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Re: [ARSCLIST] Libraries disposing of records
Richard said all this better than I could and I'd just like to add that I'm on record many times in
this very forum bitching about the quality of CD reissues. BUT, the doesn't mean I don't think the
CD SHOULD sound better. It just DOESN'T. You guys who claim to hate CD's so much -- how many of you
have a CD player a D-A converter on par with your record player? News flash -- a poorly designed CD
player sounds poor. Just like a phono cartridge. Just like a phono preamp. I've been in several "I
hate CD's" audiophools' homes and noted the cheapo Wal-Mart on-sale CD player next to the $10K phono
setup. That's an irrelevant comparison and thus condemning CD's based on it is an ignorant
statement.
Anyway, though, I'm done fighting that stupid old saw of format wars. You guys argue it out. Roger,
your post proved me right. Those old media that demand those prices are COLLECTABLE not ACCUMULATIVE
JUNK. I never said toss it all, I just said save what's important and focus on it as opposed to
bottom-trawling everything. The collector's market has obviously figured out what they consider
important.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, January 06, 2007 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Libraries disposing of records
At 03:34 PM 2007-01-06, phillip holmes wrote:
You can lump me in with the Japanese collector/retro/audiophile crew. I have experienced many
occasions where the original LP was vastly superior to the reissue CD.
Phillip,
I totally agree with you that many original LPs sound vastly superior to the reissue CD, but the
difference is not in the medium--at least not most of it.
When the original LP was made, pride was taken in the entire process and the artists usually
signed off on the entire process. In a phrase, the LPs were professionally mastered.
When the CD reissues came out, the most charitable way I can think of the process for at least
some of the reissues was that the CDs were not professionally mastered.
I have had long discussions with a number of people who were intimately involved with the
processes and they concur. They knew what was being lost from master tape to test pressing to
final consumer pressing. That's not to say that LPs can't be very good, but what you're hearing is
not the medium, but the execution of what is put on the medium. It's like "don't shoot the
messenger".
As to preferences for recording media, you'll note that the classical crews who were looking for
output=input switched quickly to digital. The pop/rock recordists missed the distortions and the
unique limiting curves of analog tape and other vintage equipment and have continued to use it as
an effect (in my opinion).
Also, a portion of the retro adoptees of tape and tube gear do so because there is a high-profile
marketing campaign (both official and in the grapevine) that you've got to use the certain piece
of kewl equipment that made this or that record a hit. Look at the eBay ads for some of this gear
"Just like what XXX made their #1 hit record on" and stuff like that.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the hit record had something to do with the void that artist was filling at
the time, or, heavens forbid, musical TALENT!
For the manufacturers from Ampex on, it was always striving for output=input.
Cheers,
Richard
Richard L. Hess email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.