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Vinyl ....goes for a final Spin ....


Duke Spinner

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This thread kinda got me going. In fact after reading it, I did my own little vinyl/cd/sacd comparison...again. And once again it was unanimous amongst the participants (son - 11yo, son's friend - 11, son's friend's sister - 9, wife and son's friend's mother - both n/a) that the vinyl playback was clearly more pleasing to their ears than was cd. The difference was less for sacd but still discernible.

I liken the difference to how I reacted some years ago when a computer geek friend "fixed" the refresh rate on my computer monitor. I had thought the screen looked pretty good, but after the adjustment my eyes kinda went "ahhhhhhhhh". It was so much easier to look at. I had a similar reaction by employees that worked inside my office when I replaced the standard fluorescent bulbs with some sort of "full spectrum" type. All agreed things looked different, but in a very good way.

Not to mention, I feel like the only idiot around when I listen to my son's iPod. Rather, when I attempt to listen. It gives me a freakin' headache! Do people really enjoy listening to these things for moderate to long periods of time? It feels as though I really have to work at it to hear the music. The above mentioned son's friend's mother is a shrink and told me that our brains (mine being smaller than most) attempt to "fill in" poorly digitized sound in order to have it sound more "real". Makes sense to me. Not all that goes on in the processing of sound in our brains is immediately obvious I'm guessing.

As far as surround sound goes, for me it's kinda cool when bullets fly around or a helicopter thunders by. But I've never yet been to a live musical performance where I was positioned in the middle of the performers. And hearing the crowd next to and behind me adds nothing to the experience for me. Wait...I take that back...My son's middle school choir Holiday program had a big finale where the various choirs were positioned throughout the auditorium and the sound was coming from all angles. Then again, besides the parents present, not too many people would want to relive that experience....

Lastly, with all my blathering above in mind, playing records IS a pain in the tuchas. I'd really like to see some headway made in the mass market on higher quality digital playback. SACD sounds pretty good to me and it's too bad that neither sacd or dvd-a seem to catching on so far. Maybe the next format will hang in there.

Regards,

Chris

PS I guess I agree with Allan in his response to the original post...."Nonsense"

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I need a smooth, warm, and 3D sounding CD player that will cost me under $500.00. Who makes one?

When we were at Born2RockU's, we agreed that my HK CD player was up there in quality to the Jolida tube CD. Other than those 2, I don't know.

Although this recommendation usually incites some strong opinions amongst the more senior members, a used Rega Planet (the original) may be what you are looking for. They can be had at about $250.00 on A'Gon these days.

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Betreft, yes betreft... What does 're' stand for anyway? On i-pods, not for home use, but very nice for mobile. Do trash the original headphones though! Ouch!

Isn't this great? We have:

PP versus SET (I have PP with, some say the midrange magic as SET, in my MC-30's)

vinyl versus cd (I have both, but very much dig the vinyl and spend way much more on it)

Tubes versus SS (Tubes with Klipsch!)

Now what other debates can we start?

[:D][;)]

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Come on, guys. CD's sound a *LOT* better than records, unless the mastering process compromised the sound of the CD. Records have so many shortfalls that there's really no comparison. I suppose that you could find isolated instances where a record, for whatever reason, sounds better than the corresponding CD of the same performance, but by and large records are so inferior to CD's that there's no room to argue the point. While we might debate whether cables do or do not make a difference, or whether power conditioning does anything, or whether power cords impact the sound, or whether well designed amps sound different from each other, those are arguments that reasonable people can entertain. Whether CD's are superior to records, however, is such an obvious and uncontravertable fact that there's no room for argument. Records are a hideous medium compared to CD's. Noise, distortion, limited dynamic range - I can't imagine anyone seriously arguing that records can come close to CD's.

Granted, way back in the early to mid 80's a lot of CD's were mastered without an understanding of the medium, and their frequency response was mutilated pretty badly, but that's long behind us.

Arguing that records sound better than CD's is sort of like arguing that a 1963 Corvette Sting Ray is a better car than a 2006 Corvette. In it's time, it was a great car... but by any (*ANY*) objective measurement, the 2006 is simply so superior in every conceiveable sense that any comparison is ludicrous.

Nonsense

16/44

Jitter

etched high end

Listener fatigue

poorly mastered back catalog

limited back catalog

I have heard many more poorly mastered CDs than I have heard poorly mastered LPs.

Granted phono preamp, table and cart are more user variables than digital listening demands one to tweak in.

I guess I have been lucky....

HH Scott

NOS VALVES

Juicy Music

Grado

JA Michel

MF

Dynavector

I have heard well set up, modest but excellent LP playback in the past 3-4 years.

LPs stay in play for my lifetime.

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Gosh Gary, you probably will have to pay someone to take all that noisey trash away. Good thing you only got a "low end" rig . . . . . .

Tell ya what, just cuz I'm a helluva nice guy, and past customer, send it my way and I'll even split the shipping costs with you.

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vinyl would be better with out these guys. I guess it takes about $18,000+ to castrate these little bastards and even then? Once you have spent it the notion of going back or realizing that CDs are superior is nonsense.

It's nonsense to "guess it takes about $18,000+ to castrate these little bastards....". Moderate care of vinyl, and a very good cartridge/arm combination will yield sound superior to CDs. Where did you pull that $18,000 number from? I think I know, but I can't say it here because the censors will chastise me.

Klipsch out.

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I've been eyeing RTR players lately in the second hand music stores around here, may just have to pick one up.

One thing that comes to mind amidst the mention of "not going back to vinyl" or "moving forward to cd"...seems like putting all your eggs in one basket. One does it have to be one or the other...I guess if your not spinning it, yes that makes sense.

For me, I NEED my vinyl rig.....how many out of print wonders will I find in the next year? For collectors, vinyl will NEVER be outdated as long as we are looking for pieces to archive.

I have the HTPC hooked into the tube pre and tube Quicksilver amps. Old tech & new tech in symbiosis. The TT lets me archive those juicy rare 45's I pull off of Ebay. The RTR will let me play my uncle's old reels and see what all the huff is about. I am not going to archive every LP but a terabyte of cd's and some choice vinyl as I see fit....why not?

Best of both worlds....

JCatuccio aka Dr. Cilantro

Posted Image

WOW another Prince Buster fan on the forum I thought I was the only one *sniff*

Big Five just cracks me up : )

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Yeah, I agree. Except for the sound, ceedees are better!

Actually its CD, which short for compact disk. There is no need to perform the RIAA equilization when listening to or speaking of CDs. If you hadn't you would not have pronouced them as ceeedeees. Actually when LPs are spoken about with out thier equalization, the are pronouced as sh!tplatter.

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Yeah, I agree. Except for the sound, ceedees are better!

Actually its CD, which short for compact disk. There is no need to perform the RIAA equilization when listening to or speaking of CDs. If you hadn't you would not have pronouced them as ceeedeees. Actually when LPs are spoken about with out thier equalization, the are pronouced as sh!tplatter.

If I hadn't what?

Anyway, yes LPs do require equalization. CDs, or compact discs, require compact disc players. When Cds, or compact discs, are spoken about "with out" their compact disc players, they are referred to as "coasters".

Like anything else, proper gear is required. I do agree, however, that listening to LPs without RIAA equalization is a bad idea.

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This is quite the freakshow we have here. Funny thing is that at least we can agree on what brand of speaker we all like.

I want to explain this to someone on the outside:

I spend enormous sums of cash buying non-userfriendly audio equipment so that I can accurately reproduce music in my living room. Then I go onto this forum for like 18 hours a day and argue whether CD's are better than records. Oh well, I guess it is no different than the 600 fashion magazines that are always around my house (I can't even count the amount of jeans and shoes that my wife has).

and just for the records (wait, not record, or CD, uh how about "memorandum of facts"):

I listen to a lot of FM since buying a tuner. FM blows away sattelite radio. FM RULES!!!!

I never got around to getting cable hooked up after moving. Rabbit ears rule!!!!

I drive a big Japanese car - big Japanese cars rule!!!

I'm ghosting the hard drive on my lap top - Winndows 98 rules!!!

My wife's shih tzu's are staring at me. Shih Tzu's blow away poodles!!!

I stand strong on all of these convictions and will gladly argue any point to death here.

Go ahead, make my day (Clint Easetwood rules!! - add it to the list).

Chris

PS - as you can see, I have had a few sick days here without much to do. But guess what - sick days rule!!!

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You stink Spitnik!!!

I have a blue healer / spanial mix. I'm not sure if she rules or not, but I do know that a big dog like that will never have the true accuracy of the whoel dog experience like a shih tzu will provide.

Did I mention that you stink!!!

Angrily,

Chris

PS - you stink.

EDIT - just so everyone knows, this is a joke. I changes the word to stink for the faint of heart. I figured everyone would know that if I said it three times they would figure there is no way I could take shihn tzu's that seriously (probably the wrong forum if I get that worked up about shih tzu's).

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