The end of the recorder?

[colin]

thanks for the advice prof

[The Last Word]

Not sure, Bob. There's always been good/bad sleeve art, and people tend to favour that by the artists they favour, leaving objective judgement to fall by the way. Would you ever get an age-old Yes fan to admit their Roger Dean covers are rotten? Maybe, maybe not. Same with the Beatles. As iconic as they are, their sleeve art output is largely dull, yet the images have entered the public domain as icons themselves.

Sleeve art probably doesn't have the same advertising cachet of old, and we have seen so much more of it now that we have diluted its impact (the pokey 12cm CD size does no favours too). It's difficult to name anything of recent that really caught the eye, though Elton John's last Greatest Hits collection had a superb sleeve. A retro job, mind.

[steve56]

the only nitpick i have is the cd leaflets they always a job to get out the cases.

[woodgnome]

i wouldn't disagree with any of the points you make but then none of them contradict my own!

i've a substantial vinyl collection - mainly original soul/jazz-funk releases from the early-mid 70's - and although my separates set up is a modest, not to say ageing, affair (pioneer a400 amp, thorens deck, pair of cyrus mission 781's) the warmth and dynamism that it produces never fails to amaze me.

i'm not sure whether the absence of these qualities in the digital era results from the technology or is simply a change in aural aesthetics. iirc, the white stripes went so far as to record their last album in a vintage analogue studio (on the holloway road?) in an attempt to recapture that 'natural' sound but to my ears it's indistinguishable from just about anything else that's come out in the last 20 odd years. so maybe it is the change in peoples expectations of what music should sound like - i.e clean, explicit, unambiguous.

the most interesting sounds - in a rock'n'roll context - that i've heard for many a year are the the last 3 radiohead albums. i've no idea what kit was used to create them (and i've only heard them on cd) but they have that immediate, tactile, spontaneous, atmosphere that used to be taken for granted in the 60's/70's. i suppose it helps that radiohead are the only rock band worth listening to in 25 years - since the pistols, in fact.

[The Last Word]

True, but it's a shame their cleverly textured sound is only occasionaly married to their open, emotive nature - How I Made My Millions and Motion Picture Soundtrack both remain unmatched. A fabulous, sensory band trying too hard to be intellectual perhaps.

[woodgnome]

possibly, but trying too hard isn't necessarily a bad thing if it leads to new and interesting places: 'kid a' is an unmitigated masterpiece, imo but up until it's release, to my ears they were just another rock band going round in circles, like all of their peers.

yes, mps is a sublime slice of celestial irony. it's also the perfect apogee upon which to draw to a close all that has gone before it. hmm... might just stick the headphones on for a little bit of heaven.

(fave de jour: 'dollars and cents - 'amnesiac')

[WillieBo]

The reason cds were (and now dvds are) so popular and commercially successful are fairly clear to me.

In comparison with vinyl, they provide generally consistent and excellent sound quality, convenience, robustness and durability, ease of use, ease of storage, portability and operational convenience. In short, you can play them without having to manually adjust playing tracks ; you can play any track and in any order you wish or as many times as you wish without leaving your settee.

CDs degrade in quality slowly (if at all - some probably never will) whilst even the most cherished vinyl will deteriorate as soon as the first play from new. Every subsequent play then worsens its condition further ; and that assumes correct or appropriate arm/head/cartridge and bearing and alignment is in place. Believe me, as one who has been through years of vinyl maintenance and preservation, it can be a hard road.

I still play and love my soul and jazz vinyl ; the aesthetics of the long-player are a well known example of that disease hifius anorakus. I've written about my system some months ago when mart asked the question about Hi-Fi systems. It's just been upgraded with the Meridian 800 series thanks to a generous golden handshake from my new University.

I cannot play classical works on vinyl ; the sheer joy of listening to works uninterrupted and in an almost perfect silence was revelatory. Try listening - for example - to the last movement of Mahler's 9th on vinyl or the closing pages of Sibelius' majestic 'En Saga'. I often use a pair of Stax SRS4040 Signature 2s and they are the most ruthless monitors one could have. We should not forget just what advantages there are to the much maligned compact disc.

And...the sound quality of good cd separate systems is and can be stunning. The old arguments about vinyl vs. cd sound quality is a largely redundant one, even in the atavistic sections of the Hi-Fi press. A high end cd system will match (and more) a top end vinyl system every time. Contrary to what is suggested, one has to spend a lot more on vinyl to match middle-range cd systems and the hi-fi world has recognised such for some time.

By the way, for real audiophile listening, try to acquire Japanese pressings, especially the 20 and 24 bit issues. They are superb. For me there is only one negative aspect of the cd - not enough titles have been issued on the disc and vinyl remains the main source for rare recordings. Another example of commercial globalism no doubt. Again, one must often look to the Japanese for said rarities.

Of course much depends on the type of music one listens to and how it's recorded but for many the digital world has proved a true godsend.

[steve56]

is that a record?