Why would you buy a McIntosh Pre-Amp?

[Vinyl Rules!]

Many think that DTS and Dolby digital, which all films are mastered in, have poor sound quality. The truth is these are both 20 bit formats with sound quality that often betters lossless 'redbook' CD, 16 bit performance.
[snip]
Ron-C

Ron,

I believe you are absolutely correct when you say that many DTS and DD film soundtracks sound much better than lossless Redbook CD's.

And I think I know the reason why: Much has been written in many different forums lately about producers of CD's mixing them so that they are uniformly loud, with little dynamic range. It is said this is done so that it will sound "loud" when played back on FM radio or an MP3 or iPod. Someone even posted a video of the loss of compression on You Tube.

And even Rolling Stone recently published an article on how sound quality on most CD's has declined as many of them have a dynamic range of only 8 dB to 10 dB. There was a quote in the article to the effect that the industry now believes artists' music has to sound "loud" when it is played, not "good."

Fortunately, the people who mix the sound for films have not yet started doing this, so many films, IMO, provide a startling dynamic range when playing back on a good system.

And I find that most music I hear played in films sounds MUCH better than most new CD's I buy. And I don't buy many new CD's because the sound is so badly "compressed" on them. As an example, I recently bought copies of Lyle Lovett's new CD, and Bruce Springsteen's new CD, and while the songs were good, the recording of the music was horrible, with almost no dynamic range on either CD - This is such a disservice to the artist.

In my mind the issue is not lossless versus non-lossless: The issue is about providing a listening experience that tries to capture as much of the dynamic range of the original event as possible. Redbook CD can do this, but almost no music company is using the inherent dynamic ranges of CD's at present.

And that is why I think so many films and films scores on DVD's sound so much better than CD's. As always, YMMV, of course.

 

[ruffoc]

From an audio standpoint, I do feel badly for those whose main diet is new popular music on CD. I do agree with ‘vinyl rules’. Many of the very mainstream pop CDs I’ve heard suffer from extreme dynamic compression. I also agree that music on many well mastered DVDs actually sounds better than their CD’s counterparts. -- thanks for the explination, i've never understood why.

Most of my new CD purchases are of classical music and fortunately CD sound quality is getting better and better in this regard. Mainstream labels like DG, Decca, EMI, are all releasing good sounding CDs made from high res masters these days. A far cry from a 15 yrs ago. The smaller labels are doing even better Hyperion, Channel Classics, Pentaton, Harmonia Mundi – many of these feature regular SACD releases in addition to CD that compare favorably to the very best analogue recordings.

 

[ron-c]

Many Goodwill stores sell used vinyl for less than $1.00 per disk. I never have a problem finding a few true gems at the GW which is why everyone who loves music should have a turntable and record cleaning machine. Slow down and enjoy the tunes..

Thanks,
Ron-C

 

[masterlu]

Many Goodwill stores sell used vinyl for less than $1.00 per disk. I never have a problem finding a few true gems at the GW which is why everyone who loves music should have a turntable and record cleaning machine. Slow down and enjoy the tunes..

Thanks,
Ron-C

Hhmm MT10... :scratch2:

 

[Jfall]

MikeSp, regarding your post #99, when a player decodes an audio signal it can output that signal in one of two ways. LPCM, which as you state will require d/a conversion by a sound processor, or the player can do the d/a conversion as well and output an analog signal (5.1 etc.).