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Serious question


JetSet

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Bear in mind that liking the music is far from the only reason people buy music, whether the artist is dead or alive. Dying is a good (and free!) way to get your name in the spotlight.

Not sure I would want to die just to sell some records!

 

Maybe my royalties will go up when I die, not that it will be much use at that point :lol:

You could sign them over to me :)

......and your Lotus ;)

 

:lol: anything else?? I've just bought a radio controlled drift car which is awesome fun. You fancy that? Oh and what about my Teg, you want that? :lol:

Just put me down for everything, can always sell off the shite stuff lol

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It could also be people's second time of buying the albums.

 

Some of the older stuff would be on vinyl, cassette, cd and now everything is digital.

 

Takes about 6 seconds to start a download of an album on your phone instead of looking in your loft for that old 12 inch somewhere.

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It could also be people's second time of buying the albums.

 

Some of the older stuff would be on vinyl, cassette, cd and now everything is digital.

 

Takes about 6 seconds to start a download of an album on your phone instead of looking in your loft for that old 12 inch somewhere.

Had my ears opened to lossless music lately by SMD, I for one won't be downloading mp3's unles there is absolutely no alternative available.
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It could also be people's second time of buying the albums.

 

Some of the older stuff would be on vinyl, cassette, cd and now everything is digital.

 

Takes about 6 seconds to start a download of an album on your phone instead of looking in your loft for that old 12 inch somewhere.

Had my ears opened to lossless music lately by SMD, I for one won't be downloading mp3's unles there is absolutely no alternative available.

 

Yep, MP3's are so compressed and flat. So noticeable when you play then back to back with CD, FLAC etc. Just a very handy and user friendly format and good enough for most but the loss in quality is huge.

Edited by Linus27
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It's pretty difficult to determine the difference between lossless and 256 unless you've got some decent kit (i.e. not your car stereo!), but when you can it will blow your mind. I still grab 256 via iTunes because of ease, but a lot of my older stuff is ripped in Apple lossless and it sounds immense on the home stereo.

 

 

And no, a set of Beats headphones will not suffice either. I actually tried some of the new ones the other day, I cannot believe that people are still buying these under the impression they're actually top-end. Imbalanced garbage.

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I agree about MP3 quality but at the end of the day I listen to music in the car, when I'm running & in the house. Any 'sound' quality is lost behind engine and exhaust noise anyway in the car, my heart pounding when I'm running or background noise in the house. Unless I'm locking myself in a soundproof, acoustically optimised booth, I don't think I'm going to appreciate the difference in quality and I think the fact that I have thousands of songs to stream as and where I please at the touch of a button far outweighs this.

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It's pretty difficult to determine the difference between lossless and 256 unless you've got some decent kit (i.e. not your car stereo!), but when you can it will blow your mind. I still grab 256 via iTunes because of ease, but a lot of my older stuff is ripped in Apple lossless and it sounds immense on the home stereo.

 

 

And no, a set of Beats headphones will not suffice either. I actually tried some of the new ones the other day, I cannot believe that people are still buying these under the impression they're actually top-end. Imbalanced garbage.

 

I was lucky that my dad was a big hi-fi bod so I grew up going to all the shows around the country listening to all the latest gear. Wasn't so bad as he could get his hands on about 700 cars so we used to go in brand new M3's, Alfa Cloverleafs, GTi's etc :) I inherited his old gear over time and then got my own. I ended up getting rid of a lot of my CD's but have kept all the really good stuff or buy stuff I really like and play it on my decent gear. As you say, the difference does blow your mind, it's like night and day.

 

Haha I know what you mean it's amazing the amount of crap that is considered decent. I guess good marketing :) You can easily get a half decent setup for not a lot of money also. Hey Ekona, this thread is so like SELOC :lol:

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I mean, my setup isn't especially fancy by any means (Kef iQ90 fronts, iQ50 centre, iQ30 rears, Kube2 sub, VSX 920 AVR) but I can still tell the difference between the lower and higher bitrate stuff even on that. Maybe not on some modern compressed stuff, but certainly when you go back to things like Thriller, or even Fat Of The Land; things that have very high production values are especially noticeable.

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It could also be people's second time of buying the albums.

 

Some of the older stuff would be on vinyl, cassette, cd and now everything is digital.

 

 

 

Yes, I understand that, but why buy stuff that you can listen to for free on youtube? I never switched from vinyl and the type of music coming out from the early 90's onwards didn't interest me. Not only that a real fan of an old fart (I'm not singling out Bowie here) that's just died has had 25 years to replace his/her vinyl so why the lemming like rush to buy stuff now the artist is dead and won't see any financial benefit. I've read through all the posts with great interest, some good valid points, I remember when Elvis died the guy next door played his records for several days non stop like he was grieving, so I guess that buying back catalogues is a way that some people express their grief.

 

Pete

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Kef stuff is very good. Likewise, my setup isn't especially fancy (NAD amp and CD and Monitor Audio speakers) but boy can you tell the difference when you play something decent on it.

 

When we used to go on tour, our sound engineer used to tune the deck, house PA and room using a select few songs on a CD that he knew had been recorded with the most natural acoustics. It was a good way to tune the frequencies to suit that environment. Then as the venue filled up and the temperature changed he would just adjust to suit. I now use use some of those song myself when testing speakers and amps etc. and it's been priceless.

 

If you can, get the Riverdance album and play the song The Heart's Cry. It's one of the best songs for giving a system a workout, especially the way it was recorded. The lead female voice is perfect for tuning the highs. A good system will let you hear the natural vibrato in her voice and her taking breath. It should be so piercing. Then the male voices should then so bass heavy that the floor shakes. Then the rest of the choir cater for the mids. Nothing on the amp should need boosting, if it does then it's a crap system :) Ronnie Jordan's debut album is also great for bass tones due to the great double bass. Talk Talk's Happiness is Easy is amazing for drums, bass and vocals. Sadly my system needs a bit of bass boosting, probably due to the bookshelf speakers.

Edited by Linus27
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It could also be people's second time of buying the albums.

 

Some of the older stuff would be on vinyl, cassette, cd and now everything is digital.

 

 

 

Yes, I understand that, but why buy stuff that you can listen to for free on youtube? I never switched from vinyl and the type of music coming out from the early 90's onwards didn't interest me. Not only that a real fan of an old fart (I'm not singling out Bowie here) that's just died has had 25 years to replace his/her vinyl so why the lemming like rush to buy stuff now the artist is dead and won't see any financial benefit. I've read through all the posts with great interest, some good valid points, I remember when Elvis died the guy next door played his records for several days non stop like he was grieving, so I guess that buying back catalogues is a way that some people express their grief.

 

Pete

 

If it's through ITunes then that's probably (guessing) the main media outlet for most people who will download onto their phone, iPod etc. and play in the car on on the train to work so that will probably discount YouTube.

 

As for the Elvis point, I guess that's maybe his way to remember, respect and not quite accept what has happened. Maybe not, guessing again but if you look at the scenes in Brixton when Bowie died, with thousands of people camping out at night with his songs being played over a PA, it's not that dissimilar.

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I would never seriously consider listening to music on YT. It's a rubbish interface for doing that, especially when you have Spotify et al.

 

It surprised me when Bowie died and the radio station started playing his stuff non-stop just how much of his stuff I know and like. As such, it would be worthwhile for me picking up some of his earlier stuff to see if the albums are to my taste as well, and it only takes a few people like me to do the same out of curiosity more than anything. Given that Spotify also qualifies for the main charts these days, people may well be listening to the stuff non-stop as a tribute for gratis.

 

 

@Linus: Cheers for the heads up on those tracks, I'll pick them up and use them for fine tuning. I also use Sting's 'Fields Of Gold' for that kind of thing, it's very intricately laced with multiple subtle tracks that I never noticed until someone pointed them out to me. He's still an absolute bellend, but I can't knock his music :lol:

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@Linus: Cheers for the heads up on those tracks, I'll pick them up and use them for fine tuning. I also use Sting's 'Fields Of Gold' for that kind of thing, it's very intricately laced with multiple subtle tracks that I never noticed until someone pointed them out to me. He's still an absolute bellend, but I can't knock his music :lol:

 

You're welcome. The Riverdance track is especially good to get. Its voices only, no instruments so it really highlights any weakness in your system, especially bass with the male choir. I have a few different tracks based on production that covers other genre's and instruments, for example guitars and rock, dance and electronic etc. but can't remember what they are :) I'm sure one of the tracks is Madonna's Like a Prayer. Sting's 'Fields of Gold' I can see would be good and yes, a bellend still, great song writer but bellend :lol:

 

Talking about subtle tracks and layers, listen to that Sting song on another setup, for example some in ear headphone's and then listen to it on a really good set of headphones. It's amazing the difference and how some layer are totally silent or masked on the lower quality stuff and how the high end stuff can produce those frequencies and bring to the front other tones. It can be like listening to a new song again :) So funny listening to a track and hearing a whole new guitar or backing vocal part that you never heard before. The only bummer is if your ears are fooked and you can't hear those frequencies in the first place :lol:

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I would never seriously consider listening to music on YT. It's a rubbish interface for doing that, especially when you have Spotify et al.

 

I'm no longer in the market to buy albums but if I was then YouTube would be my first stop. Back in the day you pretty well bought every album blind so to speak at least on YouTube you can get a good feel for it before you fork out however much a CD or download costs these days. It's really great that you can check out well known, not so well known and totally obscure music. I used to be a HiFi freak but at 66 there has been a decline in my hearing range at the top end and even through my decent MS speakers I can't tell a great deal of difference in quality between my stupidly expensive turntable with an Ortofon cartridge and YouTube through a souncard linked to my PC :surrender: .

 

Pete

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It's not your hearing Pete, most music these days just sounds like the same @*!# :lol: Over produced, over compressed and the same American format :)

Taylor Swift, Madonna, Kylie......that sort of stuff? Lol ;)

 

Oi, leave Taylor out of this. She's a very close personal friends of somebody who I don't know :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...

@Ekona - I thinking about getting a half decent record deck and buying some old classic Jazz album. Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ray Brown, Sonny Rollins etc. Think it's going to sound totally amazing, especially the big old double bass thumping away. No compression, just pure analogue the way it was intended :) Might try and get some other classic albums like some Pink Floyd, 70's disco etc. :)

Edited by Linus27
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See, I know it's wrong but I actually prefer a (decently mastered!) digital track to a vinyl one these days. I suspect it's because that's what I grew up with, in the age of CD, that my ears now just prefer the digital.

 

I almost hate myself for admitting that.

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