Audio equipment

[Thenop]

What an extraordinary company Yamaha is. They make guitars, they make motorbikes, they make keyboards, they make outboard motors for boats and they make HiFi equipment.

Don't forget they make top of the line drumkit. The recording customs sets are top of the bill and you find them in many recording studios because of their versatility and warm sound.

[David L]

What an extraordinary company Yamaha is. They make guitars, they make motorbikes, they make keyboards, they make outboard motors for boats and they make HiFi equipment.

Don't forget they make top of the line drumkit. The recording customs sets are top of the bill and you find them in many recording studios because of their versatility and warm sound.

Didn't Cozy play a Yamaha kit?
They do make lots of different 'things' and, in my experience, all with one defining feature..............quality.
I saw a nicely restored FS1E moped for a shade under £8K the other day 😲

[Thenop]

What an extraordinary company Yamaha is. They make guitars, they make motorbikes, they make keyboards, they make outboard motors for boats and they make HiFi equipment.

Don't forget they make top of the line drumkit. The recording customs sets are top of the bill and you find them in many recording studios because of their versatility and warm sound.

Didn't Cozy play a Yamaha kit?
They do make lots of different 'things' and, in my experience, all with one defining feature..............quality.
I saw a nicely restored FS1E moped for a shade under £8K the other day 😲

He did. But the Yamaha kit you heard most is the one John 'JR' Robinson played in the 80s up to the late 00s. Look him up. It's hard to have missed him on drums. He's the most recorded drummer in history...

[The Picnic Wasp]

What an extraordinary company Yamaha is. They make guitars, they make motorbikes, they make keyboards, they make outboard motors for boats and they make HiFi equipment.

They also appear to have a heart, which is something of a rarity in commerce. I found this story quite touching when I first heard it.

"In an unprecedented gesture of good will, Yamaha Corporation and its President, Takuya Nakata, have granted possession of the Sequential brand back to its original owner and company founder, Dave Smith. "To say that I'm grateful would be putting it mildly," said Smith. "Generosity at this level is almost unheard of in today's corporate climate."

Like the other pioneering American synthesizer manufacturers of the late 1970's and 80's, Moog and Oberheim, Sequential's fortunes declined when digital instruments eclipsed their analog counterparts. All three company founders subsequently lost the rights to their own company name. When Sequential ceased operations in 1987, its name and assets were acquired by Yamaha. For a number of years following that, Smith worked as a consultant for Yamaha and Korg, and was largely responsible for Korg's successful Wavestation series of vector-synthesis-based instruments.

Instrumental in restoring the Sequential name was Roland's Founder, Ikutaro Kakehashi, a longtime colleague and friend of Smith's. "I feel that it's important to get rid of unnecessary conflict among electronic musical instrument companies," said Kakehashi. "That is exactly the spirit of MIDI. For this reason, I personally recommended that the President of Yamaha, Mr. Nakata, return the rights to the Sequential name to Dave Smith. And I'm glad to see such a wonderful result—a new product with the Sequential name."

[David L]

Vinyl better than digital?

[Slim]

Objectively, as a means of reproducing audio signals, digital has the ability to do the job better than vinyl and the standard CD format does this. It's more accurate. "High resolution" audio isn't a real thing, it's just marketing bollocks.

It comes down to whether you like the "sound" of vinyl (or the fun of owning the medium and the packaging). There are other variables as well obviously like the quality of the source - a badly recorded or mastered CD could sound "worse", whatever you take that to mean, than a well done vinyl record, despite the compromises inherent to the latter format.

[David L]

Objectively, as a means of reproducing audio signals, digital has the ability to do the job better than vinyl and the standard CD format does this. It's more accurate. "High resolution" audio isn't a real thing, it's just marketing bollocks.

It comes down to whether you like the "sound" of vinyl (or the fun of owning the medium and the packaging). There are other variables as well obviously like the quality of the source - a badly recorded or mastered CD could sound "worse", whatever you take that to mean, than a well done vinyl record, despite the compromises inherent to the latter format.

Yes, that's right. In this case sounding 'worse' is the compression of musical dynamics. I'm really surprised that there's still an insistence to compress at the mastering stage for digital. The last few Rush albums suffered terribly from this approach. Listen to their '70s and early '80s albums and they clearly have far more dynamic range than their last few records. It's a case of commerce trumping art.

[Thenop]

The whole compression thing is to make it all sound the same for the streaming market. Music owners (record companies are a thing of the past - it now seems an investers market) don't want their 'product' eclipsed by something that is LOUDER.
It's the equivalent of a market salesman shouting loudest at the weekly fair to sell their goods. Doesn't make it better.

[David L]

The whole compression thing is to make it all sound the same for the streaming market. Music owners (record companies are a thing of the past - it now seems an investers market) don't want their 'product' eclipsed by something that is LOUDER.
It's the equivalent of a market salesman shouting loudest at the weekly fair to sell their goods. Doesn't make it better.

Yes, because dynamics are lost if you are listening in the car, on a phone or with (most) earbuds. Making music more 'impactful' is a better goal for the businessmen.
People that care about audio quality get a raw deal.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Does someone like Steven Wilson have a say in how his material is streamed, or is it purely a technical industry decision?

[David L]

Does someone like Steven Wilson have a say in how his material streamed, or is it purely a technical industry decision?

No idea. I'm sure he'd have a lot to say on the matter. At the end of the day it depends on how much power is in the hands of the artist. Having said that, they themselves may agree to compression if they feel that benefits the experience of the majority of listeners ergo helping their own career.
In the case of SW, it would fly in the face of his reputation as an artist that cares deeply about sound quality.
Quite a fascinating subject

[The Picnic Wasp]

In the 1980s I had a reasonable sounding set-up. Technics separates which suited my budget, paired with hefty Mordaunt Short speakers which I still use. I've pretty much been left behind by audio innovation and really need to play catch-up now. My Technics amp still works after all this time, at least I hope so as it's currently stored away. I wonder whether I should use this plus the speakers and just add some bits and pieces. I suppose the amp might be the weak link if it's approaching the end of its useful life. I really would like to buy a bit of vinyl again from time to time, as well as playing a few that I couldn't resist on eBay over the years but have never played.

[Thenop]

Amps, especially older ones, are not difficult to service. if it's the analog sound you want, with the record player set up a good cleaning would probably do the trick. It's not difficult, there are may Youtube tutorials showing you how. But there's always the local handyman that could do it for you at a good price.

Never been a fan of MS speakers, they sound a bit harsh to me, but if they work for you - great.

A record player then (assuming you have a phono in on the amp) does need a bit of maintenance if not used for a while. You said Technics so it'll be a direct drive, that saves you replacing a belt but a bit of cleaning would surely help.

[David L]

I'm probably going to pull the trigger on an Ever Solo DMP-A6 soon to replace my aging iPad/rDock/Teac DAC set-up for streaming. Great reviews. I'll probably wait until the new year to see if it is discounted anywhere

https://www.eversolo.com/Product/index/model/DMP-A6/target/7abWHw%2B%2BoHhKKmVViAFMcQ%3D%3D.html

[Thenop]

I love how they try to win you over with nonsensical terms in ads like these.
deeply tailored system is my favourite here I think.
Anyway, enjoy, new piece of kit is always nice.