[monochrome]

My hearing is no longer good enough to appreciate the marginal improvement in sound quality from the expensive stuff. When I recently refreshed my audio components I ended up purchasing regular stuff (Denon, Polk, Audio-Technica, Marantz) on line. Oddly my old Pioneer 6-Disc CD changer works just fine.

I’m having fun digging up what were the best audio components 40 years ago and creating a distinct legacy system in another part of the house. I play my old LP’s there. My children like listening to old movie soundtracks from my parents’ collection and the high end Masterpiece classical pressings. I think there are about 800 LP’s.

---

Last edited by monochrome; 09-11-2019 at 05:23 PM.

[RGlasel]

1 Perru Como and 1 Percy Faith is quad......interested?????

Sorry, but I don't have a working 8-track player (or a quadraphonic amp, although working quad/surround sound amps turn up on Kijijji from time to time)

[MarkJerling]

I won't buy another turntable unless the store selling it has replacement cartridges and needles in stock. So far, that's no one. Talking about hearing loss, the last time I had a functional turntable I put on one of my favourite high DR tracks to play a very high cymbal track that helped my by Yamaha instead of a Sony amp. Sony reproduction was so poor you couldn't distinguish it, while the Yamaha had it loud and clear. SO using my same 30 year old Yamaha amp, I can't hear it anymore. And I can no longer distinguish the difference between Tess' Sony and my Yamaha. Life sucks,

Is now a good time to admit I have enough gramophone needles to last several lifetimes? But yes, it's hard to find turntable stilii.

[Dartmoor Dave]

My hearing is no longer good enough to appreciate the marginal improvement in sound quality from the expensive stuff.

I know what you mean. The hearing in my right ear is mostly gone now (side effect of Meniere's syndrome), and my left ear isn't what it used to be either. Every time I find myself thinking that my Linn system doesn't sound as good as it used to, I have to remind myself that it's just my ears that have lost it.

Who knows? Maybe the reason I prefer vinyl is that it suits my crappy hearing better nowadays.


Edit: Hey, I've just had an idea. Would it be possible to get an audiologist to give me a frequency plot of my lousy hearing? Then I could play everything through a multimedia pc applying reverse equalisation to correct for my hearing.

---

Last edited by Dartmoor Dave; 09-12-2019 at 12:50 AM.

[RobA_Oz]

After years of denying my near and dear’s not-so-subtle hints that my hearing wasn’t what it used to be, I caved in and visited a hearing centre. One month and several thousand dollars later, I can hear the more subtle tonal differences in our hifi system again. I can also switch them off via my phone, when I can’t abide what I’m hearing anymore.

[Rondec]

I'm guessing it is just that the sales of CDs have fallen off a cliff. I still listen to some, but I seldom purchase new CDs, mainly using Spotify to listen to music. It has a big enough library that I don't run out of music and that quality is generally good enough for my stereo system.

I'm guessing that Apple Music and Spotify and Pandora have really killed CD sales.

[MarkJerling]

I'm guessing it is just that the sales of CDs have fallen off a cliff. I still listen to some, but I seldom purchase new CDs, mainly using Spotify to listen to music. It has a big enough library that I don't run out of music and that quality is generally good enough for my stereo system.

I'm guessing that Apple Music and Spotify and Pandora have really killed CD sales.

Yup. No-one is buying CDs anymore for that reason. Spotify works well enough. And songs can be downloaded in good enough quality.

[normhead]

Sorry, but I don't have a working 8-track player (or a quadraphonic amp, although working quad/surround sound amps turn up on Kijijji from time to time)

MY 5.1 surround amp sound can be configured to be quad amp. I suspect most of the can, although, I bought mine 15 years ago.

[boriscleto]

And songs can be downloaded in good enough quality.

Music downloads are down to 9%, the same as physical media...The decline in download revenue led to an overall decline in music revenue. Obviously Music Is Dooomed™.

[monochrome]

I know what you mean. The hearing in my right ear is mostly gone now (side effect of Meniere's syndrome), and my left ear isn't what it used to be either. Every time I find myself thinking that my Linn system doesn't sound as good as it used to, I have to remind myself that it's just my ears that have lost it.

Who knows? Maybe the reason I prefer vinyl is that it suits my crappy hearing better nowadays.


Edit: Hey, I've just had an idea. Would it be possible to get an audiologist to give me a frequency plot of my lousy hearing? Then I could play everything through a multimedia pc applying reverse equalisation to correct for my hearing.

As to the audiologist, yes, I think they could. No I don’t think so. If you can’t hear it; you can’t hear it.

I failed the physical to fly military aircraft because I had had a burst eardrum in my youth and the scarring affected my hearing. They knew and plotted pen-on-paper exactly what frequencies did not register and what that meant - and that was 1973 analog tech.

Consequently I did not attend a military academy.

[RGlasel]

Would it be possible to get an audiologist to give me a frequency plot of my lousy hearing? Then I could play everything through a multimedia pc applying reverse equalisation to correct for my hearing.

Not enough to get back most of what you lost. Your high frequency hearing above 10KHz is gone forever, your audiologist probably won't even test for it and depending on how much your hearing has deteriorated, you might not have much left above 5KHz. Brass and strings have already lost their zing (because the third and fourth harmonics are in that range), your brain is relying on your auditory memory to fill in the blanks and give you the warm feelings you used to get from the music.

My hearing loss history spans more than 30 years, I lost almost all of the hearing in my right ear before I was 25 due to a couple of ear infections (but not before I sunk all my "surplus" income into stereo equipment). 20 years later the hearing in my left ear was declining to the point where I was having trouble following multiple conversations in crowded rooms and in 2008 I got my first hearing aid to boost moderate hearing loss (along with a biaural crossover). Then in 2015 I lost almost all of my hearing in my left ear within 72 hours and ended up with a cochlear implant in my right (formerly dead) ear and an ultrapower hearing aid in my left ear. Combined with the Bluetooth and FM capabilities of a Roger Pen, I can follow conversations better now than I could in 2008, but music sounds like an orchestra of mice playing piccolos inside steel drums, accompanied by a chorus of screeching birds. The brain is a miraculous organ, when I listen to my LPs from the seventies and eighties, it shuts off the auditory nerves and plays back all of my favorite tracks from memory. I can still appreciate music that hasn't been burned into my memory circuits, but it is not remotely close to what people with normal hearing get.


I guess the point I want to get across is that the active sound processing done by your brain is vastly superiour to what can be accomplished with electronic equalization. Everything that increases the information received by your brain is good, but if your brain stops trying to make life sound better, any technological assistance is wasted.

[stevebrot]

On my record shelf is an LP of the first commercial digital recording from 1978. I will let that last settle in for a moment. Vinyl is quite capable of handling dynamic range, but the analog tape masters used at the time were inferior in that respect, hence the breakthrough aspect of the recording I own. Now, back to the LP...

Telarc DG-10039 (1978)

Stravinsky: The Firebird
Borodin: Overture and Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Shaw

Technical details:

Freq Resp: 0 - 21kHz
Ttl Harm Dist: <0.004% @ 0 VU, < 0.03% at peak
S/N: 90db RMS
Dyn Range: 90db RMS
Sampling rate: 50,000 samples/second
Digital capture: 16-bit linear encoded/decoded
Wow and Flutter: below detection

The jacket notes explained in great detail how the recording was made and the advantages to the process. How does it sound? Much depends on the quality of the playback system, but it is probably enough to say that it was superb on the day I bought it and still sends shivers down my spine today. Yes, the record is still in excellent condition.

So...the pertinence to this thread? Good is good and technical boundaries are largely artificial. The pleasure is in the process and the consumption.


Steve

[Dartmoor Dave]

I guess the point I want to get across is that the active sound processing done by your brain is vastly superiour to what can be accomplished with electronic equalization. Everything that increases the information received by your brain is good, but if your brain stops trying to make life sound better, any technological assistance is wasted.

Thank you, you've explained it all in a way that makes absolute sense. And it's definitely true that how good my hi-fi sounds nowadays seems to depend to a huge extent on my frame of my mind when I sit down to listen. The good news is that wine seems to help significantly.

[photoptimist]

This is obviously another facet of the mirrorless revolution -- those CDs are far too mirror-like for hipsters' comfort!

[boriscleto]

Well your CD collection looks shiny and costly.
How much did you pay for your bad Moto Guzzi?
And how much did you pay for your black leather jacket?
Is it you or your parents in this income tax bracket?