[mikeg]

A fine 2 1/2 hour forum discussion involving famous recording engineers, arrangers, and audiophiles is available at the following link:

Philoctetes - Deep Listening: Why Audio Quality Matters

Some of their observations and conclusions are that the Redbook formate (i.e., regular CDs) is inherently deficient for high quality music reproduction; that vinyl and SACD are inherently superior to Redbook; that only 45 RPM vinyl is superior to SACD, and may be indistinguishable from master tapes. Also considered extensively in the discussion are questions of listener awareness of sounds that are beyond the range of normal hearing, the amazing contributions of sound engineers that turn deficient into outstanding performances, the importance of critical listening (which was the actual topic of this discussion forum), and the overall decline in quality of available music and audience taste.

 

[ph0rk]

My best format is the one that lets me listen to music when it is convenient for me, rather than the other way around.

And a format that I can cheaply reproduce for my own purposes has a serious edge in the convenience department.


Edit: I just noticed a participant was Michael Fremer. That sort of says it all, really.

 

[Nick 214]

Vinyl, obviously.

We had a thread going about this a few days back...

 

[Maxvla]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeg /img/forum/go_quote.gif master tapes

You said it yourself. Tape is great, but really a pain to deal with.

 

[Maxvla]

I just finished watching the entire video and was riveted for the entire duration. 2 1/2 hours passed as though it were 2 1/2 minutes. Great stuff there and really made me take inventory of myself as a listener.

Unfortunately one of the things I took from this was that I really should be using speakers to get the full effect, but also unfortunate is that I live in an apartment so loudness and at different times of the day would limit my ability to do that, thus my headphone gear is still worthwhile.

Another thing I've been building up to more is going to live jazz/rock, not the big star shows, but local talent. I think I will very much enjoy going to that and experiencing and meeting the people who create the music.

mikeg, thanks for posting this video.

 

[krmathis]

+1 on Master tapes.