Jon Hodgson wrote on Sat, 03 June 2006 19:15 |
This is my favourite bit from that site so far
Quote: | Holophonic-PC's simply bring the music to life, even mediocre recordings. The highs are like a breath of fresh air and the bass is tight, articulate and punchy. If you don't feel the bass guitar and kick-drum in your gut now, you will with these interconnects. CD's, DVD's and SACD's simply sparkle with clarity. Those lyrics that you never could understand in your favorite recordings will become highly intelligible, even the lyrics that the backup singers are singing. No more need to pull-out the CD jackets to understand the lyrics anymore. Holophonic interconnects are so spectacular that it is difficult to put it into words. Holophonics will unlock the performance potential of your components!
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So guys, don't worry about getting the mix right, your recording quality probably doesn't matter much, don't spend any money on a mastering EQ and whatever you do don't waste it sending the mix to a mastering engineer... all you need to do is pass the mix through a couple of Emperical Audio's PC interconnects and everything will sound better.
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Now you ARE on the right track. If you boneheads in the recording business would have any sense you would start using the decent cables and electronics that audiophiles are already using to improve their playback.
I am 100% certain that the quality of the playback chain is now superior to the best recording chains in the industry. If it were not for innovative companies like Lavry (I give you some credit even though you are bad-mouthing me) and Benchmark media systems, we would still have the quality of 8-track as our best recordings. Pro-sound digital improvements like Pro-Tools have only served to normalize the quality of recordings, eliminating many of the good studios and recording engineers that were able to get the most out of the equipment they had - many of these used better cables and even modded their equipment. The quality of the average recording has improved over time due to innovations like Pro-Tools, but the really good recordings are getting very hard to find. I have recordings of Ella from the late 50S that are better than 99% of what I can buy now. There are only a handful of studios that get the most out of the CD format, such as Northernblues.com and Redhouse records.
To get an idea what is possible in the studio with decent cables and modded gear, read these reviews of remastered CD's from reel-to-reel tape that were done using studio gear that I modded and converted to battery power and using high-end cables (not mine this time). These CD's are written on the best CD-R media one at a time at 1X recording speed:
"I have long believed that vibration control, as well as other so-called "high end audio" signal enhancement disciplines, is beneficial not only for CD playback, but would also be of great benefit in the process of manufacturing CDs. Bob has helped to demonstrate this with his HDTT mastering process, and the results prove that there's more - perhaps much more - to be extracted from the ordinary Compact Disc than anyone may have suspected. HDTT transfers sound significantly more alive, spatial, and pleasantly detailed - in other words, just plain more musical and enjoyable - than nearly all other Compact Discs - including SACDs - that I have heard. In short, one of the best things that's happened to the CD in a long time." - Peter Bizlewicz Symposium Acoustics
"Thanks for the sampler which you, or somebody, slipped me at CES. The disc is fascinating and, while it retains the balances I am familiar with on the older LPs, the increase in clarity and detail is remarkable. I was especially impressed with the Strauss (Klemperer), Bach (Richter), Beethoven (Prohaska) and Wagner (Munch)."
Kal Rubinson "Music in the Round" Stereophile Magazine
"Loved the tones, especially the string tones and highs. Violin and cello were particularly vivid and alive. I feel very strongly that your recordings exhibit outstanding transparency due to the fact that you burn the individual discs instead of stamping them." The ultimate in disc sonics can only be achieved when the disc played has been burned. Stamping is a cost effective but music destroying method of making a CD." Overall, I would rate your efforts as being very successful and kudos to you for going to the extra effort to individually burn each CD, an effort that must be expensive and time consuming. As for the $30 price tag, they are worth every penny of the asking price and more.
In the case of HDTT, a well preserved reel to reel tape is played back over a highly modified and tweaked tape player with the line out being burned to a master disc; the master disc being used to direct burn the CD-R in my hand. At least that’s how I understand it works, I may find myself corrected on exactly how the feed from the tape deck is burned, but as I learn how it’s done, you’ll learn how it’s done.
I wouldn’t go over the explanation with you were it not for the superb quality of the sound. Part of that obviously goes to the quality of the original recording; part of it to quality of the tape deck and playback equipment; and part of it to the CD-R burner and blanks used by HDTT. These are not inexpensive CD-R blanks. All put together, the results are impressive ... especially the strings, yummy. While the present recordings are from reel to reel tapes that were commercially available a few years back, HDTT hopes to soon have access to first generation original tapes in the future. If that happens, I think it very possible that a direct CD-R burn could be sonically superior to the original LP. That’s an exciting prospect.
Martin DeWulf Bound for Sound Audio Report
“These classical music CD's are the best 16 bit digital audio we have heard on our system. They are incredibly dynamic, open and transparent. They sound very close to our reference analog setup in tonality, especially the violin pieces. Musically the pieces are excellent interpretations, as good as or better than mainstream releases. We look forward to your future releases!” John Hughes VRS Audio Systems
I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the amazing sampler disk you gave me at the CES. Some of the cuts have so much detail I could hardly believe I was listening to a CD. Also, the sound on the 50-year old Scherchen Scheherazade was truly remarkable. Again, thanks for the disk, which I listened to on a straight out-of-the-box Denon 2910 connected to a Dodson DAC. I can just image what the disk would sound like played through modified equipment.
Saul Sokolsky
and here is a review of many of the CD's:
http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=1443So after reading this you still think that the recording chain cannot benefit from high-end cables and modded equipment?
Steve N.