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Retro
Ahonui
USA
2368 Posts |
 Posted - 02/16/2012 : 10:49:46 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by hwnmusiclives
... until you hear the same recording on a 180g virgin vinyl on a vintage Denon DP-54F turntable played using a Yaqin MS-22B tube preamp and twin MacIntosh mono block 500W power amps through a pair of Polk Lsi9 speakers.
Upon reading this, I must apologize if my drooling at the computer disturbed anyone else. |
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hwnmusiclives
`Olu`olu
USA
580 Posts |
Posted - 02/17/2012 : 04:19:12 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Retro
quote:
Originally posted by hwnmusiclives
... until you hear the same recording on a 180g virgin vinyl on a vintage Denon DP-54F turntable played using a Yaqin MS-22B tube preamp and twin MacIntosh mono block 500W power amps through a pair of Polk Lsi9 speakers.
Upon reading this, I must apologize if my drooling at the computer disturbed anyone else.
Oh, it did. It shorted out the Yaqin all the way over here. The good news is that I was hoping to strike a deal on a Music Hall Bellari VP530 tube preamp anyway.
Retro, by the age of 5, my dad nicknamed me "Dolby" in honor of my constant pursuit for better sound. I never owned a "boom box" because I got tired of the wow, flutter, and truly crappy signal-to-noise ratio of cassettes early on. I did all my mix tapes on 1/4" open reel tape at 7.5 IPS on an Akai GX-4000D. I have every piece of equipment I have ever owned.
When I remaster vinyl LPs, I don't use the noise reduction in the commercially available softwares because they leave digital artifacts. In my teens, I lucked into the Holy Grails of vinyl noise reduction in the analog realm - a KLH Burwen Research TNE3000A and a similar unit by SAE. The "TNE" stands for "transient noise elimination." The clicks and pops on vinyl records are defined as transient noise because they are unexpected in the sound field (i.e. not part of the musical content). These noises are most noticeable on stereo recordings because they are typically manifested in either the left channel or the right channel - rarely both because of the design of the groove of an LP. These devices work by recreating the transient noise heard in one channel in the other channel as well, and because both ears are experiencing the noise at the same time, the brain is tricked into thinking there is no noise at all. This was conceived of by the great audio engineer Dick Burwen. Using both the Burwen and SAE units in tandem, I can eliminate about 95% of a record's noise before it even gets to the computer. (LEDs on these units visually demonstrate the clicks and pops as they are being removed - allowing you to see what you can no longer hear. An "invert" switch allows you to hear only the clicks and pops being removed without the music - proof again that these devices work miracles.) Starting with a cartridge and stylus on your turntable designed specifically to track damaged recordings is a plus, too. All needles are not created equal.
Ask me about the equipment in the rooms that aren't my music studio. 
As for the digital realm, after years of searching, I found the only sound card with a signal-to-noise ratio of 124db. If anyone is listening strictly to digital sources now or doing a lot of conversion from vinyl to MP3 (Norm?), ask me about this sound card.
Steel guitar wizard Jeff Au Hoy is a bit of an audiophile himself. We spend countless hours talking about the merits of such things as Rudy Van Gelder's engineering techniques or what kind of equipment George Ching used to get those sounds on those 49th State Records. Jeff puts my thoughts succinctly: "The last step in the audio chain will always be analog - your ears." At least, for now.
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dragonfly213
Akahai
66 Posts |
Posted - 02/29/2012 : 2:51:56 PM
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| Shawn says his CDs are by genre in books. HOWEVER, his cassette collection resides in two giant bins, any ole way. And his librarian wife is NOT ALLOWED to touch them. No worries, I've been seeing a therapist (haha!) :) |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 02/29/2012 : 5:38:23 PM
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Shawnie, don't make Jeni psychotic. What a mean thing to do to a librarian. lol.
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Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Kapila Kane
Ha`aha`a
USA
1051 Posts |
Posted - 03/22/2012 : 09:25:14 AM
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Organize?
If nobody else moves anything on my piles of cd's and wax, I know exactly about where each is...hey wait, something moved on my stacks, and nobody was near it.
that explains the calls from Oprah and Jerry Springer, for
"Is your spouse a pack rat slacker scum?." |
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ypochris
Lokahi
USA
398 Posts |
Posted - 03/23/2012 : 5:19:50 PM
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The Case Logic nylon binders others have mentioned, leaving an empty slot in each page for new music- arranged alphabetically, except Hawaiian and classical are in their own sections.
Unfortunately I had a couple of binders in a house I was rehabbing, and they disappeared along with my tools, so now my collection ends at "S" (although luckily the Hawaiian was in the front). My wife gave me an I-pod, so I could copy everything (closing the barn door after the cows were gone), but being old school I, too, can't deal with the low quality of MP3 format, earbuds, and what many people today call "music"... Good to hear I'm not the only one! |
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Kapila Kane
Ha`aha`a
USA
1051 Posts |
Posted - 03/31/2012 : 2:27:54 PM
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Of course I love to hear the old wax as played on the good stuff!
BUT, for practical realities, when I actually have time to listen, it's (sorry Lawrence) THE CAR! Which really isn't so bad since I got the Lexus,--but those darn studded snow tires were a terrible distraction.
Not now since I mounted the fronts and backs out of phase, it's quiet as a moose.
Just a little trick learned from Neal Cassidy, on those icy, winter bus trips! ?
"Lookin' for my wallet and my car keys, well they can't have gone too far...as soon as I find my glasses, I'll know just where they are!" |
Edited by - Kapila Kane on 03/31/2012 2:29:34 PM |
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Curtis
Aloha
17 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2012 : 4:32:45 PM
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Aloha All:
I love the debate over the necessary sound quality needed to enjoy music. I have had this debate a number of times with a bassist friend of mine.
The extreme of this is the debate over whether it is desireable to "capture" the live essence of music in a recording at all.
I still buy cd's of the music I really care about [maybe 10 cds or so a year], but then burn those cds into electronic format. I buy electronic format otherwise unless I can't find it that way. In electronic format I can arrange the music in any fashion I want. With quite a number of genres if I find a song I absolutely love, with time I can figure out how to play it, or at least approximate it and play it live for myself/my friends... (Though I am lagging in this as regards to slack key... :-) )
One of my best friends has the best stereo system I've ever heard, and has all of his music in very high grade electronic format that he can access anywhere on a variety of systems via the cloud... His philosophy is that he wants to listen to music sound that is as close to the live sound as possible given that he can't go to many live shows. He has tons of live performances...
In the end, he and I are both right, I think...
Mahalo,
Curtis |
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How do you organize your CDs?
