Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo The Death of High Fidelity

I thought that was how many engineers it takes to finish a joke.

Difficult for me to say because I avoid mp3s. Compressed music doesn't cut it for me except in a noisy environment like a car. The closest I get to mp3s at home is Apple Lossless of CD tracks into my iPod.


Properly cared for vinyl will last a long time. LPs do involve more care and attention which can be bothersome and not being able to use a remote can be a pain. If the LPs are allowed to get dirty or scratched then forget it...the hisses and pops are too distracting.

chesseroo,

In the past here, I have made several posts about this subject.......CD,s sound quality being inferior, and incomplete, the quality of analog sound, and the merits of vinyl Lp's , etc.

The compression issue, is a somewhat new twist, but overall, the piece supports what I had been trying to get (sans debates)across.

I was just a year, or two ahead of the curve.

Yeah John...I hear what you're saying. I had a collection of vinyl a quarter century ago and I invested in everything that was available at the time to keep them in good condition. I finally gave up and switched to Metal/Dolby C and that of course didn't last long because shortly thereafter CDs came into the picture.

On your point about MP3s, WMAs appear to sound pretty good. And lossless WMAs should sound as good as the original, no?

I gave away most of my LPs years ago but still have 500 or so lying around. Most of the 60s/70s rock classic LPs have been to too many parties to be playable today. Anyway, its the jazz/classical music LPs that stood up and are in good condition with the stuff recorded in the late 50s/early 60's generally having the best fidelity. The classics on RCA or Mercury Living Presence or the Decca Speaker series being among the best. The European recordings,especially British and French, are usually better sounding while the quality of the later Deutsche Grammophone records can be spotty.

Anyway,on this range issue, while LPs have a general advantage because of the way the original waveform gets transformed into the vinyl pressing, a well engineered cd (ie. uncompressed) can sound just as good. Diana Krall's "Best of" is a recent case in point. I have both the CD and the LP. Her stuff is very well recorded and its tough to discern much difference between the two formats though the LP seems more airy while the CD has a better soundstage... hard to say.

On the other hand, if the turntable being used rumbles or has an inferior cartridge, the LP is dirty or scratchy, overall sound quality will favour the CD every time despite the natural advantage that LPs have with dynamic range. Then there is the handy remote for restless types that like only several tunes on a release. In many respects practicalities still favour the CD/digital formats. But not when up against a great turntable/cartridge and pristine LP...

If you mean original AIFF digital tracks from a CD, yes I agree. WMA lossless and Apple lossless are the way to go. Some people say anything north of 192k bit mp3 is good enough but that's like asking how compressed do you like your music? All this stuff adds up or detracts from the quality of sound.

The only problem with this conclusion is that it is a broad and sweeping ideal which is not true.
The article provides examples of several groups which produce high quality cd recordings and tons more can be found across many genres (not all modern pop music is a crap recording).
The clear point here is that analog vs. digital is not the issue.
How a sound engineer produces the music, is.

>>The clear point here is that analog vs. digital is not the issue. How a sound engineer produces the music, is.

Agreed. The arrival of digital formats just made the engineer's job a bit harder and made the "dark side" of compression seem all the more attractive.

The article goes into the cause and effect that is driving compressed recording techniques with the most prominent development being the advent of mp3 files and the need for compression to conserve bandwidth. With so many people listening to compressed files its is only natural that producers went with loudness as a means to distinguish sound quality. How producers are recording music today follows from what has occurred in the way most people have their music digitally delivered. My kids are a great example. My oldest teenager actually takes the time to listen and can tell better quality sound and recordings. My other two teens only want to cram as many mp3 files as the can on their computer hard drives and ipods. They admit to not hearing much difference between bit files but prefer the louder files. Producers are smarter than we care to acknowledge and are just following market trends. Many pop artists today cater to it with that in-your-face indistinguishable wall of sound.