Post by Fulcrum_29Post by Miss Elaine EosI thought that the whole point of CD was that it was such "high quality"
(something us audiophiles have known to be a lie since they first came
out.) Now, all of a sudden, the human hearing range has expanded such
that this uber-medium needs an improvment?
What i get a kick out of is how people think a 20 year old recording can get
better if it's on some new and better format... Think about the limitations
of recording equipment in the 70s. This super-audio stuff might be great,
but it's not retroactive. If the equipment they recorded the stuff could
only go to "eleven" and now you have some new gizmo that can take levels up
to twelve, which is just one more, is there any possibly way that recording
at "eleven" can get to twelve? Sorry, but you're limited to the "eleven."
Want an example? Listen to the best possible recording on earth of the
Beatles "Revolution." You can hear how the recording equipment is ranging
out, it simply couldn't handle "eleven" thus it got cut off and left at ten.
Super Duper audio CD ain't gonna be able to get back that one more, because
it was never there in the first place. Garbage in, Garbage out.
But if you wanna run out and buy a whole new collection of
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious-CDs just so that you can pretend to hear
something that was never there in the first place... you're more than
welcome to. Besides, don't you think it's just a gimmick by record
companies to get you to buy CDs again? Rather than just downloading and
burning like the rest of the world?
Super Audio CD actually provides the capability for 6 channel surround sound
such as that found on most DVD's today. This opens up some interesting
possibilities for enhancing recordings. While I agree that the quality of an
analog recording cannot really be improved upon it can be manipulated in to
provide a unique listening experience. For example, the first SACD that I
purchased was Miles Davis - "Kind of Blue" in which the recording was
enhanced to create space between the instruments so that the listener can
actually sense where in the room each musician was located during the
recording. The original dimensions of the recording studio were used to
calculate the exact position of the musicians as well as to add an
appropriate level of reverberation off the studio walls. The overall
sensation is that you are sitting in the studio with the musicians as they
recording the album.
That said, many albums don't sound much, if any, different than the original
recordings and therefore, I don't purchase them. As I mentioned, I won a
system that allows playback of SACDs, but I wouldn't have gone out and
purchased a player just to have that capability. However, many new DVD
players do offer SACD playback and if you happen to purchase one of those
you might find that for some albums it provides an entirely different and
enjoyable listening experience.
If you're ever in the Seattle area, let me know and I'll invite you over for
a listen and a smoke.
King of Harts