Re: [ARSCLIST] Pristine Audio (?!)

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger and Allison Kulp" <thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx>
> I must admit that,in the past year,I have had my mind changed about digital.It
wasn't digital I had hated all these years,it was the CD.I still think it's
perhaps the worst consumer electronics format ever unleashed on the world,and I
will be very happy when it dies an overdue death.I may have a wake for it.
>
Here, I suspect (from what I have either heard or read...) the problem
is not so much the CD as audio format...but the modern musical tastes
of the engineers that "set the dials" for CD-intended recording content...!

At least in theory, there isn't supposed to be an audible difference
between an analog sound recording...and the same sonic data converted
to digital form. Such differences as MUST exist, when the waveform is
converted from the smooth curves of analog recording to the VERY tiny
steps created by the 44.1 (or 22.05?) samples/second, are not...at
least in theory...recognizable by human ear/brain combinations...!

However, late 20th/21st century audio engineers have an unfortunate
practice of "making sure the CD version sounds 'right'"...where
"right" is usually defined in (1) sounding like modern pop music
(2) the absolute noiselessness of a CD recording (3) and/or BOTH!
Needless to say, this practice produces sound alien to our older
ears/brains/.usw...! And this is particularly true for reissues
of analog-era recordings...since every last bit of "surface noise"
MUST be abolished...?!

Steven C. Barr