Travis In Austin
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Posts posted by Travis In Austin
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Oscar and WUzzer,
I really envy the amount of time you both get to enjoy your systems.
Has me inspired to sit back and enjoy mine a lot more.
Travis
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Markertek.com will have everything you need, and they have a great catalog they will send you for FREE.
Travis
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The reason for the poll was that I find myself spending time buying music, hunting for music, getting my music room situtated the right way, messing with equipment, and the time I actually spend enjoying all seems to get less and less. Was hoping to see how much time everyone actually gets to spend enjoying their various systems.
Travis
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Tom,
I have a nice $20 reissue of that one. Sounds great!
Gary,
What else are you "holding out" on?
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]Travis
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?<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>Less then 1 hour per week1 to 3 hours per week4 to 8 hours per week8 to 15 hours per week15 to 30 hours per weekMore then 30 hours per week
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Delano,
You need to come to the next record convention here in Austin. You will see more original BLP's and BST's in one day then you will in a lifetime of hunting. They come in every condition. You should be able to get on in M- for $35 to $45.
Travis
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\We had been looking at the farmhouse all along. There are "problems" with using the farmhouse. 3. As it is outside for the party, we have the chance of "fire ants" being a problem. If you don't understand how ants can be a problem, you have never been in a fire ant mound. Think bees that walk and sting. I have the grounds keeper spraying for ants the week of the party, but you never know how that will work. .
Can you say Amdro. It's funny how us folks from the south have to explain stuff like fire ants. We even have a Texas Supreme Court decision about them: a man and wife (Snowbirds) come down from MN with their trailer to stay at an RV park for the winter. He get under the trailer to hook some things up, etc. and lays in a fire ant mound is bitten several hundred times AND DIES! Court says, there are all kinds of things in Texas that can bite, sting or hurt you, and in some cases kill you. It's up to you to know what they are and to avoid them, not the RV Park owner.
Sooooooooooooo, if you don't know what fire ants are, or more importantly if your children don't know what they are, make sure you have one of us point them out to you so you can avoid them.
Travis
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Don't worry, I will have the whole new "sharing" law figured out by then, including, but not limited to, loopholes that fit our situation. There is usually always a good one if you are having a "charitable event."
Travis
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Scott,
You have an email from me. I am sorry about causing your heart to skip a beat, I was not reading the thread close enough and did not see that the seller was from AK.
Travis
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Started with speakers that came with an Emerson all in one job (phono, 8-track, turner) when I was 9, then AR1's from my Dad (still have) then KG-4's (still have) then Ampex Studio Monitors from my Dad, then LS's and Herresy (still have) then KSP400's w/matching rears and center.
Travis
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I will thrown in the first $100.00 for the room and bourbon to get things rolling. I can also bring some reel-to-reel gear if anyone is interested in that or doing an A/B with R2R and CD and/or LP. However, I think it is going to be difficult to get a good sounding vinyl rig going unless someone has it there in hope and is willing to move it to the room where we are going to have the mixer,
Travis
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I will be there, and will be driving from Austin. If anyone from Texas is going and wants to ride along send me an email. tcwesq@texas.net.
Travis
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Is this TT really worth $65,000. The good news is the tonearm and stylus are included in that price, the bad news is that the special TT Stand is not included. Cost for that is only 25K. Is it worth it?
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"What does the vinyl "do right" that analog tape doesn't do right? The reason I ask is because my experience with high end reel to reel still doesn't always better mediocre digital."
Dr. Who, the big difference is going to be the speed of the tape, it needs to be 7.5 IPS and who recorded the tape for the record label. Ampex, Bell and Howell and some others produced excellent quality prerecorded tapes which will be superior to vinyl because they were recorded straight from the two track master. On the other hand, a 3.75 IPS prerecorded tape from columbia record club is going to sound like garbage because it is a 4th maybe 5th generation copy. The 7.5 has double the S/N ratio of the slower speed. The right prerecorded tape on the right tape player will sound superior to the vinyl because the limitations of the cutting lathe and eventually the cartridge/needle obviously do not apply to tape.
Home analog 1/2" tape players are in no way the equivelant of studio 1" mastering recorders. The magnetic gap might be different, the tracks narrower, the saturation levels lower, the speed slower. The more tracks that were put on a home recorder the lower the ultimate fidelity. A unidirectional 1/2" machine has two tracks nearly 1/4" wide ( broadcast standard), 4 track bi-directional stereo 1/8", a quad track stereo bi-directional has 1/16" tracks about the same as an audio cassette. It's only advantage is tape speed."
3D, you are close but a little off on the sizes, but you are correct about the fact that two track has wider tracks resulting in higher quality reproduction. Home analog is 1/4", studio recorders are 1/2", 1" or 2". The broadcast standard is 1/4" two track, with two tracks nearly 1/8" wide, 4 track home R2R is about 1/16" per track, but is far superior to audio cassette which has tracks smaller then 1/32".
Vinyl and remixed CDs are taken from the wide fast master tape. Most likely on a 30"/sec machine with 8 1/4" tracks and narrow highly saturated magnetic gaps."
Not quite but close. Regardless of the number of tracks used on the studio recording, that tapes was "Mastered" onto a 2 track 1/4" tape at 15 or 30 IPS, almost allways Ampex 456 or 499. That two track tape is then sent to be used with the cutting lathe or to the company that will make the prerecorded reel to reels. A stereo lathe can only accept two tracks (left and right) same with the precorded tape facility. This is the whole reason for mastering, ensuring that the music is going to work with the lathe, be within the RIAA curve, etc. You will see on just about every lp, recorded at _________ Studio, and then mastered at __________.
Travis
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On the other hand, Dire Straits' "Brother's In Arms" from around 1985 or so, was all digital and is one of the best sounding rock records ever. So, I really don't care whether a recording is all-analog or all-digital or a hybrid. It's what comes out the speakers that matters.
Now if you wanna talk LP vs. CD, I'll take CD (or SACD or DVD-A) every time. I don't mind "snap, crackle and pop" in my breakfast cereal, but I can't stand it when I'm trying to listen to music!
The remastered version of Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms" further reinforces this as one of the best sounding rock records ever.... a reference recording for any system testing too! Mark Knopfler just finished SACD 5.1 remix - one of the few tastefully done IMO!
I agree, Brothers in Arms in a great sounding LP, one of my favorites of all time. However, neither the original or the SACD remix are pure digital. Both had to be converted to analog in order for them to obtain the sound they were looking for. Whether the sound they were after was how it sounded in the studio is not really the issue, it just shows the limitations of digital.
On the other hand, Dire Straits' "Brother's In Arms" from around 1985 or so, was all digital and is one of the best sounding rock records ever. So, I really don't care whether a recording is all-analog or all-digital or a hybrid. It's what comes out the speakers that matters.
Chuck Ainly, who did the 5.1 remix at Knopfler's studio stated:
As an aside, readers will certainly be intrigued to know that this hybrid and arguably convoluted D-to-A-to-D-to-A-to-D signal routing, by coincidence, actually mirrors what Neil Dorfsman undertook in 1985 with the original stereo album. The main architectural difference when comparing the two respective approaches being the intermediate tracking into Nuendo at 24-bit 96kHz resolution. The original album, which I consider to be a masterpiece, was mixed in a SSL4000 analogue console from the analogue outputs of the DASH 3324, says Ainlay. However, I would still consider that to be an all-digital album. To be honest, at the time, there was no way of doing a pure DDD album, so the analogue stage of mixing through a console was never differentiated on the CD jewelbox. Anyway, apart from a few analogue slave reels, there was never any analogue tape storage stage where you would lose it, so to speak.
Travis
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Also, the whole "truest to source" issue is a dead end. Neither are all that close. Something all good producers & engineers accept as a given limitation, Who.
Ben,
I think where the "truest to source" issue came up is from the quote from Ray Charles (GRHS) I included where he said what he was after in terms of sound. You are correct in that Mr. Charles did not say he was looking for what it sounded like in the studio, he said what he was after was the most natural sound. He went on to say that digital did not do it for him. I think people have taken Ray's comment about what he was looking for out of context and misinterpreted it to mean as close to live as possible.
Travis
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I would be up for two of the blown up LS if you are going to do a run.
Of course I hope Amy does not jump in here at some point to ruin the whole thing by talking about copyright [
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JDM and Bigger,
I understand the simlar points you raise, if the source/master is off, whethere it's digital (CD) or analog LP/Tape it is not going to make a difference, the end product is going to be off. However, the context of that interview with Ray Charles was what format he preferred recording in as well as the end product. He owed his own studio and fought tooth and nail any change over to digital recording. He used various tapes decks but ended up with state of the art MCI decks. He believed that analog/tape gave him the truest end result onto lp. His comment is perfectly clear about what his prefrence would be if he had to choose between an occasional pop and being clean. Thus his cd's are going to be AAD vs. ADD or DDD.
As far as new recordings, if they are recorded in digital I agree that it makes no sense to get the lp, it's like taping a CD on Reel to Reel. I think most of the lesser CD's are going to be in the AAD or ADD format. Fortunately for vinyl lovers, some studios are going back to tape, or making a simultanious multi-track tape so it is recorded both in analog and digital.
Travis -
Dr. Who,
Technically, you couldn't really "listen" to a 2" studio tape because it would have numerous tracks, at least 24, which would have to be mixed down to stereo, with each track adjusted to the right level. It would take hours to set up each song just to listen to it, and days to listen to an album's worth of music. However, I do agree that what that 2" tape is mixed down to (a 15 or 30 IPS 1/4" 2 track master) sounds better then any LP, CD, SACD or DVD-A that is produced down the line. From time to time these masters come up for sale on ebay and other places and I have been able to purchase a few, some are so high priced it is unbelievable so it is rare when I can get one. But you are correct, there is no better sound.
Travis
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In reviewing the numerous responses to Duke's post about his dumping his record collection it was interesting to see us analog guys line up against the digital folks. Regardless of what side you are on there is of course no way to convince someone what he/she is hearing is not what he is hearing. I compleatly agree that if it sounds good to you then that is the whole point of it all. I don't have the ears I used to, but to me lp's/tape sounds so much better the CD/SACD. If CD/SACD does it for you, then consider yourself lucky. However, don't fool yourself into thinking that you are not missing out on anything. The debate did remind me of a quote from Ray Charles about digital vs. analog that summed it up so much better then I could ever could, and when you read it with his signature voice in mind, you get such a good picture of it all. He said:
"I have to tell you man. In listening to sound, I guess what I'm after is the closest thing that I can get to reality. Now, I know it's not going to be reality, cause the thing gotta go through wires and gotta go through filters and this and that. I understand all that. But what I really like is to get as close to the natural sound of the instruments as possible. That's why I like analog as opposed to digital. Because I don't give a shit what anybody tells you man, I know what you guys are going to tell me...'Oh yeah, but it's clean Ray!' Well it's clean but it don't got no balls!!!" - 1999 interview with Ray Charles by Michael Hobson of Classic Records
This from a man who is acknowleged by almost all as the "Genius" and unlike all of us, had only his ears to rely upon in getting through life.
So I guess when it comes right down to it I'm with Ray (GRHS), I don't care about all the techical jargon, the sampling rate, etc., or what anyone else says, and I don't mind an occassional pop or click, because CD's just "don't got no balls."
Travis
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Sorry to hear your lp's are going, he must be a great friend.
You are almost right about all lp's started off as 1/2" tape. Actually, depending on the year, studio, etc., it was recorded on 1/4, 1/2, 1 or 2" tape. Just about all of it was then then mixed down and mastered onto 1/4 two track Ampex 456 or 499. From there a 2nd generation "master" was made which went to the cutter/lathe operation or a prerecorded reel to reel facility.
I think everyone is wrong, good quality precorded R2R at 7.5 IPS sounds better then the same LP or CD. But don't tell anyone, prerecorded R2R is still pretty reasonably priced.
One day I hope we can get forum member impressions on a comparision between LP/CD/Pre-recorded R2R. Maybe at an Indy treck. It would be interesting to see what everyone thought with a blind A/B/C test.
Travis
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Dr. C did you get your VTI sold yet? If not give me a buzz, tcwesq@texas.net.
Travis
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Great site, I have used it on a few items I am on the hunt for and it has come back with something potentially usefull everytime.
Travis
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Xman, I sent you an email.
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1/4" Jack to RCA cables or adapters?
in 2-Channel Home Audio
Posted
markertek.com, part no sc35r 3' 1/4" male to RCA male, 12.95 each, using canare connectors and Belden CDT wire, and you can get them in any color you want, 1.5' for the same price.
Travis