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Re: Ok, so I will try this without being snotty

AH! Gloves off, toe to toe, I respect that. Let the games begin!

"It doesn't matter all that much what happens in the distribution end, IF the original recording preserves the event."


My point, lost again, is that in this moment in time any one of a number of distribution media may be selected. It is irrelevant in terms of what is preserved on the original recording. If it is worthy music, and a worthy recording, I promise you … someone will dig it up, clean it up and re-release it. Sheesh, if they re-release Duran Duran they will do anything.


"The SACD of Dave Brubeck's TIME OUT, started life as a remarkable analog tape, in the days of thermionic electronics."

<
And my point is that their masters are falling apart. And sadly there is no whole sale funded project for preserving them, such as there is with films. Even many classic recordings of the sixties are in very rough shape, and may only have a couple of plays left in them. That being the case, wouldn’t you rather the transfer go to the highest fidelity medium, regardless of politics?


"I sleep well, knowing that it has been preserved in the best recording medium we have currently".

<>


Dismissive, and pompous, as you would say, but compare DSD to high rez PCM - 194K, 20-20,000 frequency response, 70+ dB dynamic range, to 2.88 Megahertz, 0-100,000 frequency response and 110 USABLE dB of dynamic range. For the little bit of objective data that can be stipulated to, seems fairly clear, without us continuing to throw subjective lobs at each other.


"Is it possible to do better on the recording end than analog? Absolutely. This is where DSD excells. And this is my point. I am concerned that if we lose SACD as a distribution medium, we may also lose DSD as a recording and archiving medium."

<
Friction and mechanical hurdles? Do you mean dragging a mineral tipped needle through the softness of vinyl, the absolutely labyrinthian path from tape head or cutting head, to record, to … and on and on. Do you mean brick wall filters at 20 and 20 K for PCM, and decimating the entire signal, with limited word lengths? Why do you think there are brick wall filters in PCM?

Just the geometry of analog is bewildering to most, and I say this as someone with a killer analog set up and lots of records.


<That being said, I'm very happy with CD and believe that high-rez PCM is superior to DSD. :0) <<


Recording is, per force, a process of transduction … turning one kind of energy into other kinds of energy in a series of steps, each of which adds and subtracts. The process is mostly anything but seamless.

However, having had direct experience with short path (no more than fifty feet of microphone cord) through ONLY a microphone preamplier to a DSD recorder, with NO intervening steps, I will stick with my pronouncement. There simply is no contest.

I have thousands of CD’s and many are very enjoyable, but they are pale lights of what is possible with pure, native DSD, as is 196k (when rarely found) PCM, simply because most of the issues with PCM remain, regardless of resolution.

I buy CD’s because they quit putting the music I liked on LP’s, not because I thought they were an improvement.


<<"I am indifferent to people's choices in distribution media. If you want to listen to a distributed form in some sort of F'd up, heavily downsampled whatever ... be my guest. Who cares? As you proudly pronounce, you are the consumer. It is your choice."
I thought you said you weren't going to be snotty?
Seems like you F'd up!<<


How is that snotty? Personally, I think the sound from an I-Pod is absolutely horrific. But I would never, ever intimate or interfer or criticize someone who chooses that distribution medium, unless they are doing it out of ignorance (like most people who buy Boze).


"But if the original recording is forever trapped in a technically inferior medium".

Again, your opinion so it's a big IF, but I'm surprised you are able to enjoy 'Time Out' at all when it was captured on inferior analogue tapes.


Where did you draw the conclusion I am down on analog. Hell man, I love the stuff … tubes too. My issue with classic analog tapes is that they are deteriorating. We are going to lose a lot of music forever.


"And on a personal note, why is it that the few voices crying for the best we have at the recording end are on our "high horses?"
<
Nay, nattering nabob, I originally took issue with you “celebrating” the presumed demise of SACD. Your point was that DSD diserves to die, and that is simply irrational. It is neither pompous or condescending to oppose that sort of gleefully shallow thinking. I am a big analog fan … to the point where I sport a custom deck (Jena Labs) built around a Technics SP-10 – SME-1O arm, Cardas Heart MC Cart, a BAT VK-P10-SE tubed phono. I would say that is pretty good evidence I am not anti-analog.


"If I want Velveeta, I should have it ... but, it would be nihilistic to deny another, with perhaps a more refined palate, the Stilton he is nibbling with the just perfectly ripe pear and walnuts."

<
Because I prefer Stilton to Velveeta, lol … OK, guys, let’s see a show of hands out there … cheese whiz or a french triple cream? lol.


"This is SUPPOSED to be about audio as art ... we should want the best, not celebrate a woeful compromise."

<
I celebrate your right to have the yellow box and munch away to your heart’s content. You on the other hand, celebrate something you think should go away … hum, which is the more insulting behavior?

The Good Doctor


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