sasaki@harvard.ARPA (Marty Sasaki) (06/24/85)
I just read a few CD player reviews in Stereo Review and was bothered by
them. Basically, the reviews said that all CD players sound good, and
the differences between them are so minor that they aren't worth
considering. The reviews consisted mostly of the enumeration of the
programming features.
Which brings me to my first question: How important are the programming
features? Do netters who own CD players really use the various features?
Where do you go for good reviews of CD players and CDs?
I have a friend who joined a record club (don't remember which one).
When he joined he enclosed a note which stated that he refused to pay
for anything that he didn't explicitly order from the club. When the
first un-asked for selection arrived (he didn't return the little card
telling the club that he wasn't interested in the monthly selection), he
sent them a note thanking them for the record. With the note he enclosed
his bill and a copy of the original note that he had sent in. This went
on for about six months until he got a call from the club. They wanted
their money. My friend explained what had happened. The guy on the phone
said that he would be back in touch. The result was that he stopped
getting the default selection, didn't have to pay for the records that
had been "given", and stayed in the club for about two years getting
only the records that he really wanted.
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Marty Sasaki net: sasaki@harvard.{arpa,uucp}
Havard University Science Center phone: 617-495-1270
One Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley) (07/01/85)
> I just read a few CD player reviews in Stereo Review and was bothered by > them. Basically, the reviews said that all CD players sound good, and > the differences between them are so minor that they aren't worth > considering. The reviews consisted mostly of the enumeration of the > programming features. > > Which brings me to my first question: How important are the programming > features? Do netters who own CD players really use the various features? > > Where do you go for good reviews of CD players and CDs? > ... > Marty Sasaki net: sasaki@harvard.{arpa,uucp} The refusal to acknowlege sonic differences between CD players seems to be essentially an American thing. In England (Gramophone, HiFi News/Record Review, Hifi for Pleasure), Germany (Fono Forum, Audio, Stereoplay) and Italy (Suono, Audio, Stereoplay - the last two differ from the German) test reports on CD players routinely comment on the sound quality and use this as a basis for comparisons. Although I have never seen a review of a CD player that ranked the sound below average in these magazines (which are, in their respective markets, as "mainstream" as Stereo Review or High Fidelity here), many tend to be ranked as merely average in this regard (including models by Sony, Yamaha, Technics) whereas others rank "above average" (NAD, Toshiba) and a few are ranked "outstanding" (the Philips line in general, Denon, Nakamichi). I mention this not to praise or criticise individual models myself, but just to point out the fact that the attitude shown by Stereo Review in this regard is not worldwide, and that differences of opinion are not restricted to elitist or underground press. For equipment reviews, therefore, I tend to favor the German and English magazines over the Americans, particularly HiFi News and Record Review and German Audio and Stereoplay, particularly since the latter always include in their test reports a judgement of the unit's performance in direct relationship to its price. In the U.S., I've liked some of the equipment reviews in The $ensible Sound, but have ambiguous feelings about the Absolute Sound. On the one hand, I've never known them to give a good review to a poor or mediocre component, so you could say that anything they recommend is a safe bet. On the other hand, I've known them to condescendingly dismiss other components that I've found excellent. I tend, therefore, to take their favorable reviews more seriously than their hatchet jobs. As far as CD reviews are concerned, I find the same British and German magazines (and sometimes Gramophone) fairly reliable in assessing the sound quality. In this regard, I would make the same comment about Absolute Sound as I did with regard to their equipment reviews (all of their "reference recordings" do sound great, but some that they pan aren't bad sounding at all). I don't find that I can trust any regular magazines as far as performance quality is concerned. In this regard, I find Absolute Sound about the worst. How anyone claiming to have such exquisite sensitivity to the distinctions in the resolution of the violin solo in Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherezade" as played with different moving coil cartridges, can be unable to hear Reiner's inability to sustain an effective tempo without exaggerations or the general mediocrity of Antal Dorati's conducting on a number of their "reference recordings" is beyond me. - Greg Paley