Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Death of High Fidelity

[Scott Saidel (Ferrarisimo]

Sad but true - when we are working in the new studio (www.hellaphantrecords.com 
) we initially listen and set levels listening through decent  
monitors, but we usually do the final mixdown using standard iPod  
headphones, since most people are going to be listening to it that  
way.  It makes a huge difference in how you set the compression levels  
and how you set-up the spatiality of the soundstage.

For my own "at home" listening, I am sticking to the old-school rig  
for the most part (and listening to unremastered original CD  
recordings) -

Cinepro PowerPro 20 power conditioner
Cary CD 303/200 CD Player
Outlaw ICBM Crossover
Cary CAD-805c Amplifiers (open ended triode tubes)
MIT TubeTerminator Speaker Cables
MIT Output Terminator Interconnects
Miller and Kreisel S100B satellites
Miller and Kreisel MK125ii sub-woofer

Apple iBook G4 / Seagate 1tb harddrive / AirPort Express / Intech  
optical digital to AC3 converter

I recently connected the old laptop as a iTunes server.  I use the  
laptop as a selection device and use a new AirPort Express to feed a  
direct, optical, digital signal off my network (where I have 18,000 /  
265 Mb of music on iTunes - mostly in Apple Lossless format) into the  
digital input for the Cary CD player and use it's D/A decoder.

I can also access the music on the iTunes harddrive from my everyday  
Macbook and stream it to the rig in the Studio / Theatre (Sony ES  
E9000ES Preamplifier / N9000ES Amplifier) and the stereo in my bedroom  
(1967 Fisher Receiver - all tube front and back end), although in the  
bedroom I had to "settle" for the stereo analog output from the  
AirPort Express

No noticeable loss in sound quality vs. direct playback from a CD.    
Although, before I had the dedicated computer, I would occasionally  
lose the data stream and get "drop-outs" in the playback when I was  
playing iTunes and working on the computer at the same time.

I am in the process of backing up my existing CD collection to DVDs  
and selling off the original CDs while they still have some value.  At  
least, the stuff that is not exceptional or rare.

Scottie





On Mar 2, 2009, at 1:00 PM, Fellippe Galletta wrote:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidelity/

If I could spend 5 minutes with Obama, I'd ask him to CHANGE this.

:)

FG