[mp]

FiveDotOne wrote:

The "high end" press has been very quiet about multi-channel (except
Stereophile / Music in the Round by KR). They seem to have wanted to
forget this advancement in audio reproduction completely ... but is this
going to change?

Peter Aczel has been writing about the pros and cons of surround for a
long time. However, most of his writing on the subject is not found in
the "gear" section, but in his CD and SACD reviews--where it should be,
I guess.

BTW, according to a notice on his site, access will be free at the
beginning of the new year for anyone interested.

The most active audiophiles are retro audiophiles that hate CD, digital
audio in general and want to go back to the golden 70es and their youth.

One cannot be too dismissive of older results. In spite of its at times
"pop" recording style, the Solti Ring is very good, sonically. I'd
certainly rate it as good if not better than, say, the digital Janowski
which used the then SAO Soundstream device.

Also, in another post I briefly mentioned the Brian Wilson Pet Sounds
sessions recorded at Western and, I believe, Gold Star, using 4 (and the
then new) 8 track analog machines. It is hard to tell listening to the
mono release, but in the CD box set one is amazed at how fantastic the
old multi-tracked tapes (now mixed into "stereo") are. Here, I am not
talking about the "stereo" mix of the final album (which is heresy) but
the actual multi-tracked sessions prior to final mix down.

So, newer is not always better.

mp