Mallette Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 Anybody here remember Class A lines from the phone company? Guaranteed flat from 50-15k, can't remember the noise level but very, very clean. Very expensive, too. Provided during the golden years of broadcasting for concerts and other venue where the very best was required. Now I suppose they are just way too expensive to justify. It didn't take a golden ear to tell the New Year's concert from Lincoln Center was digitized. Of course, since many have satellite or digital cable it's not a shock, but such concerts are what they once were. There was a distinct edginess to the sound and some compression as well. You'd never have noticed if it were a Rolling Stones concert, but here it was really disconcerting...in the truest sense of the word. Well, I suppose things will eventually improve, but right now "live" orchestral concerts probably don't sound as good as they did in 1940 or so on a fine Scott or McMurdo Silver radio. Certainly not as good as early 50's FM. Before you scoff, remember those were broadcast via all vacuum tubes. If you lived in the city of origin, you were hearing mike/preamp/transmitter (all connected via class A lines) to your radio. If you've never heard a vintage McMurdo, Scott, or similar, you have no idea just how good AM could sound. Then, of course, there was "genuine Armstrong FM." Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AltmanEars Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 Your subject line really caught my eye. I listen to classical on my Khorns through a squeezebox and a Linn numerik. I have had many pals over to hear the same including a local classical DJ. To a person, folks think this is the highest quality musical reproduction they have heard. For some reason a live digital performance at MP3 bit rates sounds better than the highly processed classic CD's played through my $20,000 linn CD12. There really is no logical explanation for this but it is pretty dramatic... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 3, 2010 Author Share Posted January 3, 2010 Your subject line really caught my eye. I listen to classical on my Khorns through a squeezebox and a Linn numerik. I have had many pals over to hear the same including a local classical DJ. To a person, folks think this is the highest quality musical reproduction they have heard. For some reason a live digital performance at MP3 bit rates sounds better than the highly processed classic CD's played through my $20,000 linn CD12. There really is no logical explanation for this but it is pretty dramatic... I am not sure just what the deal is with high bit rate MP3. I only have one mp3, and it does sound better than most CD's. It was a shock. It's a theatre organ recording someone here posted a link to. I did not expect much, but it blew me away. Incredible sense of presense and very, very clean. It may be the "masking" given that the nature of theatre organ is LOUD. I don't know. I know that my own recordings done with "direct to disc" tradition in mind share a real sense of presence, so the old most direct path rule certainly holds. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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