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Remember the old days when you made sure you had the killer stereo system setup? The amp, pre-amp, belt drive or direct drive turn table? 2-way or 3-way speakers, etc. Just to make sure you had the optimum listening environment? I know I did.
Is that dead now? I hardly hear any people discuss their music and sound systems anymore. All they talk about is how many MP3 songs they download to their Ipods. I have heard that the quality of some of the MP3s that is available is not great.
And what do you all think about the hip trend of releasing new albums onto vinyl? Is the MP3 questionable quality the reason? I was amazed when I heard that, being a collector who has many CDs AND vinyl...
Yeah gardener, I remember the good old days when rack system stereos were the rage. Now they are only sold in specialty shops. BTW, vinyl sounds better than a c.d. if it's played on a nice system.
Vinyl does have a warm sound.
And there's nothing wrong with having good speakers so you can blast out good music.
FWIW, we plan on building a nice sound system in the coming year.
I have a turntable and cd player in our home office, and I hate to take it out of there to put it in the living room.
The highest end audio pieces that I owned was the Carver receiver and a Nakamichi BX-300 tape deck. Got the best use out of them. Now I scour estate sales and see what people discard to the street.
My brother went to a moving/divorce sale and bought a McIntosh mono amp with a cracked faceplate (I guess the man ducked when she threw a full whiskey tumbler at him) for $50...worth at least 10 times that.
" Full Blooded American" has to understand that a lot of todays off the shelf audio is crap, disposable after a few years, and for sure cannot pull in stations like old equipment. Can't pick up any stations on any mp3 player with an earbud antenna. Not much on FM to even bother.
I have one, an I River... it's nice for portability and ok transferring audio from tape and vinyl. Some are players and just that, otherwise useless.
A lot of people, young and old, are going back to vintage for the quality and / or the retro feel.
A neat little shop around the corner from me in Akron, Ohio...Akron Antique Audio...they have more items in stock than they have online, you just have to ask. I walked in there one day and asked if they had any air variable capacitors for I was building a loop antenna. He had a whole box of 'em. Gave one to me, I am going back there to buy a '60's receiver.
Remember the old days when you made sure you had the killer stereo system setup? The amp, pre-amp, belt drive or direct drive turn table? 2-way or 3-way speakers, etc. Just to make sure you had the optimum listening environment? I know I did.
I remember that, but I can't say I miss it (although I'd bet there's still a subculture of folks obsessed with that).
Quote:
I hardly hear any people discuss their music and sound systems anymore. All they talk about is how many MP3 songs they download to their Ipods. I have heard that the quality of some of the MP3s that is available is not great.
Maybe it's because my ears aren't so great (and being a musician for so long, I have a bit of tinnitus now, although it's not too bad yet), but MP3s sound just find to me--and even at 128kbps or less. When I was first burning some MP3s, I experimented with different bit-rates and "blind A-B" tested myself, and I really couldn't hear a difference between the different bit rates. That's not to deny that others can't hear the difference, but I sure can't.
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And what do you all think about the hip trend of releasing new albums onto vinyl?
I'd say it's primarily a retro, "hipster" trend--and one that the record companies are only too happy to promote (as well as promoting the belief that it sounds so much better than MP3s), because they're trying anything they can think of to bolster sales.
From a hobby standpoint audiophile lp's are as good as it gets soundwise. The Japan pressings are also superior quality. From a collecting standpoint audiophile recordings (M.F.S.L, Nautilus Superdisc, the UHQR Box Sets, Sheffield Sound Lab, etc., are very popular with audiophile people. Even the novice music collector knows about audiophile recordings from the standpoint of quality AND value.
Quality audiophile pressings are among the most collected in record collecting. Not all of the pressings go for top dollar as there are lp's that did not sell well for whatever reason. But anything by the top drawer groups (Beatles, Stones, Floyd) and the top of the line artists in other genres are in demand, have been in demand, are are going to be in demand.
I'd say it's primarily a retro, "hipster" trend--and one that the record companies are only too happy to promote (as well as promoting the belief that it sounds so much better than MP3s), because they're trying anything they can think of to bolster sales.
heh
No doubt the vinyl releases appeal to the young trendsters and aging hippies etc. Aw, let the fanboys (and girls) have their fun. Those red and white White Stripes albums are cool.
Not sure I want to store all that vinyl, and have not bought any new, nor created any--but I enjoy having what I kept, and would never turn any down if it were given to me.
A decent surround sound system is about all most people need. There are some hardcore audiophiles out there who check the specs of everything they buy before they buy, even the audio/video cables. Some are willing to pay hundreds of dollars just for the best quality/low resistance cable they can find. I've seen in some magazines a turntable with built in vacuum system (to pull the platter flat) and automatic leveling system (to ensure good balance) going for roughly $10,000. They still make and sell vacuum tube pre-amps. These are usually catalog order only since many are custom made and sell to those who can afford it.
Some are willing to pay hundreds of dollars just for the best quality/low resistance cable they can find.
The funny thing is that most audio engineers I've worked with don't spend hundreds of dollars on cables. They tend to say that that they're a rip-off.
Last edited by Tungsten_Udder; 12-14-2008 at 11:18 AM..
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