Lossless? Really?

In my opinion when the encoding is lossy (ie AAC, MP3 etc)  - yes.

People who grew up with MP3 and iTunes played though their smart phones seem to be accustomed to that sound and I think they prefer the familiarity.

In a roundabout way it's like us oldies when we prefer a band when it had the original singer and not the new guy.  The new singer could technically be better, have a better voice but well, it's just different and we don't cope so well with difference when it comes to things that mean something to us!

Hmmm... I'm not so sure.  I think it is about a love of music vs. a love of sound plus the ability to really HEAR what is going on in music.

If you only ever listen to the vocals then MP3 might work for you through an ipod.  If like me you love bass you simply cant hear it properly through a pair of £1.99 earphones!

The music professor at Stanford University may beg to differ! 

http://www.audioholics.com/new...p3?date=100220090311

Jonathan Berger is a music professor at Stanford University that has conducted acoustic tests with each year’s new crop of students. He has them do some critical listening to music from a variety of sources which includes formats that range from compressed MP3s to much higher quality. 

To Prof. Berger’s dismay new students increasingly prefer the tinny sounds given off by MP3s.  But, how can this be? Anyone who has performed back-to-back comparisons between 128-bit MP3s and CD recordings on a hi-fi system can hear significant differences. You’d have to be practically hearing impaired to pick the MP3 over the higher quality recording. 

The professor believes the reason has more to do with psychology than audiology. Professor Berger believes it’s just what kids these days are used to hearing so it’s literally altering their perception of what sounds “good”.

Pardon?  Why should an Asus drive recognise Warner records or any other records come to that as Warner records or otherwise?  What happens when you put a Warner disc in your Asus drive?  Does it not recognise that an optical disc has been inserted?  I suppose that is what you mean because there is no difference between a music CD and data only CD.  So this would point to Warner disks being sub-standard not the drive.  Do the disks you burn read OK?

Why should a PI sound better than any NAS?  Does the PI send our streamers a more accurate data stream?  Are you telling me that when I read data from my QNAP NAS that I can't rely on data delivered being accurate?  This is very worrying indeed, I had always assumed I could rely on the data being delivered to my PC.

Another question I have is to ask why RAID makes any difference?  Does the type of RAID have an affect?  Is RAID 5 worse then RAID 6, I run RAID 0+1 will that make my Wagner sound awful.

Now I am really getting worried, I keep so much important information on my NAS and I thought all I had to do was secure it with Firewalls etc and routinely do my generational backups.  Not only can I not rely on that data but now my Wagner sounds awful.  Mind you there are people who say Wagner sounds awful anyway. Shame on you.

I remember in the days before Dolby B became standard in cassette machines that one or two models on the market had a device called a Compander built in.  This compressed music before you recorded it and then expanded it on playback, this was an attempt to get round the lack of dynamic range in cassette players.  It sounded awful but it never stopped me building a compander (design from hifi news I think) to attach to my cheap cassette deck, it also sounded awful.

Mind you after I upgraded to an Akai GXC46D I found that unit sounded better not using Dolby B, bit more hiss but the Dolby B made it sound "muddy".

I'm pretty sure this reinforces what I said (without having read the article)!  If I love MUSIC then I will listen to it on any medium I can get my hands on.  I will then form an emotional attachment to that medium (in my case a tiny transistor radio when I was 7 or 8).

If I love SOUND however and if the increase in quality allows me to hear more of it I am going to go with the superior hi-fi.

Bass is a good example because it is often forgotten in pop mixes and shoved to the background since you cant hear it on crappy headphones anyway.  Listen to a Lamb CD (Fear of Fours for example)  however and out it comes in its full glory.  If you are not bothered about hearing it you probably wont care for (or notice) the increase in quality.  If you love feeling a bottom E vibrate through your very soul then you will go for the Naim system every time...

IMO obviously...

Madgerald are you old enough to remember listening to Radio Luxemburg with a 6-transistor radio made in Hong Kong clamped to your ear?  Those were the days.

Jota please I was worried enough before but now.....  Can I catch this disk rot?  Oh no, I think I caught a computer virus once, it put me in bed for a week.

ps the author of this post makes no apology for using that last joke which was originally used about Rodders in 'Only Fools and Horses' when he went to Night School to learn about compoooters 'an at.

I reckon that disk rot is setting in Jota.

Everything was made in Hong Kong when I was a kid!

I'm not telling you my age but we didn't get a colour telly til I was 10 but that might be cos my dad didn't like spending money...

I remember portable cassette players being introduced.  Shortly afterwards came inner sleeves on albums proclaiming "Home taping is killing music!".  Dunno about you but I taped everything and music seems to still be with us.  The same cant be said for some record companies however!

I am. Although it was usually a car radio. Happy days and I was just as grateful to listen to music then as I am today with my more fortunate system. Pity your ears don't improve with age. That would be perfect.

Remember the way Luxemburg used to fade away and then come back again.  We would be up at the shops with our radios to our ears and whistling at the girls as they went past.  I have no idea what we would have done if the girls had whistled back!

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Were you wearing Winkle-Pickers?

No, I was just too young for that.  The rockers 'as we used to call them' wore those but I was a mod and hankered after a full length leather coat - Cool.

Paul this does sound worrying because as I said earlier there is NO difference between a music disc and a data disc.  So the problem must be the music supplier using poor media?  Dunno.  But just remember the quality of cassette tapes most of them used to use.

I have often seen people having problems with certain blank DVD RO discs, rating some as unreliable but I have never seen this problem.

I did have a problem with a music CD recently though:

(1) I ripped and played it once or twice and it was fine but because the streamer I was using then could not cope with gapless CDs I joined tracks with FooBar,

(2) Then I bought a UnitiLite and thought to myself that the few CDs where I had joined tracks together got re-ripped.  So I hadn't done anything to the actual CD.  But when I played it back there was this terrible distortion, absolutely awful.  Only on one of them. Never heard anything remotely like it.

(3) OK lets rip it again.  But before I ripped it I listened to it and it was horribly distorted just like the rip.

(4) I played it in every CD player in the house and a mate of mine's unit.  Every one of them showed exactly the same distortion.  Horrible.

Now what caused that?  A complete one off, nothing else affected at all.  I can't think that it got too hot but that is the only explanation I can think of, it had been sat on my desk for a while and I have a window in my office.

I dunno.

Polygram PDO (Philips & Du Pont Optical) disks rotted and the company admitted this back in the day.  Who's to say something similar cannot happen again?

Gerry Gibson at Library of Congress has been following up an Internet posting about the bronze discolouration affecting the playability of CD's issued on certain labels. Members of the IASA Technical Committee will no doubt be aware of this phenomenon but the information obtained by Gerry may be news to other members.

Gerry checked out the record company Hyperion's Website:

"Any compact discs on the Hyperion, ASV, Unicorn-Kanchana, or Pearl labels made in UK by Philips Dupont Optical UK (PDO) from 1988 to 1993 may already be unplayable. The symptoms appear as a bronze discolouration toward the outer edge of the label side and a clicking noise like surface noise toward the end of the disk. Disks made by PDO will have an identifying stamp near the center of the disk stating "made in UK" or "made in UK by PDO". PDO will replace these corroded disks. All they need is a list of catalogue numbers, you need not, at the moment, return the disks. For more information, including address and phone numbers for PDO, go to the Hyperion web site

 and click on the Hyperion News link, where you will find:

"A note about corroding CDs manufactured by Philips & Du Pont Optical UK Ltd (PDO).

The pressing factory PDO has acknowledged responsibility for producing some CD's between 1988 and 1993 using a lacquer which was not suitable to withstand the corrosive effect of the sulphur content of paper used in the printing of CD booklets and other paper parts. The problem has been extremely disruptive to us and has caused much embarrassment. We can only apologise for any alarm and inconvenience caused and assure you of our commitment to your satisfaction.

................

...................

The symptoms of the corrosion are obvious. Audibly it manifests first towards the end of the disc (i.e. the outer edge) and sounds not unlike rhythmic LP surface noise. Visibly it manifests as a coppery-bronze discoloration, usually on the edge of the label side of the disc. (n.b. it is NOT the overall yellow tint which is common to all PDO pressings. This is due to the addition of a tiny amount of yellow dye which PDO adds to the polycarbonate for cosmetic purposes).

At the time that PDO were manufacturing the affected CDs for us, they were also pressing for other classical labels and we suggest that you check any discs you have from ASV, Unicorn-Kanchana and Pearl. Given the nature of the problem of corrosion, in that it progresses over time, we recommend that you check any suspect discs on, say, a six-monthly basis. The name of the disc manufacturer is usually (but not always) engraved around the centre hole of the disc in the transparent area. If there is no manufacturer's name shown at all then it would be worth checking with PDO. They have agreed to replace any CDs which are corroding as a result of the defect and have set up a United Kingdom freephone helpline to deal with complaints and enquiries about it. The number is 0800 387063. If you live in the United Kingdom we suggest that you call them directly if you have reason to believe that there are discs in your collection made by PDO which are showing signs of corrosion.

http://www.iasa-web.org/inform...etin-no-22-july-1997

Dynamic range compression (and the related "loudness wars" issues) have nothing to do with encoding or lossless/lossy files.  There are MANY variables that contribute to how any given recording (be it on vinyl or digital medium) sounds.  Best not to confound the variables, or you start reaching erroneous conclusions quickly  . . .

Big Bill - Give this a quick listen

► 3:56► 3:56

Originally Posted by Big Bill:

Start talking about bands and music in general and blokes come back at you with acts you have never heard.  Ain't that a great thing!

 

Andarkian I have never heard of Passenger but looking at the loads of positive comments om Amazon I should give him a go.

 

As to live performances.  Where to start?  I think that moment when they first turn the amps on and you hear the 50Hz mains hum, that is so exciting.  I suspect with the new generation of solid-state amps that has now disappeared.  Or the moment when an orchestra all tune to an A, just sets you off.

 

I remember seeing Pink Floyd at the Wembley Arena (not the stadium) on the 'Dark Side of the Moon' tour.  They were just into the encores and were doing 'Careful with that axe Eugene' and just at this moment a load of gate-crashers were charging through an entrance near where we sat and were pursued by a bunch of mean-looking security operatives.  Just as they all appeared the screaming started on 'Careful with that axe Eugene' and they started letting of fireworks from the top of the speaker stacks.  So the place was filled with driving rock, screaming and intense light - I think they were using the stuff in flairs.  What a moment that was and if you can find me a hifi that will reproduce all that then I will have a couple please.

Big Bill - Give this a quick listen

 

► 3:56► 3:56

<cite class="_Hd">www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoONtDv9eJg</cite>

12 Mar 2012 - Uploaded by Jahung

Passenger - All The Little Lights From the album "All The Little Lights" available on: ...

I think I stuffed up the URL. Copying on the iPad is a bit of a lottery. Ah, but we all love Apple and those lovely idiosyncrasies.

See much of Brighton beach on bank holidays?