That Ella - Cole Porter is a magical recording. I can’t tell you how many different pressings I have, but the DCC gold cds from the mid 90s beat even the best vinyl copy I have. If your cd player is good enough to take advantage of it. Played back properly, it’s like opening a portal in time and space, taking you back into the studio while it was being recorded. As I said, magical.
I do cavil at the unscientific claim that a mono recording has “twice the data density” of a stereo one. There are reasons to prefer the mono masters of some recordings, but this isn’t one of them.
An interesting list, and I'll have to check out some of these tracks. Curious to know what you think of using Fleetwood Mac's _Rumours_ as a reference recording, particularly Gold Dust Woman. I've often used it simply because I'm very familiar with it and there is so much happening in that track, and it's always fun to see how much of it a system will reveal. The album also is, so far as I know. beautifully recorded and mastered.
I've also heard of people using the first Rage Against the Machine album as a demo disc because it too is beautifully recorded.
Hope to see more audio / audiophile write-ups in the future... definitely an area I am interested in.
I just try to figure out what the people are chanting in "B.O.B" without looking up the lyrics and if I can then the latest headphones I got from 5 Below are good enough for me.
A question for John (or anyone else with expertise):
But first, a preamble!
It will surprise no resident of the comment section that I had a *precocious* adolescence. Particularly so when it came to music. There was absolutely, strictly ZERO “popular” or Top 40 music in my life when I was a child (born in ‘89); I don’t think that my father listens to any music recorded after ~1985. I spent a year of my middle school life listening only to instrumental music - surf guitar and Tubular Bells (yes … really).
By high school, I had emerged from the nest. I vividly recall a conversation that took place on or about December 17, 2003. I recall it with such ease because I know exactly where I was on or around the date - viewing the cinematic premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. A friend’s father chaperoned a group of high school freshmen to Atlanta on opening night. Our chaperone was a pediatrician, and most of us would have been his patients, at least at some point.
The pediatrician was also a big shopper. In the days of Tuesday media releases - DVDs, CDs, books, etc. - he took the day off each week and drove to Atlanta to buy whatever was new. He asked me what I was receiving for Christmas:
Among other things, I had decided that I HAD to have a SONY SACD player plus the receiver and speakers, etc. He said: “I think that’s sort of a dead end … I just got another iPod, and it’s amazing how easy it is to have ALL of my music with me wherever I go.”
What ever happened to SACD and DVD-Audio? Do the “best” streaming services approximate that degree of fidelity? If not, what’s the point of high-end Bluetooth audio (i.e., Bang + Olufsen, etc.) other than vanity?
Not that I ever had a stereo setup worth a damn, but Steely Dan has long been my standard for evaluation.
It's only in the last couple of years that I really came to appreciate "If You Can Read My Mind," a fantastic recording and a really beautiful piece of songwriting.
I need to get my dad's old Pioneer HPMs fixed and find an appropriate vintage amp to run them through.
More of a question about when things go wrong. My usual way of making things sound good enough is running things through a schitt dac to a reasonable amp to older Boston Acoustic CR speakers size dependant on space. I am happy enough with the results but I am sure there is room for improvement.
One of my knuckleheads blew out the speakers on the setup in our retail space last year. While I got the speakers fixed they donated a bose system from the mid aughts, tiny little cubes and a sub.
It sounded OKish (not really) for most of what they played. However if I put on certain kinds of music, like the Dubliners or other folk style stuff it sounded like ass, regardless of volume.
My question is not how to fix it, it's been replaced, but what caused it to sound so bad in the first place but only under specific conditions?
If I could only have one album to play for the rest of my life it would be the Ella Fitzgerald (a desperately poor and unattractive young woman) singing Cole Porter (a child of wealth from a small Indiana town). An incredible voice singing the songs of America's most literate and creative songwriter.
Read over the lyrics to You're the Top or Anything Goes or even Let's Do It before you disagree with me.
My favorite audio system was a cassette tape player that I used to use on my TRS-80 CoCo. Sloshing around in my beat up Chevy LuV. James Brown Solid Gold 20 Hits.
Four D batteries for a premium DC power supply with no ripple. Radio Shack Battery of the Month baby!
This was a fabulous surprise. Great and informative post.
i will now try to listen to this though a laptop and low grade headphones
That Ella - Cole Porter is a magical recording. I can’t tell you how many different pressings I have, but the DCC gold cds from the mid 90s beat even the best vinyl copy I have. If your cd player is good enough to take advantage of it. Played back properly, it’s like opening a portal in time and space, taking you back into the studio while it was being recorded. As I said, magical.
A really nice bunch of selections.
I do cavil at the unscientific claim that a mono recording has “twice the data density” of a stereo one. There are reasons to prefer the mono masters of some recordings, but this isn’t one of them.
An interesting list, and I'll have to check out some of these tracks. Curious to know what you think of using Fleetwood Mac's _Rumours_ as a reference recording, particularly Gold Dust Woman. I've often used it simply because I'm very familiar with it and there is so much happening in that track, and it's always fun to see how much of it a system will reveal. The album also is, so far as I know. beautifully recorded and mastered.
I've also heard of people using the first Rage Against the Machine album as a demo disc because it too is beautifully recorded.
Hope to see more audio / audiophile write-ups in the future... definitely an area I am interested in.
I just try to figure out what the people are chanting in "B.O.B" without looking up the lyrics and if I can then the latest headphones I got from 5 Below are good enough for me.
A question for John (or anyone else with expertise):
But first, a preamble!
It will surprise no resident of the comment section that I had a *precocious* adolescence. Particularly so when it came to music. There was absolutely, strictly ZERO “popular” or Top 40 music in my life when I was a child (born in ‘89); I don’t think that my father listens to any music recorded after ~1985. I spent a year of my middle school life listening only to instrumental music - surf guitar and Tubular Bells (yes … really).
By high school, I had emerged from the nest. I vividly recall a conversation that took place on or about December 17, 2003. I recall it with such ease because I know exactly where I was on or around the date - viewing the cinematic premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. A friend’s father chaperoned a group of high school freshmen to Atlanta on opening night. Our chaperone was a pediatrician, and most of us would have been his patients, at least at some point.
The pediatrician was also a big shopper. In the days of Tuesday media releases - DVDs, CDs, books, etc. - he took the day off each week and drove to Atlanta to buy whatever was new. He asked me what I was receiving for Christmas:
Among other things, I had decided that I HAD to have a SONY SACD player plus the receiver and speakers, etc. He said: “I think that’s sort of a dead end … I just got another iPod, and it’s amazing how easy it is to have ALL of my music with me wherever I go.”
What ever happened to SACD and DVD-Audio? Do the “best” streaming services approximate that degree of fidelity? If not, what’s the point of high-end Bluetooth audio (i.e., Bang + Olufsen, etc.) other than vanity?
Not that I ever had a stereo setup worth a damn, but Steely Dan has long been my standard for evaluation.
It's only in the last couple of years that I really came to appreciate "If You Can Read My Mind," a fantastic recording and a really beautiful piece of songwriting.
I need to get my dad's old Pioneer HPMs fixed and find an appropriate vintage amp to run them through.
More of a question about when things go wrong. My usual way of making things sound good enough is running things through a schitt dac to a reasonable amp to older Boston Acoustic CR speakers size dependant on space. I am happy enough with the results but I am sure there is room for improvement.
One of my knuckleheads blew out the speakers on the setup in our retail space last year. While I got the speakers fixed they donated a bose system from the mid aughts, tiny little cubes and a sub.
It sounded OKish (not really) for most of what they played. However if I put on certain kinds of music, like the Dubliners or other folk style stuff it sounded like ass, regardless of volume.
My question is not how to fix it, it's been replaced, but what caused it to sound so bad in the first place but only under specific conditions?
I won't be unsubscribing over this!
Very nice!
Today marks the first time I've ever seen or heard Gordon Lightfoot mentioned outside of the context of his danged song about that damned ship.
It's like Leonard Cohen and "Hallelujah". These people wrote more than one song. Some of them are even good!
How does the saying go? "Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment."
I'll show myself out...!
If I could only have one album to play for the rest of my life it would be the Ella Fitzgerald (a desperately poor and unattractive young woman) singing Cole Porter (a child of wealth from a small Indiana town). An incredible voice singing the songs of America's most literate and creative songwriter.
Read over the lyrics to You're the Top or Anything Goes or even Let's Do It before you disagree with me.
Thanks for this post. I have some listening to do!
One of my favorite songs to test the breadth and depth of a sound system is Enya’s “Orinoco Flow.”
Does that have any merit, or should I be donning a garbage bag to try to not get completely besotted with rotten tomatoes?
I used to use Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush as a test track long ago when it came out.
My favorite audio system was a cassette tape player that I used to use on my TRS-80 CoCo. Sloshing around in my beat up Chevy LuV. James Brown Solid Gold 20 Hits.
Four D batteries for a premium DC power supply with no ripple. Radio Shack Battery of the Month baby!