Michael Fremer defends Hi-Res digital while chewing out Gizmodo

It's the War Against Vinyl.

 

I have been reading Stereophile since the late 80s and am familiar with MF's writing. A few years ago I got fed up with his style and stopped reading his column because of his attitude. Now I see him as a zealot. I can't tolerate zealots. There's no arguing with them and the more you try to make your point the more vitriolic they get.

I'll bet though, he's digging the publicity this gets him.

 

Nobody?

 

http://www.high-endaudio.com/RR-FREMER.html

 

Damn you!

Just what I need. To be lusting over a nearly $3000 headphone amp.

And that looks to be the "affordable" unit in Cavalli's lineup.

 

Yeah; I don't like judging people immedately and personally as such, but, sorry, seeing a comment like that instinctively makes me want to pay them no further attention. Might be harsh but life's too short.

 

http://www.high-endaudio.com/magaz.html#Rul

 

TLDR but man, dude explains the proper use of "quotemarks" then continuously uses them improperly. I'm tired.

 

Yep, definitely a long time somewhat obsessive work!

He does address a lot of the hot topics of debate and once you get his dry ass sense of humor he can be pretty funny

I found this guy's pages long ago while researching some record values

Just click around with his many links

He's got some of it dead to rights

 

Where did you see that?

Cannot find it

Thanks

 

Yeah it seems NY has his work cut out for him here, you have to give it to him that the concept is 100% pono (righteous)
but apparently he hath shot hisself in the foot by jumping on the high priced bandwagon. I get that it costs money to get all this setup and the better mastering promised definitely adds a ton of overhead, but in my mind I need to hear that the high cost is only very temporary and would evaporate in to something reasonable, The wrong marketing angle here is making the music obviously premium priced and just expecting people to buy it.
It just won't work that way, not the way they would hope, anyway.

I suppose he expects a certain amount of support from the masses that like myself want to support this, but I can't and won't support the high dollar pricing that I have seen for some of the content offered -not when it's all ones and zeros, no packaging or material fabrication of any kind, I can't help thinking that the cost of bringing a title or collection to market goes WAY down if that stuff is gone, and sure it costs to prepare it sonically, etc. but if a premium cost is attached then I want to know exactly how that profit figures in to support a clear mission statement with regard to actually fix what is wrong with the music industry.
I just think that the cost for music could be much more reasonable, for once bringing the cost down would serve a nice two-fold purpose: suck people in by the honey price and good deals (more people buying means more sales), and promoting some actual benevolence that can be palpably gauged -like Neil said, he can say it sounds like God all he wants to, but people will not really hear that marketing BS and they need to try it to see for themselves..well if the price seemed right, or cheap then maybe a certain % more would get down with it and give it a whirl.
Starting out at the high end of pricing seems like a big mistake as far as content goes.

It's all kind of utopian in the end, but on the bright side entities mastering and pressing better vinyl has shaken things up in that realm (Rhino and many others that utilize better pressing facilities etc. now),
so it just might be beneficial to just go with this and if nothing else You'll have a crazy cool artifact to collect for future amusement.

I am not a real gearhead when it comes to knowing a lot of definitive facts with regards to Hi-Res and the debacle going on about this equipment and service being offered by NY, but I would like to hear for instance how well it does with the 2 outputs in that 'balanced' mode I think I saw mentioned somewhere, that no reviewer has actually tried yet as far as I have seen.

It also seems a hot topic whether or not the higher 192/96/88.2khz sampling rates are more damaging or whether it's the dither or filtering, time clock issues or what not,etc. etc.
The 24bit jump from 16bit seems to provide that leap in quality for most.

This thread has sparked in my mind the idea that the utopian solution maybe in the far off future would be for the same exact resolutions/codecs or whatnot would be universally used for recordings made either in the studio or whatever and then used for playback -is this period of time not reflecting a kind of move in that direction?

Don't get on me for inaccuracies with regard to that stuff, Mr. Hartha has been wanting someone to weigh in with some current impressions, and I assume that means towards whether or not having found that more bits & bytes equals better and more fuller sound. Back a page or two someone posted a review of that Luxman DU-80: http://www.onahighernote.com/luxman/?c=&id=25
I'm not sure that is the same one -but I want one of those, sposta sounda pretty nice...

 

It's in this link that was mentioned earlier:

http://www.high-endaudio.com/RR-FREMER.html

 

Thank you

I member that BS now!

 

I see nothing wrong with Fremer's response. The article was trolling.

 

Cavalli is a dangerous line of amps to lust over. Cause once you get hooked you're eventually going to need to get one. Cavalli amps have a very special sound. Good news is I got mine used. Bad news is used prices are still expensive.

Over on head-fi I made a comment that the combination of my Schiit Lyr amp and PonoPlayer is a baby Liquid Fire.

So for the price of a Schiit and a PonoPlayer you can have something that gives a taste of some of the magic I hear in the Liquid Fire. The magic in the Lyr and PonoPlayer combo is in the set-back and open style soundstage.

 

Regarding all the hi res bizzo...
Are they taking new stereo mixes from the master tapes at 24/96, or whatever the case may be?
Or, is it a hi res capture of the original 16/44.1 stereo master?
Or does no one actually know?

 

I don't know about other members, but your excellence impresses me. Very astute observations, Bill!

 

Sometimes the pricing makes it seem as though they are at war with themselves.
..I know, wishful griping on my part -it's hard when you remember what vinyl used to cost is all..
..then again $25 buys you what exactly at the grocery these days? Not much if you like healthy food that's for sure.
For a few years now I have noticed that salad keeps getting sillier priced at restaurants, coincidentally it is sometimes healthier to get some ruffage than the 15 dollar hamburger..and they know that a lot of people will now choose that salad..
OK never mind.

 

Thanks for posting - that was a VERY interesting read, and explained a lot of things that I've experienced but never read anything about. I have always suspected that the brain received lots of non-audio stimuli in those frequencies and that that would explain why, like the people described in this article, my own listening went down so much in the CD era and bounced back when I got into vinyl and hi-res. Again, thanks.

 

IMO, the most important piece of setting up a system is making sure it does not cause listening fatigue. Without a lot of experience it's hard to tell what the causes are, and there are many... bad digital sources rank right up there, but anything that causes a harsh or irritating sound can do it. Steel and zinc (and to a lesser degree brass) connectors, non-upocc silver wiring, cheap MKP capacitors, electrolytic caps misused and some metal film resistors, many SS output devices, the list goes on... If you find yourself listening less, if music at realistic volumes seems irritating, then you've got an issue with a fatiguing system. It CAN be fixed but it's not always easy to figure out why. My #1 priority when designing my products is to make sure they do not contribute to listening fatigue... it's basically audio poison. I have found hi resolution digital, especially modern high end DACs, is key to long term enjoyment of digital music. Redbook can even sound great on the right DAC.

 

Dave I find at my budget and in my experience that if I listen to CDs anywhere but the car I tend to tune out after about three songs and even in the car I can maybe go a half hour, but if I throw on an SACD on the same exact playback system I have to drag myself away to get back to work. With records it depends on the source material.

 

Oh man did he write that? That's embarrassing.

 

Why bother to call yourself an audiophile or anything at all? It's not like people who claim to be audiophiles (whatever that really means) are being strip searched at the airports because they have an expensive audio system or a lot of records. Ugh.

What I always find so interesting about some of my peers in the audio publishing industry, is that they are always scratching their heads about how to get new people involved in this world. And, I think I can say this with some conviction - it's this very thing that turns people off to high end audio. To me, audio and music is something fun, that takes you away from whatever madness or complexity is in your life for a brief spell. If it turns into big drama and a bunch of old guys bitching about not being taken seriously enough, who wants to tune in?

Not me....

There's nothing to "fight back" about from where I'm sitting.

 

Try bringing a tube amp and Audeze headphones in your carry-on bag and you'll find out that you do get the extra search treatment at the airport.
They are out to get us.

 

There's already a thread on the forums with regard to this article, but it contains some info relevant to the discussion here.
Pretty interesting article, and no name calling ........

http://www.laweekly.com/music/why-cds-may-actually-sound-better-than-vinyl-5352162