Analogue Turntabling ...

[watchnerd]

Sorry, but I call this as BS. The 1980s provided some of the absolute best recordings, particularly of Classical and Jazz, where huge budgets, fantastic artists, venues and technology were used. Those recordings will never be bettered, as there is simply no money anymore in classical, half the artists are dead, the halls cost too much to book and the record companies are done with expensive classical productions.

I'm go to quote myself:

"I tend to avoid most early to mid 1980s digital versions of any pop music"

I never said recordings from the 1980s were universally bad, especially not across all genres.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Smooth "Opporator"

⊙ http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...rait-cbs-is-this-the-one-to-get.335594/page-2

In the UK they probably have better quality music recordings.
...And the same in Japan.
So, depending on where the mixing took place and who was @ the console recording/mixing/remastering board, it's perfectly logical that we have various different opinion.

Here in my own country, my CD copy of that album, I listened to it yesterday, sounded awful; the highs were grossly distortioning.
I admit that it's been a while since I spun my vinyls, but no way my turntables ever gave me that atrocious sound. I listened strictly to vinyl for roughly thirty-five years. I started in 1969, the year of flowers and wars.

CDs? Since 1985...thirty-three years. The year of the decadence of the American empire.

I just need to properly setup my music spinner with the right loudspeakers and the best recording format from the best region in the world by the best music recording engineers. That CD from my shelf isn't it. It was no weight, no soul, no grip, no essence.
• Produced by Robin Millar, 1985 CBS Inc. ...Portrait Records, New York, NY.
RK 39581 - DIDP 20135

My CD is a cheap label Epic EPC 26044 Sony Music 1984 copyright. It sounds fine, no hf distortion I can hear. I hadn't played it for decades!

 

[Frank Dernie]

* Classical and Jazz were on analog.

Do you mean your classical and Jazz recordings were analog?
In fact for recording classical went digital a long time before other genres I know of, don't know about Jazz.

I love Canada! I have family in Montreal and used to stock up on LPs when I was there at a big store on Ste. Catherine, I was there once a year for work. I have only been to the west coast a few times, it is one of the very few places on earth I have visited where I would choose to live, I have too many grandchildren nearby to consider moving now though!

 

[Frank Dernie]

As a teen in the 1980s, most of the pop / rock music of my youth comes from the early digital era. I didn't personally have a CD player until I was 16 (1986), having lived off cassettes prior to that, but bought only CDs once I got a player.

I kept those CDs all the way up to the present and ripped them to FLAC.

I can't think of a single one of them that sounds better in its original mastering than subsequent remasters.

I can't think of a single remaster I have heard that hasn't been "modernised" by reducing its dynamics and raising the average level
I started off with LPs and singles in the '60s. I only used cassette for recording new music from the radio. I used to listen to it in my car for a while and if I liked it either keep the cassette (live broadcasts) or buy the LP.
I bought a CD player the first day I could get one locally, a Sony CDP101, and have enjoyed CDs ever since. I didn't buy many LPs new after that, though a few used. My first CDs were from the very few available back then. Nimbus for classical and the inevitable Dire Straits.
FWIW I had a Linn LP12/ Ittok/ Troika for LPs at that time.

 

[Wombat]

I started buying vinyl in the early '60s. When cassette decks arrived I recorded my records after the first play and put the vinyl into my collection. My Nakamichi 582 3-head cassette deck was tireless. I still have it but don't use it anymore.
CDs appeared and what an improvement re sound and convenience. I still have my vinyl but have purchased CD copies of lots of the titles I play often.

Yes there are some poor CD recordings but I returned far more sub-standard LPs.

PS As hard as I try I can't ignore the granular hiss, 'Rice Bubbles' and other unwanted sounds that vinyl provides.

 

[Burning Sounds]

My CD is a cheap label Epic EPC 26044 Sony Music 1984 copyright. It sounds fine, no hf distortion I can hear. I hadn't played it for decades!

Interesting - mine has the same label number and is the Made in Japan by CBS Sony version - I understand there was a made in Austria version with the same number - have no idea if they sound different, but there does seem to be disagreement on various fora about whether these 1984 releases sound good or not.

I can't think of a single remaster I have heard that hasn't been "modernised" by reducing its dynamics and raising the average level
.

I tend to agree, but there are some exceptions. I know it's not your type of music Frank, but the entire Bob Marley Island albums were remastered by Barry Diament in 1990 from the original master tapes and are very good. The original releases on CD were good anyway, but for once remastered does not mean compressed and unlistenable. Don't bother with the 30th Anniversary editions though as they are poor.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Interesting - mine has the same label number and is the Made in Japan by CBS Sony version - I understand there was a made in Austria version with the same number - have no idea if they sound different, but there does seem to be disagreement on various fora about whether these 1984 releases sound good or not.



I tend to agree, but there are some exceptions. I know it's not your type of music Frank, but the entire Bob Marley Island albums were remastered by Barry Diament in 1990 from the original master tapes and are very good. The original releases on CD were good anyway, but for once remastered does not mean compressed and unlistenable. Don't bother with the 30th Anniversary editions though as they are poor.

Actually Bob Marley is a favourite, and I had heard Barry Diament had re-mastered them, but 1990 is sufficiently long ago for the "modern" sound not to have caught on yet I would imagine. Must look at my Bob Marley CDs for a clue

 

[NorthSky]

My CD is a cheap label Epic EPC 26044 Sony Music 1984 copyright. It sounds fine, no hf distortion I can hear. I hadn't played it for decades!

To be in the same wavelength it's important to specify our music record label and the cereal number. I make this mistake too often and it creates confusion.
I'm going to spend more time in evolving, knowledge from Steve Hoffman's music forums.

Interesting - mine has the same label number and is the Made in Japan by CBS Sony version - I understand there was a made in Austria version with the same number - have no idea if they sound different, but there does seem to be disagreement on various fora about whether these 1984 releases sound good or not.

Exactly. And this too: From the exact same label, printing and manufacturing region, same cereal number...you'll have various and even different opinions on how it sounds from different DACs, different CD players, different pairs of loudspeakers, even from different amplifiers and speaker cables.
Audio can do that with people's hearing and brain; like a different fuse for artefacts from fireworks. ... SOH (Sense of Humor ... The Real Truth in Audio).

I tend to agree, but there are some exceptions. I know it's not your type of music Frank, but the entire Bob Marley Island albums were remastered by Barry Diament in 1990 from the original master tapes and are very good. The original releases on CD were good anyway, but for once remastered does not mean compressed and unlistenable. Don't bother with the 30th Anniversary editions though as they are poor.

I too have the old Bob Marley albums on both CDs and LPs.
My CDs are from North America and they don't sound as good as my vinyls.
If someone disagree I will post the cereal numbers of my CDs.
I am not a streamer, not a bullshitter, not a dreamer, ...I'm just me...French Canadian on a Science Audio forum. I have a diploma in the Arts, and my interests in life includes the Truth of the Matter. ...On Everything Living and Dying.

Do you mean your classical and Jazz recordings were analog?
In fact for recording classical went digital a long time before other genres I know of, don't know about Jazz.

That's exactly what I meant; my classical and jazz music were on analog vinyl. And I know about digital vinyl; I'm not a fan...Gramophone and all.

I love Canada! I have family in Montreal and used to stock up on LPs when I was there at a big store on Ste. Catherine, I was there once a year for work. I have only been to the west coast a few times, it is one of the very few places on earth I have visited where I would choose to live, I have too many grandchildren nearby to consider moving now though!

I was born just few miles from Montreal. I spent some serious time in Montreal. It's my blood.
The Island here is one of the paradises on Earth. British Columbia has many beautiful spots, mountains, snow, ocean, all that blues.

The blood is in the family's trees, and that blood is the same blood running in the veins of 7.65 billion people living on the same globe. It's the blood temperature that is different.

 

[Frank Dernie]

I was born just few miles from Montreal. I spent some serious time in Montreal. It's my blood.
The Island here is one of the paradises on Earth. British Columbia has many beautiful spots, mountains, snow, ocean, all that blues.

The blood is in the family's trees, and that blood is the same blood running in the veins of 7.65 billion people living on the same globe. It's the blood temperature that is different.

Are you in Victoria or thereabouts or one of that beautiful plethora of islands one passes on the way there? Or is that too personal a question, please don't reply if it is.
I worked on the design of record players and later on digital recorders (for data). It probably means my expectation bias is heavilily biased against expecting the best sound from LPs. Nice, yes, I have 4 record players myself, all sound nice but differ and certainly have highish levels of euphonic distortion.
The only analogue systems I am aware of accurate enough for measuring data are the size of a large suitcase which won't fit! That is why I started using digital, which was difficult and expensive at first but trivial and cheap now.

 

[NorthSky]

I live just few miles from Victoria. I've been on many of the smaller islands between the main coast and main island. There is nothing personal about that Frank.

I built my own surround center rear speaker when I was 15.
Sound has always been my passion, among many others.

I started this thread because I thought the pitch was too slow, but I was wrong, it is perfect. And for that particular recording, everything I said in comparing my CD with the LPs, is true. I gave my CD's cereal (serial) number, to not be confused and confuse anyone else.

I simply prefer the vinyl version for this first 1984 album from Sade.
It's fun to compare, to observe, to share, to read other's own observations; non-centered record label, cartridge adjustment, anti-skating adjustment, noise that some can hear from the needle tracking the grooves, ...all that analog vinyl jazz. This, is Sparta.