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Having listened to various versions of almost every NO song, and on multiple disks, sound files, etc, this is without a doubt the best sounding version of NO's top singles. I'm especially shocked out how good "Confusion"(the original) sounds..since the old version is very murky. Is anyone else this ecstatic over this?
RAMA
I'm glad someone else thinks this, I thought it was my ears playing tricks on me. It's almost vinyl quality!
At least it hasn't been No-Noised, like the Beatles latest issues...though I reckon that EFR's versions of Ceremony and Temptation, are actually better-mastered then the "compress and limit to -2dB" method of mastering that seems to be popular these days.
FDISK wrote: I'm glad someone else thinks this, I thought it was my ears playing tricks on me. It's almost vinyl quality!
You mean tiny dynamic range and all the bass removed so it can be replaced by an RIAA preamp? Or do you mean it jumps all over the place. Or that you can only play a few dozen times.
I'm confused by this term "vinyl quality"
FWIW a lot of stuff is getting mastered to -12dB these days cos that's where video people like it. Just remember DVD is scam, you lose 12 dB of your SNR and then have to crank your amp so far to hear it, that the inherent noise becomes audible. Why they feel the need for 12dB of unused headroom In dunno, unless it' so the DVD always sounds less impressive than a THX cinema.
You mentioned no-noising like the beatles, am I right in thinking it was overdone to the point where you can hear lisping and stuff in the upper mids?
Steve Campbell wrote:
FDISK wrote: I'm glad someone else thinks this, I thought it was my ears playing tricks on me. It's almost vinyl quality!
You mean tiny dynamic range and all the bass removed so it can be replaced by an RIAA preamp? Or do you mean it jumps all over the place. Or that you can only play a few dozen times.
I'm confused by this term "vinyl quality"
Yeah, I shouldn't post after a pint or two. Driving around in my car (which is the only place I've heard 'Singles' yet) the sound appears to be much better than the other CDs. I'm not sure whether vinyl is any better than CD, when I used to DJ you couldn't get jack shit in terms of quality / volume out of a CD. As for the technical stuff....... I'm off for a lie down (and I've only just got up)
FDISK wrote:
Steve Campbell wrote:
FDISK wrote: I'm glad someone else thinks this, I thought it was my ears playing tricks on me. It's almost vinyl quality!
You mean tiny dynamic range and all the bass removed so it can be replaced by an RIAA preamp? Or do you mean it jumps all over the place. Or that you can only play a few dozen times.
I'm confused by this term "vinyl quality"
Yeah, I shouldn't post after a pint or two. Driving around in my car (which is the only place I've heard 'Singles' yet) the sound appears to be much better than the other CDs. I'm not sure whether vinyl is any better than CD, when I used to DJ you couldn't get jack shit in terms of quality / volume out of a CD. As for the technical stuff....... I'm off for a lie down (and I've only just got up)
I think its been long argued that if you play a record on a top of the range record player/system then its far superior in terms of sound quality to a CD and top of the range CD player/system.
possibly it "sounds" better but it isn;t...remember records have like 60dB of bass rolled out plus HUGE compression, all of that is then undone by the RIAA preamp in the phono deck. To hear what's actually on the record, plug a technics into a line in socket some time. In other words, for all the richness of vinyl on a good rig, you're really only hearing the EQ in the amp. Most people compare DJ decks against ghastly cd players and wonder why the deck is better.
Having said all that, if we're talking clubs, you can shove CD up yer hole, cos it can't feed back with the speakers. If you are the average knuckle dragging headphone wearing luddite dj, that's a very bad thing, and you will be blown away by the electronic band appearing with you ( ahem :) ), but if you know what you're at.....well the DJ's will know what I mean....the prefectly controlled ringback between the platter and the speakers that turns a Phut into PHHBOOOOOMMMMMnnnnnnnn, and D+B tunes into major seismic events.
Of course we've all be scammed by cd....I think I own exactly ONE cd that's manufactured the way they are meant to be, with 2 sheets of glass and the data layer in between, the "indestructable" medium actually turns out to be as fragile as bogroll.
SACD looks interesting in terms of it exceeding the requirements by miles. Oddly enough my new soundcard likes to operate at 96KHz/24bit which is SACD format I believe, I really should check it out to see if there's any audible difference (FWIW my amp is HUGE, steam driven and DECIDEDLY NOT digital)....but (I'm doing this in my head so F* off if it's wrong), it gives you 48KHz as the maximum recordable frequenc, which is between a full octave and a major 9th above what even the best, non New Order damaged ears can hear. And a signal to noise ratio of 144dB. CD is 96dB. To put that in perspective, if we put that on a weighted scale[1], and set the quietest audible sound as 3dB....it makes the loudest, on the same track, with no volume adjustment, 141dB....that's 50ft behind concorde as it takes off or 2 miles from Hooky's bass amp (ok, actually, it's like putting your head against the grill). If that's 2 much to wrap your head around....think of a current cd, and the difference from quiet to loud it can store[2], and then imagine the same lower level, but turning your volume up to EIGHT times what it was at for the loud bit. That's just F*ing silly.
[1] i know it doesn't QUITE work that way, but then NOBODY fully understands the relationship between dB power, dB signal and weighted dB loudness quantifying. I've read books, articles and websites, I've interrogated tutors, studio owners, live men, BBC sound techs and the head of BBC NI sound....the best answer I got was "go with what the meter says, and never ever think about how it relates to any other meter you ever seen....except when you have to, then bluff it". No point explaining further, eith er you know about the whole 3dB 6dB and A-weight ( not to mention OTHER weighted scales) madness, or you wouldn;t care :) and if anyone here reckons they know what it's all about, bring it on, I'd love to know :) [2] Can't remember the exact figures, but for vinyl to store the same dynamic range as CD without the RIAA compansion/eq system, it would require the smallest groove notch to be in the nanometer range and largest to be almost a kilometre!
i don't know why .... but why after 20 years and the maturation of digital technology, quality has not become consistant? even 20 years of one digital format is unthinkable if you compare to everything else.
I used to think of digital as a "pure" format for music and movies but boy was I naive... sort of a Platonic or Philip K Dickian inferior copy of something real, then you get copies of copies and copies of copies of bad copies... I guess you lose something for convience... well my iPod is still way better than my old tape Walkman for fun factor
I have no idea what you just said, total technobabble.
What I will tell you is that my Linn Sondek LP12, Troika cartridge, Ittok arm, Valhalla power supply, Circus upgrade, naim-audio prefix phono-pre-amp blows my naim-audio CD3.5/flatcap 2 out of the water. They are incomparable. The amps that I use are naim-audio 112 pre-amp, 150 power amp with a Hi-cap powering the 112 with Mission 751 Freedom speakers mounted on Atacama SE24 stands.
On Thursday I am auditioning a naim-audio CDX2 as the 3.5 is unwell, I've worn it out, the laser is on its way out. That will narrow the gap to the Linn but will only get there with the help of an XPS power supply which is currently out of reach.
So unless you use a really good record deck, you're not going to get the most out of vinyl.
Kevin Smith wrote: I have no idea what you just said, total technobabble.
What I will tell you is that my Linn Sondek LP12, Troika cartridge, Ittok arm, Valhalla power supply, Circus upgrade, naim-audio prefix phono-pre-amp blows my naim-audio CD3.5/flatcap 2 out of the water. They are incomparable. The amps that I use are naim-audio 112 pre-amp, 150 power amp with a Hi-cap powering the 112 with Mission 751 Freedom speakers mounted on Atacama SE24 stands.
On Thursday I am auditioning a naim-audio CDX2 as the 3.5 is unwell, I've worn it out, the laser is on its way out. That will narrow the gap to the Linn but will only get there with the help of an XPS power supply which is currently out of reach.
So unless you use a really good record deck, you're not going to get the most out of vinyl.
Now this is HI-FI
