Awesome Audiophile Snake Oil

I won't argue against streaming - it's pretty awesome we have that now, that's something people would've dreamed about decades ago. But I don't want to rely on a service's catalog, or their how their music is mastered. (Even hi-res becomes worthless if something isn't mastered well or brickwalled to shit.) And I don't want to rely on an internet signal either - that's probably less of an issue for most, but for whatever reason, we have had quite a few outages around here (I want my Fios, dammit!)

CDs and digital suit me, that's what I buy for myself. But sometimes I really appreciate the sound of a record and can understand the feeling that analogue (I'm talking pre-80s vinyl) is "closer to the music". I know that technically it's distorted, lower dynamic range, higher noise floor etc., but then I'm hearing definition and presence and... whatever, just enjoy it. That a whole chain of very skilled artists and artisan engineers were necessarily involved in making that thing probably doesn't hurt.

I once heard vinyl playback described as a "series of happy accidents" which rings true for me

I actually find anti-vinyl sentiment (in terms of digital scientifically being "better") much the same as a lot of audiophilia, like trust your ears not some readout of digital statistics

The appeal of vinyl (no skipping, listen to a full side) to me now is the exact reason I hated cassettes when I was a kid and got a CD player as soon as I could save enough.

But I don't want to rely on a service's catalog, or their how their music is mastered.

cue Jon Not Jon's detailed screed re: Universal and their audio watermarking that ruins everything

Yeah, getting back into vinyl has given me a "healthier" relationship to music. When streaming was my sole medium, I became so focused on the "best tracks" that I had a hard time listening to entire albums. With vinyl, I rarely ever listen to less than a full side of music and don't find myself worrying as much about what I am going to play *next*.

To be clear, I do get the appeal of vinyl, though it's tied too much to just the format. Past the quality of the pressing and the vinyl itself, digital vs analog mastering is a huge difference, and so is tubes vs solid state. If money wasn't an issue, I'd get any virgin vinyl record cut prior to the '70s - all tubes, all analog. The closest equivalent I can think of is watching a vintage IB Tech print of an old Hollywood movie. No reissue, not later film prints and not digital, can capture what you're seeing. But I also accept it's a luxury for people like myself, so I settle for optical discs (SACD's and UHD's on the high end) and that's more than fine with me.

If you really want to descend into the madness of new digital oriented "objective" audio component reviews, AudioScienceReview is a real madhouse, there seems to be a bit of a war between these guys and the old school audio magazine "subjective" reviews

*keep in mind that nearly all these graphs, etc, are basically showing tenths of a percentage point differences on distortion at frequencies well outside the range of human hearing*

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-d30pro-review-balanced-dac.20259/

there is something compelling about the argument that cd-quality digital suffers from "time-smearing" -- a distortion or "ringing" in the time domain brought about by the filtering necessary to keep bad stuff out. for whatever reason, cds sound great for little while but then i lose focus. vinyl seems to better reward close listening, for me anyway. both formats have their uses. vinyl is definitely finicky and can send you down hobbyist rabbit holes. one day i will have a setup where anita o'day's 'incomparable!' plays through without any sibilance.

yes, and how does the cassette revival factor into all of that?

one day i will have a setup where anita o'day's 'incomparable!' plays through without any sibilance.

^^New borad description?

heh

there is something compelling about the argument that cd-quality digital suffers from "time-smearing" -- a distortion or "ringing" in the time domain brought about by the filtering necessary to keep bad stuff out.

this is one of those toxic topics that it is impossible to discus on the web. plus i am not an expert. but...there are experts who disagree with you.

Recent hearing research provides support for the long-standing notion that the time-domain performance of anti-alias and reconstruction filters—most especially steep digital linear-phase filters—is responsible for perceptible degradation of sound quality. Recently, direct evidence for the audibility of low-pass filters used in digital audio has been published. [18]

[18] Jackson, H. M., Capp, M. D. and Stuart, J. R., 'The audibility of typical digital audio filters in a high-fidelity playback system', 9174, 137th AES Convention, (2014).

https://www.stereophile.com/content/mqa-questions-and-answers

^^ I would argue that this also ties in to the well-documented example of Glenn Gould being able to distinguish with 100% accuracy between different digital playbacks on systems with the same specs, as per his (excellent) biography. It might not be audible to everyone, but it's audible to some people.

xp I'm a little sceptical of a "paper" which is just a conference presentation ... by people from Meridian Audio who tout the "Meridian Apodising Filter" as a selling point for their gear. Not saying it couldn't be true, just that there's no peer review and a screamingly obvious conflict of interest.

I find it hard to concentrate on LPs because I get tense waiting for the inner groove distortion to show

yes!!! and when it does i curse myself for getting sucked back into vinyl after a very happy few decades listening to CDs.

there are plenty of instances when i do feel that 'closer to the music' vibe with LPs - however irrational - but there are just as many 'pining for the CD' experiences.

happily the CD is on hand, as is the streaming option.

Nothing MQA related or derived -- especially "research" -- can be trusted. Their so-called technology is absolute hocus-bullshit.

I had a few Cocteau Twins EPs on vinyl that were ruined by inner groove noise, but maybe they were bad pressings and/or my turntable was pure shit (it was).

Usually when I listen to records it's through an ADC / DAC anyway.* That way the time-smearing masks the IGD. I'm preparing a paper on this.

* this part is true.

> Nothing MQA related or derived -- especially "research" -- can be trusted. Their so-called technology is absolute hocus-bullshit.

exactly, the industry is full of morons pretending that stereo audio hasn't been solved 40 years ago with an easily copied, drm free format

it's all looking for excuses to sell the same thing again under more onerous conditions to close the drm-free digital hole that's cd ripping, except they do it by peddling *lower* fidelity solutions than redbook audio: hi-res, mqa, etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRjsu9-Vznc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHkqWZ9jzA0

it's not audiophile if it's not inconvenient, we must suffer for our art

Don’t know where to put this… but haha, wtf: https://waviful.com/

Omg that's an amazing grift

Why does every wav look like a tampon. Is it because modern albums have no dynamics?

Why we exist
We exist to inspire you to celebrate your musical tastes, and the most impactful albums you have listened to, through unique custom wall art. We believe your musical tastes are part of your what defines you and that you should celebrate this music everyday.

oh this is high calibre, lads!

https://i.imgur.com/VlFGGba.jpg

The first one I tried was STUMM433 (the Mute box set of various artists doing Cage's 4'33") but it had too many tracks and was rejected.

Haha I was about to say Feldman would be a good one

Produced thoughtfully
We work with local printing partners to produce our prints closest to you, greatly reducing carbon emissions. Your posters are thoughtfully printed on high-quality, FSC-certified paper, with pigmented, archival inks which will not fade when exposed to sunlight.

jfc. i have to admit, these fucken guys are good at what they do.

this is kind of nightmarish in a way. still hilarious.

like the more i read the website, the more convinced i am that they can't be serious . . . right?

this isn't even The Original Waveform Poster Art!
https://www.instagram.com/waveform_posters/?hl=en

there's people at it on Etsy too. I've seen these on Reddit. If they weren't all from shills... well they seemed to get genuine interest. Blech...

https://www.etsy.com/listing/754530982/collateral-2004-movies-as-color-art

Same vein, possibly uglier.

i mean, i can almost embrace the bullshit. doctors have pictures of skeletons and shit on the walls in their offices. c'mon, put that shit on your wall in the background of your youtube videos and people will know you mean business.

i am quite enamoured. this is either the best or the worst thing i've ever seen and i'm still trying to sort that.

this entire idea needs more exposure. truly stupid. "why are we even alive"-level stupidity.

great find, ty.

🖼

The Whitey Album has a silent track and actually has pretty interesting waveforms overall.

that morton feldman one actually looks cool, i think having just one waveform makes the design work much better

It would be better without any of the text, just a single waveform on a plain field.

and that waveform is a visual representation of a recording of me farting.

effect looks a bit better if you do something with it and don’t just glop it on to a generic sans serif fetishist solid background, but still: lol

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWLxxriIZuz/?utm_medium=copy_link

100 prints and 4 originals..... I'm assuming the music was actually played into the general direction of the originals?

did Aphex Twin do a scary looking waveform somehow or only that stereograph? Where do i order up an artisinal stereograph?

Howard Dumble has passed away.

https://www.instagram.com/ross_hogarthmix/p/CY2NMTuPYiq/?utm_medium=copy_link

rip. gonna play my wampler euphoria pedal in remembrance today.

honestly wrong thread for this. HAD was a weird genius but definitely not a snake oil salesman. If anything kind of the opposite - he’d barely sell to anyone lol.

I only posted it in this thread because this was one of the only threads where Dumble has been mentioned on ILX.

no disrespect on my end either. dumble "amp in a box" pedals are rad and probably my favorite drive circuits. wish i could say i've played a real dumble. i think remembering him on this thread is appropriate, as sometimes the hype is merited.\m/

peace, man <3

think I’m just triggered by a rash of threads in other places full of idiots on one side who think an eccentric recluse working out of his garage in an unfashionable part of LA was somehow ripping off today’s bar band guitar players and idiots on the other side insisting that amp they played for five minutes was full of magic angels and nothing else on earth comes close.

he had some really good ideas about modding fenders at a time where very few were doing anything similar. he could have been Randall Smith except he had zero head for or interest in business or, like, being responsible for employing people… all he knew how to do was build amps!

and anyone in the boutique amp biz today can tell you, it is a hard and shitty business. which is why so many boutique guys have a day in the sun and then disappear or move on to gainful employment designing circuits elsewhere. god bless the guy for finding a way to build in very low volume at his own pace and make it work.

exactly. not his fault people turned into weird fanatics over his work. i'm all about appreciating the eccentrics who are really damn good at what they do. and, by all accounts, he was one of the better ones in both respects.