Good music + crap hifi
Crap music + good hifi
Which is best?
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What is everyone doing with music CD's
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Music and how it is replayed is purely subjective, just like art, food, wine and different mtb's - so if you enjoy it on a £200 hi-fi that's perfectly acceptable - just as riding a £500 mtb and still smiling after a good ride.
I'm keeping my CDs as I've changed my player a few times and I've made the sound better each time (IMHO) so who knows where technology will take us and as high-end players get cheaper second-hand. I've bought all my hi-fi second-hand and saved a massive amount against new and it's all decent stuff.I also enjoy the flat earth stuff and much prefer vinyl and all the things that go with that too
Posted 1 year ago # -
I just like their (not saying who as I'm not entering into this knob waving competition) kit
No one told me this was about willy waving! I have got an awesome, ancient Meridian amp which sings through a set of B&W floorstanders. They are both things of utter beauty (though to look at the amp it looks like it was ripped out of a tank). I paid about £500 for the lot over the years including repairs and some bits of it are older than me. It was state of the art at the time and things haven't really come that far in 30 years so it kicks the living bejeesus out of most of the Richer Sounds seperates kit that I hear these days.
I don't do it because I have to have the latest toys or because I am more into hifi than music, I do it because when you get a really high quality piece of music in a really high quality recording played over a high quality hifi is sensational.
I have a high quality (1200kbps+) rip of a vinyl master copy of Band of Gypsies and it blows you away. The tech is just a gateway to the experience, surely as a bunch of fat middle aged off road cyclists you can appreciate that?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Torm - fair enough, I just cringed when brands started being bandied about. I'm chuffed that I got a great system (properly acoustically set up) for not a lot of outlay. The names are all "big" but irrelevant IMO but it goes down to details like isolated mains supplies, geeky interconnects and slightly daft speaker cable.
Just makes good music sound as it should IMO. Mainstream/low bitrate MP3s just don't do that even through a good system IMO.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Damn straight.
I have this mental itch that starts whenever I begin to dig into the law of diminishing marginal returns.
Posted 1 year ago # -
How long is the OP's hair? Ideally, s/he should have their head extremely short to reduce the static around the hair follicles interfering with the soundwave reverberation between the speaker and the ear. #0 or #1 clipped hair is OK but I prefer a full wet shave as I think you cut down some of the toppiness you get with bristle.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I find using one of those little shaver jobbies to remove ear hair improves the seal with my canal 'phones thus improving the bass response.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I find using one of those little shaver jobbies to remove ear hair improves the seal with my canal 'phones thus improving the bass response.
I can't tell if you are serious.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just need more room in the flat.
Are we all overlooking the obvious here? My brother is a bit of an expert in compact living, having a wife and two children and living in a one room studio flat.
If the CD collection is taking up space, but they haven't been made redundant - ie you haven't already ripped them all into itunes and stopped playing the discs - then just throw away the cases and keep the discs and inlay card in one of those polypocket CD albums. Same goes for your DVD collection.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I can't tell if you are serious.
That was the intention. Although, canalphones are supposed to have a good fit to get the best sound, and if yer lugholes are really hairy that's not going to happen, so there's logic behind it.Posted 1 year ago # -
I still like to buy CDs, it's an instant back up, they're covered on the house INS, something to note: download collection aren't always covered by all policies. I like the sleeve artwork too
Posted 1 year ago # -
I would like to add a small point here about frequency extensions and file formats etc.
It's well known that the adult human ear cannot 'hear' sounds much above 18Khz which is often the case people make for there being no impairment of musical quality for MP3 compressed to 128k/bits etc etc.
The problem is that while the human ear may not directly hear sounds above 18khz, it can hear the effect that these sounds have on the rest of the very audible spectrum. A lot of high end audio, especially upsampling CDs that look to put back what even CD takes out of the audio spectrum (this is why vinyl still sounds so good - because actually CD is also restricted in bandwidth) are doing this because the missing information interacts with the rest of the sound with positive effect.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I'm having a think about whether I think that's Hifi buff BS or not geetee
I suspect that vinyl sounds 'nicer' because it's more rounded which may actually be less like the original sound than digitally recorded sound (eg CD) - a bit like setting a graphic equaliser to your preferences
Or to take a bike analogy, like riding a full susser on rough ground. It may feel nicer but it's a less accurate representation of what you're riding on.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Clubber - it's true that I've got the hypothesis from reading HiFi literature, but I've always had the impression that it's scientifically based. It's certainly very plausible as science if you think about it; sound waves are physical things within an enclosed system so it's intuitive that they will interact with each other and that if you remove them you'll change the system (classic systems theory).
I know there is a lot guff from HiFi buffs (I'll confess to being one as well) but most of the guff is just that if it's not accompanied by someone sitting in their living room/music room and actually enjoying the music.
People like to tinker though, whether that be HiFi or bikes.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Sound waves are just variations in pressure though and while I can accept that there might be the possibility for interaction (for a start air is damped) I still can't help but feel that it's BS to try and justify why CDs just aren't as good as vinyl.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I guess you need to do some research.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Wasn't it Orbital who put on crackles and whistles and what not on a CD as a joke?
Posted 1 year ago # -
A lot of high end audio, especially upsampling CDs that look to put back what even CD takes out of the audio spectrum (this is why vinyl still sounds so good - because actually CD is also restricted in bandwidth) are doing this because the missing information interacts with the rest of the sound with positive effect.
Hmmm....
Never heard that one before...
Posted 1 year ago # -
I spent far too much time in my teens and twenties at gigs appreciating music up close and loud so now my hearing is buggered enough to not notice the difference. CDs were removed from display yesterday and boxed away in the loft. 192Kbit AACs for me, usually through standard ipod white headphones from my direct from my Mac.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hmmm....
Never heard that one before...
Have a look at DCS Digital among others.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I smashed all mine up and used them as garden mulch. The BBC told me to.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/soil_usingmulches1.shtml
Posted 1 year ago # -
Have a look at DCS Digital among others.
Link please? Just tried googling it.
Posted 1 year ago # -
there is not much Musical info above 7Khz which is why a song that does it for you will do it over MW radio, low bit rate Mp3 or any other medium.
Over my home system there is a difference between CD and the iPod in outright quality terms. In the car none at all.
Play.com mp3 are at 320kbps, at least the ones I've bought are.
As far as I know you still legally to retain the CD copy even when ripped to digital
Posted 1 year ago # -
Interesting everywhen, I guess the stuff above 7kHz adds detail, but people don't play notes at that level.
http://boomkat.com/downloads/237425-tapes-hissing-theatricals?highlight=237435
I liked this EP a lot, Hissing Theatricals, where he's purposely added hiss by putting it onto tape, then back again.....or as they put it "properly finished in a Liepzig squat, coating six tracks of low-end rudeness with a ferric-camoflagued magic"
and you can get it as a FLAC if you need it
I think the hiss and noise on my old cassettes gave your mind a little room to fill in the missing bits.Posted 1 year ago # -
ooOOoo - exactly, the non musical info is nice to hear - reverb tails fluttering away etc, but these are not needed for the musical experience.
To cut through the crap on digital audio and music reproduction try reading some stuff by John Watkinson.
Posted 1 year ago #
Topic Closed
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