from February, but a good read anyway
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-02-04/nashville-sound-quality/52963362/1?csp=34news (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-02-04/nashville-sound-quality/52963362/1?csp=34news)
Very cool! I love that some cares and is driving them to perfect the craft of mastering/recording. :)
I would like to address several issues that I see with the article.
1) Some of the poor sound of CDs is due to being SS, instead of tube. Even with tube analog incorporated, the DAC chip has SS analog stages. Worse than that, output of the DAC chip is PP class B, in order to reduce heat produced by class A operation.
In spite of all this, I am able to get the NAD 521 (modified by bypassing the analog/mute stages) to sound like the TT using a moving magnet Acutex $400 moving mag cartridge with Shabata stylus (using the same song). Not bad, could be worse.
2) I always wondered why some "scientific" types were going after the subjectivists, often times using faulty or their own science. (I think some for good reasons and some for marketing purposes, depending upon the subject/product.). I have seen some go after competitors of their friend's business, or attack competitors of their own business. I think we have all seen some of it.
After seeing the $4.5 billion figure, I now see why.
Cheers.
Yes and don't forget the foreign exchange. Silver.