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In Reply to: "We are immersed into digital toxic sludge and our brain is defenseless." Great stuff over on... posted by clarkjohnsen on March 20, 2007 at 14:07:01:
I had a similar "Walkman moment" about five years prior to that.... My most-referenced post ever on AA (link).....This past Sunday, I had Don Allen upgrade his incredible phono stage and step-up transformer unit. (The BRB phono stage finally dethroned.) To the next level And since I was in Phoenix, and had to return to California the next day, I just had to give it a whirl.
First played the Chopin Scherzi 1 and 2.... I just got tired of the ones on YouTube, had to hear the Master, Antonio Barbosa, and then it hit me. I'm starting to forget what analog **really** sounds like. It may have been the upgrade, but it may have been the performance. Or lack of exposure to a recent concert or good analog.....
(Remember, back before digital, reviewers oft mentioned the term "intertransient silence?" Nobody talks about that anymore because we no longer hear it.)
Then I did it.... Grabbed the Smuckers/Cleveland Orchestra vinyl of the final movement to the Dohnanyi Schumann 2..... That one in 1984 with the Cleveland Orchestra. And for the first time, thanks to the improvements in linearity, I heard that Cleveland brass break through the inner grooves on the vinyl.
The 3-D soundstage, the "heft" of the physical presence, the seemingly-infinite "information density".....
Amidst the inner groove distortion, I heard, for the first time since on broadcast, the sense of the string choirs, the wind choirs, then the low brass, playing as one. The wind choirs return, then again, the low brass, playing that tight, soft, and exquisite tone, then the repeat, this time with Bernard Adelstein's trumpet on top.
Goosebumps.
The very end of the great Cleveland era, a year before Adelstein's retirement..... (No way was Bud Herseth better..... No f'n way....)
How much I try, I like what I have, but still, the essence of the magic just cannot be captured on digital recording.
It may be that we're forgetting how music is supposed to sound like.
By the way, if you can, try to get a DAC or CD player with a balanced output if the system also has vinyl. Where the ground is not tied to the line stage- Your analog will love it. And you will love your analog.
Follow Ups:
You should post all this over on Tape Trail too.You familiar with how swell prerecorded tapes are sounding these days?
clark
So long as an academic and engineering "elite" insist that it's all in the 1's and 0's, we won't be getting any further in our understanding, although we *will* be sold consecutively more successful bandaids.This may be the most-brilliant comment I've seen on the Asylum.....
Except I'd reword it.... It's not just digital audio.....
So long as an academic and engineering "elite" insist that their championed theories are correct, their understandings are absolute, and either alternative theories or questioning of their pet theories are born solely from "charlatans" and "crackpots", we will never go any further in our mutual understanding, although we *will* be sold consecutively more-successful "band-aids".
Bravo Clark. I also thank you for the article/thread about vocal "pitch correction," which for me was the most-ear-opening revelation on the music industry.
...try this!
It might be brilliant, but I got bored about one-third of the way through it..... I think AC mains and power cords are an issue, but not necessarily a major issue.
...the last pitch is a doozy.
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