Cassette's Not Dead, Apparently!

[REM]

Kashmiri rogan josh, Aloo gosht, Masaledar basmati, and Pyaz ka laccha for us tonight. <insert 'rubbing belly' smiley here>

What on earth is Masaledar basmati?
I ask as I have just made Lamb Dansak and am about to put my Asian Bay scented basmati into a very low oven to finish cooking by absorption, ready to eat after myself and Mrs REM return from a jolly evening sampling some of the excellent fine cask ales on offer in all the welcoming hostelries in the local shire.
Yeah, I wish, in fact we're off out in Chav Central, doing battle to get served with all the chavs, chavettes, lowlifes, scroungers and general unwashed that make up the weekend so called revelers round here. Last week there were two fights, an attempted stabbing and a transexual flashing their boobs (5k each apparently) all before 11pm. Wish us luck

Cheers

[Mike]

What on earth is Masaledar basmati?

It translates as 'spiced basmati rice'. Simples<squeek>!

[DSJR]

Spoke to HiFi Dave earlier, who gave me grief 'cos I need to visit him to hear some great new goodies (and also his ill-gotten vintage classic gains on a certain auction site...). I should be able to get my Quad II's going properly again after the visit and use the chunky Ecoflex 10 interconnects I made up for them

[Marco]

It translates as 'spiced basmati rice'. Simples<squeek>!

Never mind that, what the feck is Pyaz ka laccha?

Sounds like a rash you might get from too many 'panty pops'!!

Ralph,

Seems quite eventful where you are. So I take it you'll not be attending one of the wife swapping parties afterwards? Just to feel 'in' with the locals, y'understand

Marco.

[Mike]

Never mind that, what the feck is Pyaz ka laccha?

Basically... 'onion relish'!

But not what we Europeans usually think of as a 'relish'.

[Marco]

Mmm... Indeed. I can think of another name for 'gentleman's relish'

Marco.

[tfarney]

So, just to make it clear, you're now saying that you understand that sometimes tape is better?

If so, what a turnaround!

Marco.

No. I'm saying I agree that some recording engineers, like most AOS members, believe in magic.

ON EDIT: In the spirit, I should add that the above is my opinion.

Tim

[Spectral Morn]

No. I'm saying I agree that some recording engineers, like most AOS members, believe in magic.

ON EDIT: In the spirit, I should add that the above is my opinion.

Tim

Hi Tim

I think I can speak for those that hold the same view as me, those you are being critical of. No we don't believe in magic...this is not a case of belief or faith, but an acceptance of what we have all heard many times. We sit down to listen to our audio systems and others, and have repeatedly heard the superiority of analogue playback and recording equipment. Now that is not to say that all analogue equipment is equal, but there is a wide spread trend for mid priced well set up Turntables to better much more expensive CD players and for properly used and set up analogue recorders (reel to reel and cassette) to both record and playback a more natural copy of the music than a digital recorder. It should also be noted that even in digital recording there is the issue (which according to objectivists should not happen) that a CDR copy of a CD sounds better than the original...I have heard that too...bits are bits, is not, it would seem the case. Maybe jitter is the answer, but no one to my knowledge has explained this one yet.

You have heard what you have heard and despite analogues short comings (and none of us are saying analogue is not a compromise or perfect) but it consistently replays music in a way that is closer to the original. It captures the following better (I will re-quote Art Dudley again) "I confess to hearing more, not less, in the way of musical differences between analog and digital playback as time goes by: differences in their abilities to convey momentum, pacing, flow, melody, harmony, and overall intellectual and emotional involvement. And, again, the older I get, the less I find I can tolerate average-quality digital sound, even for background music-even as the opposite seems to be the case among so many of my friends, and even as my hearing continues its natural and inexorable decline"

The above is what we are hearing and you are not (I would love to know why you haven't). I can't explain or understand how it is that with your many years of experience you have not once had that sort of realization....that moment that exposes digital for the 2d format it is. Please understand I am not saying that digital can never better analogue just that I and many others have still to hear that....and we are not deluded.

Frankly I find your tone in the above comment to be sailing close to being insulting(in your opinion not with standing) There is no need to take that sort of tone in this discussion IMHO.

Are you willing to seek out the sort of set ups we have mentioned and have a listen again ? If you don't hear it fair enough but stepping out from the yoke of objectivity and becoming more subjective may help open your mind and ears. Measurements does not hold all the answers to what happens during the recording and reproduction of music or the human aspects in performing it or hearing it.

In my experience it is not usually a question of subtlety but of massive and obvious superiority that analogue is better (in the areas that matter most in music replay and recording). To many times I have seen others hear this too. Case in point Steve (Aquapiranha)...with in seconds exclaimed that once again vinyl had beaten CD when hearing my SME Model 20 mk1, Graham Phantom, Ortofon MC7500 against my Moon Andromeda CD player..." I must get myself a turntable" he said. The vinyl playback set up is bar the arm all S/H and at least 20 years old the Andromeda is one of the best CD (modern) players around (it should be noted that some members seem to have achieved this, having spent less money in regard to their TT front-end, than I have; even though some of my kit is S/H) If you want to be ultra critical there are somethings digital does better than analogue(in this case vinyl) but the essence,naturalness, dimension and emotion of the music is preserved and reproduced better to the best of digital and this finding also applies to SACD and DVD-A too ( I have also got both of these at home)


Regards D S D L

[niklasthedolphin]

No. I'm saying I agree that some recording engineers, like most AOS members, believe in magic.

ON EDIT: In the spirit, I should add that the above is my opinion.

Tim

I can asure you that I'm Atheist/Zen-Buddhist and therefor do NOT believe in magic or destiny.

You can call it what you want but your rhetorics pinpoints that you lack that "magical" experience.
That might be caused by the "specification- and data sheet(shit) religion", sometimes stated as an opinion.

As we all know, AOS members or not, history told us that fundamentalistic religion prevents progress.

"dolph"

[Marco]

Neil,

Excellent post. This:

...but stepping out from the yoke of objectivity and becoming more subjective may help open your mind and ears. Measurements do not hold all the answers to what happens during the recording and reproduction of music or the human aspects in performing it or hearing it.

...is it in a nutshell. It is something, to the ultimate detriment of his musical enjoyment, a dyed-in-the-wool, blinkered, closed-minded objectivist like Tim will NEVER get. You are wasting your time, as am I. Let him wallow in the digital mediocrity of his ADM9s.

His comment is not sailing close to being insulting - it *is* insulting, and frankly I've had enough of it. This disrespectful attitude is completely unacceptable. I have no problem whatsoever with people holding an alternative viewpoint and robustly expressing/defending it, but to remain a part of this community people *MUST* respect the equally valid opinion of others at ALL times. This is a core part of our ethos.

Tim, your sneering disdain, as evidenced by your 'magic' comment above (and others of a similar nature earlier), of people's valid subjective experiences has no place on this forum, so I must ask you to consider very seriously whether you wish to remain here.

If you do remain, I suggest that you contain your hi-fi contributions within the Digital Impression sector of the forum, where your mindset is obviously more at home, and the likelihood of any further confrontations is thus minimised. Simply visiting AOS occasionally to take some perverse satisfaction in crossing swords with 'the enemy' will no longer be tolerated.

I do hope I make myself clear.

Marco.