Re: Elton - GYBR: How many formats?

[Greg Walton]

Firstly, I'm not an audiophile, but like listening to a lot of music, all the
time and appreciate a session with a great hi-fi system.

Secondly, I am a cynic. How much money will record companies continue to bleed
out of old recordings with re-issues on new formats?

Something like Goodbye Yellowbrick Road or Dark Side of the Moon etc must have
been released on:

Vinyl
Reel to Reel Tape
8 Track Cartridge
Quadraphonic Vinyl
Compact Cassette
CD
High Grain Vinyl
DAT
Gold CD
DCC (Digital Compact Cassette)
Mini Disc
SACD
and surely I have missed some........

No wonder my favourite format is CDR these days ;-)

Cheers
Greg



I'm really greg dot walton at swissonline dot ch

[Alan Rutlidge]

"Greg Walton" <trx850@8500.rpm> wrote in message
news:3FC71B7F.CD75B655@swissonline.ch...
> Firstly, I'm not an audiophile, but like listening to a lot of music, all
the
> time and appreciate a session with a great hi-fi system.
>
> Secondly, I am a cynic. How much money will record companies continue to
bleed
> out of old recordings with re-issues on new formats?
>
> Something like Goodbye Yellowbrick Road or Dark Side of the Moon etc must
have
> been released on:
>
> Vinyl
> Reel to Reel Tape
> 8 Track Cartridge
> Quadraphonic Vinyl
> Compact Cassette
> CD
> High Grain Vinyl
> DAT
> Gold CD
> DCC (Digital Compact Cassette)
> Mini Disc
> SACD
> and surely I have missed some........
>
> No wonder my favourite format is CDR these days ;-)
>
> Cheers
> Greg
>
>
>
> I'm really greg dot walton at swissonline dot ch

Well Greg, I've used all those except DAT.
Okay, I confess, I'm hooked on good audio. SACD or DVD-A doesn't
automatically indicate quality audio, just the formats have the potential to
push the limits of current recording and replay technology. Some recordings
are easily distinguishable from the CD even in 2 channel.

Except for dts-CD and now defunct technologies such as QS, SQ, CD-4, 8 track
and reel to reel quad etc. there are no other viable and commercially
available surround sound carriers. (And before all the DVD ppl get up in
arms - I don't personally feel that Dolby Digital is really a format that
lends itself well to high resolution audio.) I'm not advocating that
surround audio will ever replace conventional 2 channel stereo, but well
mixed it does offer a new dimension to sound reproduction in the home.

I too use CD-R. Mainly for copying my existing CDs to use in the car where
they tend to get a fair bit of neglect and for archiving my vinyl collection
for everyday playback convenience. Besides, if someone breaks into my car
and rips off my CD-Rs I'm not going to be too pissed off about it, but
limited edition CD's - yes!! I also have some MDs which seem to be even
better at resisting abuse and are great to take on the plane or while
walking as they are so much more compact.

For non critical listening I found AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) using
variable bit rate is better than MP3 pro. You can get hours of music on a
700MB CD-R and days on a 4.7GB DVD-R.

As for formats and marketing. If memory serves me correctly, the compact
cassette was never originally intended to be a music medium, let alone a
hi-fi one, but technology allowed it to progress beyond that. In the days
before CD if you wanted to take it out of the home and to the street or your
car - cassette was the only viable format (8 track in the car).

One format you didn't mention was Sony's Elcassette. Like a big cassette
with 1/4" tape and ran at 3 3/4" per sec (not so sure about the speed).
Never owned one, but have heard it in the 70's. It was significantly better
than compact cassette was at the time. Oh, and XRCD24 -playable on standard
CD players as is HDCD.

Cheers,
Alan