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Audiophile Records
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When it comes to vinyl LPs and even CDs, "audiophile" is more of a marketing term than an objective, regulated, and quantifiable measure of a given album's sound. Sometimes albums are hyped as audiophile because they have been pressed on vinyl...
When it comes to vinyl LPs and even CDs, "audiophile" is more of a marketing term than an objective, regulated, and quantifiable measure of a given album's sound. Sometimes albums are hyped as audiophile because they have been pressed on vinyl discs that weigh 180 or even 200 grams, compared to the 120- to 140-gram records that were common to most original pressings. That said, weight alone is not necessarily a measure of a record's audio quality.
The key, it is generally agreed, has to do with how the album was recorded, and then how the recorded data on the original master tape was transferred to a disc. For example, if a song was recorded on a reel of tape whose previous recording had just been erased, that recording will probably never be re-released as an audiophile recording since the source is corrupt, although the people who market music might well label the record "audiophile" if they think it'll move units. Similarly, the microphones used to capture the sounds of voices, guitars, pianos, drums, and other instruments must be perfectly calibrated to reproduce as closely as possible the sounds of those voices and instruments, as if you were hearing them live in a favorable acoustical setting. And then, of course, none of that is going to do you any good if you lack the high-fidelity amplifiers, turntables, and speakers required to hear the difference.
As a concept, the word audiophile, then, is about sound quality, which, importantly, is not the same as musical quality, a concept that's even more subjective. Consider the strategies of 1960s bands such as the Rolling Stones, who, in the early days, would mix their latest 45s to be optimized for car radios, since that was how most of their fans listened to their music. Those recordings will never be considered audiophile—although, again, they might be sold as such—but it would be silly to dismiss "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" because of its sound quality.
When you ask record collectors to name their favorite sounding recordings, fans of classical music might direct you to the version of Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird" performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Antal Dorati, and released on Mercury Records in a remastered edition in 1997. Jazz enthusiasts might suggest the 2020 reissue of the classic, 1964 Getz/Gilberto album on Verve. As for rock fans, the most common response is often summed up in just two words, Steely Dan, although Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and Supertramp's "Crime of the Century" also gets a lot of votes.
Continue readingWhen it comes to vinyl LPs and even CDs, "audiophile" is more of a marketing term than an objective, regulated, and quantifiable measure of a given album's sound. Sometimes albums are hyped as audiophile because they have been pressed on vinyl discs that weigh 180 or even 200 grams, compared to the 120- to 140-gram records that were common to most original pressings. That said, weight alone is not necessarily a measure of a record's audio quality.
The key, it is generally agreed, has to do with how the album was recorded, and then how the recorded data on the original master tape was transferred to a disc. For example, if a song was recorded on a reel of tape whose previous recording had just been erased, that recording will probably never be re-released as an audiophile recording since the source is corrupt, although the people who market music might well label the record "audiophile" if they think it'll move units. Similarly, the microphones used to capture the sounds of voices, guitars, pianos, drums, and other instruments must be perfectly calibrated to reproduce as closely as possible the sounds of those voices and instruments, as if you were hearing them live in a favorable acoustical setting. And then, of course, none of that is going to do you any good if you lack the high-fidelity amplifiers, turntables, and speakers required to hear the difference.
As a concept, the word audiophile, then, is about sound quality, which, importantly, is not the same as musical quality, a concept that's even more subjective. Consider the strategies of 1960s bands such as the Rolling Stones, who, in the early days, would mix their latest 45s to be optimized for car radios, since that was how most of their fans listened to their music. Those recordings will never be considered audiophile—although, again, they might be sold as such—but it would be silly to dismiss "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" because of its sound quality.
When you ask record collectors to name...
When it comes to vinyl LPs and even CDs, "audiophile" is more of a marketing term than an objective, regulated, and quantifiable measure of a given album's sound. Sometimes albums are hyped as audiophile because they have been pressed on vinyl discs that weigh 180 or even 200 grams, compared to the 120- to 140-gram records that were common to most original pressings. That said, weight alone is not necessarily a measure of a record's audio quality.
The key, it is generally agreed, has to do with how the album was recorded, and then how the recorded data on the original master tape was transferred to a disc. For example, if a song was recorded on a reel of tape whose previous recording had just been erased, that recording will probably never be re-released as an audiophile recording since the source is corrupt, although the people who market music might well label the record "audiophile" if they think it'll move units. Similarly, the microphones used to capture the sounds of voices, guitars, pianos, drums, and other instruments must be perfectly calibrated to reproduce as closely as possible the sounds of those voices and instruments, as if you were hearing them live in a favorable acoustical setting. And then, of course, none of that is going to do you any good if you lack the high-fidelity amplifiers, turntables, and speakers required to hear the difference.
As a concept, the word audiophile, then, is about sound quality, which, importantly, is not the same as musical quality, a concept that's even more subjective. Consider the strategies of 1960s bands such as the Rolling Stones, who, in the early days, would mix their latest 45s to be optimized for car radios, since that was how most of their fans listened to their music. Those recordings will never be considered audiophile—although, again, they might be sold as such—but it would be silly to dismiss "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" because of its sound quality.
When you ask record collectors to name their favorite sounding recordings, fans of classical music might direct you to the version of Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird" performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Antal Dorati, and released on Mercury Records in a remastered edition in 1997. Jazz enthusiasts might suggest the 2020 reissue of the classic, 1964 Getz/Gilberto album on Verve. As for rock fans, the most common response is often summed up in just two words, Steely Dan, although Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and Supertramp's "Crime of the Century" also gets a lot of votes.
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