Quote Originally Posted by Macca View Post
As a late adopter of digital (1995) I always wondered how true this was so last year I bought a Marantz player from 1984 just to put the theory to the test. And it sounds fine. Yes, I've got better players, or at least players I prefer, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. No grain, no hash, no harshness, you could listen to it all day. It sounds sweet and clean.

You've only got to look at the rapid take-up rate of CD from 1985 onwards to see that there was no inherent problem. if it had been as bad as it is now claimed the format would have sunk without trace.

I think it was an almost uniquely British thing and stemmed from people using uniquely British amplification like Naim and Exposure, and some similar boutique brands with an 'exciting' or 'live' sound balance. Or they had older amplifiers which overloaded with the 2V input from CD.

I've also bought some original issue CDs from around that time too, just to see if the unlikely theory that the transfers weren't done properly holds any water. In short, no it doesn't.

So Fremer wasn't right about it, not at all. And he certainly isn't the reason for the vinyl resurgence. I'd say a big part of that is due to streaming. No tactile experience, you see. And if you want the tactile experience you go for it all out - vinyl LP - with the needle and the tonearm and the big cover art - not the halfway-house that is CD.
My CD experience from that period was like listening to breaking glassssss.....

CD only became as big as it did because the industry wanted to make it happen plus the people who embraced it wanted the convenience, they are probably the same people who stream spotify on phones via earbuds.