mhardy6647
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With a nod to the metaphysics of René Magritte and The Treachery of Images...
This isn't a review, but it might, ultimately lead to one.
Back in April, there was one of those analog vs. digital (or vinyl vs. polycarbonate, more to the point) reproduction threads that had a countermelody of sorts discussing just why it is that the first generation of commercial CD players at the time sounded so darned nasty. There were comments suggesting that the problem wasn't the players but rather the poor digital transfers/masters made from existing recordings.
So... back in April... early April
... recognizing a testable hypothesis when I saw one, I expressed an intention to pull out a very old CD player indeed (although, sadly, not one of the very first models) and spin some more modern CDs on it.
www.audiosciencereview.com
To wit, on 6 Apr. I "said".
A few weeks ago, I actually managed to hook up the pseudo-randomly-selected old CDP (a Sony CDP-102, one of two that slumbers on a shelf in the depths of the basement) and fired it up. Well... of course... The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
A couple of weeks ago, I tried to crank up the CDP-102 which is labled "CD 2"... and, of course, it didn't really want to work.
To make a long story short, it wouldn't (won't) read a disc unless I -- the first time it's turned on from a cold start -- give the laser assembly a little nudge on its rails. Thereafter, it is happy as a pig in sheet* to function as it should, even being happy to read burned CD-Rs.
(Perhaps the rails need a wee touch o'lubricant at this late date?)
Armed with this repair tactic, I've finally given the CDP-102 a listen. Not a careful listen; not yet -- but a listen.
It sounds quite nice, actually. Admirably rich and sonorous, with none of the, umm, digital glareor harshness I remember and that I associate(d) with the early (and distressingly expensive) players I remember listening to at Soundscape, in Baltimore, way back ca. 1984 or 85.
More to come on this topic (I hope!). Meanwhile, here's a piccie or two of das Ding an sich, doin' what Sony intended it to -- well, sort of.
DSC_0803 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
sans flash
DSC_0802 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
avec flash
To paraphrase Bart Simpson: Depth of field is for chumps.
____________________
*
This isn't a review, but it might, ultimately lead to one.
Back in April, there was one of those analog vs. digital (or vinyl vs. polycarbonate, more to the point) reproduction threads that had a countermelody
of sorts discussing just why it is that the first generation of commercial CD players at the time sounded so darned nasty. There were comments suggesting that the problem wasn't the players but rather the poor digital transfers/masters made from existing recordings.So... back in April... early April
... recognizing a testable hypothesis when I saw one, I expressed an intention to pull out a very old CD player indeed (although, sadly, not one of the very first models) and spin some more modern CDs on it.
Why do records sound so much better than digital?
From the consumer side, I remember DAC oversampling as a trend that emerged pretty quickly (1984-1985?) The Philips CD chipset from day one used the TDA-1540D (2 usually, 1 per channel) which was a 14 bit unit, oversampling filter (SAA-7030) as their TDA-1541 (16bit dual) didn't exist. Several...
www.audiosciencereview.com
To wit, on 6 Apr. I "said".
A few weeks ago, I actually managed to hook up the pseudo-randomly-selected old CDP (a Sony CDP-102, one of two that slumbers on a shelf in the depths of the basement) and fired it up. Well... of course... The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
A couple of weeks ago, I tried to crank up the CDP-102 which is labled "CD 2"... and, of course, it didn't really want to work.
To make a long story short, it wouldn't (won't) read a disc unless I -- the first time it's turned on from a cold start -- give the laser assembly a little nudge on its rails. Thereafter, it is happy as a pig in sheet* to function as it should, even being happy to read burned CD-Rs.
(Perhaps the rails need a wee touch o'lubricant at this late date?)
Armed with this repair tactic, I've finally given the CDP-102 a listen. Not a careful listen; not yet -- but a listen.
It sounds quite nice, actually. Admirably rich and sonorous, with none of the, umm, digital glare
or harshness I remember and that I associate(d) with the early (and distressingly expensive) players I remember listening to at Soundscape, in Baltimore, way back ca. 1984 or 85. More to come on this topic (I hope!). Meanwhile, here's a piccie or two of das Ding an sich, doin' what Sony intended it to -- well, sort of.
DSC_0803 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickrsans flash
DSC_0802 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickravec flash
To paraphrase Bart Simpson: Depth of field is for chumps.
____________________
*
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