> >As for frequency response, the human ear can only hear from about 20 cycles
> >per second up to about 20,000 (that's a little kid who's never listened to
> >any music on headphones.... all the tossers on *this* list, like me, would
> >be lucky to hear anything much above 18kHz.) I'll wager CD's have a much
> >flatter frequency response across the dynamic range as well.
> I'm one of those tossers...and its not really at the high end that I notice
> a difference. its very much at the low end...at a very high volume, on a
> proper *system*. There are also a lot of sounds that we here rather than
> feel...
As an interesting detail, I'm (half seriously, half just for the laugh)
reading a book called something like "Good Audio Reproduction" from
1971, and it sez something like this (my own free translation):
"The lowest frequency of sound human ear can hear is normally around 16
Hz. The highest frequency varies individually and gradually decreases as
we get older. Young people can hear sounds at frequencies over 16,000 Hz
- some even up to 20,000 Hz - but old people are seldom able to hear
anything beyond 8,000 Hz. The singing of crickets, for example, is so
high-pitched that old people cannot hear it, and thus it is said that
crickets only sing for young people."
Most frequencies used in music are anyway between 25-10,000 Hz, so I'd
say CD reproduces (frequency-wise) everything that is relevant. A
different matter altogether is, that many prefer the "warm" sound of
vinyl (caused by distortion in the low frequencies because of the RIAA
compression/decompression used on vinyl, as well as slight detoriation
of the condition of the surface of the record), that is very hard to
fully capture on digital medium.
For me there is no difference in sound quality, really. If I was
blindfolded, I couldn't say which sound was off CD, vinyl, well-encoded
high-bitrate (196+) mp3, MiniDisc, DAT or whatsoever, assuming the
player (CD-player, turntable, etc.) was a high-quality unit and the
sound system was not otherwise your $100,000+ laboratory audio system
but closer to your regular home stereo or club sound system.
For DJing, I prefer vinyl for the ease of manipulation, but then again,
that is just a matter of getting used to one medium. (I've spun vinyl
for, hmm, roughly 7 years now and CD only recently.) I use two Technics
turntables and one Pioneer CDJ-500 CD player, so I also play CDs and am
more than happy to receive any CD-R promos.. ,) (And I don't think I'm
the only one - we don't really have a dubplate culture up here in
Finland and most top DJs play CD-Rs when they have exclusive material,
it's mainly the d&b headz who make acetates..)
--
"Betwixt decks there can hardlie a man catch his breath by
reason there ariseth such a funke in the night..."
- W. Capps, 1623
mekaanikko@nutempo.com
legal notice: http://www.nutempo.com/message_legal.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Apr 03 2001 - 19:34:17 CEST