Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!cornell!tesla!jeff
From: jeff@tesla.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: CD.sound
Message-ID: <111@tesla.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Jun-83 18:09:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: tesla.111
Posted: Thu Jun 23 18:09:16 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 29-Jun-83 06:50:42 EDT
Lines: 27

Shannon shames his namesake by misunderstanding digital recording and
playback.  True, garbage on an analogue master will be reproduced as
garbage on a CD.  But a true PCM master will not have wow/flutter, although
some noise (hiss, mostly) might creep in due to bad electronics somewhere.

I doubt that all CBS CD`s will be digital at first.  Unfortunately, CBS/Sony
don`t specify on the disc or in the notes whether the MASTER was digital; on
some records Polygram does, and on some they don`t.  At least in Polygram`s
case this probably isn`t a marketing ploy because some clearly digital
masters (the evidence is the CD sound) are not labeled specifically as
such.  On analogue masters the tape hiss is in fact clearly audible; strangely,
on one digital master there is hiss for about 20 minutes of the whole program,
which might be attributable to an electronics problem on an alternate
recorder or mastering machine.  In the 21 CD`s I`ve got so far I`d say 
about three are overall superb (dynamic range, frequency response from
very low to very high, noise level); a couple have egregious flaws like
the 20-minute-hiss; a couple would make good LPs or even cassettes; and
the rest are, by and large, noticeably superior to anything that could
be got from an LP, but inferior to what the CD medium can apparently do.

At roughly $20/shot one should be pretty careful about what one is buying,
and from now on I`ll wait for interesting music (less Strauss and Tchaikovsky)
well performed, and clearly identified as digitally mastered.  Let`s all
hope that the record companies will soon see that [at least some of us]
we are serious about things and will start issuing stuff that`s worth
the money, after the novelty value`s worn off.
Jeff