Is it unwise to buy a state of the art CD player at this time?
- Thread starter Mobiusman
- Start date
That is a good and important point. I love vinyl at its best, even though I don't own a player, but differences in pressing quality are a major problem.
Digital is more consistent, that's for sure. If the mastering of the recording isn't screwed up, that is.
C'mon Gordon and Ked. Whatever happened to peace and love?
I say that as self-appointed top hippie, you understand.
C'mon Gordon and Ked. Whatever happened to peace and love?
I say that as self-appointed top hippie, you understand.
"Sex and Drugs and Rock n Roll" and "Peace, Love and Dope..." were alot more fun "way back when" weren't they?!?
As Mr Dury said - very good indeed. Tell that to your average politician, LOL. Not that half of them don't appear to be whacked out anyway judging by the quality of content that emerges from their lips.
There are dreadful digital recordings as well. When someone refers to quality of vinyl, I think it is implicit it is not bad recordings, wrong VTA and SRA, mismatched phono and cartridge set up, but a good set up. And one does not have to own a component to know how good it sounds. I do know it varies in SQ but that high SQ is much more real.
The vast majority of your vinyl experience is listening to top set ups, owned by various people and at shows. They will be playing top notch vinyl to you.
When you go and order the stuff you want to actually listen to, if you ever dump a large sum on a top notch set up, I guarantee you at some stage you will feel very disappointed with the quality of a lot of records due to either their poor condition (the vinyl pusher has lied a bit or a lot) or the inherently poor pressing, the crap quality of the vinyl used, its state of "warpedness" etc etc the list goes on - off centre hole dah dee dah. All vinyl freaks know it, whether they admit it or not.
However, when something amazing comes along, and it does, it keeps you going looking for that next "ultimate fix". Hence the term vinyl junkie.
And that's the truth.
Yes, set-up and VTA adjustments can alleviate some issues, but a poor pressing is a poor pressing, just like a poor recording is a poor recording. Even on a million dollar system.
Actually, no. I would never have fallen in love with Vinyl if only DDK and Audiocrack level TTs sounded good. I first got tempted when Marty played his Goldmund Studio (used price $2k) with Benz into ASR phono (used price again similar) on a vibraplane. Phenomenal. No additional cost for an arm. Awesome. A good modded Linn LP12, cheap, was great. Micro Seiki 5000 (which I haven't heard but most rate better than many expensive modern TTs) is less than 10k USD used. I am looking at TTs in the long run only to listen to my favorite classical records, not be a collector. There a lot of TTs are great deals, cost of set up can be kept low (of course it is a blackhole and a tweaker will get lost forever, but that is another perspective). There are many expensive ones that have done nothing for me as well. The Acoustic Solid One to One (used price 3k or 4k Euro) transformed the old Apogee Diva I heard to make it one of my favorite systems. What realism.
Anyway don't want to turn this into a TT vs digital thread but thought I would clarify it's not based on top set ups. I have no intention of buying Techdas level decks even though they are awesome. If only that level of investment sounded great, it would have been easy to ignore.
All the TTs you have listed are top flight TTs.
I remember the Hi-Fi Choice review of the Goldmund Studio with T3F arm many, many years ago. They were obviously bowled over by how good it was. I remember some comment about them not being able to get it to sound normal, which made me smile.
Cheap now and I expect $2K meant it was in dreadful condition and needed some work, or someone got very lucky. It doesn't matter how much they cost now, it is just "are they top flight decks"?
I remember the Hi-Fi Choice review of the Goldmund Studio with T3F arm many, many years ago. They were obviously bowled over by how good it was. I remember some comment about them not being able to get it to sound normal, which made me smile.
Cheap now and I expect $2K meant it was in dreadful condition and needed some work, or someone got very lucky. It doesn't matter how much they cost now, it is just "are they top flight decks"?
Sorry, 2k GBP. That is the standard price. Recently both Guildford and Emporium here had that as list, and they do often turn up between 2 and 3k. Studios are pretty cheap. You don't need to spend a lot on TT unless you want multiple arms, cartridges, the best of phonos, etc. You can spend a lot too. The used prices of may well known TTs are actually quite reasonable. The peripherals cost, but so does on a dac. People add streamers, CD transports, mulltiple wires between them, isolation for the transport and for the dac, etc etc. What I do find good about a TT is, one well-set up TT is not more desirable than another well set-up TT. On digital, if I find A better than B, I want A. On TTs, I can be happy with many
Not sure how Acoustic Wood, modded Linn LP12 (which are now less than 5k with arm) are top set-ups, unless you are referring to anything above basic Rega
Maybe the the thread should be re-titled and re-named “Is it unwise to subscribe to a High Fidelity Music Streaming service at this time?”
According to the Wall Street Journal, a filing from Tidal’s holding company posted a loss of $28 million for 2015, $17.4 million than it lost in 2014. Although revenue was up by 30%, it spent $25 million on marketing and still owes $438,000 to nearly one-hundred labels. It’s currently looking to "secure new financing". Spotify on the other hand doubled its revenue to $2.9 billion, but lost $194 million in 2015. Tidal and Spotify are yet to break even.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/jay-zs-music-streaming-service-tidal-posts-huge-loss-1473778080
According to the Wall Street Journal, a filing from Tidal’s holding company posted a loss of $28 million for 2015, $17.4 million than it lost in 2014. Although revenue was up by 30%, it spent $25 million on marketing and still owes $438,000 to nearly one-hundred labels. It’s currently looking to "secure new financing". Spotify on the other hand doubled its revenue to $2.9 billion, but lost $194 million in 2015. Tidal and Spotify are yet to break even.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/jay-zs-music-streaming-service-tidal-posts-huge-loss-1473778080
Just few short interesting links to read:
• http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/in-defense-of-the-cd-20160204
• http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/133...t-is-it-and-which-streaming-services-offer-it
• http://diffuser.fm/what-is-the-best-format-listening-experience/
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/ianmorr...et-spotify-get-cd-quality-music/#6692175753fa
• http://qz.com/601587/streaming-musi...e-about-missing-out-on-cd-like-sound-quality/
• http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/reasons-why-vinyl-better-digital/
_________
On a personal note: My musical journey has taken me nowhere even remotely close to many members here @ WBF.
...On the aspects of audio electronics/components, cables (all cables), tubes (all that rolling jazz), 'uber-duber' mechanical forces (loudspeakers/drivers/crossovers), state-of-the-art musical sources (R2R, TT, digital players), state-of-the-art room acoustics, ...champagne, caviar and Cuban cigars.
But on the music side (all formats), I'm all in up to over my own fair chunk of emotional drawings on the walls of physical/spiritual life.
It has animated me even before I was born, in the wombs of my mother where I could feel the music vibes my Mom was dancing to. ...And most probably the same for all of us.
@ that time she was listening to live music (her own mother was a piano player/singer), and spinning 78s albums records.
Then on the very first day I saw the light of this planet...everything else was just simply history. Music was born.
* The music/audio conversations we have here and the people who are having them; how can we not be in awe and in intellectual advance.
Everything we share is everything we have. Sound matters. Music is sound. Live is life.
• http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/in-defense-of-the-cd-20160204
• http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/133...t-is-it-and-which-streaming-services-offer-it
• http://diffuser.fm/what-is-the-best-format-listening-experience/
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/ianmorr...et-spotify-get-cd-quality-music/#6692175753fa
• http://qz.com/601587/streaming-musi...e-about-missing-out-on-cd-like-sound-quality/
• http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/reasons-why-vinyl-better-digital/
_________
On a personal note: My musical journey has taken me nowhere even remotely close to many members here @ WBF.
...On the aspects of audio electronics/components, cables (all cables), tubes (all that rolling jazz), 'uber-duber' mechanical forces (loudspeakers/drivers/crossovers), state-of-the-art musical sources (R2R, TT, digital players), state-of-the-art room acoustics, ...champagne, caviar and Cuban cigars.
But on the music side (all formats), I'm all in up to over my own fair chunk of emotional drawings on the walls of physical/spiritual life.
It has animated me even before I was born, in the wombs of my mother where I could feel the music vibes my Mom was dancing to. ...And most probably the same for all of us.
@ that time she was listening to live music (her own mother was a piano player/singer), and spinning 78s albums records.
Then on the very first day I saw the light of this planet...everything else was just simply history. Music was born.
* The music/audio conversations we have here and the people who are having them; how can we not be in awe and in intellectual advance.
Everything we share is everything we have. Sound matters. Music is sound. Live is life.
I use TIDAL purely because it is lossless, but I am sick of the Jay Z marketing and black artist bias.
That said, it is excellent from the point of view that it is listenable. Spotify just doesn't hack it soundwise. If TIDAL goes I'll be quite upset about it.
The way Tidal is integrated into Sooloos I see no marketing. I just search for the artist/album and select it for the queue. Never see the site.
Russ, if you're not in a rush, PS Audio is coming out with a new transport that will play all formats.
Here's a thread on their website:
http://www.psaudio.com/forum/pwt-transport-topics/sacd-playback-transport/
Here's a thread on their website:
http://www.psaudio.com/forum/pwt-transport-topics/sacd-playback-transport/
You meant Roon or Sooloos?
Same for me with Roon and Tidal.. My own collection is perfectly integrated within Roon with the known weaknesses in Classical music... I recently noticed that Roon was showing much less albums than I knew I had.. A thousand les as a matter of fact then I discovered that several albums were ripped by the software I used at the times ( eac or was it dbPoweramp? Can't remember) in .ape ... Fortunately dbpoweramp has a batch option and I converted all the .ape in ,flac .. Albums now show up in Roon
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