las <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>I really find it impossible that any cassette deck, no matter how
>expensive could sound as good as a decent MD recorder.
Why is that? MD by design compresses the musical signal. It does a very
good job, but it is still discarding some data. In order to make a better
recording, a cassette would merely have to accurately record more of the
signal, and be able to reproduce it during playback. On cheap decks, with
cheap tapes, this isn't really possible. But with a high-end cassette
deck and high-end tape media, it is certainly possible.
>What do the people who claim that there tape decks "sound better"
>really mean?? There is a big difference between the faithful
>reproduction of audio and they way something sounds. Many people
>still prefer the sound of vinyl to CD. From a technical stand point,
>vinyl can never come close to the fidelity of a CD.
That's true. But the point here isn't subjective interpretation -- we're
discussing the ability of the two types of media to accurately record and
playback a source. The arguments between LPs and CDs are, for the most
part, about the subtle ways in which the two media sound different -- it
is generally accepted that both sound excellent, but people tend to
prefer one or the other. The comparison between MD and other media is
usually about whether MD can sound as good given the fact that it does
not record the entire recordable signal (you don't hear people arguing
that MD sounds *better* than CD <grin>). And the generally-agree-upon
answer is that the better your system is, the greater chance you'll be
able to hear the difference. But since most people aren't using MD as the
primary plaback medium in a high-end system, the difference is usually
not that obvious.
Don't worry -- I don't think a $5,000 tape deck that records/sounds
better than a $300 MD recorder poses any threat for the future of MD ;-)
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