boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (10/04/85)
> From: cmu-cs-spice!tdn (Thomas Newton) > Does anyone out there have any useful comments on the sound quality of various > CDs, especially those produced from analog recordings? I've noticed that the > amount of hiss on the analog albums I have ranges from very low (Billy Joel: > An Innocent Man) to very high (Stevie Nicks: Bella Donna). > [...] > In particular, if I had known how much hiss was on the "Bella Donna" album, > I would not have bought it in CD form. The first track starts off with a fair > amount of hiss, which within about two seconds increases in volume to a really > horrible level. The hiss is also "sharper" than the hiss on the other analog > CDs that I own. Considering that most of the songs on the album were written > around 1980, the sound quality is inexcusable. Odd, I haven't noticed the hiss on BELLA DONNA. Unfortunately, I'm separated from the CD player that I once was using (a former roommate's), so I can't check it now. I don't have especially sensitive ears (I never noticed how noisey LP's were until after I'd started listening to CD's; I also haven't been able to tell that pre-recorded cassettes are all that noticibly inferior to home-recorded-to-tape LP's). Anyways, back to CD's --- the only CD's I've bought on which I was able to notice any hiss without specificly listening for it is Stevie Ray Vaughan's TEXAS FLOOD. Two CD's that I found were remarkably free of hiss, considering the age of the masters, are the first two albums by the Doors, THE DOORS and STRANGE DAYS. As for reasons to buy a CD that is as noisey as the LP, I consider the con- venience factor (its portability and size) of the CD and its lack of wear to be as attractive a characteristic as its sound quality. And CD prices are no longer more than twice the LP prices. There are quite a few places that are cutting CD prices to $11-13.99. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA -------------------- Please note that this mail message is likely to be incomplete. The sender aborted the transmission. rhea::MAILER-DAEMON --------------------