Ok I know this is big, forgive me, its smaller than a photo, skip past it if you will, but if it hits the spot, read it and ask yourself a few questions about how you listen to music - really listen that is.
I was convinced by ONE demonstration to go to LP's - and the guy who did it had great cd equipment and amps and cables and power supplies and preamps and room layout - even wove his own power cables and had the equipment fed from a seperate supply to all the other household stuff.
The LP track had depth - the singer leapt 6 feet towards me, the instruments were scattered in the space between the singer and the wall, and the sounds had expanded with bass notes and trebles which weren't in the CD track playing. The LP track lost the harshness of the CD rendition. The CD track was flat against the wall with no shape to the sound.
This guy expanded in words upon what my friend demonstrated for real on his equipment.
CD's suck.
guest opinion: michael tierney
1993. The digital age. If you want spirit, you'd better get rich, because you're going to have to pay for it. CD's have replaced records by 95%. You've finally paid off your $2,000 state-of-the-art stereo only to discover it's now outdated and on sale at K-Mart for $299. Well, at least you have your CD's, a costly yet priceless collection of musical recordings which produce perfect music and never wear out. Certainly, it is safe to say that these digitally mastered recordings are timeless and cannot be improved upon, right???
CD's and digital recording instruments of any kind kill music. As long as we listen to digital music of any kind, we no longer have music. What we do have is an incredible simulation, but, I repeat, it's not music—sort of like a fake diamond, only much more disastrous.
Long ago there was a time when the only way to experience music was to play an instrument or to be in the immediate presence of a musical performance. In those days, if you were cold, you'd start a fire, if you were hungry, you cooked some food, and, if your nose was too big, it stayed that way!
As recording techniques and players were invented and improved upon, people slowly got used to the idea of substituting a recorded performance for a live one. Surely, there were many skeptics at first, but, eventually, most agreed on the value of sound recording.
The stereo or turntable became the musical instrument, "a contrivance or apparatus for producing musical sounds." The sound recording became the musician.
Musical vibrations were recorded onto master tapes in the form of tiny metal particles. From this our records and tapes were made.
A record player, utilizing a diamond needle, receives impressions from the grooves in a record. This causes the needle to vibrate, much like a guitar string or violin string does. This vibration produces direct electrical impulses which eventually come out of your speakers as music.
The tape player, utilizing a magnetic head, reads the alignment of metal particles on the tape. This magnetic pull is what then creates electrical currents, which eventually become sound.
With these two forms of playback there is no separation from the initial musical vibrations. The original vibrations have maintained a continuous wave. Each impulse is the direct result of its predecessor. Although we're getting music which is second, third, even tenth generation, we are still getting music.
The nature of music is vibration. These vibrations create sound waves that then effect us emotionally, spiritually, intellectually and physically. Each of these sound waves produces a myriad of overtones which also effect us on very subtle levels. Whether you're listening to Punk Rock or Mozart, these sound waves and overtones give the music its life. For music to remain musical through the recording process, these sound waves must be continuous, flowing and organic. Analog recording and playback machines (records, tapes) retain these musical qualities. Digital does not.
The whole article is here ....
http://www.arancidamoeba.com/mrr/michaelcol.html
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