Chap 4 YoYodyne, factory of war

[Robin Landseadel]

On Jun 1, 2009, at 1:46 PM, Michael Bailey wrote:

> Robin probably could say which versions are best

Reiner. Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Slam Dunk.

The SACD is very fine and unless your butt-ugly rich enough for a mint  
shaded dog with matching SME 30 + Blowtorch°, you're better off with  
the SACD. The very definition of "the definitive recording" [whatever  
the hell that's supposed to be.]

http://www.amazon.com/Bartok-Concerto-Orchestra-Percussion-Hungarian/dp/B0013DDO9M

	Anyone getting into vinyl is stumbling into a civil war that's
	raged in the audio press for the past 20* years. There are two
	kinds of audio critic. Representing the mainstream is Sound &
	Vision, formerly Stereo Review, whose editors have always
	maintained that the CD improved over the LP thanks to its
	compactness, durability, and lack of surface noise. Without the
	CD, we would never have arrived at the iPod.‡

	Taking the opposing viewpoint are Stereophile and other high-
	end stalwarts who devoutly maintain that listeners took a tragic
	wrong turn when the CD supplanted the LP.· They believe one
	generation has forgotten how to listen and the next one never
	learned. Incidentally, I'm on speaking terms with both camps,
	and before they jump all over me, I freely acknowledge that
	these summaries of their positions are brief and inadequate.

http://news.digitaltrends.com/talk-back/63/shaded-dog-days

	I'm not sure if I should even be submitting this, as the Blowtorch
	tends to qualify for 'unobtainium' status. . .

http://www.audioasylum.com/reviews/Preamplifier-SS/CTC/Blowtorch-preamp/amp/95442.html

	The SME Model 30 Turntable
	FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE
	The $15,000‹ SME Model 30 turntable is everything we have
	ever demanded of a turntable. In this, the twilight of the vinyl
	gods, it is the best choice for a "last turntable"-the table to walk
	with into the good dark night. . .

http://www.sme.ltd.uk/content/Model-302-The-Absolute-Sound-1457.shtml

°Though a Linn/Vendetta front-end ought to do rather nicely if your  
total system budget is under $1,000,000.

*More like 25. And Pynchon showed his hand 20 years ago in Vineland.  
Note—the SACD of Sam Cooke's Greatest Hits is very, very fine. Good  
luck finding it!

‡Perhaps the end of civilization as we know it.

·It's not so much the "Digital" part that makes us foam at the mouth,  
it's the crappy standards and implementation of digital sound in the  
early years. DSD and high-bit PCM are close in quality [but not  
identical] to analog these days, and SACDs and the PCM versions of  
these data-rich modes of digitally recording music have virtues that  
analog media doesn't.  Of course, a whole generation of musicians and  
engineers got lost in the process, and further implementation of data  
reduction in MP3s resulted in sounds in popular music that made  
popular music a whole lot less popular, but that's just collateral  
damage, right? In any case, the Reiner recordings of Bartok document a  
musical culture that otherwise would have been lost and the recorded  
sound quality qualifies the recording as a species of time-machine.

‹More like $20,000 these days.