roy@qvax2.UUCP (Roy Gordon) (02/04/86)
I recently purchased a Magnavox 2041 CD player and would like to share my experience with it with people on the net and see how it relates to the experience others have had. To set the context, the other relevant equipment I have are KLH-6 speakers (I've had these since 1968!) and a Heathkit AR 29 receiver. The receiver was built by the same person who will modify the 2041. Overall, I have been somewhat disappointed in the unit. On the positive side the dynamic range is certainly great, and there is no surface noise. Many passages have a clarity unkown to me on records. Hearing different instruments distinctly has been revelatory. On the negative side, I don't in general like the quality of the sound. I listen mostly to classical music and opera in particular. The soprano voice seems quite thin when played, as do some other passages in the music. Sometimes when the orchestra "revs" up the passage sounds quite indistinct and muddy and as it is a little sluggish and slow getting started, as if there werelike they were a little out of sync. I'm sorry I can't describe thisatter any better. Overall to me the sound lacks the depth and richness that I hear on records. I will continue to use the CD player because of the media and the flexibility of the player. It is wonderful to be able to go directly to an aria within an operatic recording and then listen to it three times in a row and then skip over what I don't want to hear. Yet, I remain disappointed. Are the problems that I have encountered common? Are they due in whole or part to my other equipment? Are they due to me? I would be truly interested in others' experiences and comments. Roy Gordon
greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley) (02/05/86)
from Roy Gordon: > > On the negative side, I don't in general like the quality of the sound. > I listen mostly to classical music and opera in particular. The > soprano voice seems quite thin when played, as do some other passages > in the music. > > Sometimes when the orchestra "revs" up the passage sounds quite > indistinct and muddy and as it is a little sluggish and slow > getting started, as if there werelike they were a little out of sync. > I'm sorry I can't describe thisatter any better. Overall to me the > sound lacks the depth and richness that I hear on records. > ... > > Yet, I remain disappointed. Are the problems that I have encountered > common? Are they due in whole or part to my other equipment? > Are they due to me? I would be truly interested in others' > experiences and comments. > This is, in a nutshell, what the whole analogue vs. digital controversy has been about from the start. The phenomenon described is not at all uncommon, and I don't think it reflects on any one particular CD player currently out on the market. Similar experience with digital sound (and CD in particular) led me to dismiss it at first as totally unsatisfactory. I changed my mind, only after a great deal of careful listening and comparison to both recorded material and live performance. I'm now convinced that a good CD (and there are plenty of bad ones) can more accurately reproduce what I hear at a live concert than even the best analogue LP's. That doesn't mean that it is more "satisfying". Many analogue recordings do have an extra "fullness" and "richness" which I feel exaggerate and distort what is actually heard in a live performance, but which, heard on home equipment, paradoxically produce a more "musical" and satisfying sound, since these qualities compensate for the lack of the visual element which is an important part of the live concert experience. Many operatic voices, in particular, are given an extra bloom and amplitude in analogue recordings, so that a more accurate recording that does not add these qualities can sound thin and disappointing by direct comparison. Massed strings in good analogue recordings have a "sweetness" that I find does not correspond with what is generally heard live, but which nonetheless can sound more pleasing and attractive to the ear when compared to the more accurate, but also "hard", sound of actual string playing. Certainly, I could be wrong, but I'd be willing to bet that if you continue listening over a period of time, the digital sound will become more satisfying. Discussions of miking techniques and their relevance to the quality of digital recordings is old history on the net. Nonetheless, it may be worth mentioning again that there are a number of CD's available (particularly from DGG) whose use of close miking causes a distortion of spatial and dynamic perspectives, as well as an unpleasant edge and stridency, that appear to be magnified on CD. I'd like to mention a few CD's that I find particularly satisfying reproductions of the operatic voice (as well as excellent performances): Mozart: The Magic Flute PHILIPS (w/Margaret Price, Peter Schreier, Luciana Serra, Kurt Moll, Colin Davis, cond.) Recorded in Dresden using the superb Dresdener Staatskapelle orchestra - a German magazine joked that recordings from East Germany sound all the better because they can't afford the hundred mikes and elaborate mixers used in the west. Janacek: Jenufa LONDON (w/Elisabeth Soederstrom, Eva Randova Peter Dvorsky, Wieslaw Ochmann, Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Charles Mackerras) Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro LONDON (w/Kiri Te Kanawa, Thomas Allen, Lucia Popp, Samuel Ramey, Frederica von Stade, London Philharmonic conducted by Georg Solti) I've also been very happy with the CD versions of the originally analogue recordings of R. Strauss "Salome" and Wagner's "Ring" on London. - Greg Paley/Olivetti ATC
tommie@psivax.UUCP (Tom Levin) (02/06/86)
In article <5@qvax2.UUCP> roy@qvax2.UUCP (Roy Gordon) writes: >I recently purchased a Magnavox 2041 CD player and would like to (......) >I will continue to use the CD player because of the media (...........) >Yet, I remain disappointed. Are the problems that I have encountered >common? Are they due in whole or part to my other equipment? >Are they due to me? I would be truly interested in others' >experiences and comments. I am firmly convinced that CD players are great and 95% of the complaints people have are due to recording techniques. The fact is some CD's sound fantastic and some sound terrible. There are times when I say, "Wow! that really sounds great" and times when I say, "sh*t! that sounds really awful!". And it doesn't matter if it was a DDD or AAD or whatever recording! I have some AAD discs that sound much more natural than some DDD discs. BTW, I own a Sony 302 (unmodified). -- __________________________________________________________________________ Tom Levin {ttidca|sdcrdcf|logico|scgvaxd|bellcore}!psivax!tommie "Turn it up!!!"