>One thing I haven't understood however, is how those Sony audio CDs and >so on can be regarded better than BenQ, Kodak or Verbatim for audio.
I don't know about in Europe, but here in the US, the "Audio" CDs for recording aren't better, but are simply a different CD. You can buy "Data" CDs, and "Music" or "Audio" CDs. For a computer, it makes no difference, so everyone buys the Data version because they are cheaper. But if you have one of those stand alone Audio CD burners, then you need the "Music" version as it has a special track on it that the burner looks for and won't write the CD unless it sees that track. The ONLY reason for this special track is so that they can charge $1.00 more per CD. It is basically a royalty payment to the music cartels for letting you burn your own music CD mixes. >I >can't detect a difference, but maybe my hearing are getting detoriated >because of excessive MP3 and AAC listening, or maybe even CDs? Despite >the fact that I've been working with sound for 20 years, I feel digital >audio is getting better all the time and high bitrate Mp3s on a $1800 >soundcard can sound surprisingly great considering what have been left >out from the audio. But last time I did a blind test Vinyl sounded better >with dynamic music. I am a firm believer that my 1953 Rockola Jukebox playing vinyl 45s with analog tube electronics sounds WAY better than any CD player I have EVER heard. There is a certain audio quality you get from tube electronics that has been lost in the digital age. And of course the simple acoustics of the jukebox cabinet with the 2 large speakers in the base increases the overall effect of quality. Once the music kicks in, there is no noticable hiss from the needle pickup (at the start of a record, yes, you can hear the needle on the leader grooves, although between records, there is ZERO amplifier hiss, something that I haven't been able to find in any modern amps outside of expensive high end stuff... everything else you see for sale in the consumer/prosumer market, if you turn up the amp with nothing playing, you can hear an obvious hiss coming thru the speakers). But really that doesn't suprise me. Music is analog, so staying pure analog probably would sound better than going analog -> digital -> analog. >Anyone remember the Laser Vinyl deck that appeared >about when CDs was first introduced? Of course it was scrapped as that >would have been better than CDs. I've heard of this before, but I have never seen one. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
