I felt compelled to make one final entry into this thread. Its time for me to come clean with my background in audio and how I came to be so knowledgeable about stereo systems.
It started in 1962, I was in second grade and learning to play the flute-a-phone. I spent two years practicing and learning this classic instrument when I was labeled a prodigy and sent off to Juilliard. After a year of study I was booked to perform Bachs sonata for flute-a-phone in E minor at Carnegie Hall. It was a huge success and my career was off and running. I continued my studies back at Juliart for another year during which time I was pursued by more than 50 recording labels. I signed a three-record deal with Sony Music. This is probably where my obvious prejudice for SACD begins, but that has no relevance to this post. My first recording was Wagners concerto for flute-a-phone and piano. Leonard Bernstein played piano and I played flute-a-phone. It was an instant success and I was pursued by every major orchestra to perform with them. Tragedy struck that winter when I lost all four fingers on my right hand in a horrible ice-skating accident. Im luck to be alive.
I was fortunate that it was my right hand in that I am left-handed. I began an art career in 1968 at the now mature age of twelve. Given my history with New York and Juilliard I was able to get sponsorship from the Carnegie Foundation to study the old masters in Paris. By the time I was seventeen I was considered one of the greatest living artist and received great benefits from all who hoped to touch me. I was fortunate to have full access to any musician I wanted to meet, and was given back stage passes to concerts for all the great bands. I met up with Pink Floyd in 1974 and was present at the tragic concert in Singapore. As many of you will remember, this was the concert where the entire right column of speakers (almost 80 sq. ft of area) blew up! Unfortunately I was seated just to the center of the column in the front row. There were about ten of us sitting in the exact wrong spot. We all lost full hearing in both ears. This of course was quite a blow to my love for music, worse yet fragments of speaker magnets hit my face, leaving me completely blind. I thought my life had ended. I could no longer pursue my artistic career, and without my hearing, my love for music seemed doomed. It was four years later that I was with a friend who was shopping for a new stereo when I discovered the miracle that brought me to Audiogon. Because of my loss of sight and hearing, my remaining three senses have been greatly enhanced. Of course taste and smell have little to do with audio systems unless a tube blows, but surprisingly feel has a lot to due with musical enjoyment. I discovered quite by accident that I had an unbelievable ability to determine the quality of audio equipment and its proper set-up all through my perception of sound waves. In my minds eye the vibrations from the speakers create an image of what is recorded. With a well-recorded piece, on excellent equipment and set-up properly, I can see a well defined three-dimensional image as real as life. With well-recorded material I am able to clearly identify what instrument is being played, and where it is positioned on the stage. Ive discovered that cabling, footers and power supply all have great effects on a systems ability to properly reproduce the event. I even found that I can tell you if cable is laying on the floor, all through the image created in my minds eye. Of course a lot of the recordings made in the 70's and 80's are made using multi-track tape. This is like feeling knives hitting my skin. I am not able to interpret the information and it looks hazy and glaring to me. Sadly the format of 16/44.1 is similar to what is produced by multi-tracked tape. I am not able to spend any time in front of this noise, interestingly enough I understand hearing people have this same reaction!
So now to the point, SACD is closer to real when Im feeling a recording. Its subtle I suppose, maybe like seeing a concert in the fog, or not. Or listening to music with the white noise of a fan in the room or the quite of a well-isolated space. It is not as to whether the quality is subtle to me. Its simply more enjoyable seeing music from SACD rather than from the digital blur of redbook cd. These of course are simply my opinions, but I feel my unique background makes me more qualified to make these judgements than any person who is simple listening to a system with their ears. Thats so yesterday! Unless any of you have had a similar background in audio as I have I do not believe youre in a position to argue my conclusions. I am so happy to have the advantages of SACD in my system. The simple SACD format is so much easier to work with than my old LP collection. I always dreaded setting the needle on the vinyl. Its hard to explain what image is created as that needle skips across the grooves. I must admit for the ultimate in realism vinyl is still king, even though a single pop or click can create a huge flash to my minds eye. With practice I found I was able to over look these shortcomings, much like my eventual acceptance of cds. Now however with SACD I feel I am losing nothing and gaining near perfection.
