12 Responses to “Keith Richards…..”

1. #1 by TTop
   May 6th, 2013 at 3:52 pm

   Okay, I’ll bite.

   Yes, listening to an iPod via little earbuds is not a high-fidelity experience.

   However, iPods are entirely capable of playing lossless-encoded music (indiscernible from CD), and if you dock them to a stereo you can get high quality music that the vast majority of people would not be able to discern from CD. Even the iTunes-quality purchases are fairly high-fidelity, far, far better than a cassette (really, it’s no contest, cassettes were awful) and honestly better sounding than vinyl on most people’s record players (speaking as someone who until a couple months ago had a high-end turntable with a high-fidelity stereo and many records).

   Vinyl arguably is a more pleasant sound to some people (especially those with a history of listening to records), but it’s just flat untrue to characterize it as worse than a broken 45 player.

   I’ve played iTunes-bought files on Paul’s super-hi-fi system and the difference between CD is really not much.
2. #2 by huskysooner
   May 6th, 2013 at 4:25 pm

   I’ve never A/Bed MP3 vs. CDs on a good system, but I agree with TTop that iPod/MP3/MP4 is *much* better than cassette, as well as any turntable I’ve ever heard. I’ve never really understood the preference for vinyl, but I’ve never done a comparison of a good turntable vs. a *good* CD player (that’s right, it’s not fair to compare a high-end turntable with a $60 PoS unit).
3. #3 by J.J.
   May 6th, 2013 at 8:35 pm

   I just got my first ipod recently. I don’t notice any quality issues. what I am hearing sounds just as good as the origonal CD’s. I agree cassettes were a pain and the quality was lower but the sound systems then were limited quality also. I guess if I could afford the systems that Keith and Neil (his is his entire ranch) have then I might share their views.
4. #4 by MRambler
   May 7th, 2013 at 12:39 pm

   I do have to admit that I don’t have that much of a problem with MP3’s and iTunes, of course, my hearing isn’t what it used to be….. I do recommend that if you are really interested in music quality, read Neil Young’s book, “Waging Heavy Peace”…. It’s a classic and his PureTone music system is unbelievable!….. He stated that a MP3 has about five (Yes 5!) percent of the data that can be found in a PureTone Master file, or even a vinyl record…. I think the main problem with promoting the system is that a single song will require massive amounts of memory….. He didn’t come out and say that, but, I’m sure that is one of the problems…… Neil also has other environmental projects going on too, plus all the musical aspects of his career…. It’s a good read – Check it out……
5. #5 by huskysooner
   May 7th, 2013 at 1:09 pm

   Maybe I need to revisit them, but NY’s recordings have never struck me as especially hi-fi.

   A fun future topic might be a short list of favorite albums/CDs from a recording/engineering point of view.
6. #6 by MRambler
   May 7th, 2013 at 4:50 pm

   Neil’s remastered stuff off of his box set(s) is great!….. I think you’ll be impressed, HS….. I would have to put some thought into recording/engineering side of CD’s, although, albums from King Crimson, Yes, ELP, etc. pop to mind, also, what George Martin did with only 3 and 4 tracks with the Beatle’s recordings….. You do have the “Power to Post”, HS, anytime you want (Ha!)…..
7. #7 by MRambler
   May 7th, 2013 at 5:26 pm

   I almost forgot the master: Frank Zappa….. He personally remastered his 60 albums before his untimely death….. Of course, recording/engineering quality has nothing to do with reproduction quality…. I can’t remember if Neil’s PureTone system required special hardware for playback or not, I don’t think so…. I’m going to re-read his book and check it out (Memory, as in mine, is questionable at best)…..
8. #8 by TTop
   May 7th, 2013 at 5:33 pm

   Hard disk space finally got cheap enough that I went all digital — I converted my 800 CDs to a lossless format (FLAC), kept all the CD inserts and tossed the jewel cases and discs. My collection is much lighter now 🙂

   I got a Sonos Bridge and Sonos Connect (http://www.sonos.com/system) to transmit the lossless files wirelessly to my amp (Peachtree Nova 125) which has a pretty decent built-in DAC. All in all it sounds great.

   Ironically I still mostly buy CDs and rip them to FLAC since most music I cannot buy directly as lossless files. Recently I went looking for a good version of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”. The good CD versions were about $17, but I could get a high-quality MP3 (~256K VBR, the whole symphony as a single track) for $.99 at Amazon, so I decided to save the $ and get the MP3. Any you know, it sounds darn good. My amp has a tube stage that you can activate to take the edge off lossy digital files.

   I have to say that most modern recordings (the last 10 years especially) don’t sound that great — the compression and normalization that the engineers use these days rid the songs of any sense of dynamics.
9. #9 by huskysooner
   May 7th, 2013 at 8:49 pm

   TTop, that’s almost the exact setup one of my buddies here has (FLAC/Sonos). I agree about recent albums. Whoever does the mastering goes crazy at the peak limiting at the master stage in a contest to have the “loudest” CD. It’s painful to listen to. One horrible example I can think of is “Vapor Trails” (Rush). The songs are pretty dang good, but it’s completely unlistenable because of the compression/limiting. It sounds like dogsh**.

   MR, I’m just not a Neil Young fan. As much as I love KC, and to lesser extent Yes, Genesis, and ELP, very few of those albums sound very good to me. Maybe “Red” (KC). Ones that come to mind… Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, some of the Peter Gabriel solo stuff, Porcupine Tree (a newer example).
10. #10 by MRambler
    May 8th, 2013 at 1:35 pm

    TTop, your setup and music storage system sounds great…. I’m still uploading my CD’s to iTunes (Highest Quality) and keeping my CD’s for backup…. I’m sure Jek can help me, as far as required hardware/software, if I decide to go the route you’ve taken…. I hereby eat my words concerning the engineering aspect effecting the playback of audio files….. I guess I had a bit of a lapse of memory (Ha!)…..

    HS, I’m not that big of a Neil Young fan myself, and agree with you and TTop that most of the newer stuff is mastered for volume rather than dynamics and good taste….. I do have a Porcupine Tree album, HS, given to me by Jek as a present, and I do listen to it……

    We, as in the band Terraplane, are now in the process of mixing/mastering our 4th CD, “Moonlit Whispers”….. After a 34 year break, we returned to recording together in 2008, just for our own enjoyment, and that (Hopefully) of our friends….. This will make the third CD since 2008….. Granted we only produced less than 25 copies of the first two for ourselves and friends, but, with “Moonlit Whispers”, we are considering releasing it on the unsuspecting public….. We should have it mastered and ready for some feedback in the next few weeks….. Let me know if any of you out there in the MR Community would like to have a listen and give us a review….. It would be appreciated and would help us to determine if it is as good as we think…. It has only one cover on it – A 10 minute version of “Eight Miles High(er)”…… We added some verses and put our touch on it….. After we recorded the tracks (10 in all) we noticed that if they were sequenced right it resembles a concept album, hence, the sub-statement of, “A Subconsciously Sub-space Oddity”…. Anyways, if anyone is interested in being on the “Review Board” let me know and I’ll send you a copy to review…… Here’s the preliminary Cover Art:

    
11. #11 by TTop
    May 10th, 2013 at 12:13 pm

    One thing I like about being all digital is that it is easy to back up the collection. I have an external hard drive with the collection that goes in a safe deposit box, so I don’t have to worry about losing my music due to fire or theft or a computer crash.
12. #12 by MRambler
    May 18th, 2013 at 11:56 am

    That’s a great idea, TTop!….. “Sounds” like it’s the way to go (Ha!)……

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