Zanth
SHAman who knew of Head-Fi ten years prior to its existence
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2001
- Posts
- 9,570
- Likes
- 44
The title sums up my feelings. There have been more than a few threads popping up lately about how albums sound pretty bad lately and how there is no hope. Lossy online files are the future and there is no turning back...
I've been reading a lot lately about recording quality, recording techniques and key albums to look for. Where do I find all this good info? The Hoffman Forums of course!
Now, the knowledge base there is intense and insane. Many of the members who actively post are the actual recording engineers. They provide incredible insight and information regarding their own masters as well as poor masters put out day after day after day.
With such knowledge, quite a few OCD music lovers buy up multiple versions of albums, rip them, test them and then reply to the community with samples and images we can all see and hear to gauge for ourselves if we want to 1) buy an album, 2) wait for another version 3) hunt on Ebay for something special.
I haven't purchased an audio component for a while now and won't be for a while (kids, school, dead wallet...) yet I can afford to buy solid versions of albums I love (if they stay under 3 figures). A well recorded album will sound better on a low-fi to mid-fi setup vs. a poorly recorded version of the same album on a megabuck system. So many have been plunking down large bundles of cash on uber amps, rare headphones but rarely do I catch folks ferociously researching premium versions of their choice albums.
No doubt, most albums are simply duds in terms of mastering. Worse than that, I suppose is that only one mastering is done and released. Yet, there are quite a few albums with multiple versions released all around the world, say for instance the US/Canada release being very different than the West German or Japanese release (particularly Japanese releases).
These differences can stem from alternate tracks to extra tracks to completely different folks involved in mastering. This is all just for a single format! Imagine the permutations when we start throwing in LP vs. RBCD vs. HDCD vs. XRCD vs. SACD!
I don't expect us to duplicate the information from the Hoffman forums, but I think it would be worthwhile if we focused on well recorded albums. Sure there are a few threads floating around, but a good many of these are purely subjective with no data being used at all save for one's ears. Posting some wav forms and/or clips for others to listen to would really expand our own knowledge base particularly since the demographics of each site are very different. The Hoffman forums are mostly middle aged guys who love their Jazz and Classic Rock. In fact, one could anticipate a dozen new Beatles threads every week, no joke!
Garbage in, Garbage out. More than "Sorry about your wallet" should be the mantra chanted by audiophiles at Head-fi. Why? Because headphones are famous for being far more resolving than speakers on the whole. That means the nuances of most of the differences in a recording will be more readily apparent to the headphone users than those listening to speakers (unless of course something is brickwalled to the max).
Garbage in, Garbage out. This is why so many albums sound awful. They were poorly engineered.
Garbage in, Garbage out. We are more aware of these flaws as we continue to upgrade. Upgrading being an epidemic among Head-fiers.
Garbage in , Garbage out. No matter how much one spends on their kit, the music won't be magically transformed. The good will be highlighted no doubt, but the bad will be as equally apparent and sometimes even more so.
Garbage in, Garbage out. Every member here should familiarize themselves with names like Hoffman, Gray, Diament etc.
Garbage in, Garbage out. Every member here should be made aware of WG "target" recordings. Early Japanese pressings. Variants of albums X Y and Z.
Garbage in, Garbage out. It won't go away but it can be made to smell better!
Goodness in, Goodness out. Not everyone will want to spend the time researching and/or hunting and spending more money on albums when they can just download from iTunes, head to Walmart and grab the CD etc...but to those that want Goodness in, Goodness out...that road will be a far easier journey with the proper knowledge under their belt.
Goodness in, Goodness out. It just might cure more than a few Head-fiers from upgraditis. Of course, the opposite could be true. It might elevate the disease to a near fatal level
I've been reading a lot lately about recording quality, recording techniques and key albums to look for. Where do I find all this good info? The Hoffman Forums of course!
Now, the knowledge base there is intense and insane. Many of the members who actively post are the actual recording engineers. They provide incredible insight and information regarding their own masters as well as poor masters put out day after day after day.
With such knowledge, quite a few OCD music lovers buy up multiple versions of albums, rip them, test them and then reply to the community with samples and images we can all see and hear to gauge for ourselves if we want to 1) buy an album, 2) wait for another version 3) hunt on Ebay for something special.
I haven't purchased an audio component for a while now and won't be for a while (kids, school, dead wallet...) yet I can afford to buy solid versions of albums I love (if they stay under 3 figures). A well recorded album will sound better on a low-fi to mid-fi setup vs. a poorly recorded version of the same album on a megabuck system. So many have been plunking down large bundles of cash on uber amps, rare headphones but rarely do I catch folks ferociously researching premium versions of their choice albums.
No doubt, most albums are simply duds in terms of mastering. Worse than that, I suppose is that only one mastering is done and released. Yet, there are quite a few albums with multiple versions released all around the world, say for instance the US/Canada release being very different than the West German or Japanese release (particularly Japanese releases).
These differences can stem from alternate tracks to extra tracks to completely different folks involved in mastering. This is all just for a single format! Imagine the permutations when we start throwing in LP vs. RBCD vs. HDCD vs. XRCD vs. SACD!
I don't expect us to duplicate the information from the Hoffman forums, but I think it would be worthwhile if we focused on well recorded albums. Sure there are a few threads floating around, but a good many of these are purely subjective with no data being used at all save for one's ears. Posting some wav forms and/or clips for others to listen to would really expand our own knowledge base particularly since the demographics of each site are very different. The Hoffman forums are mostly middle aged guys who love their Jazz and Classic Rock. In fact, one could anticipate a dozen new Beatles threads every week, no joke!
Garbage in, Garbage out. More than "Sorry about your wallet" should be the mantra chanted by audiophiles at Head-fi. Why? Because headphones are famous for being far more resolving than speakers on the whole. That means the nuances of most of the differences in a recording will be more readily apparent to the headphone users than those listening to speakers (unless of course something is brickwalled to the max).
Garbage in, Garbage out. This is why so many albums sound awful. They were poorly engineered.
Garbage in, Garbage out. We are more aware of these flaws as we continue to upgrade. Upgrading being an epidemic among Head-fiers.
Garbage in , Garbage out. No matter how much one spends on their kit, the music won't be magically transformed. The good will be highlighted no doubt, but the bad will be as equally apparent and sometimes even more so.
Garbage in, Garbage out. Every member here should familiarize themselves with names like Hoffman, Gray, Diament etc.
Garbage in, Garbage out. Every member here should be made aware of WG "target" recordings. Early Japanese pressings. Variants of albums X Y and Z.
Garbage in, Garbage out. It won't go away but it can be made to smell better!
Goodness in, Goodness out. Not everyone will want to spend the time researching and/or hunting and spending more money on albums when they can just download from iTunes, head to Walmart and grab the CD etc...but to those that want Goodness in, Goodness out...that road will be a far easier journey with the proper knowledge under their belt.
Goodness in, Goodness out. It just might cure more than a few Head-fiers from upgraditis. Of course, the opposite could be true. It might elevate the disease to a near fatal level
