Conclusion to Analog versus Digital Music

Overall I think getting into records is a good idea for some. For the people who have the time to sit back and close your eyes and really enjoy an album. Digital music for me now is an audition for my affection, if I end up loving it I will get the vinyl. But if it is just good I will be content with listening to it in the digital format. Honestly though I don’t see my self getting too crazy over vinyl. It can sound better but it is just not that convenient, especially in this day and age of go go go.

turntable listening test Part II

On the rush of this new found love for listening to music, after the record was done I quickly put on another favorite album of mine. Paper Chase’s “God bless your black heart” I was so excited I could hardly contain my self, unfortunately I was greeted with undeniable disappointment. It was just making a horrible popping and hissing. The sound was just awful. It was a HUGE let down. I had to take it off immediately. I quickly when online and did some research. And found out that dust and static could lead to those nasty pops. Which relieved me a little bit. I had my carbon fiber brush to try out. I soon found out, the brush was a pain in the rear to use. It even left behind little hairs which ended up being even harder to get rid of. But the sound was much better, but there was still some pops, so I checked the alignment of the cartridge, and checked the tracking weight as well. Everything was good, so it just left me with the conclusion that either disc was dirty and I would be able to clean it with a disc washer (yet another purchase) or that it was scratched. I hope it was just dirty.

Anyways, from that disappointment I continued on. This time I went and bought a brand new record from the store, Pink Floyd’s “dark side of the moon”. This is another one of those perfect albums, just brilliantly made. As I put the record on I made sure that it was dust free, and everything was good to go. I set the needle down and waited patiently as the faint heart beat started creeping in, to the roar of the opening cymbals. This was amazing. The voices in the background had more definition, the whole album just has a better soundstage. More open yet more personal at the same time. Perfect.

turntable listening test Part I

Finally I got my tools I got a SHURE SFG-2 tracking weight tool, a mirror cartridge alignment tool, and a carbon fiber brush. I am now ready to take try out this turntable.

First setting up the cartridge is needed in order to listen to anything, and precise measurement must be taken into account in order to get the most optimal performance from your cartridge. I got a Dennon DL 110 cartridge to replace the Rega Elys that came with my turntable, since the Elys looked warped and really worn out and I don’t want it to scratch up my records. I personally wouldn’t recommend the mirror aligning tool, the reflection on the mirror with the drawn guidelines make it a bit confusing when attempting to align it. The Shure SFG-2 worked like a charm though.

The DL 110 is significantly bigger than the Rega Elys so I hypothesized that it was going to sound more bassy than the Rega Since the tone arm was at more of an angle so I thought I might end up having to get a VTA adjust to to make the tone arm more or less parallel, but much to my surprise the sound that came out was much better than I had anticipated.

The first record I put on was Refused “ The Shape of Punk to come” which was an anthem to the last few years of my high school days. One of those albums that has changed the way I view other people’s perception. I most likely wouldn’t recommend it to most people since it has a very heavy hitting sound that is an acquired taste. But the drums are certainly amazing, which isn’t too surprising since apparently the drummer wrote this album. I was pleasantly surprised at how it sounded, it was like hearing the album for the first time again. I sat down and listened to it with my eyes closed and I could hear the drums sound like real drums. This album however wasn’t the one that blew me away.

The next album I put on was The Beatles’ “ Let it be... naked”. This is one of my favorite Beatles record, if not the favorite. My wife and I have spent countless hours listening to this album over and over again. It is safe to say that we know this album like the back of our hands. From the beginning you notice a dramatic improvement to what we had been listening for years. From I dig a pony to I me Mine... there were sounds that I had never noticed before. The guitars were just absolutely amazing, the seems so personal like you were right there. The sound was just warm and clear at the same time. I switched back and forth a few time to see the difference. And I used my FLACs of this album, the quality was just superior on the vinyl. There is literally no comparison, I mean the FLACs sound good too, we’ve been listening to it for years, but this was just mind blowing.

Encyclopedia versus Wikipedia

The encyclopedia has been around forever, however, it really doesn’t stack up against wikipedia.

Encyclopedia’s have agendas and usually very bias. Wikipedia is bias on a lot of subjects on their site, but thats the beauty of it, it can be disputed by anyone at anytime and have public debates. Wikipedia also has banned people for trying to force their own personal agendas on the site, most recently The Church of Scientology.

blocks versus fancy plastic toys

Which is a better child developer?

Blocks have been around forever and that is a testament to its value, plastic toys are a dime a dozen and constantly changing.

blocks help with coordination, being able to stack them higher and higher requires steady hands.

blocks help with concentration, kids who play with blocks usually have longer attention spans than kids who watch television all the time, or kids who play with shiny plastic object.

tylenol versus chicken soup

when our daughter used to get sick we would run to the doctor’s office. And they would do their check ups and by the end of it would tell us give her tylenol and send us off. Every time! made us wonder what the world are we paying them hundreds to thousands of dollars for? One time our daughter got an ear infection and we were told to give her some antibiotics... It was one of the most horrific times of my parenting experience. My daughter hated it, and would vomit every time that we tried to give her the medication. Recently I read in an article that the medicine for ear infections are more or less bullshit, and patients actually get better quicker without it! Like fevers... we would told to give our daughter tylenol to bring her fever down and that always prolonged the sickness. There is a biological reason why are bodies heat up... to kill off the germs. Too often do we run to the medicine cabinet when we have a head ache and just treat the symptoms of an illness instead of the the root of the problem we just cover it up.

I have nothing good to say about tylenol. Maybe the fact that it can temporarily stop some one from feeling to much pain long enough for the person to get treatment.

books versus e-books

written text have come a long way. There are so many different ways of presenting them, which way is best?

Every time I open a new book the fresh smell of the pristine crispness of a new page always excites me, and bring a huge sense of nostalgia. Turning the pages one by one waiting for me seems second nature. I can flip to any page at any second without a loading screen. The font is perfectly and clearly printed. Most productions of books are straight from source without the quality of degrading through multiple reproductions. The intimate interaction with a physical manifestation of the work, there is no screen in you and the work to separate you subconsciously from the work. It has great picture quality of color... a little bit dotty but not pixelated. The e-book readers take too long to switch pages, and the quality isn’t quite as sharp. the size of the book is also limited to form of the machine its one. You can make notes easy, underline what you need... fold pages. writing notes helps especially if you are kinesthetic.

The kindle is one of the leading e-book readers out there. It has free internet connection where ever there is sprint service. You can carry thousands of books with you at a time, and you can order pretty much any book at anytime and/or download any book this is in you country’s public domain for free. The battery last for about a week. you get access to thousands of books where ever you are. Change from book to book without leaving the couch. You can also search for exact quotes or words on the fly, as well as looking up a dictionary.

cooking by fire vs microwave

The invention was not only an accident but also has become a great modern appliance. Almost everybody has one. It has provided us with the convenience of speed, however it has not been kind to taste. The food always comes out soggy or half cold or heaven forbid... too hard.

Analog review has been postponed....

Analog review has been postponed....

This week I was planning on doing some reviews on listening to records, how ever I wanted to be fair and wanted to do it right so I ordered some calibration tools. But after spending a week waiting to no avail, I am forced to put the review on the back burner.

The calibration tools would have giving me the better sound, hopefully I will get the tools this week so I can share my findings with all of you.

So in the mean time I fast written a few blog ideas to pass the time till I get the proper alignment tools. If there is one were you guys think could be developed more please let me know.

Digital Music Part III

Digital Music Part III

conclusion.

Listing to digital music is clean and easy. It certainly gets the job done. I don’t really know which one to pick quite yet. Hopefully we’ll find out next week.

Digital Music Part II

Digital Music Part II

Listening to MP3 using programs such as iTunes and good speakers is a joy. It is organized for you into separate folders for you to burn them to a car radio compatible CD. What ever you want to hear is just clicks away.

with digital you don’t get the beautiful artwork. Usual the cover image can be found fairly easy with and image search on google, but the insides lay outs are usually harder find. Sometimes you get lucky and you can find them displayed in a series of JPEGs or and PDF file.. but seriously how often do you really look at the artwork... maybe at most 10 times, then the CD case just sites there collecting dust.

The type of MP3 II prefer is VBRs based on their size and quality, I Like the quality of FLAC files but they are way too big... and OSX doesn’t have a good program to manage FLAC files. You can certainly tell the difference in the quality of VBTs but not enough of a difference for me to give up convenience for quality.

Listening to Sam Cooke’s Live at Harlem Square is amazing on the record player, and its is s still quite good in VBRs. The sound on the record is more crisp and clear in the VBR and you can hear the professional mastering of the recording, however, with the record it is warm and inviting and give you a sense that you are their in the front row, the intimacy is unbeatable with the record.

A recent blind study listening test, with my age group, showed more of them preferred the digital copy, and it turns out that most of them preferred the lossy format.

I grew up in the age of technology, so for me the digitally compressed music is more nostalgic for me, I never really listened to records before so this is a new experience for me and I still prefer the record over the digital copy.

Digital Music Part I

Digital Music Part I

Digital music on CDs are essentially compressed, down to 16 bits around 44 kHz when most recordings are around 24 bits to 176 kHz. Some may argue that that is cutting the soul, and some may argue that its beyond the ranges of most human ears.

Listening to digital is super convenient. you can listen to it where ever you go. You can download music from numerous online sources. Starting form with compact discs life has changed, you can listen to what ever song when ever you want. And with the walk man you can carry the compact discs in a thin little case. instead of worrying about carrying fragile vinyls or bulky cassette tapes. But CDs soon found a new heavy weight champion, or should i say light weight champion. with the Mp3s and the internet sharing songs became easy. in stead of spending time rerecording” it on to tape. you can just “rip” it to an Mp3 files. But in the beginning Mp3 couldn’t compete with CDs for the fact that the CD quality was still superior. Mp3s only worked when you were sitting at you computer listening to them through your gawd awful computer speakers. And to really make a decent copy the bit rate would need to be higher and at the time of 500MB hard drives an full album could take up all the available space. But now at a time with ipod carrying available of more than a hundred gigabit... it is hard to see the CD compete. especially with the amount of consumer waste we produce to make just one CD.

Listening to the 128 Mp3 is just torture when you are listening through good speakers, a good format would be a lossless like a FLAC file, but they can take up al lot of space.

Analog versus digital music PART III

Analog versus digital music PART III

Part III (The setup)

Setting up the turntable was by far the most daunting task of all the steps. I had to print of numerous directions, and templates. Just adjusting the proper weight for the tone-arm took me several days to get just right, in the mean time I used some old give alway records that were scratched up to test the sound. There is just so many different ways you can up grade your turntable, no wonder people get hooked, it is fun, and as you will find out later, the sound you get from it will be very well worth it.

For hooking up the speakers I set it up a little differently from the standard right speaker left speaker. I did what some call Biamping or Biwiring depending how big of an audio snob you are. I call it Biamping since I am using 2 channels instead of one, even though I am not using 2 amps. But it is the same basic concept as 2 different amps.

The IMAC is the one that I am the most familiar with, since I use it everyday, and I’ve converted to MP3s a long time ago. I will be using 2 different programs to rip music from CDs, MAX and iTunes, and comparing the quality of their VBR Mp3s to the lossless formats. Nothing less than 190 Kbps. Even though the IMAC is equipped with an optical out put, we won’t be able to test out that feature since my amp doesn’t feature an optical input.

analog versus digital music PART II

analog versus digital music

Part II (The gear)

So for our experiment I will be using a pair of floor standing speakers by KEF, the IQ9s(these are the same speakers as the IQ90s, except the base), a integrated amp by Pioneer(It doesn’t have and optical input, but we’re just doing stereo so that’s good enough), an IMAC for the different types of digital content from .wav to .flac to MP3s to CDs, and last but not least a newly bought turntable.

I am new to the world of records and turntables, but I have done a lot of research to find the perfect turntable for me. Turntables can be, much to my surprise, quite expensive. There are turntables that are as expensive as a house, if you didn’t know already... I don’t have that kind of capital. I found a Rega Planar 3 turntable with a RB300 tone-arm with OEM Elys phono cartridge, beautiful and elegant.

analog versus digital music PART I

analog versus digital music

Part I (The intro)

Ok... I am not afraid to admit it.... I LOVE MUSIC!!! Music is wonderful and powerful, there is nothing else on this earth that can replace the magic of music. I can still remember the first time I heard Beethoven’s 5th symphony, to the first time a power cord rings through my soul. Just a bunch of dots juxtaposed on 5 lines on paper, how deceiving of a disguise to pure genius and the transparencies of our mortal souls.

Where would any of us be without music to sympathize with us? Without music I would have never been able to calm overly emotional and hormonal teenage years. Nothing could have satisfied my emotional needs than the melancholy strumming of a minor chord, or cries from a lyrical genius that had obviously been through what I’ve been through. Music is the way we all connect.

I’ve been obsessed with music long before I picked up my first guitar. Ever changing tastes, ever changing standards and ever surprising discoveries. Analog versus digital is a very debatable subject. Just because technology has gotten does mean the product is better. For example, the album “SGT Pepper and the lonely hearts club band” by the Beatles is an amazing body of work, It came out right around the time stereo came out, so the record company wanted it to be in stereo, but the band didn’t care for stereo at the time and only mixed the mono version leaving the stereo version in the hands of others. Both is good... but the mono version is by far superior.

Handwriting versus typewriting (Part III)

Handwriting versus typewriting

Part III: conclusion

There are obviously certain things that the computer is not capable of replacing the almighty pen and paper. But with the size of the personal computer is getting smaller and smaller, battery life is getting longer and longer and with touch screen becoming more widely available, I believe one day the computer will be able to overcome its shortcomings.

Handwriting versus typewriting (Part II)

Handwriting versus typewriting

Part II: Computer (an attempt at “bad writing”)

With the modern computer, it has given us the ability to be connected to millions of people all the time and at the same time making people more isolated. There are wonderful things that a computer can do and there are things it can’t cComputers is a remarkably useful tool, without a computer none of us would be taking this class.

Computers make writing easier with its spell check and easy editing tools. Saves money on the cost of paper.. It is really easy to organize files to keep track of records. Makes sharing better by offering instant managing of fonts so that any one can read what you are writing.

Things like comments, blogging or chatting have loosen most people of the idea of bad writing

The computer has enabled millions of people to be connected at the same time, file sharing had become so easy that I suppose everybody has become comfortable with the prewriting process of “bad writing”. I am an exception... not that I don’t write bad, but I am not comfortable with writing bad.

Handwriting versus typewriting (Part I)

Handwriting versus typewriting

Part I: Paper

Since this is a class about writing, I will start my first blog about Technocritism about the differences between writing by and hand versus typing on a computer.

Both the paper technology and the computing technologies have been evolving for thousands of years. From what we now paper the first kind of paper started about 3500 BCE, and but wasn’t mass produced until the 1700s. The personal computer had a similar history. The earliest evidence of binary code was found in the ancient chinese text of I Ching which was dated around 2800 BCE, but the modern personal computer wasn’t invented till the 1970s. Both have made significant advancements for mankind, is one better than the other?

Let’s look at paper first since it is the first technology that most of us were exposed to. It may seem less formal and more intimate, for the reason that it is understood that when you write by hand it is most likely not going to end up being a final draft. Give us the ability to just play and free to “write badly” and doodle to convey a different sense of emotions sometimes hard to express with written words without considerable cognitive planning. Reading a handwritten journal will give most people a sense of intimacy that is beyond what is actually written. Writing with paper has a sense of humanity that thus far the the computer have not being able to replicate.

However, writing by hand has its... difficulties, especially living in today modern society. Writing by hand has is changes mainly i believe with speed. I am able to type faster than my hand can write, but that is not what I mean by speed. What I mean by speed is the ability to save, re-write in different ways, to share with a group, checking spelling and to make a back up is very time consuming. Those are all very important capabilities that we need, forcing us to turn to computers for the solution to the problems with writing.