Jimbos Audio ramblings

[Swann36]

I think I have found my next amplifier with 400 watt output so should drive the Heco speakers with very little effort. Amazing price which makes me think some of us audio nuts have been paying over the odds for our gear?

Not sure what the echo button will do to my room acoustics however...??

https://electromarket.co.uk/fenton-a...ia-player-400w

The review is pure 80s “it goes LOUD”

[Macca]

Good points there Martin, never thought about it like that.

I buy very small amounts of vinyl nowadays as I have so much already and really don't need anymore.
But if I do buy something it has to be great music, no fillers, good production and not just a listen once or twice type of record. I use Spotify for that!

I use Youtube to check stuff out. Have to say don't find much these days, only bought one new release in the past 12 months.

When I was in sixth form had a mate who was youngest of nine. All his siblings had moved out but left their record collections so he had almost every classic from about 1970 onwards. Original pressings. We were pretty jealous of that. He had a pool table too, which was a bonus.

Lots of Friday nights drinking cheap wine, shooting pool and discovering bands we never heard of like Tull, Creedence, all that sort of thing. At the time the charts were full of really anodyne stuff like Pet Shop Boys and Duran Duran. I remember a youth pulling out 'Axis Bold As Love' and saying 'Who are deese?' (This was in Liverpool).

None of us had even heard of Hendrix. He stuck it on the old 'Sharp' music centre and we were all totally blown away.

I still listen to all that 70s stuff now. Tastes have expanded into jazz, soul, funk but the core hasn't changed.

[Jimbo]

There is so much great stuff from the 70s. I remember growing up hearing all that music around me constantly as the radio was the only way you could really hear new music.

Tommy vance - Friday rock show was a must!

[Wakefield Turntables]

I've got to admit to discovering more new "old" music than buying and discovering new "new" music. Does that make sense?

[Jimbo]

I've got to admit to discovering more new "old" music than buying and discovering new "new" music. Does that make sense?

A lot of my record collection is discovered "old" music. I do keep an interest in what it going on now across the music scene but much of it is woeful!

[Wakefield Turntables]

I do keep an interest in what it going on now across the music scene but much of it is woeful!

I hear yeah brah (or whatever the parlance is nowadays)! I've found myself migrating to old DECCA classical recordings and snapping these up whenever I see them rather than buying new stuff, weird but it honestly sounds exactly the same to me. I wonder if they said the same thing several hundred years ago when Bach was originally doing the rounds on the music charts in 17xx !!??!!

[Jimbo]

I spoke yesterday to the chap who has a large collection of vinyl he is trying to dispose of and it got me thinking about how much fabulous stuff must be out there still to find its way onto the market. 60 -80 year olds still alive across the globe must still hold most of the worlds greatest treasures in their lofts, garages and in storage and many of them who are not into hifi or indeed vinyl maybe unaware of what value they are holding.

I recon only a fraction of what has come up for sale in the last 10 years is representative of the tip of the iceberg. I was looking at near mint 1st pressings of DSOTM this morning going for £2000-£3000. Led Zeppelin and loads of the classic rock stuff is fetching eye watering prices and I am sure there is plenty of it out there still to make its way onto the market. I just need to find a way of getting to it before the dealers and house clearance folk!

I can understand the high prices because these first pressings and stuff from analog tape may never be reproduced again and so will probably remain the best available copy of that music available for us to listen too. You can forget any digital copies in whatever format as they will never sound as good as as these original analog recordings. If they were recorded originally digitally that is a different matter but High Rez copies of analog do not cut it. The main problem being the mastering from these High Rez copies usually f&*ks around with the recording so it ends up sometimes sounding way different from the original.

Anyone offering a first pressing of Led Zeppelin 4 they no longer use up for sale? I can offer you a tenner!

[Macca]

I can understand the high prices because these first pressings and stuff from analog tape may never be reproduced again and so will probably remain the best available copy of that music available for us to listen too. You can forget any digital copies in whatever format as they will never sound as good as as these original analog recordings. If they were recorded originally digitally that is a different matter but High Rez copies of analog do not cut it. The main problem being the mastering from these High Rez copies usually f&*ks around with the recording so it ends up sometimes sounding way different from the original.

Nothing to do with the digital transfer and 16/44.1 is more than enough to completely capture any analogue recording from any era

I think the difference is what generation of master tape was used to make that digital copy.

original UK vinyl pressing of something like DSOTM is probably not many generations away from the production master, with later pressings they could be ten or twenty generations away. Each transfer doubles the noise. Who knows what these 'hi res' (lol) digital versions are being made from? They never say, which says it all.

Having said that I have a 1990s CD of DSOTM and sounds absolutely fine so I suspect the silly prices for vinyl are bumped up by sheer mysticism about their sound quality. Just because people have the money to buy these things doesn't mean they have any clue about what they are buying.

Plus just being transferred to vinyl from tape buggers up the sound enormously. Now if you could get your hands on an early generation master tape, that might really be worth the money.

[Jimbo]

Back in the "Tape era" before the Big "D" how did they reproduce so many albums from the original master tapes? Were there many copies which they then made stampers from and then produced lots of stampers?

There must be some copies of the original Master Tape around but these are probably in a fragile condition?

[Macca]

Back in the "Tape era" before the Big "D" how did they reproduce so many albums from the original master tapes? Were there many copies which they then made stampers from and then produced lots of stampers?

There must be some copies of the original Master Tape around but these are probably in a fragile condition?

There's a studio master from which they make a production master, then they make copies of the production master and use those to make the stampers.

But then they will copy the copies if it's a big selling album. So there could be dozens or even hundreds of master tapes for any given album.

Depending on the tape used these will deteriorate to various degrees with age. I note that despite the high price of re-issues they don't ever seem to declare the progeny of them. Possibly because they don't know or possibly because they used an archived digital copy of a master taken years ago (hello Mofi) and don't want the punters to know -although in terms of sound quality this will often be the best option available.

I got a few represses that I was able to replace with first pressings (bought used). In most cases I must admit the first pressing does sound noticeably superior. Although could be other reasons for that besides what generation of master tape was used.