play LPs on the air. Vinyl hour. There is a definite difference in sonics. Reminds more of a live broadcast then digital playback over the airwaves.


charles
 

Quote: There is a definite difference in sonics. Reminds more of a live broadcast then digital playback over the airwaves.
This is true, and remind me the EL34 AM/SW radio from my father with a Alnico OB wood box, one of sweetest sounds I have listen so far.
I liked especially hear local AM stations in the rainy nights, where I could really listen the hi atmosphere of the planet in constants interference from lightning, the heavy weather seems to had a life of its own.
Well, this were in the early 1960 years...there is no more romantic nights listen radio, as web radio, is on or is out.

[macrojack]

If duped means cheated, I feel particularly sorry for the younger members who came along after FM got corporatized. I have warm and fond memories of the pre 1980 broadcasting. It was fun.

[LM]

Regarding CD's, I have to admit there are some recordings that do sound great

Agreed.  IMO many of the current crop of sympathetically and responsibly done re-masters of older recordings are excellent and many of the current new releases seem quite well done also.  However, I still find that at least the tail end of misguided mastering such as the so called ‘loudness wars’ remains, at least for recordings aimed at the mass (youth?) market.

Again IMHO, looking at an overall timeline and making a gross generalisation, it seems to have taken until now for the final presentation of digital recording to the consumer to come of age and to me it certainly didn’t live up to the hype when CDs first replaced Vinyl.  Some of those early CD releases are unbearable but then some of my 80’s Vinyl is rubbish as well.

Overall, my Vinyl still sounds better but with current CD releases, there is not necessarily a lot in it and much of what I love only comes on CD, so I embrace both media with gusto.  If all future digital releases could match or improve on the quality of what is becoming available to me digitally now, then the duping period may be over, at least until the next wave of careless mastering and presentation begins.