Her full voice filled the entire auditorium without the use of mikes like we use today. That was singing the blues! I was really inspired and kept plugging to become a singer - Victoria Spivey, on seeing Mamie Smith perform at Houston's City Auditorium
EH I couldn't agree more and a good copy 78 seems to have far more presence than the eqivalent cd\lp any day of the week, year even.
A 78 in good condition, played back on a system by someone who knows how to get the most out of it can indeed be an amazing thing... equally amazing in a different way is to listen to a 78 that was recorded acoustically on a victrola or similar mechanical playback device - no electronic signal whatsoever... a very physical way to listen, and a very different experience from listening to a hi-fi. Kind of eerie.
Most of my listening is pretty mundane - ipod, home stereo, computer and my latest convenience favorite - the car stereo plays mp3s off a thumb drive!
I've never got into collecting 78s but do remember listening to a Bukka White disc at a friend's house and it was indeed an eerie experience. It's like you're in the room with the performer. As mentioned, the surface noise is filtered out by the brain and you concentrate on the music. Of course, that music was recorded straight to disc - no mixing, compression, etc...
I am fortunate enough to have a friend in the hi-fi trade who is a dab hand at finding high-end components second hand at very cheap rates. Hence I have a great Linn Sondek LP12 record deck with a Valhalla power supply, a Linn arm tracking some expensive Japanese Dynovector cartridge. It goes through an old Arcam amp into Linn Kaber speakers. CDs are played on a Naim machine I bought on eBay and are as natural sounding as CDs can be - almost like LPs.
I like to get as close to the music as possible and ignore the equipment. If something is only available on a poor quality cassette, I'll make do with that, because at the end of the day it's the music that's most important.
I don't listen a lot on the computer, as the computer is mainly for work. Also I can't listen to music when working, as I invariably stop work and just listen to the music, not being one for background music.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2011, 03:14:28 AM by Parlor Picker »
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"I ain't good looking, teeth don't shine like pearls, So glad good looks don't take you through this world." Barbecue Bob
I'm sorry to say that I don't think I've ever actually listened to a real 78... Possibly we got a couple of minutes of Madame Butterfly from my grandfather's old collection when I was a kid, played on my father's big old wooden "stereogram". I loved those things...
Now, I have a pretty simple Aiwa micro system and a fairly cheap turntable. I suspect I'm missing out...
I don't listen to much on the computer. Speakers arent particularly high quality and I've never bothered ripping lots of cds. Most of my listening is probably done in the car. Which is probably why, on the rare occasions I listen properly at home, I hear all sorts of stuff in familiar tracks that I hadnt realised was there...
I do have a 5.1 system downstairs to connect to the dvd player and telly. Since we moved house there's not room in the living room for the big floor standing speakers, so perhaps I should hook them up to the Aiwa thing upstairs...
I will echo Don O and say that my favorite way to listen is LIVE. It is sad that most of the best (in my opinion) music being made in America today doesn't even register with 99.9% of the country, but that selfishly works out to my beneifit as my favorite live performances include me, wife wife, a few friends and a handful of other people gathered in a small venue for an intimate performance with an aritist who should by all rights be packing arenas. Thus we got to see Paul Geremia last year at Red's juke joint in Clarksdale, Mississippi (no more than 12 people in the audience, tops); the Boulder Acoustic Society at the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis the year before (no more than 8 folks at this one); the Bluff City Backsliders at Escape Alley Sundry in Memphis (15 people in attendance); I could make this list go on forever: Andy Cohen, Clarke Buehling, the Dillionaires, Carolina Chocolate Drops (not anymore for them, though), Dan Gellert, Peter Hyrka and the Gypsy Hombres, Cristabel and the Johns, Shotgun Party, Old Sledge and on and on and on. I know it sucks for the artist, but I love that kind of show and we get them here all the time. It boggles the mind how Limp Doughnuts or whomever can sell out the FedEx Forum (40,000+ seats) yet Paul Geremia can't fill a postage stamp-sized juke joint in Clarksdale, but there you have it. And the thing is, if Paul Geremia could sell out the Forum, I wouldn't go see him. I don't like to be that far away from the music, and to have to watch it on a super-size video screen while it is happening live a hundred yards away...
For recorded music I am easy. We have no TV, DVD, fancy hi-fi, etc. at home. We have one lone Bose CD player/clock radio thing that holds one disk and makes great sound. This is in the kitchen next to a wall of CDs. When I am learning a new song or tune from CD, I drag a chair away from the kitchen table and face the Bose unit in the corner - my wife calls it the "learning corner." Speaking of whom, my wife has a laptop in her study, and I got her a set of Bose computer speaker with a sub, and that's how/where she listens to her music. I paid about $500 each for the Bose systems, and I love them - when we take long weekend or week long trips, I thow the Bose clock radio thing in a canvas shopping bag and use it in the hotel room. I also listen in my Jeep (even with aftermarket speakers (Infinity) which were a gift, good luck hearing anything - I'm afriad reissues are only for home...) Or for work, actually. I have a cheap pair of $10 JVC (current pair) headphones on my computer at work and an almost-insatiable appetite for Juneberry mp3s.
Interesting reading through this thread almost exactly 10 years later. It made me realize how much has happened since in the A/V- and computing fields. My setup is now completely different, simpler, and a lot better quality for straight listening from multiple sources.
Yep. My listening setup has changed a lot, too. Probably half my listening is done streaming from my phone directly to my hearing aids - sorry, my steam-powered mechanical ears - via bluetooth. Like most people my age, my hearing is worst at the high end, with another dip in the range of the human speaking voice, so those ranges are emphasized, and there's very little low bass. Not perfect, but very convenient. It actually works very well for most country blues.
dj: Cool! Bluetooth is one of the technologies that has improved exponentially in that time period in connectivity, reliability and especially audio quality.
Eric: What drove my changes were areas of improvement in the tech available. These include HDMI connectivity (audio as well as visual). I found HDMI practically unusable 10 years ago unless you wanted to spend hours of time troubleshooting it. These days it's mostly plug and play. I stopped using PCs+sound cards and switched to Macs in 2012. I now connect the Mac audio-out via HDMI to a Pioneer 1019 hifi receiver. A Sirius/XM satellite radio boombox plugs in to the receiver from the boombox's headphone-out to an analog-in on the receiver, I just turn the input selector knob to switch. Plenty of free inputs left on the back of the receiver. Plus the onboard FM radio is just another click away.
The receiver, since it's also a power amp, drives the passive speakers, NHT towers, old school monoliths and really nice. I also received a pair of wireless Sony bluetooth noise cancelling headphones for my birthday. They are startlingly good compared to the BT headphones of 10 years ago. The only improvement I'd want to make is upgrading the receiver to one with Bluetooth I/O and 4K video output; the receiver I have is older than this thread, but its HDMI ins & outs have always worked.
I'm still using the same Dell U3011 monitor using DisplayPort at both ends, works fine. Mac is plugged in direct to the monitor. I'd send a photo of my desk but it's even more untidy than it was 10 years ago...
« Last Edit: January 25, 2021, 08:35:20 AM by Rivers »
Thanks, Rivers. My set up is a good one, but a relic of my LP and 78 days. Do you use music library on your Mac, and if so what import settings do you use? I don't use video because there is no reliable broadband where we live.
Yes I sub to Apple Music and don't buy CDs any more unless I really can't find it online. The quality is, generally speaking, better than or equal to what I would get from ripping a CD. Also for $9 per month I can download as much music as I need. I'm lucky to have a fiber optic broadband branch running down my rural street, thanks to the Obama admin's rural broadband initiative.
Re import settings, I seem to recall there being a post on here somewhere that talks about the whats, whys and wherefores of iTunes (now obsolete) import settings, with links to articles elsewhere. I'll see if I can find it.