From: dbarker@spang.Camosun.BC.CA (Deryk Barker)
Subject: Re: CD vs. LP again
Organization: Camosun College, Victoria B.C, Canada
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 01:16:53 GMT

tom@afthree.as.arizona.edu (Thomas J. Trebisky) writes:
: kurts@hpnmdla.sr.hp.com (Kurt Strain) writes:
: 
: > ...  That's why people spend upwards of $25K for a turntable system,
: 
: Are there actually people who spend this kind of money for a TURNTABLE ??!!
: What have they been smoking?? Get with it man, haul those LP's and that
: turntable to the dump!  I'm sorry, anyone who spends this kind of cash
: on a total system even, has lost all credibility with me, that's for sure.
: 
: I got rid of my turntable and all my LP's years ago and no regrets from
: me.  I can start fresh and build a music collection with superior
: technology.

Well bully for you. The answer is, obviously, yes there *are* people
who spend 25K on a turntable - if there weren't the makers would very
quickly go out of business. I didn't spend that much, but recently
spent $1.5K (CDN) getting my LP12 Linngo'ed - and worth every penny.

Leaving aside issues of sound quality, there are several reasons for
sticking with vinyl:
	1) Those of us with sizable - in my case `2500 LPs -
	   collections, simply can't afford to junk it all and convert
	   to CD.
	2) I have many things on vinyl which have yet to appear on CD.
	   When (if) they *do* appear, they may be badly transferred
	   by overenthusiastic engineers, and end up sounding *worse*
	   than the original.
	3) there is a large volume of second-hand vinyl in the stores,
	   sold by idiots who decided to junk it and switch to CD.
	   Much of this vinyl is otherwise unavailable (see above).

: Are these people actually serious about advocating LP's over CD's ?

Obviously.

: Do I need to clean the wax out of my ears? 

Maybe just your brain.....

: They want the scratches and
: pops, the needle reaming their records smooth on every playing.  
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Evidently your experience is with a 2nd/3rd rate turntable/arm/cartridge.
If that is indeed what your system was doing to your LPs no wonder you
didn't like the sound.
   
[....]

: I can't think of any reason to prefer LP's to CD's, except that some
: music has not been properly remastered for CD's and is available in a
: good LP -- or is not available at all on CD.  I think the LP heads are
: just hoplessly biased by shelf-fulls of LP's they don't want to admit
: are obsolete.  I have done my time with LP's and CD's both, the choice
: is clear to me.

Hopeless? - no. Biased? - no, just realistic. Obsolete? - no,
otherwise how would it be possible to get an improived sound by
upgrading my turntable's *power supply* for god's sake? Or the arm or
cartridge. 

Have you ever listened to a truly first-raate turntable? Thought not.

It's true that a mid-fi CD player is porbably cheaper, certainly more
available, and more likely to impress than a similar level turntable.
And even a cheap CD player is going to convert people who have only
experience of cheapo turntables.

BUT.... put a high-end turntable against a high-end CD player and you
find 2 things:
	1) the sound advaantage is *not* the way you expect it.
	2) high-end CD players are also bloody expensive.

--
Real:  Deryk Barker, Computer Science Dept., Camosun College, Victoria B.C.
Email: (dbarker@spang.camosun.bc.ca)
Phone: +1 604 370 4452