 |
 |
To my mind, a good system will represent the source material in as accurate manner as possible. What is "possible" depends on the quality of the source. And the depth of pocket of the listener.. When I was growing up in the early 60's I heard my first music on a handheld transistor AM radio, tucked under my pillow (tuned to WABC until the battery ran out) and the car radio in our '64 Chrysler Newport station wagon (tube, no doubt..). My first record player was the kind that you saw in school, with the button you could push to stop the record when the slides got out of sync.. (my dad was a schoolteacher..) When I was a sophomore, my parents got me a Sony clock-radio that had AM and FM. After that, I was a lost cause. I found WGLD and then WXRT, and started staying up all night listening to the radio. This listening is what made me love music, and the main point I am trying to make is that the music is way more important than the delivery medium. Over the years, I have refined my tastes and educated my ears, and nowadays, I cringe at the thought of listening to the crappy old Grateful Dead tapes I made on my Walkman Pro, even though I savored them for months after I made them.. I mean, why bother when I could just call up a better version on Archive.org.. I have always considered myself to be about 20 years behind the curve, and my current system is made up of pieces of equipment that were considered the best in their day, but I could not afford until they went out of fashion. I have had the opportunity to hear some of the finest music ever produced, either live or recorded, on some of the finest systems available, and I can say that it is indeed an exhilarating experience, but everyday access to that level of quality is financially unavailable to me. I applaud all the manufacturers that continue to develop new and better ways of reproducing music, and the rich music lovers and gearheads that support their efforts. -Matt Sohn P.S. Roger, your post was a garbled mess to read. I don't know what the problem you have with your e-mail system is, but perhaps you could try composing your replies in Word (with relevant passages from previous e-mails inserted), and then copy/paste into your reply -------------------------------------------- On Tue, 6/17/14, Roger Kulp <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Upgrading Audio Systems To: [log in to unmask] Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2014, 8:28 PM Tom, I'm glad to see someone else agrees with me on the premise that a good system should replicate a live performance is just so much audiophoolishness.I never understood that anyway when I used to waste too much time reading TAS and Stereophool. Over half of my favorite classical recordings are mono.Espeially early LPs.You need to listen through a well restored classic tube/valve amp from the late 50s or early 60s.There is a reason these continue to go up in price. Roger> <SNIP>