SIGNALS & NOISE (Letters to Editor) (Aug. 1990)

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Thou Shalt Not Digitize

Dear Editor:

Music has always been a very important part of my daily life. As an audiophile, I have purchased the best equipment I can afford in order to get good sound to enjoy that music.

I own a pretty good turntable and CD player. After much listening, I prefer the sound of an LP over a CD in most cases. It just sounds more like real music. Over a year's time, I probably buy between 30 and 50 albums--mostly country, with some jazz and pop vocals.

The rapid demise of vinyl has me very unhappy. The 45-rpm record is no longer being made, and the selection of LPs is getting smaller all the time (some stores don't carry them at all). I'd like to say to record companies, if you stop producing LPs, you have lost a customer. I refuse to pay artificially high prices for CDs that have a sound I don't prefer anyway. If it's CDs with high prices or nothing, it will be nothing. I'll stick with my current library of music or listen to FM. Should the cost of CDs ever come down to where it should be, under $10, we'll talk. It is a sad time for music lovers. Selection, affordable prices, and, to my ears, good sound are no more. Somebody has fashioned a little round golden calf, and greed has triumphed once again.

-Stan Davis; Buena Park, Cal.

Tape Test: A+

Dear Editor:

Just a note to say what a fantastic job Howard A. Roberson did on the cassette report in the March 1990 issue ("Greatest Tape Test Ever: 88 Cassettes Tested"). As a person who has done reports like this, I can appreciate the amount of work that he must have put into it. His report beats any I have done. Absolutely incredible!

-Edward M. Long; Oakland, Cal.

Optical Optimism

Dear Editor:

I have just now read Bert Whyte's "Behind the Scenes" column in the March 1990 issue. In the second to last paragraph, he says, "The advent of fiber-optic interconnects should finally put an end to the often fanciful performance claims made for audiophile cables." Mr. Whyte is not only a leader in the audio field, he is also a starry-eyed optimist. There is no limit to the gullibility of some members of the public or to the reality of the placebo effect.

When fiber optics replace copper conductors, and the problems we've come to associate with interconnects are done away with, I fully expect to see fiber-optic static shields being profitably marketed by such outfits as the one that sells weighting rings for Compact Discs and subjectivist reviewers praising the "improvement" the shields make.

-Kenneth H. Fleischer; Los Angeles, Cal.

(Source: Audio magazine, Aug. 1990)

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