wjm@whuxj.UUCP (01/26/84)
Those of you who like CD's will be pleased with two articles in this month's (Feb. '84) issue of "Audio". Both B.V. Pisha (who reviews phono cartridges and similar items for them) and E.T. Canby (who does their classical record reviews) are quite pleased with several Telarc CD's. Pisha notes that the CD's can produce considerably more dynamic range than analog recordings, and I'd agree with him - although dbx encoding can improve the analog situation considerably. I'm not surprised at these comments - Let's face it, the same people who are producing BAD LP's are producing bad CD's. Fortunately, there are companies like Telarc who care about sound quality (both in LP and CD form). Note that I'm steering clear of the analog vs. digital quagmire although my experience has found that the best digital recordings (e.g. Telarc's) are of the same quality as the best analog ones (e.g. Sheffield's and Mobile Fidelity's). While we're talking about the Feb. 84 "Audio", its worthwhile to read Pisha's review of the Boston Acoustics cartridge - and to see another high quality MC cartridge on the market. Bill Mitchell CSO Whippany, NJ (whuxj!wjm)
del@t4test.UUCP (Del Duncan) (04/20/84)
Just agreeing with the majority on Telarc discs. I have give of these gems, and nothing else Classical or otherwise compares with the quality of the recording. The performances themselves were also top-notch. A few thoughts on the medium: I own a Sony CDP-101. I have been very happy with its performance, so far. It doesn't have the programmability of other models, but who wants to listen to 10 songs in 15 different orders consecutively, anyway. I'm thrilled not to have to listen to pops, hisses, etc. that is so evident in today's records. Most of the albums that I like are recorded to tape for repetitive playing. This, of course allows me to listen to the whole thing through without getting up to turn the album over. This is another advantage of the CD's that I greatly appreciate. Summing up, I love the sound (very clean in my opinion, whether it is "true" or not is a very subjective argument), I like the music all being on one "side", the handling of the small discs is convenient, and it's a new technology with great potential.