Home Digital Drive

Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

RE: I love CDs

>>... but the comparison to cassette tape really chrystalizes
>> the concept that the audio CD was an innovation of
>> convenience, not fidelity.

The thing people forget is that your statement true of every consumer music format ever invented.

The LP vinyl record standard was put together by a committee in 1948. A LP inherently contains a number of variables that compromise fidelity - you want increased play time? Your S/N ratio or bass content suffers. The RIAA equalization curve spans a cut/boost range of 40 dB and the physical format is easily compromised by material quality, shortcuts during stamping and careless handling afterwards.

The consumer format of open reel was compromised when they went from half track to quarter track and also the oft-used 3 3/4 ips speed in order to gain playback time.

8-track tapes were perhaps the ultimate expression of convenience. True "plug and play".

Now people may have their personal preference for one music storage format over another, or believe that one set of compromises was better than another, but this underlying implication that something in the past was faultless is just wrong.


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  • RE: I love CDs - mls-stl 15:42:22 03/23/12 (0)

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