Re: what nobody get's about hifi
by
gzuckier
12/05/2007, 9:31 AM #
case42tlc:
There is an elephant in the living room on the subject of hifi that no one ever talks about: In general, people like highly compressed music!
This is the main reason most people, including audiophiles, prefer vinyl to digital. The limited dynamic range of analog is a positive; people describe the music as thicker, more intense. I remember my disappointment the first time I ever heard a cd back in the early eighties; it sounded washed-out and flat. It took me years to figure out that the impressive sounding spec of 90 decibel dynamic range was to blame. I see this as a prime example of the law of unintended consequences.
Yeah. I had a similar epiphany back in the dawn of the CD age, listening on the car radio to some random song, and the DJ came on to exult about how that was off a CD and wasn't it wonderful with that great CD clarity etc. and I thought: even assuming the input to the CD recording process was perfect, it was played back at the radio station, I know they usually have all kinds of limiters and Aphex 'aural exciters' etc., then through the transmitter which is probably designed for a lot of things before fidelity, then through a car stereo no less and listened to, in the interior of a car..... the fact that it's still recognizable as a CD under those conditions can't be because of the fidelity of the CD, it's got to be because the CD puts its signature on the sound so indelibly nothign can remove it.
