RapidRonnie
August 6th 07, 10:32 PM
Dear Mr. Aczel,
I have came across your site and downloaded the .pdf issues of
"TAC". I find
it interesting to look through them because I bought several of them
at the
newsstand over the years, along with the other audio magazines. (The
only
magazine I subscribe to in the audio field is Ed Dell's "The Audio
Amateur", now
known after trifurcation and reintegration as "AudioXPress". ) At the
time I was
not completely happy with some of the articles therein but over time
have come
to realize they were more right than I gave them credit for.
<<Personal note redacted>>
Like most people who are relatively young, I have a less than great
interest in
classical music, although I do listen to some of it on occasion.
Recently I
purchased a set of ten RCA Living Stereo SACD discs, Set #3, including
the Hi-Fi
Fiedler demonstration album and Van Cliburn, Anna Moffo, and various
symphonic
works. I am convinced by this set of two things: that SACD at its best
is very
good, and that in some cases, even though vinyl might not be the best
possible
medium today, it might be the best medium on which a given performance
is
available to the public. Therefore the desire by an audiophile to own
a good
record playing setup may be quite rational. In addition to the fact
that no CD,
SACD or DVD-A release may be available which is as good as extant LPs,
there are
a great number of LPs available cheaply of music which may be good,
even great,
which have not been released on digital media or for which the low
price of the
vinyl may make "taking a chance" very advantageous.
I have many dozens of LPs which I have obtained for free or for very
little
money which give me a great deal of listening pleasure. They range
from Allen
Organ demonstration records to spoken word and bird training discs and
even such
trashy pleasures as LPs given away as utility company premiums. One
from the
Chicago gas utility dating from 1965 or so has a performance of the
company's
managers singing selections from "Guys and Dolls". In many or most
cases this
material will never see a digital release in any format.
There are two issues that must be considered in any discussion of
digital
media, especially music or film, of which availability is one. The
other is
archivality. Kodachrome and Technicolor dye sub release prints and
vinyl phono
records have an almost infinite shelf life. Indeed, I have heard phono
records
salvaged by divers from the wreck of the Andrea Doria, under 200 feet
of
seawater for the better part of five decades, and which still play
fine aside
from scratches inflicted by aggressive diver handling.
For that reason I do not agree with comments made that deride any
interest in
phono reproduction in your magazine. Digital recordings may be
better, but if
they were not made then and sufficiently excellent masters don't
exist or are
not forthcoming, we may be stuck with the analog.
In addition, your attacks on gullibo-tweak0ism are often well
intentioned but
obscure the fact that the tweak may originally have had some sensible
basis in
origin, or that inexpensive alternatives that provide benefit in some
situations
and which at worst do no harm are readily available. For example,
expensive
pointy bases for stands may be ridiculous, but sharp points may offer
the best
mounting on some floor surfaces, and an inexpensive source exists: the
brass
points used on surveyor's tripods.
Many tract houses today have very poor floor-to-joist contact, and
there are
simple DIY fixes that do no harm and cost only a few dollars, such as
reinforcing and shoring up the joists with underfloor stringers and
putting
reinforcements on the joists, using plywood and glue.
And while power conditioners are a scam, balanced power is not: it's
used in
most professional sound facilities today, and while most facilities
use 120 VAC
balanced, 240 VAC balanced works just as well if you have equipment
with a dual
primary winding, and every house built since the 1960s has it already
installed.
Why aren't manufacturers promoting its use? There, I suggest, is a
real question
for you. I have had 240 outlets professionally installed in my house
and have
rewired my Hafler and McIntosh solid state amplifiers for 240 power
with DPST
power switches and code compliant cabling. The cost was minimal and
the results
noticeable: the noise floor is reduced.
http://theaudiocritic.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=38&blogId=1
I have came across your site and downloaded the .pdf issues of
"TAC". I find
it interesting to look through them because I bought several of them
at the
newsstand over the years, along with the other audio magazines. (The
only
magazine I subscribe to in the audio field is Ed Dell's "The Audio
Amateur", now
known after trifurcation and reintegration as "AudioXPress". ) At the
time I was
not completely happy with some of the articles therein but over time
have come
to realize they were more right than I gave them credit for.
<<Personal note redacted>>
Like most people who are relatively young, I have a less than great
interest in
classical music, although I do listen to some of it on occasion.
Recently I
purchased a set of ten RCA Living Stereo SACD discs, Set #3, including
the Hi-Fi
Fiedler demonstration album and Van Cliburn, Anna Moffo, and various
symphonic
works. I am convinced by this set of two things: that SACD at its best
is very
good, and that in some cases, even though vinyl might not be the best
possible
medium today, it might be the best medium on which a given performance
is
available to the public. Therefore the desire by an audiophile to own
a good
record playing setup may be quite rational. In addition to the fact
that no CD,
SACD or DVD-A release may be available which is as good as extant LPs,
there are
a great number of LPs available cheaply of music which may be good,
even great,
which have not been released on digital media or for which the low
price of the
vinyl may make "taking a chance" very advantageous.
I have many dozens of LPs which I have obtained for free or for very
little
money which give me a great deal of listening pleasure. They range
from Allen
Organ demonstration records to spoken word and bird training discs and
even such
trashy pleasures as LPs given away as utility company premiums. One
from the
Chicago gas utility dating from 1965 or so has a performance of the
company's
managers singing selections from "Guys and Dolls". In many or most
cases this
material will never see a digital release in any format.
There are two issues that must be considered in any discussion of
digital
media, especially music or film, of which availability is one. The
other is
archivality. Kodachrome and Technicolor dye sub release prints and
vinyl phono
records have an almost infinite shelf life. Indeed, I have heard phono
records
salvaged by divers from the wreck of the Andrea Doria, under 200 feet
of
seawater for the better part of five decades, and which still play
fine aside
from scratches inflicted by aggressive diver handling.
For that reason I do not agree with comments made that deride any
interest in
phono reproduction in your magazine. Digital recordings may be
better, but if
they were not made then and sufficiently excellent masters don't
exist or are
not forthcoming, we may be stuck with the analog.
In addition, your attacks on gullibo-tweak0ism are often well
intentioned but
obscure the fact that the tweak may originally have had some sensible
basis in
origin, or that inexpensive alternatives that provide benefit in some
situations
and which at worst do no harm are readily available. For example,
expensive
pointy bases for stands may be ridiculous, but sharp points may offer
the best
mounting on some floor surfaces, and an inexpensive source exists: the
brass
points used on surveyor's tripods.
Many tract houses today have very poor floor-to-joist contact, and
there are
simple DIY fixes that do no harm and cost only a few dollars, such as
reinforcing and shoring up the joists with underfloor stringers and
putting
reinforcements on the joists, using plywood and glue.
And while power conditioners are a scam, balanced power is not: it's
used in
most professional sound facilities today, and while most facilities
use 120 VAC
balanced, 240 VAC balanced works just as well if you have equipment
with a dual
primary winding, and every house built since the 1960s has it already
installed.
Why aren't manufacturers promoting its use? There, I suggest, is a
real question
for you. I have had 240 outlets professionally installed in my house
and have
rewired my Hafler and McIntosh solid state amplifiers for 240 power
with DPST
power switches and code compliant cabling. The cost was minimal and
the results
noticeable: the noise floor is reduced.
http://theaudiocritic.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=38&blogId=1