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TheMadMilkman posted:Buying the same album to get your hands on a different mastering is perfectly valid. i think classical is the only genre which still regularly supports the audiophile formats. BIS, Channel Classics and Chandos still make SACD stuff, and the big labels are trying really hard to make "spatial" BD-audio (eg Dolby Atmos) a thing because Quadrophonic didn't fail hard enough in the 70s. it's not really that surprising because classical was always kind of the prestige audiophile genre, though a lot of it has been trying to recapture the magic that the first stereo boom and then the CD boom had. Feels Villeneuve fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Oct 30, 2022 |
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Oct 30, 2022 17:04
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For the longest time American audiophiles would claim the best sounding records ever made were RCA Living Stereo classical records which is why early pressings of them still sell for inflated amounts at some stores. There's an old school record store near my old apartment which still has an entire selection of RCA LSC records at way over what I'd pay for a classical LP especially when I can find them elsewhere for cheap. Love that Living Stereo logo though.
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Oct 30, 2022 20:34
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Mercury is the other label for classical stereo records audiophiles loved and i like that they were proud enough of their three Schoeps/Telefunken mics that they put them on their CD box set front and center
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Oct 30, 2022 20:46
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because i never get to nerd about old rear end classical audiphilia, one of my favorite bits of insanity was the whole London Records/Decca records thing Decca was the audiophile favorite for British classical records but they didn't have the rights to the Decca name here, so they sold their records under the London Records brand. London Records LPs which were manufactured in the UK are exactly the same as the Decca records, as in they have the exact same stamper numbers and all that. Despite this there are a whole slew of people who swear on the bible that Decca-branded records sound clearly better than the London ones, and that the engineers at the Decca plants secretly changed the mastering for American releases, or hoarded the Hot Stamper releases for themselves. This is a flamewar that has been going on since like the 1950s. You still see people argue about it today.
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Oct 30, 2022 21:12
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Ok Comboomer posted:I have a whole collection of DG stuff, mostly found dirt cheap at thrifts and estate sales, stretching from like the mid 50s to today and all of it sounds lovely i love Archiv which were DG's early music/baroque label. they had all these certificates about the recording process in the boxes and everything about it down to the typefaces used are so German   classical is fun to collect because unlike every single other bit of the LP world it hasn't skyrocketed in price. i've had shops just give me poo poo for free because i'm the only person they know who will take classical off their hands
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Oct 30, 2022 21:19
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strtj posted:When I worked at a record store we got a big collection from a university professor who was a hardcore audiophile during that time (like $10k+ ribbon speakers, the whole works) and some of those Living Stereo records sold for absolutely wacko amounts of money. Someone could make a loving killing taking the tapes for those from the RCA vault and reissuing them in high-res digital, or something really crazy like 10" half-track reel to reel tape oh they constantly get reissued, in SACD no less. I think pretty much all RCA exists for as a brand anymore is for Living Stereo box sets reissued by Sony i kinda want one of the RCA LSC classical boxes but they're expensive used and classical stuff goes out of print immediately
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Nov 1, 2022 15:40
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ftr they really sound great but one of the big reasons that there was a massive boom in RCA Living Stereo record values in the 80s or so was when The Absolute Sound declared that the Carl Reiner/CSO recording of Pictures at an Exhibition was the greatest sounding record ever made or something, and a single publication could still have that kind of impact
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Nov 1, 2022 15:45
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strtj posted:Someone could make a loving killing taking the tapes for those from the RCA vault and reissuing them in high-res digital, or something really crazy like 10" half-track reel to reel tape lol speak of the devil  i mean i get it, reel-to-reel is just kinda cool
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Nov 1, 2022 15:54
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that reissue costs $450 btw. vinyl is just not expensive and impractical enough
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Nov 1, 2022 16:05
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i really do love the sound of those 50s/60s stereo classical recordings, by the way. The Absolute Sound might be full of BS, and I don't think they're the greatest records ever pressed or whatever the hell they said, but they're great performances, especially the Munch/Boston stuff
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Nov 1, 2022 17:08
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this is one of my favorites, there's an earlier recording and idk why Munch/BSO did it twice but I think this is just an incredibly exciting Fantastique https://tidal.com/browse/album/66093167 I'm glad streaming services have it since it only shows up in complete Charles Munch box sets these days- the earlier recording is the one that gets reissued constantly e) i always liked a joke from a classical record guide that the reason record companies made so many releases of Holst's "The Planets" was because hi-fi dealers loved using them to show off speakers to prospective customers Feels Villeneuve fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Nov 1, 2022 |
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Nov 1, 2022 21:02
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strtj posted:Well recorded synth stuff is actually great for testing a full range of frequencies. classical music, too!
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Dec 14, 2022 17:40
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the best product I've seen was a cable lead that you were supposed to hold to ground yourself while listening, to prevent interference from your own static energy. The tag line was "put yourself into your system"
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Dec 18, 2022 19:45
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lmao of course its Synergistic Research https://www.synergisticresearch.com/accessories/hd-sx-metaground/  it's $495. to be clear it's $495 for what amounts to an anti-static wristband. the ground block is $8,000. quote:And this got Ted to thinking, “What if I grounded myself along with the system to the Galileo Ground Block SX? Would this carry a similar benefit?” We built a prototype ground strap the following day and connected a listener to the Galileo Ground Block SX, where we grounded the rest of our reference system, including Tranquility Bases, Cables, Racks, and the frame of our listening room; and guess what? Our reference system got better when we were grounded. Grounding yourself to your system delivers improvements that start with more natural sound. Soundstaging is more realistic, with individual instruments and vocals taking on precise placement with improved high-frequency decay and smoothness. Even the bass is improved. We realize this may be a stretch for many people to accept, so we make it easy for you to try before making a final decision. Feels Villeneuve fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Dec 18, 2022 |
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Dec 18, 2022 19:50
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A440 being some kind of vast elite conspiracy was one of the tenets of Lyndon Larouche so you know it's good
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Dec 21, 2022 17:30
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"historically inspired" ensembles love tinkering with pointless poo poo so it wouldnt surprise me to see a ton of variation in pitch and temperament depending on who's conducting that day
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Dec 21, 2022 19:24
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after getting into a sinkhole of reviews of "audiophile grade" ethernet switches I have a great scam idea. someone needs to bring back network hubs, but for audiophiles. mention that switches use some dirty encapsulation method to alter the signal, while hubs pass along the pure, unaltered signal. make some comparison that switches are like digital, and hubs are analog. please don't let me know that someone's done this
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Jan 2, 2023 21:19
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i kind of get what "soundstage" means
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Jan 3, 2023 18:26
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like i assume it's referring to stuff like the process of finding the right place to listen to stereo speakers so your brain successfully puts the two channels together or whatever it is, it's still kind of a funny term
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Jan 3, 2023 18:27
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arent some of the software-based 3D audio calibration things like on new bluetooth headphones really good at that
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Jan 3, 2023 18:58
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This is from 2016 but I just found it today. it's the world's tiniest magic acoustic rock, you put it on your cartridge, it's so cute 
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Jan 17, 2023 18:00
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how was the soundstage
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Jan 17, 2023 18:10
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strtj posted:also what the gently caress is that cartridge. it looks like a lovely hot rod paint job it's a Lyra cartridge which cost like $10,000
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Jan 17, 2023 18:23
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i think every cart past like the $1k point looks like rear end, even the wood Grado ones e) ok exception, the DS Audio carts with the Cylon light look sick 
Feels Villeneuve fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Jan 17, 2023 |
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Jan 17, 2023 18:30
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on the other hand the majority of audiophile network switches i see are unmanaged ethernet switches which frequently run at 100Mbps, probably because that's the speed of the TP-Link card that they're using to make their dumb poo poo
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Jan 18, 2023 23:28
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Palladium posted:audiophile engineering is pushing the boundaries so hard they can't even pay the chinese $1 for gigabit ports on a $2000 box i kind of differentiate between useless poo poo that's clearly a labor of love, like insane mass-loaded turntables that look like steampunk espresso machines and cost $100k, versus stuff that is blatantly made in bad faith like shoving the innards of a TP-Link into a new case
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Jan 19, 2023 23:54
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Palladium posted:it actually has a mic that learns your room modes and a camera that adjusts the EQ depending on where it detects you in the room yeah it'd be fun to try a demo because that at least theoretically does something, though i'm virtually positive it isn't $25,000 worth of something
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Jan 22, 2023 19:40
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That JBL thing is actually kinda cool but yeah I'm not sure why you'd get that and not just get a pair of powered speakers instead.
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Jan 26, 2023 17:05
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Feels Villeneuve posted:on the other hand the majority of audiophile network switches i see are unmanaged ethernet switches which frequently run at 100Mbps, probably because that's the speed of the TP-Link card that they're using to make their dumb poo poo an update on this is that apparently some audiophiles think 100mbps switches sound better because gigabit switches need more powerful processors, which introduce more noise into the signal chain or something, which is just to say that the "sell old network hubs to audiophiles" thing would totally work
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Jan 29, 2023 18:22
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more like BJL
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Feb 12, 2023 15:55
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also what's the coolest looking overpriced audiophile poo poo, a lot of them have that "DIY" look to them but I absolutely love the DS cart with the Cylon light on it and would totally get one just for that if I had lottery money (sadly it doesn't track back and forth like the actual Cylon light)
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Feb 12, 2023 16:07
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isn't the non-rebranded-Chinese Grado stuff literally just made by some dudes in a shoddy basement
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Mar 6, 2023 17:14
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dammit i kinda want those pokemon phones
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Mar 6, 2023 18:33
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my favorite audiophile rockFeels Villeneuve posted:This is from 2016 but I just found it today.
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Mar 27, 2023 17:12
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Absolutely nothing in Stereophile or TAS about MQA going bankrupt. Lol
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Apr 8, 2023 01:36
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qirex posted:The audience that reads things like TAS is a segment of the market that is literally dying. Young people are getting into audio and it’s via headphones and powered speakers and little $100 DACs but it’s still much easier to sell one million dollar thing to the right sucker than a million two dollar ones. You kind of see this with a ton of the "legacy" audio companies now pushing stuff like soundbars and powered stereo speakers. I imagine it's easier these days to sell people getting into audio on like, a Rega P1 and a JBL soundbar than some setup involving an amp/receiver.
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Apr 8, 2023 15:55
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There's also that big group (Voxx) who own Klipsch, Onkyo and Pioneer's non-turntable stuff and Klipsch has gone hard into soundbars and powered speakers too, while still having the more "halo" stuff like the Klipschorn/La Scala line. (apparently those guys also own Acoustic Research but as a zombie brand - all that's on their site is outdoor speakers and some rebranded IEMs)
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Apr 8, 2023 18:12
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Some "actual" MQA news https://www.ecoustics.com/news/mqa-bankruptcy/ quote:There have been a series of events in recent months that likely explain why MQA filed when it did. Speculation mainly being that MQA's Bluetooth codec was seen as possibly being a viable product but MQA itself was not (the funniest thing being them speculating that they renamed it "SCL6" to avoid association with MQA and make it more attractive to buyers) Feels Villeneuve fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Apr 8, 2023 |
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Apr 8, 2023 18:23
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in *fairness* the idea of MQA being "cool technology which gives lossless sound quality with lower bandwidth" makes a ton more sense in the Bluetooth realm than the online streaming realm. now that tech might be a crock of poo poo but that's besides the point does anyone actually give a poo poo about their Bluetooth codec btw?
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Apr 9, 2023 00:36
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taqueso posted:BT audio used to be incredibly bad so, yes I mean in the "having strong opinions on LDAC vs APTX" sense
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Apr 9, 2023 02:32
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