what's the "Matador email"?
regarding the Yo La Tengo 'Painful" reissue, just a bit upthread
― sleeve, Thursday, 5 March 2015 20:54 (nine years ago) link
thanks - really interesting, pretty amazing for them to be so up front about it.
― Brio2, Thursday, 5 March 2015 20:59 (nine years ago) link
a couple of quid for a crappy 80s/90s cd being replaced by a newly remastered edition for £10 vs this excess.
no contest.
i.e. i have bought original cd 80s/90s/00s edition and then the remaster has been issued, and the sound quality has rarely been an issue.
no financial excess required for either edition, nor the equipment to actually hear the difference.
i will never ever understand the love of the scratchy groove.
― mark e, Thursday, 5 March 2015 21:38 (nine years ago) link
big art work. fun turn tables. cheap stevie wonder records that sound amazing. cheap fleetwood mac records that sound amazing. cheap steely dan records that, etc.
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, 5 March 2015 22:00 (nine years ago) link
studio productions until the mid 80s, dance music after that, probably rap after that...
― mattresslessness, Thursday, 5 March 2015 22:04 (nine years ago) link
cds are totally the hot bargain rn though imo
― mattresslessness, Thursday, 5 March 2015 22:05 (nine years ago) link
yeah. early 2000s were amazing for vinyl
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, 5 March 2015 22:07 (nine years ago) link
and maybe/probably it was better before then. I just wouldn't know.
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, 5 March 2015 22:08 (nine years ago) link
i get the love.i have a few old heavy duty 60s albums that sound fantastic.but the format is just too fragile and susceptible to too many variables as described in the recent article (and £££), that its just not worth the hassle.give me a well mastered cd, and lack of artwork anyday.
― mark e, Thursday, 5 March 2015 22:15 (nine years ago) link
lol when I got to the Emotional Rescue part of that article I was o_O. brothers in arms is also perfect. picturing those jerks listening to the synth riff of Walk of Life 15 times in a row and then scribbling 'silky bottom end' on a post-it.― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, March 5, 2015 2:18 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, March 5, 2015 2:18 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I can't stop giggling about this
― The Complainte of Ray Tabano, Thursday, 5 March 2015 22:18 (nine years ago) link
xp I think cd wallets is where I lost all respect for cds. I wish that I respected cds.
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, 5 March 2015 22:21 (nine years ago) link
i kind of wish i had the openness of soul to hear what these guys hear
really tho i wish i had the money they spend on these rigs
― goole, Thursday, 5 March 2015 22:22 (nine years ago) link
sadly, the money probably comes along with the ear hubris
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, 5 March 2015 22:24 (nine years ago) link
ha - yeah i think it's more mid-life crisis than openness of soul but I admire your generosity of spirit towards the hot stamper stans
― Brio2, Thursday, 5 March 2015 22:54 (nine years ago) link
Hot Stamper Stan's a pr good record store name
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 6 March 2015 00:00 (nine years ago) link
Hot Stan
― Jawn DWYCK (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Friday, 6 March 2015 00:04 (nine years ago) link
― Brio2, Thursday, March 5, 2015 4:54 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
well i'm not about to descend to using a /sarc tag
― goole, Friday, 6 March 2015 00:08 (nine years ago) link
this latest topic is super interesting to me since I work for a housewares company that makes a lot of stuff in plastic, obv, and every part of it makes total sense to me. I mean I don't know what the actual sound quality effect is, but you definitely are supposed to scrap and regrind the first umpteen pieces of a several thousand piece run. That's why our smaller orders of like 1000 pcs have worse quality than our 3000 or 6000 pc orders.
And the small vendors who don't physically have space to stage the work in process properly and have to cut corners on cycle time to keep up... this is like old home week.
― a date with density (Jon Lewis), Friday, 6 March 2015 16:12 (nine years ago) link
http://design-milk.com/stone-ohyeahstudio-nokoanna/
― koogs, Thursday, 12 March 2015 10:39 (nine years ago) link
hot stamp, i love you so
― gr8080, Thursday, 12 March 2015 14:43 (nine years ago) link
lololol
― a date with density (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 12 March 2015 15:46 (nine years ago) link
Currently bidding on a original press mono of the first Doors album, fingers crossed it's a hot stamper. On the real though fighting the urge to really go down the mono press rabbit hole on 60s classic albums
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 12 March 2015 16:12 (nine years ago) link
in the classic 60s arena, for me the only mono vs stereo battle that mono has lost has been Beatles For Sale. Not by a wide margin, but I do like the stereo better for that.
― a date with density (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 12 March 2015 16:41 (nine years ago) link
Never heard of "hot stampers" until that Wired article, the whole thing is just an obvious con.
BUT "Lawry has accumulated about 150 hot stampers since then. Adjusted for inflation, that’s the equivalent of buying a new Mercedes E-Class." - tbh, I'd get much much more out of 150 albums I love than any car ever
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Friday, 13 March 2015 05:23 (nine years ago) link
imo if you spend any amount of time in a car daily it's not bad for it to be nice
also you can listen to music in it
― mh, Friday, 13 March 2015 14:20 (nine years ago) link
Earlier this year, Jay Z dropped $56 million to purchase the Swedish technology company Aspiro, owner of two music services for aspirational listeners who appreciate the finer things in life, like lossless file streaming. Whereas shoddy services like Spotify and Rdio are always losing sound from the holes in their hobo file bindles, Aspiro’s high-end providers—WiMP and the newer TIDAL—lovingly fold their audio and ad-free music videos into the velvet purse of 16-bit FLAC files, expertly inserted into the discerning ears and eyes of audiophiles by digital butlers.http://www.avclub.com/article/jay-zs-streaming-service-isnt-everybody-ie-poors-217109
http://www.avclub.com/article/jay-zs-streaming-service-isnt-everybody-ie-poors-217109
I just love the illustrative language here.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 26 March 2015 16:17 (nine years ago) link
I tried Tidal, it's ok, nothing special
― mh, Thursday, 26 March 2015 16:24 (nine years ago) link
this is kind of amazing writing:
Spotify and Rdio are always losing sound from the holes in their hobo file bindles
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 26 March 2015 20:18 (nine years ago) link
have to say whenever i have tried spotify i have found it very 'shoddy'.umm .. not.(and no, i am not a fan, but thats cos of other reasons).baffles me that someone would put in so much $$$ into such a groove given the dominance of the big players that have clearly wrapped this market up.tis like the murdoc refunding of myspace to try and take on facebook.doomed from the start.
― mark e, Thursday, 26 March 2015 20:22 (nine years ago) link
i know a couple of people who complained about spotify sound quality, but who had not chosen the high-quality streaming in their preferences
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Friday, 27 March 2015 00:25 (nine years ago) link
"Excited to contact Sean Scoggin of Stereo Dave's Audio Alternative, I called him to discuss what his modifications were to the Pioneer SW-8MK2 and discovered that they use a proprietary method to influence and speed up the electron flow of the subwoofer's amplifier. Modifying the driver allows the subwoofer to move faster and have better freedom in its excursions for accuracy and speed in its ability to track the low frequencies it is replicating. All the modifications successfully work to quicken the subwoofer and increase its bandwidth/frequency range, making the subwoofer sound faster, more powerful, and deeper while still maintaining bass texture and detail.
i'm not really knowledgable in science...but that sounds like bullshit to me
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 10 July 2015 18:14 (eight years ago) link
he sped up the electron flow without making the music out of sync? what a magician
― Upright Mammal (mh), Friday, 10 July 2015 18:21 (eight years ago) link
people are generally worried about 'speeding up electrons' when they want to lower a shunt capacitance that will reduce the signal at high frequencies by shorting it to ground. i'm not sure why you'd want to lower capacitance for a subwoofer amplifier. one is generally more commonly concerned with increasing any series capacitance so that you don't have a very high series resistance at low frequencies. so I think it's probably bullshit.
― an asteroid could hit the planet (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, 11 July 2015 00:15 (eight years ago) link
this may or may not be snake oil...but I want one.https://www.marshallheadphones.com/mh_at_en/london-phone
― campreverb, Friday, 31 July 2015 13:28 (eight years ago) link
I already can't tell the difference between my Galaxy s6 DAC/amp and a nice desktop dac/amp connected to my laptop
― oh, i am a lonlely poster. i live in a box of posts. (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 31 July 2015 16:55 (eight years ago) link
You can get a ridiculous DAC (120dB SNR, etc.) for under a dollar in volume at this point.
― schwantz, Friday, 31 July 2015 17:15 (eight years ago) link
amusing audiophile article inc snake oil content) by ilx's old mate Petridis here: http://www.esquire.co.uk/culture/music/8618/are-the-audiophiles-hearing-something-were-not/
― Hector Ringtone (DJ Mencap), Monday, 3 August 2015 14:27 (eight years ago) link
Worried that something he calls “dirty” electricity will affect the sound his system produces, Jason has had his home rewired – his hi-fi is on a separate mains ring to the rest of the house, running off the “purest electricity possible”. “It’s quite a lonely road in some ways,” he says. “Because when you’re listening, you’re in your room, it’s just about you and the music.”
what the shit
― bizarro gazzara, Monday, 3 August 2015 14:31 (eight years ago) link
hope that goes through a power conditioner, the utility can't be relied upon to provide clean electricity
― Upright Mammal (mh), Monday, 3 August 2015 15:32 (eight years ago) link
Well, that's the thing, isn't it? Didn't your stereo used to sound better when you were young? That's because we used to have clean power. Now, no matter what kind of high-end system you have, it sounds worse than it used to. Because as soon as they privatize the utilities, the utility companies are more concerned with making a dollar than with providing you unsullied electricity. For my sound system I've installed a small hydroelectric generator that runs off a precisely regulated flow of water (yes, it's the water that comes off the mains, but it's been treated with audio-enhancing ingredients that remove the treble-damping ions that are known to cause issues in this type of system). This gives me the security of knowing that my hi-fi is running off the purest, sweetest, most audio-friendly electricity available with current technology.
Although I hear there are further advances being made in Eastern Europe that will render my system utterly obsolete within a year. It will be garbage. You couldn't pay me to listen to it anymore.
Great article xpost!
― hardcore dilettante, Monday, 3 August 2015 15:54 (eight years ago) link
James from HiFi Wigwam is not a man much given to mysticism – he’s funny and self-deprecating and tells me that the best upgrade you can buy for your equipment is “a couple of bottles of wine”
the truth will out.
― mark e, Monday, 3 August 2015 17:19 (eight years ago) link
"No seriously," James sad, "You balance your preamp on top of two bottles of $3,000 Napa Cabernet."
― oh, i am a lonlely poster. i live in a box of posts. (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 3 August 2015 17:29 (eight years ago) link
fits in nicely with recent revive :
Songs sounding better when drunk?????
― mark e, Monday, 3 August 2015 17:31 (eight years ago) link
Can anyone recommend a good short online guide/book/video/etc that summarizes the ins and outs of audiophilia - more for a lay consumer than someone concerned with the minutia of electrical physics, or someone with enough disposable income to actually buy a full hi-fi system at once.
― EDB, Tuesday, 18 August 2015 20:16 (eight years ago) link
Like, the ins and outs of the psychological delusion known as audiophilia? Bc that's just this thread.
― go hang a salami I'm a canal, adam (silby), Thursday, 20 August 2015 20:21 (eight years ago) link
EDB - the Entry Level forums at Stereophile are very helpful, I like Stephen Meijas's old columns are helpful
― Ma$e-en-scène (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 20 August 2015 20:31 (eight years ago) link
Thanks! xpost: the idea is precisely knowing where to draw the line between "sounds good" and "batshit crazy."
― EDB, Friday, 21 August 2015 04:28 (eight years ago) link
this is a good blog and project if you have the time and interest.
― oh, i am a lonlely poster. i live in a box of posts. (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 21 August 2015 04:40 (eight years ago) link
the headphones people at head-fi are uh, thorough, although you might end up with a headphone-buying problem
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 21 August 2015 14:02 (eight years ago) link
haha the controversial NwAVGuy!
― Ma$e-en-scène (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 21 August 2015 14:04 (eight years ago) link