Youtube.com

[Tool Guy - Kg]

It’s cool to come across some YouTube videos of concert fans being invited onstage to play guitar...and they just kill it. Some bands are really into fan interaction and they understand how that can make for an awesome concert-going experience.

[Lazarus]

Here's a "brother" listening to Pink Floyd's "Dogs" for the first time. I love seeing someone finding this music...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBPRSKRnpyI

[Just In Tile LLC]

Laz, you seem like a music man for sure. My dad was a huge audiophile, growing up I'd watch him mess with his reel to reel and remember watching movies on laser disc as a kid. He was definitely a "techie" with electronics for the time.

I currently have adopted the .flac file format for audio. A lossless compression. I can rip my cd's to a perfect bit to bit audio replica. The advantage being I can go through my albums from my phone and then play them through to my receiver when my computer is on.

Are you an LP man? Cd's?

[Tool Guy - Kg]

....8-track?

[Lazarus]

Pretty much an LP Man. Used to have several thousand albums I garnered in the days I was a "DJ" in New Orleans. Love the vinyl....great fidelity, scratches and all. CD's are nice, but soulless. Don't have the dynamic range. 8 Tracks? Hate to admit that I actually had one in a car. Lear Jet was the brand....

[Just In Tile LLC]

Have you read articles on loudness war? Basically describing how companies were remastering older music to cd but choosing to lose quality in favor or higher volumes.

https://www.yoursoundmatters.com/vin...-loudness-war/

A good introduction. Also to show a quality transfer to a cd is not only amazing, but has a lower sound floor. I of course am not here to change minds but maybe clear up some misnomers.

[Just In Tile LLC]

That website also has a link to a dynamic range database, where you can see the average range of different formats and releases of albums. So when I'm shopping I can see if the mastering of a given album is worth my money.

[ss3964spd]

I'm also an audiophile. Well, rather a retired audiophile. I still have - by the standards of millennials and Gen X'ers, an old school stereo system, all separates. I keep it down in the basement - AKA Manland, and though not as often as I'd like, do still disappear down there for hours to do some critical listening. Still prefer LP's, unless I want to listen to something really, really loud.

[Tool Guy - Kg]

Originally Posted by ss3964spd

...an old school stereo system, all separates.

Speaking of which, what happened to the stereo departments of the average electronic store? Alla big stuff seems to have disappeared. Can you only find big stereos at the really high-end audio stores?

[ss3964spd]

Things have been trending away from traditional separates for a long time now, and the electronics chain stores never really catered to audiophiles by offering high end equipment. Still they did offer separates at the lower end, but in a battle for survival they've given up that floor space to computers, video game systems, more appliances, mobile phone, etc.

And honestly, one doesn't need a high quality system to reproduce today's compressed music formats. A receiver, and a couple of speakers, will fill that bill. Even the mid to high end specialty shops have dwindled in numbers. Even as LP's have made a bit of a come back I doubt we'll ever see again the proliferation of systems comprised of dedicated components.

[Gozo]

We’ve veered off the “YouTube” topic, but... I saw this in the Home&Design Ideas 2020 Sourcebook and also thought the high end separates audiophile market was pretty much dead. Here’s an example of, what I think, is too many pieces. I guess each channel front and rear gets its own amp. Looks like they’re up in your neck of the woods too, Dan.
Who am I to make judgements? I still have a stack of Nakamichi separates upstairs that I still use.

[ss3964spd]

A lot of the YouTube stuff posted has been music related, so....

But yeah, agree with your assessment, Jeff, that's alotta stuff, and still no center channel speaker.

Many of the former mid to high end manufacturers now make only commodity level equipment, and that's a shame. One used to be able to build a solid, reasonably priced system without wading too deep into the realm of seriously diminishing returns.

Remember the Nakamichi Dragon, Jeff? Perhaps the pinnacle of cassette decks.

[Just In Tile LLC]

What's amazing about the current trend to compress music and have it more easily transportable is the quality loss is sickening. Mp3's for example at MAXIMUM quality are about 320 kbps.(most are not even close to that data rate) While cd's are around 1400 kbps. Lp's being estimated at about 1000-1200kbps but have a theoretical higher frequency range than cds. Cds being around 22,000khz and records possibly 96,000khz. Most human ears topping out at 20,000khz.

All that to say that music purchases from itunes and other common sources are basically the fast food of quality. You are paying for sh%* quality and it degrades over time. (mp3's digital format is a lossy format)

I've heard it like this, lossy compression (mp3's) is like crumpling up a piece of paper each time you play it, over time, the crumples disfigure the original document. Lossless compression like .flac is like "rolling the map" (twister movie reference) the document never loses the information.

[Lazarus]

With (I believe) the Stone Poneys...

https://youtu.be/wdNWRzNF_TA

[Lazarus]

While watching that one, I came across this. A big fan of Eva Cassidy....she passed away from bone cancer at the tender age of 33. One of the most beautiful voices I ever heard. Enjoy........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rd8VktT8xY