Article: Announcing Josh Mound's Club TBVO

[Josh Mound]

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[Josh Mound]

Thank you to everyone who’s donated so far. I’m so appreciative. My goal to start is one or two posts per week, depending on length and other factors. 
 

Since part of my reason for asking for donations is the cost of buying the various versions of albums (and I’m often asked if/when I ever download rips), one upcoming post will be on the ethical and practical factors in that. 
 

I also have in the works a mini-TBVO of one of my favorite obscure ‘70s artists who’s finally received audiophile mastering treatment. 

[Josh Mound]

9 hours ago, stereomatters said:

Please suggest a contribution amount, or perhaps a couple of monthly contribution levels. I have greatly enjoyed your TBDVO columns and would like to support your writing through the club, but I have no idea of what is reasonable. Thank you!

 

I totally second what Chris said. He and I talked about starting it paywalled, but 1) I didn’t want to potentially be writing things only a handful of people would see, and 2) it’s really, really hard to come up with a fair “ask.”
 

On the one hand, it depends on how much a reader does (or doesn’t) like my work. (I don’t expect everyone to like it equally or at all!) On the other, people’s disposable income varies. My academic work was about tax politics and policy, and declining marginal utility is real. What’s a lot of money to Paul McCartney is going to be very different from what’s a lot of money to a Liverpool music teacher!

 

If someone who has the means to do so wants to give a lot, great. But I absolutely don’t want anyone living paycheck to paycheck to give to TBVO, period. My wife and I are both public school teachers, though I still teach college classes here and there. So it’s not like we’re rich. But we also don’t have kids or student loans. So my Discogs orders aren’t bankrupting me, either!
 

As I wrote in the intro, Club TBVO is really about allowing me to write more short content and perhaps making TBVOs consistently net out positive, since it’s not uncommon for me to spend more on versions than I make on the article. But it’s not anyone’s responsibility to make that happen. Writing them is a joy for me, and I appreciate any amount that anyone is able to contribute, either one time or recurring. 

[Josh Mound]

While I can't promise to continue this pace, a new Club entry is up!

[Josh Mound]

3 hours ago, cgiammona said:

I will also start with a small donation and plan to raise it as this grows over time.

Thank you!

[Josh Mound]

22 hours ago, Archimago said:

Hey there @JoshM, I heartily agree with your quote. :-)

 

Hard work (but hopefully enjoyable!), and essential information which unfortunately we don't have enough of.

 

A little something just sent over for the awesome job man! 👍

Thanks so much, Arch!

[Josh Mound]

Thank you to all who've donated so far. I really appreciate it!

 

I also wanted to alert everyone to a new post up on Club TBVO about the MoFi "One-Step" controversy and why my TBVO columns are digital-only:

 

 

[Josh Mound]

2 hours ago, LucasZ said:

👋 Hi, long-time reader, first time poster. Just wanted to say that I've greatly enjoyed the entire series of TBVO and I really admire the amount of work that goes into each article. As someone who spent way too much time surfing the SH forums in search of the best mastering for every classic album, this is right up my alley. I also appreciate the mixture of objective and subjective analysis. Looking forward to more!

Thanks so much, Lucas. A big part of the motivation for TBVO was reading the SHF forums. It whet my appetite for finding the best mastering, but with so few (if any) members having every version, let alone comparing them level-matched, I alway ended up feeling like I needed to just track them all down myself!

[Josh Mound]

I have a new post up about how to support artists in the age of streaming:

 

 

This is the first of a two-post article. The second will get into the ethical and practical factors that go into sourcing versions of albums for my TBVOs.

 

[Josh Mound]

Hello All,

 

I have a few new posts up, including the second part of the How to be an Ethical Music Fan in the Age of Streaming series:

 

 

[Josh Mound]

A new post responding to a great question posted by @Wonderer in the forums.

 

 

[Josh Mound]

Hello All,

 

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past few weeks. I've been leveled by a sinus infection-turned-laryngitis. Now that the Matrix X-SABRE Pro is on closeout sale, I wanted to update several previous DAC reviews, including my Matrix review.

 

 

[Josh Mound]

The first "Mini-TBVO" on Steely Dan's Can't Buy a Thrill (prompted by the new Bernie Grundman mastering) is up on Club TVBO:

 

 

[Josh Mound]

On 11/15/2022 at 5:11 AM, M1chael said:

I think your TBVO articles are great and I will be donating. I’m in the vinyl still sounds more real than digital camp though. But digital has improved dramatically since its inception. I listen to digital exclusively, I have an inexpensive turntable but it doesn’t make sense for me right now. But some of my needle drops are some of my best sounding discs. I read an article years ago by Wojciech Pacuta explaining why analog sounds better. It went something like this. Reel to reel tape has 80 million samples per second, while DSD has 2.8 million samples per second. I’m kind of an old dude so I remember way back, it seems I never experienced listener fatigue playing records on a much inferior system. Now I have a better amp and speakers and an OPPO disc player, but experience listening fatigue after an hour or two. Can anybody relate to or explain this, I think I still have excellent hearing. 

Thanks!

 

Hi Michael, I believe @Archimago has written about this on his blog, but I'm not quite sure what to make of the analog tape "sample" claim. It was recently brought up in Absolute Sound:

 

 

However, I don't think that particles are the same thing as samples. Wouldn't the equivalent of the magnetic particles on tape be the particles on a CD or a disk drive? How much information does a single particle on tape capture? Regardless, that discussion is really tape versus digital, not vinyl versus digital. Vinyl's a much more limited format than studio-quality tape.

 

I do agree, though, that it's possible for different setups to be fatiguing. For me, it mainly has to do with things like frequency response and distortion profile. I'm sure there's a DAC/amp/transducer combination that you'd find as non-fatiguing as vinyl, assuming the digital file and the record had the same mastering.

[Josh Mound]

Hello All,

 

I'm back from COVID and the holidays with a few new posts.

 

The first finishes my series about being an ethical music consumer in the age of streaming by getting into how I source my TBVOs, including example of the costs:

 

 

The second is about Etymotic's awesome home hearing test:

 

 

[Josh Mound]

After a while without many new posts, I have a new (nearly belated) Valentine's Day Mini TBVO: