Recent content by Robin L

I was a recording engineer for about a decade in the 1990s, exclusively recording classical repertoire. It wasn't until very recently that I was satisfied with the sound of my playback gear, which now is only from digital sources. There's a clarity and focus I'm experiencing that I wasn't...

I was charge of the Classical cassette section of Tower records, Berkeley, in the mid-eighties. Very few classical cassettes were up to the standards of LPs at the time, and the quality of LPs in the mid-eighties was nothing to write home about. There were only a few runs of commercial cassettes...

That's why I still collect CDs.

Like I said, I don't stream. The primary reason I don't stream is because of that problem with dropouts. Don't know about that. Once 78s were no longer a "thing", support from the record companies evaporated. Cassettes were popular for a brief spell before CDs appeared, then they were not. As...

Streaming might not make sense to you, it doesn't work for me, but just about everyone I know uses streaming. My wife has an old IPod in the car with MP3 files that I occasionally add files to, but she mostly she streams video at home. If I want to hear music at home, I've got a pile of CDs that...

In the age of streaming, recording makes little sense unless one is recording performances of one's group or of a group for someone else. Otherwise, streaming makes more sense.

I like my Topping E30. It's been upgraded to E30 II. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-e30-ii-dac-review.36028/ It sells for $149, has three inputs - USB, coax and optical Toslink. It measures better than anyone can hear. My Topping E30 has an easy-to-use...

Tascam made some excellent workhorse cassette decks, radio stations liked them. Yamaha, or so I was told, had the transports of Nak decks and their own electronics. This was good, as a Dolby B cassette recorded on a Nak would not play back correctly on any other brand of deck.

Probably more expensive, considering both inflation and smaller runs of the product. What's really needed is something simple, inexpensive and designed for transfer to digital media. A playback only device would make sense - design something to transfer tapes before they fall apart. Dolby B...

Like I already said, most perfect vs. most perfect.

This is one way Bing Crosby turns out to be a very important innovator in musical history. He was the first performer to utilize the microphone in live performance. This resulted in a sound that emphasized his lower registers, much as Frank Sinatra's performances and recordings gave his voice...

Then it probably was a language issue. You play some old music?

Because they have an appreciative audience? Because they love the music?

If you don't regularly listen to Classical music then you probably really don't have a point of view. Lots of Classical music lacks lyrics but has emotion. And a lot of Classical music is far from "easy".

The limiting factor is the discs themselves. The only functional solution to that problem was the CD and its various digital offspring. No off-center wow. No peak-warp wow. No motor/belt/idler wheel induced flutter. No surface noise. No record wear. No inner groove distortion. All things being...