Better than vindicating CD detractors, MQA provides for a way to fix more than 30 years' worth of bad digital recordings—in the time domain, at least. Yet even after the convincing demo of recordings before and after MQA encoding, Rubin remained skeptical. He heard what it did with a familiar track like Steely Dan's "Hey Nineteen": dazzling and unmistakable differences in spatiality and tonality. Yet to Rubin's ears, the MQA version sounded "processed" in some way. He also has a deep-rooted philosophical problem with "correcting" something that "was what it was"—though I don't see how that would apply to the digitization of an original analog source. (Gaucho, the album this track appears on, is an analog production from 1980; what was corrected by MQA was a hi-rez digital transfer made by George Massenburg.)
In any case, I'm completely sold on the audible benefits of MQA, notwithstanding the often cynical, mostly joyless, frequently unpleasant and dyspeptic comments about Jana Dagdagan's video MQA: Yes or No? An Axpona 2017 Poll. I feel sorry for those folks. The ones who think Bob Stuart is in this "just for the money" are particularly clueless.
Of course, with an analog recording, I'll take the LP almost every time, occasionally audible wow and flutter notwithstanding. The claim that digitization is transparent to the analog source has not been borne out by my listening.
Terrible music and too much talk in audio-show demos
One of the most depressing aspects of covering audio shows is the almost universally awful and/or unimaginative music repeatedly heard there, and the inappropriately loud volume levels at which it's played. The Eagles' Hell Freezes Over again? Nils Lofgren's "Keith Don't Go" one more time? Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Tin Pan Alley" ad infinitum? And more Diana Krall than even hubby Elvis Costello would ever want to hear? By this point my complaint is a cliché, but it's what I heard all over Axpona, LAAS, and Munich High End. Don't get me wrong—all of these recordings are of good music by worthwhile artists who've done only what we've asked of them: carefully produce their recordings to sound great when we listen at home. Obviously, I'm not criticizing them—and I just bought Krall's latest album. But it's gotten to the point that, at High End, Bryston posted a sign outside their pod declaring it an "EAGLES, KRALL (ETC.) – FREE ZONE." In only a few rooms—those of Jeff Catalano's High Water Sound, for instance, and Roy Hall's Music Hall, where Leland Leard spun tunes as Roy dished out the distilled goods—could I be 100% sure to hear something new and interesting, even if not particularly well recorded. I've long believed that even badly recorded music can reveal a sound system's quality, good or bad.
I realize that renting a room at an audio show is expensive, and that those who do so don't want even a single visitor to have a bad experience, but please—let's have some more imaginative choices of music. And there's no need to push SPLs past what's appropriate for the recording played. The idea is to draw listeners in, not blow them away.
Another of my peeves about shows is some exhibitors' high ratio of talking to playing music. In one room at High End, a guy spoke for well over 15 minutes before playing anything. That's absurd—though he was speaking in German, which I don't understand. What I do know is that he could have described the basics of the gear in about five minutes, and invited attendees to ask for more details out in the hall. Less talk, more music.
Will streaming hi-rez MQA files kill vinyl?
I've lately heard that question from many vinyl skeptics, many of whom continue to think that the Compact Disc should have done the deed more than 30 years ago. Also currently circulating is the ridiculous contention that 90% of all LP releases issued since the 1980s were cut using, at best, an eight-bit digital delay line instead of the traditional analog preview head. Some of that did go on, but nowhere near 90%.
Even some vinyl fans wonder why, if the source is digital, they should bother with an LP. First, regardless of what the math says, a record cut from a high-resolution file should and does sound better than that same file transferred to CD. I've heard that opinion backed by many recording engineers, from unknowns to Roy Halee, who told me that the vinyl edition of Paul Simon's Stranger to Stranger, mixed and produced by Halee and recorded using Pro Tools, sounds far better than the CD. Halee's attitude was almost "Of course! Why would you even ask?" Even if you think the superior sound of vinyl is due to "additive distortions," so what? At the other end of the recording chain, tube microphones do likewise for sterile digital recordings.
Giles Martin's 24-bit/96kHz remix of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band sounds great, but that same file transferred to vinyl sounds, to me, far more transparent, three-dimensional, and overall more "listenable," particularly in terms of the tonal balance, which in the upper midrange is warmer, and free of a harshness I hear in the file. The strings in "She's Leaving Home" sound almost as rich and lush as on the original stereo LP (UK Parlophone).
The new LP's midrange and upper-midrange equalization sounds more pleasing, or maybe it's that I've tuned my vinyl system to my liking in ways that are much more difficult if not impossible to achieve in the digital realm with a home audio system.
No digital format, no matter how good it sounds, will kill vinyl, in part because more and more consumers—and younger and younger ones—appreciate not only the pleasing sound but also the look and feel of LPs. As with books, having a wall filled with favorite albums on vinyl is a comfort in this increasingly virtual world. When you play a record, an Internet algorithm can't take note of your choice and insert a corresponding ad on your browser's home page. It's your private moment. These days, that's almost a luxury.
As I wrapped up this column, I got an e-mail from a young reader that made my day—and maybe my month:
One of the most depressing aspects of covering audio shows is the almost universally awful and/or unimaginative music repeatedly heard there, and the inappropriately loud volume levels at which it's played. The Eagles' Hell Freezes Over again? Nils Lofgren's "Keith Don't Go" one more time? Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Tin Pan Alley" ad infinitum? And more Diana Krall than even hubby Elvis Costello would ever want to hear? By this point my complaint is a cliché, but it's what I heard all over Axpona, LAAS, and Munich High End. Don't get me wrong—all of these recordings are of good music by worthwhile artists who've done only what we've asked of them: carefully produce their recordings to sound great when we listen at home. Obviously, I'm not criticizing them—and I just bought Krall's latest album. But it's gotten to the point that, at High End, Bryston posted a sign outside their pod declaring it an "EAGLES, KRALL (ETC.) – FREE ZONE." In only a few rooms—those of Jeff Catalano's High Water Sound, for instance, and Roy Hall's Music Hall, where Leland Leard spun tunes as Roy dished out the distilled goods—could I be 100% sure to hear something new and interesting, even if not particularly well recorded. I've long believed that even badly recorded music can reveal a sound system's quality, good or bad.
I've lately heard that question from many vinyl skeptics, many of whom continue to think that the Compact Disc should have done the deed more than 30 years ago. Also currently circulating is the ridiculous contention that 90% of all LP releases issued since the 1980s were cut using, at best, an eight-bit digital delay line instead of the traditional analog preview head. Some of that did go on, but nowhere near 90%.
I was going through my collection just last night, and was thinking about how I got introduced to all this music, your radio show, and just how much music you introduced me to over just the past two years, either through the site or the radio show (rest in peace!). I'm in my early 30s, and inherited my grandfather's Linn Sondek LP12 from the early '80s. Just three years ago, I had only, maybe, 10 records to my name. Since then my library has exploded, almost entirely due to your recommendations and your radio show.If I'm lucky, that kind of feedback will keep me going for another 10 years.My absolute favorites are the numbered Ferit Odman (never would have even known about that, or what AAA meant, without your guidance), Joan Armatrading (introduced a lot of people to her), the signed Sophia Pfister (again, so obscure, but once I saw your YouTube video, I knew I had to have it), and rescuing the Vanguard folk-song boxed set from a trash pile. I never would have pictured myself a Clapton fan, but Slowhand and I Still Do are in my constant rotation. I just wanted to say thank you for everything you do—it has had a profound impact on my music, my awareness, and my life. I know putting together the radio show took a ton of time and may not have had an immediate payoff. I just wanted to reach out and show you that the videos, the mentions, the reviews—all of it—has had a far-reaching impact on someone like me. So thank you very much.
