If you have a mid-fi system, CDs do sound better. Or maybe I just never had a good enough turntable (I didn’t) to be able to hear the difference. You don’t have to worry about dust, scratches, or inner groove distortion, plus they last forever. Obviously CDs were superior! On a purely technical level they have a much wider dynamic range than records are capable of reproducing. When CDs came out, he was someone who echoed what Michael Fremer was writing about in Stereophile magazine, that CDs didn’t sound nearly as good as vinyl and in fact, they sounded a whole lot worse. It was stuff that I’d buy used at Stereo Exchange or from a friend of mine who’d get a new preamp or whatever, and then decide he hated it and needed a different one. You can’t have an elaborate stereo living in a New York City apartment or your neighbors will just hate you. It was an instant record collection and the single greatest record shopping day of my life, never to be equalled.Īs I got older, I always had pretty good but never great stereo gear-“mid-fi” as they say. My best score was an entire box of what would now be considered classic rock staples-dozens of albums by Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Who’s Next, a zipper cover Sticky Fingers, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, the Allman Brothers, Brain Salad Surgery, Band on the Run, Blood, Sweat & Tears, etc-four for a dollar. By the time I started the six grade I had amassed a sizable record collection for a 10-year-old kid. I scoured yard sales and the cut out bins of low rent department stores in search of cheap records, and it being the 1970s, I found a lot of them. My stereo might have cost just $15 all in-I was also using my dad’s old record player-but it was loud, and as far as I was concerned it sounded fantastic. For a while I had crappy little speakers, but providence soon intervened again and I found some big Pioneers with 10” woofers in a St. And then it happened: A huge fun fair/garage sale was held on the grounds of our church and there it was, a beautiful Marantz receiver for FIVE DOLLARS. A Smothers Brothers album, a Bob Newhart record, a Jonathan Winters record, a Gene Autry Christmas album where he sings “ Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.” One Johnny Cash record. My parents had almost zero music in the house. I loved listening to my Batman radio, but this was a truly delicious sensory experience. I was happier spending my quarters on music instead of Klondike bars and Slushies. It made my entire being fizz with happiness. I’d stand right in front of this thing and just absorb the soundwaves. I didn’t just like these songs, I liked the way they SOUNDED. I’d play things like “ Rock On” by David Essex, “ Feel Like Makin’ Love” by Bad Company, Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s “ Lucky Man” (and its gorgeous flipside, “ From the Beginning”), Led Zeppelin’s “ Immigrant Song” and “ Money” by Pink Floyd. Right around the time when I was first figuring out what rock music was, a large neon Wurlitzer jukebox was installed at the local swimming pool complex I went to with my younger sister. I have always been-and have self-consciously identified myself as such from a young age-an audiophile. If you are that one in a thousand person, read on, this was written especially for you.Įveryone else, I won’t blame you a bit if you want to bail. Almost none of you who have read this far will care about this stuff. One out of a hundred maybe, no, make that one out of a thousand. Please allow me to state the obvious right here at the outset: Most people WILL NOT GIVE A SHIT about what follows. Analog and digital audio are two very separate things and each has its own pluses and minuses. Even if I did, 99.9% of all music made these days is produced on a computer, so there’s really no practical way to avoid it. Roon is the bomb! Let me be clear, I’ve got no problem with digital audio. SACDs, HDCDs, High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-Rays, 24-bit HD master audio files, 5.1 surround sound, DSD files-I have a large amount of this kind of material, both on physical media and with another ten terabytes on a computer drive. In fact, until four years ago, I’d have told you that I preferred it. In fact I probably should have just called it something like “Why you should never buy new vinyl versions of classic albums.”Īctually I like digital audio just fine. digital rants that goofball audiophile types like to indulge in at the drop of a hat. Sorry, but this is not going to be one of those analog vs.
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