it's 1989

[0bleak]

and you just uncorked a bottle of your finest
you're letting it breathe while you hold and read the liner notes of your new classical music CD purchase in your yuppie hands. The SPARS code on the artwork is DDD (recorded, mixed and mastered digitally - nothing more pure!)
you like to consider yourself an audiophile - so much so that you even subscribe to studio trade magazines in order to keep up with the latest in tech
after all, you can't really be concerned about what's coming out if you don't know how it made it in
after reaching this page, you're so excited that you even let out a little squeal!

You immediately start phoning your friends to arrange a little dinner party so that you can all partake in this auditory delight all together.

 

[other_life]

no it's not! capper!

 

[0bleak]

oh, but to wish it were but true - the things that I would do, or not do

 

[Mr. Tea]

and you just uncorked a bottle of your finest
you're letting it breathe while you hold and read the liner notes of your new classical music CD purchase in your yuppie hands. The SPARS code on the artwork is DDD (recorded, mixed and mastered digitally - nothing more pure!)
you like to consider yourself an audiophile - so much so that you even subscribe to studio trade magazines in order to keep up with the latest in tech
after all, you can't really be concerned about what's coming out if you don't know how it made it in
after reaching this page, you're so excited that you even let out a little squeal!
View attachment 19033
You immediately start phoning your friends to arrange a little dinner party so that you can all partake in this auditory delight all together.

"Dude, checkout the clarity on that midrange! It's fucking crystal, is what it is! And without losing any of the bass!"

 

[0bleak]

exactly what I had in mind

 

[0bleak]

although he didn't seem like much of a classical guy

 

[0bleak]

the reason that i find those liner notes so funny is that classical collectors pretty much dumped vinyl wholesale for cd more than virtually anyone else - not that it's not understandable with music that's so dynamic

 

[Mr. Tea]

the reason that i find those liner notes so funny is that classical collectors pretty much dumped vinyl wholesale for cd more than virtually anyone else - not that it's not understandable with music that's so dynamic

I listen to Radio 3 a lot (the BBC's classical station), and they (still!) talk about whichever soloist/quartet/orchestra releasing a CD. So maybe classical headz will be the last demographic to give up buying CDs just as they were pioneer adopters of the medium.

 

[...]

and you just uncorked a bottle of your finest
you're letting it breathe while you hold and read the liner notes of your new classical music CD purchase in your yuppie hands. The SPARS code on the artwork is DDD (recorded, mixed and mastered digitally - nothing more pure!)
you like to consider yourself an audiophile - so much so that you even subscribe to studio trade magazines in order to keep up with the latest in tech
after all, you can't really be concerned about what's coming out if you don't know how it made it in
after reaching this page, you're so excited that you even let out a little squeal!
View attachment 19033
You immediately start phoning your friends to arrange a little dinner party so that you can all partake in this auditory delight all together.

What's wrong with this? There is nothing wrong with this.

As @Corpsey once wrote, "Being this guy is a particular form of paradise on earth, though."

 

[...]

I went to see the opening night of Nye at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff on the weekend.

There was a scene in the play when Bevan, played by Michael Sheen, laid out his tactic to get the greedy doctors to agree to his NHS plan with an irony that even he appreciated: "We'll break their union!" Sheen then grinned at the audience and got the biggest cheer of the night by saying, "It's OK, they're middle class!"

Bearing in mind that the cheapest seat in the house was £40 and one programme cost £7.

 

[Corpsey]

Can you unpack that for me?

 

[Mr. Tea]

Can you unpack that for me?

The hypocrisy and performative self-loathing of the modern British middle class, I think.

 

[Corpsey]

So is the self referential wink there that the government is currently mistreating doctors and they think it's okay cos doctors are middle class?

Probably I could understand these references if I paid one iota of attention to the world outside my flat

 

[0bleak]

I listen to Radio 3 a lot (the BBC's classical station), and they (still!) talk about whichever soloist/quartet/orchestra releasing a CD. So maybe classical headz will be the last demographic to give up buying CDs just as they were pioneer adopters of the medium.

I would be surprised if at least some classical connoisseurs weren't going down the route of buying lossless HD digital 24+bit/192gazillion kHz recordings, and maybe even some active pirating/trading groups forming around those more expensive files

 

[0bleak]

What's wrong with this? There is nothing wrong with this.

As @Corpsey once wrote, "Being this guy is a particular form of paradise on earth, though."

It is funny though because, as someone who has bought and thumbed through thousands of CD liner notes over the decades, I'd never seen such detailed recordings specs before until stumbling upon this 1989 relic. It also makes me wonder if DDD recordings are still a big deal in classical music, and if not, how long that fascination lasted.

 

[0bleak]

then again, I guess a lot of the liner notes for stuff I've bought wouldn't make for very interesting reading... "we pressed some buttons and twiddled some knobs, mate"

 

[0bleak]

It just occurred to me that the equivalent in electronic music would be a list of synths and other hardware and/or software, and i've certainly seen that more than a few times.

 

[0bleak]

and to derail this read:
(insert "old man yells at cloud" pic)
I remembered earlier that 1989 is the name of a Taylor Swift album. I've never knowingly heard her music, jfc is this shit just so totally nondescript or what?
remember when pop had pizzazz?
she has a track named New Romantics supposedly inspired by the new romantics, and it's the least romantic thing i've ever heard (insert jokes)

 

[william_kent]

It is funny though because, as someone who has bought and thumbed through thousands of CD liner notes over the decades, I'd never seen such detailed recordings specs before until stumbling upon this 1989 relic. It also makes me wonder if DDD recordings are still a big deal in classical music, and if not, how long that fascination lasted.

this is funny because there was a scandal in 2022 in the "audiophile" community when it was discovered that Mobile Fidelity ( who sell extremely expensive audiophile vinyl ) were including a digital step in their supposedly 'one step' analogue remastering process

The Mobile Fidelity one step DSD controversy

 

[Mr. Tea]

I would be surprised if at least some classical connoisseurs weren't going down the route of buying lossless HD digital 24+bit/192gazillion kHz recordings, and maybe even some active pirating/trading groups forming around those more expensive files

With stuff like this, I never know A) how much you'd need to spend on hi-fi equipment for the difference between that and an ordinary CD or a top-quality MP3 to be detectable even in principle, and B) what percentage of us have ears good enough to be able to pick up that difference, even if we could afford the required super-duper equipment to play it on.

I mean the end point of all this nonsense is cables made of gold that incorporate allegedly "quantum" technology - these ones (used!) are a snip at 38 grand:

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