Do you grade your albums?
I've found tremendous bargains on CDs, SACDs and HDCDs at local thrift stores, usually less than $2 each. Some remastered, some original releases.
I don't stream nor do I spin vinyl. My only source is an SACD/CD player that I enjoy very much.
I grade each of my 800 or so albums A+, A,B,C or D based on sound quality.
Parameters listened for are the usual stuff- clarity, timbres, soundstage, imaging, air, bloom, cohesiveness, dynamics.
Remastered almost always sounds significantly better than the original, especially if the engineer was Bob Ludwig. There are a others that are good too.
SACDs usually sound better than the standard "red book" versions, but not always.
Same thing for HDCDs.
Some artists do consistently class A sound, especially when remastered. Dire Straits, Depeche Mode, Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Enya, Steely Dan, Wang Chung, INXS, Bob Seger, ABC, Ozzy (yes, Ozzy!)...
For me, it's a lot easier to relax and enjoy the music when it's sound quality is classes A or A+. Class B is tolerable to listen to.
Classes C and D are mostly used to let a guest hear how bad they sound and then how much better classes B, A and A+ sound. Like hearing a different system, but it's not!
I rate by how much I like the music with sound quality having no consideration. One to five stars plus an added category of "All Time Best". The recording quality thing just eliminates too much great music. I'd rather listen to a primitive quality Louis Armstrong late 1920s recording than "Jazz At the Pawnshop". To each his own. |
This gets at the broad range of approaches that each of us takes to the hobby. For many years I have listened mostly to jazz, and have generally gravitated through the course of time to older and older styles. When I was a kid I was listening to hard bop, bebop and some big band. Now I listen to Louis and Bix and James P., and Duke and so on. A lot of old mono, not audiophile quality at all. No sense in grading any of it. My kids and grand kids will come over and listen with me, but they stream by preference and indulge me. For me, streaming is like a kiss on the telephone. Give me a record or a cd please. In fact a lot of top quality jazz reissues are actually coming from Europe on cds. And the very best of the best are coming from the USA (Mosaic for example) and Japan (Venus for example). Another thing I have noticed, we all talk about vinyl sound quality, and I am an exemplar, like it is the best, but when it comes to piano music even Redbook cd is superior. This is particularly noticeable in the classical genre. |
@billstevenson Yes! |
