The response to the PS Audio diss video that derailed into a discussion about pineapple pizza takes the cake for me.This is the most ridiculous thread on ASR.
The response to the PS Audio diss video that derailed into a discussion about pineapple pizza takes the cake for me.This is the most ridiculous thread on ASR.
I'd say the one where Mikey burst through [was that the PS Audio diss video?].The response to the PS Audio diss video that derailed into a discussion about pineapple pizza takes the cake for me.
It was this one where PM is standing by a pizza ovenI'd say the one where Mikey burst through [was that the PS Audio diss video?].
This reminds ”test” that I underwent during the advent of SACD. My cousin, who was a vintage violin dealer (Stradivari and such), repeated a test on me that he purportedly learned from Mark Levinson (I have no way in knowing that was true or not).
With an CD queued up, I was asked to extend my arms out parallel to the ground. The music started and the tester (my cousin) gently pushed down on my hand. My arm immediately fell to my side. The test was then repeated after hittting a button on the player, yet this time my arm stayed rigid and did noit fall to my side.
The explanation was given that in the second test, hi-rez music was being played and that my brain was in a different state. I remember thinking at the time that the test was BS and the subject is merely predicting what outcome the tester is looking for. I did not want to burst his bubble at the time, as he was kind and generous man.
I am not refuting or promoting hi-rez music, but I found the test itself to be a bit silly
I write this not only as a music lover, and a believer in the therapeutic power of music, but even more as a doctor gravely concerned with the increasing amount of disturbance in our society, especially in the children. The very essence of Music is the expression of peace, of comfort—of love. And this digital has destroyed, even reversed!
My wife and I once attended a concert by Mel Tormé at a major concert venue. We were thrilled, I especially so when he played Gene Krupa’s “Sing, Sing, Sing” drum solo. We had, we believed, a wonderful time, coming out of the concert hall so smiling and happy. And then I was nearly killed. My wife just managed to pull me back as I was walking right into a fast moving car. Why?, I wondered. I’m not usually that careless, that unthinking. Could it have been to do with the concert?
Next day I questioned a number of friends who had also been there. Each of them had a similar experience. One man, normally very clear thinking, was so confused it took him a long time to find his parked car. One couple decided after the concert to stay at a city hotel, rather than drive an hour and half home—as they always did after a classical concert at Carnegie Hall—because they felt so “exhausted.” Another couple got into a violent argument—with fists—within fifteen minutes of the last note. And two strict vegetarians ate hamburgers! All the time wondering why. It was so against their principles, yet they felt compelled to.
Surely, I wondered, this could not be due to Mel Torme. None of his records I have examined (all analog) had any serious negative effect. It must be the sound amplification system! So I went to Carnegie Hall and asked about their sound equipment. They were very proud to show me the banks of digital delay apparatus. And to point out the loudspeakers in the columns and pillars throughout the hall to convey this digital magic into the unsuspecting audience.
The Mahavishnu-influenced guitarist/composer for the Dixie Dregs is 'kind of a poor man's Ted Nugent'.
Right.
This is the most ridiculous thread on ASR.
now and again... absolutely not the earliest, but fairly close.Oh Gawd - has anyone else here with a modern system which works with 'digital' ever gone back to the earliest CD players?
Oh man. Certainly glad audio equipment doesn’t look like that anymore. That is a hideous and mangled mix of buttons and logosnow and again... absolutely not the earliest, but fairly close.
Sony old CDP by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
Ahh, it's like the old legends* (in the US, at any rate) of VHF-TV "Channel 1" (that's right, there is no Channel 1 -- even though early TV tuners included it) and its effects on an unsuspecting populace.Your story reminds me of the legendary Dr. Diamond and his "Digital Stress" theory:
Gotta love the part about vegetarians falling for hamburgers because of digital.
Read all about it: "Human Stress Provoked By Digitized Recordings" | Dr. John Diamond | Healing from Within
That looks familiar. Back then, all the CD players [including that one] sounded like crap to these ears. I might have been spoiled by having and being accustomed to above average LP playback. I probably had a AR XA with a Grace 707 arm and a Grado cartridge around the time this model came out, had a Thorens with Sumiko High-Output moving coil cartridges soon thereafter. It wasn't until I strapped my battery powered Optimus 3400 [as a digital source] to a t.c. electronics M2000 [a a DAC] that CDs sounded better to these ears. That was 1995.Oh man. Certainly glad audio equipment doesn’t look like that anymore. That is a hideous and mangled mix of buttons and logos
I've done both-terabytes of flac files and stream Qobuz. I enjoy both, and the occasional LP.People were collecting huge digital libraries by any mean available before streaming. Streaming is only a game changer for people who don't like to curate such a library.
I think (FWIW) the steep (analog) filters in them, plus pretty poor quality of many early CDs, led to the harsh, gritty sonics of early CDPs.That looks familiar. Back then, all the CD players [including that one] sounded like crap to these ears. I might have been spoiled by having and being accustomed to above average LP playback. I probably had a AR XA with a Grace 707 arm and a Grado cartridge around the time this model came out, had a Thorens with Sumiko High-Output moving coil cartridges soon thereafter. It wasn't until I strapped my battery powered Optimus 3400 [as a digital source] to a t.c. electronics M2000 [a a DAC] that CDs sounded better to these ears. That was 1995.
It is one of those threads in which the topic-question presumes something untrue or unproven. Thus, it is doomed to be ridiculous.This is the most ridiculous thread on ASR.
Noise , I think somehow for some theres a psychoacoustic benefit for the music sounds to be set within a ' acoustic fog ' of noise .It does. It's more dynamic, natural, live, the instruments are clearer in space, Lou Reed (who's talking as much as singing) seems like he's in the room, having a conversation with me.
So is the more 'present' because of the nature of the source? Interactive vs point and click. 20 minutes vs ? hours. Large cover vs tiny print on a screen, maybe? Does my increased level of interaction with the source increase my appreciation of it? Am I just paying closer attention because analog demands it?
Or is there some quality of the sound that is taken out when it removed from the physical realm -- into the theoretical realm? A record after all is a physical imprint of the sound.
You can literally feel the sound in a record groove.
Can't do that with 1s and 0s.
Of course, that shouldn't matter. the resolution of digital is so high that machines can't tell anything is missing, so why should humans be able to. There is no "physicality" to sound, in reality.
Is there?
I was forced to adopt. Did radio production starting in 1987, digital technology was at the toddler stage. Had to work with early, cheap and sub-par ADCs and DACs. The whole process was very educational.I think (FWIW) the steep (analog) filters in them, plus pretty poor quality of many early CDs, led to the harsh, gritty sonics of early CDPs.
Turned me off of them for about a decade -- I was a late adopter.
Ca. 1993, I went to Lechmere (a once-storied, Boston-area chain of electronics component discount stores) and bought a Sony CD boombox for the folks in my lab to enjoy. I also bought one CD to test it with* and I took it home to test. It (the boombox, that is, playing the CD) sounded pretty good -- so I hooked a patch cable from the stereo headphone output of the boombox to a line-level input on my venerable Yamaha CA-610II at home & listened to it through my equally venerable Polk Audio Monitor Series Model 7A loudspeakers. I was... quite surprised... by how good it sounded.I was forced to adopt. Did radio production starting in 1987, digital technology was at the toddler stage. Had to work with early, cheap and sub-par ACDs and DACs. The whole process was very educational.
I was forced to adopt. Did radio production starting in 1987, digital technology was at the toddler stage. Had to work with early, cheap and sub-par ACDs and DACs. The whole process was very educational.