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Bookshelf speakers for Bollywood music
- Thread starter 9wman
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souravin
Well-Known Member
I have many CDs (both Made in UK and Made in India) of same OSTs which I have on vinyl too - referring to bollywood oldies. CDs (except a few EMI and Music India/ Polydor/Universal) do not come closer to vinyl. Talking from that experience. Making a CD sound bold and punchy is difficult.
However we have to live with it
sachinchavan 15865
Well-Known Member
Not at all contesting that. But some of us stay with the media/format we have invested in and try to make it sound better. Hence the OP is exploring speakers that would suit Bollywood music.
My Castle Knight speakers for example, do a great job of making Hindi film music till the 90s sound melodic and sweet. They sound exceptional on the vocal-centric songs till the 70s. But Bollywood music changed from 00s - getting busier, bass heavy and beat-oriented. One needs a more modern speaker for those, powered by high powered (damping) amp for it. Something like Monitor Audio for example.
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souravin
Well-Known Member
Fully agree. Good to know about Castle Knight speakers. I haven't heard before
Thanks a Ton
Very Interesting!
Thanks!
EswarReddy
Member
Yes fully agree. I have castle knight speaker. I took one step and upgraded internal cables and they are sounding awesome. These speaker are underrated. They are much better than price basket.
They sound very detailed and controlled bass after cables changes.
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sachinchavan 15865
Well-Known Member
Deleted.
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sachinchavan 15865
Well-Known Member
Those keen on Bollywood (of for that matter even other Indian languages) old film songs (till the 70s) try listening to the video tracks on YouTube (not the same as audio track on YT music). The audio streaming apps (even lossless of Apple and Tidal) have versions (re)mastered for CD/radio whatever and they just miss the soul of these songs. OTOH the audio-video tracks on YouTube are so much more emotive. Even the bass and instruments are livelier. Even if YT might have lower resolution, I tend to enjoy the old songs there. What more, if you watch on TV, you also get a Chitrahar effect.
For example, this song. Listen to both versions and see the difference.
Apple Streaming (audio) version:
YT Music streaming (audio) version:
YouTube (audio-video) version:
Just compare the ‘Aaa…aaa’ at the start by Lata. The one in the video is so much more textured. The two audio versions have flattened those nuances taking away the ‘taralta’ I’m Lata’s voice. Of course it may not be true with all old songs and also depends on the YT channel that uploads.
For example, this song. Listen to both versions and see the difference.
Apple Streaming (audio) version:
YT Music streaming (audio) version:
YouTube (audio-video) version:
Just compare the ‘Aaa…aaa’ at the start by Lata. The one in the video is so much more textured. The two audio versions have flattened those nuances taking away the ‘taralta’ I’m Lata’s voice. Of course it may not be true with all old songs and also depends on the YT channel that uploads.
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souravin
Well-Known Member
This is the optimum way to listen digital music for a few bollywood oldies in better format than CD or saregama download.
Please see Atanu Raychaudhury you tube channel (vinyl extrct) for excellent and balanced vinyl rips. There are a few more. Atanu is a good friend. I (vinylsourav) have done a few rips however work commitments refrain me to involve.
The YT version of 'Yeh Ratein Yeh Mausam' is clearly a compressed version, most probably taken from the digitized version (CD version) by sa re ga ma. The youtube version clearly sounds better and probably has been taken from the original film soundtrack (video version). The difference is huge. I know for a fact that somewhere the CD versions are actually MP3 versions converted back to wav by HMV/Saregama. @Hiten had even posted the waveform in this forum clearly showing that the CD versions are akin to MP3 versions where the high end is chopped off. It is also known that the original masters were lost in a fire. So it seems probable that the wav version are actually lossy versions converted back to wav.
While working for Sify (chennai), we had a service called Hamara CD where users could pick songs and make their own CD. The cd would be shipped back to the user. For this service we had tied with Sa Re Ga Ma where they just sent us a USB hard disk with 2 versions (one mp3 an one wav for each song). I had analyzed the mp3 and wav versions and both looked the same.
For the old songs the only hope is the vinyl or the original movie soundtrack on the celluloid format used in the old projectors. After that the only way to get back the original is to have a user initiated movement where personal vinyl are digitized using good ADC convertors and a way to clean the output and submit to the streaming services for posterity. I doubt any commercial venture can take this up and be profitable.
One of my idea is to open commercial vinyl cleaning centres in metros where the user walks in with his/her personal vinyl. The vinyl is cleaned and a CD version is created. A small fee is charged for cleaning the vinyl. The digitized version thus created will be uncompressed. Some rich guy needs to think about this and start this service.
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sachinchavan 15865
Well-Known Member
Thanks @souravin for the suggestions. I checked Atanu’s channel, good versions. There’s also one Archisman Mozumder channel worth trying out. There are some more, like Swapan Das, Mausiqui who put vinyl rips.
Among the bigger labels I find the old song versions on Shemaroo and Ultra are good. Saregama is unpredictable.
I couldn’t locate your channel, Sourav. Can you give link to it please?
You mean the YouTube Music version. Yes, it feels compressed aa against the YouTube video version.
True, I doubt any of the commercial streaming platforms love the genre (or even music?) to do this. Has to be a community effort. I don’t remember the name now, but one informal listeners’ group did it for Hindustani classical concerts of the past. They have a page on archives.com.
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My guess is that Shemaroo, Ultra created the digitized version from the original celluloid format when creating the VHS tapes, VCDs and DVDs and hence sound better.
sachinchavan 15865
Well-Known Member
Isn’t it a shame that we care so much for fidelity of reproduction in our systems and lossless files, while an entire musical genre, one that many of us listen to the most, is full of watered down content!
Yes. This makes me very angry at the situation. No wonder people say Vinyl is superior to CD. In fact if you listen to the old songs on Vinyl, you will exactly hear the difference like the Aaa…aaa’ in the Yeh Ratein Yeh Mausam song. The lower quality Youtube version the 'Aaa...aaa' reveals the pronounced vibrations in Lata's vocal chords. The better quality YT Music version of the same song, the vibrations of Lata's 'Aaa...aaa' is substantially muted.
It would be good idea to ask @prem as he has a SOTA vinyl rig, if this song 'Yeh Ratein Yeh Mausim', has the same variations on vinyl, as heard on the Youtube version. I too have this vinyl. Probably I will listen to this in the coming weekend and find out.
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souravin
Well-Known Member
Hi mbhangui, just a small correction : this is Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar duet
Oh yes. My mistake
Yogesh
Well-Known Member
The discussion has gone way off from OP query! 
sachinchavan 15865
Well-Known Member
The OP got many options. Now he has to demo them and let us know what he feels. Till then, we are supplying him with content options. You see, we just can stop helping.The discussion has gone way off from OP query!
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