Rude awakening!

[57gold]

Having ripped 850 CDs (about the same number awaiting the ripper) with Mini with iTunes to HD, I decided I would like to add the new Greg Allman CD to my collection.

 

Purchased "deluxe edition" with a couple addition tunes and a movie from iTunes store. Thought I would be asked, "do you want MP3 or an AIFF version" but no, the download started immediately in M4A format. Found out that M4A is a compressed version that could be converted to AIFF. Followed instructions from Apple site. Ended up with two versions of each tune in same file.

 

Was not impressed with the sonics of AIFF, I wondered aloud what was going on. My son replied "Hey Dad, M4A is not CD quality. You just made a larger file of a lossy file."

 

To that I replied "$12 for crap!"

 

So do I still have to buy CDs to get quality sonics, away from the audiophile, HD Tracks type sites that have off the run artists...largely recordings that I have no interest in?

 

If so, my first iTunes purchase will also be my last.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Wavelength]

Frank,

 

Dude... what are you doing???? Never buy from the iTunes store it's always M4A which is just slightly better quality than MP3.

 

Ounce the data is gone converting it to AIFF is not going to recover lost information.

 

Ounce it's gone it's gone forever.

 

Yea CD's and HD Tracks.

 

Thanks

Gordon

 

[Bwilson1]

Welcome to the harsh reality of digital music in 2011

 

The only way that I know of getting "CD Quality" (16/44.1) music onto your hard drive (for mainstream music) is to buy the physical CD yourself and rip using either uncompressed or lossless.

 

I have about 1000 albums on a 1 TB drive all ripped in Apple Lossless. I then use a Roku Soundbrige M1000 to feed bit perfect output to an external DAC.

 

The only mainstream site that I know of where you can get true CD quality music is Rhino. But they are very expensive for what you (dont) get. I always find that it is cheaper to buy the physical disc either new or used from Amazon (or your local store if you are lucky enough to have one).

 

Bottom Line: For mainstream music (99.999999 of what typical folks are buying) the ONLY way to obtain CD quality is to buy the actual CD. I buy mostly used and view the CD as an archive. Plus it is nice the have the liner notes, photos, etc.

 

 

 

[57gold]

Said M4A file was compressed and and an upgrade from MP3 that could be uncompressed into AIFF...assumed that meant DC quality. Yes Gordon, I'm really that out of touch, a digital knucklehead!

 

At first I though murkiness was T Bone's normal BS mixing, making good guitar players like Buddy Miller and Doyle Bramhall sound under water, but there was no clarity from the T Bone mudpie of a mix....crap, crap and crap!!! Burned 12 bucks on crap!

 

Houston, we have a problem....CDs are dissappering from our midst. Last local, independent music store "Vinyl Fever" with a jazz and local artist sections just closed down in Tampa this month (found out when I stopped by this week to buy the darn Greg Allman CD, they were repossessing the store fixtures), Borders and Best Buy have cut their CD displays down to 20% of what they were 3 years ago. I just assumed that with movie downloads and the like that the bandwidth issue was fixed enough for CD quality downloads.

 

So we are stuck with Amazon and other online soucres to get new music...digitally sample, select, pay...and then wait for a physical disc to get 16/44.1 resolution...shit, I was hoping that there were places to download all kinds of music in high rez formats...until I started to look online, ugh.

 

 

 

[Wavelength]

Frank,

 

First I love the icon! I need to update mine to my Collings!

 

Look everyone has downloaded something from iTunes. Actually I have done it to learn a song or maybe just hear the general stuff.

 

The good thing is that you did not go as far as others have.

 

I had a customer rip 500 CD's and was yelling at me saying they all sounded like crap. I asked if he had followed my instructions??? Of course not NO ERROR correction, AAC format. He was still pissed off at me after that???

 

Thanks

Gordon

 

[Elprior]

Gordon, LOL !

 

[57gold]

iTunes...blah.

 

Yup, its a 1957 Les Paul Model with a dark back and pre-PAF sticker pickups in minty condition. Plays itself.

 

Speaking of Collings, playing this watching the Packers and Bear duke it out:

 

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb118/57gold/CollingsCJMaple003.jpg

 

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb118/57gold/CollingsCJMaple001.jpg

 

Bill's J45 style guitar, this one with adirondack top, flamed maple back/sides and all around sunburst. Gibson had to use maple during WWII because Nazi U-boats hindered shipment of rosewood and mahogany. Adds a great ringing shimmer to a strum and a percussive growl when you dig in with a pick. A barrel of monkeys.

 

[Wavelength]

Frank,

 

We could talk guitars all day... I tried the OM1A (adirondack top) and loved it. It was really one of the best guitars I ever played. But at almost $5k it was hard to reach for.

 

A friend has an early 60's Les Paul we call no fret. He is worried about someone replacing them. Pretty hard for me to play that way.

 

I can only afford the new stuff.

 

Thanks

Gordon

 

[bikemig]

I buy CDs because they are easy to rip in whatever file format I need. Almost all my music is ripped in Apple lossless. That said, I do not think that the lower bitrate files available online are all that terrible. When I download music, I tend to buy it from Amazon and find the 256 kbps variable bit more than acceptable. Internet radio generally streams at even lower bitrates and I love Pandora which streams at 192 kbps.

 

[wgscott]

My son replied "Hey Dad, M4A is not CD quality. You just made a larger file of a lossy file."

 

Much audiophile potential in your son I see.

 

 

[Jeff In San Diego]

I'm in the process of re-Ripping all of my CD's to Apple Lossless format.

 

Many people HATE that task, but I'm loving it. I'm revisiting many long lost CDs that I had completely forgotten about. Really enjoying the listening that goes along with this otherwise thankless task.

 

At one point this weekend I accidentally really enjoyed some classical guitar music that I had originally ripped into 160kbps files. I confused two similar Italian names that both started with 'P', and wound up playing a different album than the one I had just re-ripped.

 

I actually didn't notice the horrible SQ...because I enjoyed the artistry of the music so much.

 

I was embarrassed at my lack of golden ears though, when I realized my mistake a couple minutes later. I chuckled at myself; reminded myself that it was all about the music...and moved on to the next CD.

 

cheers,

jp

 

[barrows]

Produced the Gregg Allman album, I suspect it will be available in 24/96 high resolution from HDtracks... Some of T-Bone Burnett's recent projects are available as high resolution downloads (it seems his "kode" high res DVD format never really gathered any steam).

 

[57gold]

Though I suspect the hi rez will cut through the T Bone darkness some.

 

Guys like him and Daniel Lanois seem to inject a higher percentage of themselves into the stuff they produce...so you have to dig artist and the producer.

 

Gordon, have 3 Fenders from 1950s and 9 Gibsons, all with original fretwire which is low profile...sort of like vintage Martin frets. So used to it than when I play recent instruments with fat frets...it takes some adjusting. My favorite fret profile is 1960's Gibson (which actually started in 1959)...in the middle.

 

Have found that I was pretty encyclopedic in my out of control CD collection...found Jim Hall, Bill Evans, and Wes stuff that I had forgotten along with a bunch of blues like John Hammond, Rbt Cray, Roy Buchanan, Peter Green/Fleetwwod Mac and just about everything Bill Frissell, Scofield and Mike Stern have done...some dated 80s stuff but the Bass Desires stuff with Scofield and Frissell kills.

 

I love Computer Audio, so far. Thanks Gordon for you box...it was worth waiting for...and that is without one hirez recording!

 

 

(BOX= WAVELINK)

 

[wgscott]

I find it fairly difficult to tell the difference between what I currently download on iTunes and rip from a CD. If I focus hard I can. But it is nothing to get suicidal over if you have purchased stuff via iTunes.

 

Classical music I am familiar with is much easier to identify correctly in a blind test. You have to get it right about 6 times in a row to be able to identify the source in a statistically accurate way. I find there may be one or two glitches per track that tip me off, rather than a global sense of distortion. It is the only way I can do it reliably.

 

[Wavelength]

Frank,

 

Same thing everyone else says... you end up listening to more music. Music you forgot you had or even knew you had. I hate it when we have people over and I am fumbling for my iPhone to see what the track is.

 

I have 3 custom Fano guitars, one was Andy Partridges of XTC he used it on nonsuch, dual P90, semihollow telecaster type called a Psonicsphere and a dual humbucker wraparound bridge (love em). I also have a custom Nash guitar which is killer. All the Fano's have Fralin pickups I know Lindy from working with Angela Instruments years ago. The Nash has custom pickups from Jason Lollar. I did a couple projects with Jason so we designed a custom bridge pickup that had a tap at 80%. So from top to bottom on my Nash it goes like this... Neck, Neck + 80%, Neck + Bridge, Bridge. The Neck + 80% sounds killer.

 

I had a bunch of older crap Gibson's and still want (anyone want to trade???) a SG Pelham Blue Junior like a 64 or 65. I love those P90's!

 

Well enough about my other hobby unless you want to talk drums. There I have a custom set by Ronn Dunnett. Killer!

 

Thanks

Gordon

 

[57gold]

Other hobbies? Travel, food & wine...not much discussed in these pages.

 

Though lately, instead of exotic travel to alluring destinations, been going on business trips to places like central Michigan and Boise, where I'm off to today. Have to pay the rent and the insurance on the old guitars. Did spend a week in the Dominican Republic on the Samana Peninsula during holidays, a little off the beaten path for my family.

 

Speaking of Pelham Blue, one of my teenage mentors played a Pelham Blue SG, a later 1960s one with the larger pickguard...have been looking for one, but they are scarce.

 

Love P90s as well, play: 1957 Jr.; 1957 TV Jr; 1964 SG Special in white and a 1971 LP Deluxe (paper route/caddie guitar) with P90s from a 1956 GT (guy routed it and put PAFs in, so I bought the P90s to replace mini humbuckers which sucked). Something big, open, colorful and rock n' roll about great P90s.

 

Just listened to a great Branford Marsalis recording "Trio Jeepy" that was lost for a decade in the stacks of CDs...still not sure which player and what set up I prefer. PM with memory play, hog mode and upsample from 44.1 to 88.2 gives the instruments focus but seems to polish off just a bit of immediacy...AW with memory play is all about immediacy, has that PRAT thing working, but shrill recordings are unlistenable. Any observations on this phenomenon to share?

 

 

 

[James1776]

Heh! Watch the slams..Boise has a pretty good music scene. We have an audiophile club (meets tonight) where folk with some pretty spectacular gear (5 digit systems) get together for wine, music and talk. The Vinyl Preservation society meets tomorrow evening to talk vinyl. Boise has a great record (as in vinyl) store, the Record Exchange that also does live music several times a month. The city has great restaurants, decent shopping, a far better climate than most of the country (only 1 foot of snow total so far this year) and is only a couple of hours from world class skiing in Sun Valley.

 

The life style here is a whole lot better than in a bunch of places folk pretend to be superior. Heck, we even produce wine (so-so) and potato Vodka (excellent)

 

[57gold]

Like NYC, San Francisco, LA, Vegas, New Orleans, Chicago...but most midsize cities are places to live, less attractive to transients.

 

Only been there twice for a grand total of 48 hours...airport to hotel and conference rooms. Long way from Florida for short business meetings, is all.

 

Did have a nice dinner at Chandlers downtown, great wine list and jazz trio performing. Would love to get some more recommendations on restaurants and live music venues as we may be spending more time there. James, any suggestions where we might spend some time and money to good end?

 

Had the potato vodka at a resort in MT, Triple Creek Ranch...was about the best I ever had.

 

[James1776]

Prefer Idaho...

 

Good restaurants...Chandlers (probably the most expensive place in town), Berry Hill, Angels (outside in summer), Cafe Vicino, Barbacoa (pricey but also has a nice outside in summer). The music or theater scene varies and often depends on ones age. Summer (May till Sept here) is much better with concerts at the Botanical Gardens, plays at the Shakespeare Festival, GREAT events in Sun Valley.

 

I am almost 60...my tastes are not those of a 30 year old. Try Idaho's Glacier Vodka or some of the niche brands the next time you visit. The Red Feather is also a good place for wine and food downtown. Good Mexican..Tapatia off Park Center...good Mexican seafood. Also 'The Tavern' at Bowens Crossing in SE Boise. There are a lot of good placed in Eagle but that is a good 30-40 minutes from Boise.

 

Try the Record Exchange if you visit during business hours..its a lot like the shops that used to exist in NY when I was far younger.