From: sture@lulea.trab.se (Sture Jonsson)
Newsgroups: rec.audio
Subject: Re: Comments on analog music
Date: 25 Jan 93 08:02:20 GMT
Organization: Telia Research AB, Aurorum 6, 951 75 Lulea, Sweden
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 + PL8]

Lon Stowell (lstowell@pyrnova.mis.pyramid.com) wrote:
: In article <5587@othmar.lulea.trab.se> sture@lulea.trab.se (Sture Jonsson) writes:
: >
: >And unfortunately for your point, a lot of people DISLIKE it. But of course,
: >that's just because they prefer distorsion ? Hm.....

:    That is exactly the point.    And anyone who knows a tiny bit
:    about analog recording/playback technology was aware of these
:    distortions LONG before digital audio was even considered.  

Yes I'm sure they were, and that's good.

My point is: When I go to a concert, the music moves me. It sounds in a certain
way. When I listen to the same music on a good LP recording it also moves me,
in much the same way. When I listen to it on CD I want to turn it off. To me
that means that the CD sounds worse than the LP, and I can't 'believe' that
it is due to 'distorsions'. It has not got to do with explicit details, with
stereoimage or with transient reproduction. It's just that the music is so much
easier to follow on the LP. If the faults on the CD are due to the recording, 
the disc or the CD player I don't know, but to me the result (bad music) is a
good enough reason NOT to switch to CD:s now.

And another thing, if the 'shortcomings' of digital is so well understood, why
hasn't something been done before ?? Yes I know that it takes some time to fix
a problem but.......

:    Many also don't like digital because it CAN be merciless in
:    revealing flaws in the rest of the chain....and this really hurts
:    egos and wallets if that equipment has lotsa zero's in the price
:    tag.

When I first realized how bad the CD sound was for me I had a low-mid-fi 
HiFi. Since then I have listened to both analog and digital on many systems,
of varying quality and cost and I have found that it is on the most simple 
systems that the CD has any chance. On good systems it hasn't (until now that
is). So.....

:    And some don't like it because it would hurt their ego to admit
:    that they do like it.   

Well, for some reason I believe that the same can happen to people liking 
CD:s. There are so many 'theoretical' reasons why CD:s should be better, that
it might hurt their ego to admit that they don't like it. I mean "is there some-
thing wrong with my ears. I don't like the 'pure perfect sound forever'".

When I bought my first CD player in '84 I also believed that CD was the thing.
Imagine; no background noise ! Completely silent ! You can imagine how it hurt
me when I only 1.5 years later found out that a 'low-end' Dual turntable totally
devastated my dear CD player ? The recent improvements on CD players have made
me very hopeful that eventually I can throw my LP:s out and start buying those
small, convenient silvery discs again. But this time I won't do it because 
Philips or Sony tells me to, but because I'm content with the sound.

:    A potentially more demanding medium is gonna strain otherwise
:    perfectly adequate systems....

:    So if you put a turbo on your engine and the clutch pukes, is it
:    the turbo's fault, or should you have known better?

Well, of course, if the symptom is that the clutch pukes.

But if you put in a turbo and the symptom is that the car runs slower than
without it ? Don't you think there is at least a chance that there is something
wrong with the 'turbo' ?

LISTEN and enjoy,
Sture
Newsgroups: rec.audio