What does it mean?

joel said:
Both my systems have loudness and tone controls; This must be why they're crap. You never see tone controls on British mixing consoles, of course ;)
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Well my PC player has an EQ and my amp has tone controls, so can I join team "crap hifi" ? :D
 
Re: the Chesky disc. I have to disagree. I have a copy (CD-R from António's original) of Chesky's Ultimate Demonstration Disc and I find the recordings on there to be simply awesome. I've rarely heard anything so realistic and lifelike on any other CD - if only more recordings were made like that :(

Michael.
 
PBirkett said:
Well my PC player has an EQ and my amp has tone controls, so can I join team "crap hifi" ? :D
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Welcome abord 'bro :)
 
michaelab said:
Re: the Chesky disc. I have to disagree. I have a copy (CD-R from António's original) of Chesky's Ultimate Demonstration Disc and I find the recordings on there to be simply awesome. I've rarely heard anything so realistic and lifelike on any other CD - if only more recordings were made like that
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Yes, that's the one. If you think that that sounds 'good' compared with normal music, your system is very badly-farked. The 'music' is crap as well as the sound.

I burnt a copy of this execrable disc, and can demonstrate just how bad it is with a simple A-B.
 
I think my original point still stands several pages later. I have been listening some more (I am undergoing some kind of lost record collection revival) and there's no doubt in my mind that given a crap recording the sound is not as good as a good recording. Frankly I'm amazed that anyone would say crap recordings don't exist.

Citing a few simply recorded albums just reinforces the point.
 
bub, surely with all that angle iron under your kit ANY disk should sound smashing? guess you'll just have to buy jw a new ferrari in order to get it to sound good then won;t you?
cheers


julian
 
joel said:
I suspect that Young Marble Giants, Au Pairs and Dalek i simply didn't have the money to f**k too much with the sound. The results are brilliant (and not in the least "Audiophile").
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Dalek I, takes me back. I'd chuck Compass on the TT now if it was working...

-- Ian
 
Ian, its Monday, the shops have been open all day - you've got no excuse dude!

:D

nb
you could try some silly tweaks to extend rubber belts if you're so inclined.

The patented ''hairspray on the rubber band'' (Patent No: CSS2004) has been used by ... well nobody probably :D
 
My excuse is that I've been at work all day, and there's no shops selling Michell belts anywhere in the vicinity of the office, which is where I am all week.

Tomorrow I'll see if Walrus have one, I did email Michell but I think they're all on holiday. Let's hope it's just the belt and nothing more serious.

-- Ian
 
i think the point is that crap recordings exist but a good system means that they are still good to listen to. you can look past the faults and hear what the artist intended even though there's no bass / treble or some twunt has added faux vinyl crackle over the track. a lesser system will excell with some recordings and not with others.
cheers


julian
 
Paul Ranson said:
I am intrigued by the idea of 'holographic imaging' in audio though, I wonder what that sounds like?
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You have to get past the rather naff titles they have for the tracks and the cheesy voice that introduces each track and just listen to the (real) pieces of music that apparently illustrate each point of hifi. Forget about that and just listen to the music - it's great.

Bub - thanks for your insightful analysis of my system. Perhaps if the Chesky disc sounds crap on your system I might venture that it's your system that's farked, not mine. Normal music discs sound just fine on my system btw.

Michael.
 
Paul Ranson said:
A-B against what?

I am intrigued by the idea of 'holographic imaging' in audio though, I wonder what that sounds like?
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A-B against a real piece of music from a real well-recorded CD.

'Holographic imaging' in audio sounds like crap, Paul.
 
The Devil said:
A-B against a real piece of music from a real well-recorded CD.
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All the music tracks on the Chesky CD are real pieces of music, exceptionally well recorded. Artists like Rebecca Pidgeon, Monty Norman and many others.

'Holographic imaging' in audio sounds like crap, Paul.
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The music chosen for this particular track is The Westminster Choir performing Benjamin Britten's Festival Te Deum at the Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin. The introduction states that it was recorded with a single (stereo I presume) microphone ontop of a 35ft tall mic. boom and the choir was positioned in a high loft above the pews.

This is all supposed to make you be able to visualise the huge cathedral space of the music and "put you there". I have to say, it does a pretty good job.

I have another recording of Britten's Festival Te Deum, by the choir of St. John's College Cambridge in their chapel, it's a Naxos recording. Now the two recordings couldn't be more different. In the St John's one you can definitely hear many things more clearly, you can't hear the hiss of the organ pump, there's virtually no reverb from the chapel and everything is crystal clear. It was probably recorded with dozens of mics. However, it might as well have been recorded in a studio for all the impression it gives you of a live event. The Chesky recording actually sounds like being inside a huge cathedral where the Te Deum is being performed and in that respect is, IMO, infinitely the better recording.

Incidentally, I've heard this recording on many systems (lowrider's and WM's to name just two) and it sounds just as breathtaking on all of them.

Michael.
 
wadia-miester said:
James, I would have thought that would have been a down reach from your upper most level of mana :)
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Excellent. 35 foot must be, what, stage 20 or so. Still a way to go, eh, Bub ;)
 
michaelab said:
I have another recording of Britten's Festival Te Deum, by the choir of St. John's College Cambridge in their chapel, it's a Naxos recording. Now the two recordings couldn't be more different. In the St John's one you can definitely hear many things more clearly, you can't hear the hiss of the organ pump, there's virtually no reverb from the chapel and everything is crystal clear. It was probably recorded with dozens of mics. However, it might as well have been recorded in a studio for all the impression it gives you of a live event.
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Have you been in John's chapel? It's not terribly big (in the scheme of things) and does have a reasonably clear acoustic IIRC.
 

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