True Audiophile

Rega Turntables
hydra said:
The Setup Issue
And it seems to me that the more expensive the TT, the more complex the setup. It also seems to me as though keeping a good TT setup right is a challenge.
Click to expand...

Hi Hydra,

Regarding your first point, its not true. All TTs require the same amount/ same settings to be done. Some more expensive TTs and tonearms actually make things easier with repeatable VTA settings for example and azimuth one can dial in with a handy dial.

As for the second point, once you've set your TT up, it remains set up. Nothing changes. It's not like you need to keep revisiting settings and setting it again and again. The only resetting you need to do is once your cartridge has run it, the suspension softens and you need to raise your VTA a bit to compensate. That's all.

Regards
 
venkatcr said:
But the whole thing does not make sense to me because software companies are not holding analogue masters any more. Nearly all the original content is digital.

Cheers
Click to expand...

When you say software, I'm supposing you're talking music content. Sorry, you're wrong. Saregama, as much as it is hated, still has their masters in analogue wrapped in air tight containers and sealed with silicon gel. The value of the metal on which the glass masters are made itself runs into millions of rupees and there is some debate going on on what is to be done with them
 
ajay124 said:
We may or may not like it but this is what the future looks like:

Home of award-winning artists, on SACD and high resolution download - Channel Classics Records

https://www.hdtracks.com/

iTrax

Linn Records - The best recordings in Studio Master Download, Vinyl and SACD

Dacapo Records - Classical and new music from Denmark's national label - Read, listen and buy: CD, SACD, mp3, hi-res downloads

The Classical Shop
Click to expand...

Hi Ajay,

Isn't that a a view of only how CDs are progressing to downloads which sort of indicates that CD is dying its inevitable lifecycle death and digital is evolving to its next level? It's surely not the future of music as a whole? Cos vinyl is coming back, artists are pressing Vinyl copies along with CD versions and we see vinyl in local shops etc...

Regards
 
 
stevieboy said:
Isn't that a a view of only how CDs are progressing to downloads which sort of indicates that CD is dying its inevitable lifecycle death and digital is evolving to its next level? It's surely not the future of music as a whole? Cos vinyl is coming back, artists are pressing Vinyl copies along with CD versions and we see vinyl in local shops etc...
Click to expand...

CD has a limitation of size, and that seriously detered high resolution. Downloads and Blu-Ray, in my opinion, will form the future of digital music distribution. Vinyls are making a come back, sure; but it is yet stuck to a small percentage of the market.

Cheers
 
venkatcr said:
CD has a limitation of size, and that seriously detered high resolution. Downloads and Blu-Ray, in my opinion, will form the future of digital music distribution. Vinyls are making a come back, sure; but it is yet stuck to a small percentage of the market.

Cheers
Click to expand...

I totally agree that hi-rez is the way to go.

My point is, just listen to a simple Mohd Rafi song on a CD, it doesnt require any of those extreme dynamics, frequency extension etc. An audio CD is fully capable of reproducing the actual content of such simple tracks going by the specs. But what you get is a totally soulless, flat, boring electronic sound. It is not the mediums fault I suppose, but there are so many ways to screw up the "digitisation of music" that in the end it is most probably screwed up. Only the best mastering engineers get it right. But they can only do so much. Rest of the bunch will continue to sound average and below (better than CD may be).
 
thatguy said:
Having bought a 24/96 DAC, I was about to start a new thread on where to get high res music from. Saved me the time. I am hoping they are not riddled with DRM.
Click to expand...

Please take some time to read the forums on computeraudiophile.com for threads about fraudulent hi-res music (esp on HDTracks(which doesn't sell to India)) before you jump in and buy something.
 
Dr.Bass said:
But what you get is a totally soulless, flat, boring electronic sound. It is not the mediums fault I suppose, but there are so many ways to screw up the "digitisation of music" that in the end it is most probably screwed up. Only the best mastering engineers get it right. But they can only do so much. Rest of the bunch will continue to sound average and below (better than CD may be).
Click to expand...

I agree, and that is one of the reasons I keep quoting Mughal-E-Azam's remastered CD. You can hear every nuance of the singers' voice modulation, and the effort they put in when they sing. If what Finyl Vinyl says is true, Saregama would do a great service to the music world by remastering all the music in high resolution with some editors who love their job and the music. Frankly I would be glad to pay 500 for a CD if it is of good quality. Just imagine listening to a Shamshad Begum, a Talat, or a Manna Dey in 24/96!! Gives me goose bumps!

Finyl Vinyl said:
When you say software, I'm supposing you're talking music content. Sorry, you're wrong. Saregama, as much as it is hated, still has their masters in analogue wrapped in air tight containers and sealed with silicon gel. The value of the metal on which the glass masters are made itself runs into millions of rupees and there is some debate going on on what is to be done with them
Click to expand...

Cheers
 
stevieboy said:
Hi Hydra,

Regarding your first point, its not true.
Click to expand...

Especially if one gets a fancy EMT:)

But as stevie said, availability of more adjustments allows fine tuning of the sound. And on most 'tables the adjustments are repeatable and fairly permanent. Of course there are 'tables that are temperamental and may need periodic adjustments.
 
venkatcr said:
I agree, and that is one of the reasons I keep quoting Mughal-E-Azam's remastered CD. You can hear every nuance of the singers' voice modulation, and the effort they put in when they sing. If what Finyl Vinyl says is true, Saregama would do a great service to the music world by remastering all the music in high resolution with some editors who love their job and the music. Frankly I would be glad to pay 500 for a CD if it is of good quality. Just imagine listening to a Shamshad Begum, a Talat, or a Manna Dey in 24/96!! Gives me goose bumps!



Cheers
Click to expand...

I dont think it is the lack of bandwidth which made them produce such crappy CDs. It is just that if you do not take enough care, digital will sound crappy electronic. There are many good examples of high quality CD recordings, but for every 1 good CD produced there are 10 crappy CDs also produced. How do you make sure you improve that ratio ?
 
In fact all old hindi film cds manufactured between 1988 and 1992 in UK and South Korea sound fabulous. A lot of those cds sound as good as the vinyl counterparts. They made a mess of it after they started remastering them in the mid to late 90s
 
stevieboy

The future of music is not about compact discs dying out or vinyl selling a few more copies than before. Just as vinyl sales are negligible now as compared to compact discs they will remain negligible as compared to number of downloads in the future.

The only real trend is the trend of bringing down labour and raw material cost and maximising profits. Shifting manufacturing and outsourcing services to countries with bigger and cheaper labour pools. Similarly it is more convenient and profitable to sell downloads than physically manufactured CD's. Therefore it is has nothing to do with superior audio technology.

Vinyl and HI FI will always remain a niche business targeted at a limited number of audiophiles. Low volumes, high margins. Negligible manufacturing costs. Astronomical prices. One will always have to pay a premium for buying these 'limited edition' products.
 
How many can distinguish between 16bitrate from 24 bitrate would be interesting. For that I think it was mentioned that one would need high end digital setup. Almost as much as vinyl setup :ohyeah:. So until the prices comes down it is better to listen to vinyls.
Anyways since loudspeakers (A mechanical device just like stylus and cartridges :D) which contributes its own distortions and have its own limitations my humble thinking is (I may be wrong) after a certain point the difference would be very very minute.

Regards
 
The best red book CD recording I have heard has this written on its back cover:

" Digitally remastered in 24/96 Weiss technology using a customised Tudor transport with Cello electronics and universally compatible UV 22. Super CD encoding"

This recording was originally released on vinyl by RCA in 1972. The 'High Performance' CD version which I own was remastered and released in 2000. The sound on this CD is even better than the SACD's which I have recently bought. Superb detail, tonality and sweetness. The music sounds wickedly exciting and good! There is a distinct decline in SQ when I replace it with any other CD.

Shostakovich: Symphony No.15/Sonata No.2: Dmitry Shostakovich: Amazon.co.uk: Music
 
ajay124 said:
We may or may not like it but this is what the future looks like:

Home of award-winning artists, on SACD and high resolution download - Channel Classics Records

https://www.hdtracks.com/

iTrax

Linn Records - The best recordings in Studio Master Download, Vinyl and SACD

Dacapo Records - Classical and new music from Denmark's national label - Read, listen and buy: CD, SACD, mp3, hi-res downloads

The Classical Shop
Click to expand...
Since we are on the subject of hi-res downloads, does anyone know if CD quality (or higher) versions of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's "The Concert" podcast exist?
For those who haven't heard The Concert, it is a collection of beautiful western classical pieces played live in the Museum's listening room. Even at 128 kbits, they sound remarkable and are an example of sound recording well done.

Here is the website: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum : Podcasts

They start from No. 1 and the most recent is No. 128. All free downloads as part of the Creative Commons license. Please let me know if anyone has a source where I can get/buy these in a higher bitrate.

Thanks,
Jinx.
 
venkatcr said:
I agree, and that is one of the reasons I keep quoting Mughal-E-Azam's remastered CD. You can hear every nuance of the singers' voice modulation, and the effort they put in when they sing. If what Finyl Vinyl says is true, Saregama would do a great service to the music world by remastering all the music in high resolution with some editors who love their job and the music. Frankly I would be glad to pay 500 for a CD if it is of good quality. Just imagine listening to a Shamshad Begum, a Talat, or a Manna Dey in 24/96!! Gives me goose bumps!



Cheers
Click to expand...
Just a heads up iTrax
"When audiophiles buy a hi-res music download, most do so on trust. If they've paid a premium for a 24-bit/88.2, 24/96, 24/176.4 of 24/192 download, they reasonably expect that the enhanced bandwidth offered by the higher sampling rate will be fully exploited, inasmuch as the source material allows. But our investigations show that this trust is sometimes misplaced, and those price premiums are being asked for audio files in which the signal bandwidth has been curtailed."
Click to expand...

--G0bble
 
Unless the entire production has been of high quality, from beginning to end, it's just numbers, isn't it? It's just a setting. How can charging more for a 24/96 file than a 16/44.1 file of the same production possibly be justified --- except on the basis that is more bytes?

Lots of cynicism required here, I think.

It would be nice to read the original article (in fact, if I was posting from London, I'd be going out to buy the magazine!). Maybe it will be online one day. At least the extracts and comments in the link you give include clues on finding out what the file is. Whilst I don't actually know how to see if "the spectrum ... clearly shows the presence of steep low-pass filter just above 20 kHz," I hope it should be obvious once we know what to look for. I'll be checking out my CE-pro spectral view! Patently, it is not enough to just extract the audio details from the file, as I did with the youtube example earlier in the thread.
Anything that goes back to the days of analog tape shouldn't be "upsampled" and sold for a premium price.
Click to expand...
When he says anything, here, he really means "anything?" Like including 2" tape and stuff?

The music industry loves new formats. Imagine if a restaurant could serve again the same food today as it served yesterday, at no additional cost. On many CDs, there is not even any royalty to the artists.
 
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