Comments on: The 30-year-old iPod?

iPods are disposable tech, high-end audio lasts a long, long time. The Audiophiliac ponders why more folks don't buy for the long haul.

[hifitommy]

pulllleeeeeese! you obviously have no clue. and probably dont have a decent system with which to make a judgement. mine can be seen here:

http://cgi.audioasylum.com/systems/588.html

i am heavily invested in formats, vinyl, cd, sacd, cassette, and open reel tape. vinyl simply give you back more of the original sound and feel of the recorded event.

i will agree that a decent sound can be had from a $100 cdp and not from a $100 TT. double that and things begin to turn around, and the more you spend on either, the vinyl will sound better at the same price. and the gap gets wider as the price ascends.

money is not the main factor. great sound can be made for moderate amounts of money. setup can contribute greatly to the result.

one big advantage of vinyl is that you can still buy albums for a buck or two. used CDs are rarely less than $6. many more mistakes in choice can be made at that price thereby broadening your rate of musical growth.

all that said, great sound can come from rbcd (standard redbook cd) if a decent sounding player is used. most players capable of sacd playback will upsample the digital signal and that results in smoother, better sound.

...regards...hifitommy

[firedrakeseqoa]

lp are still great. thu i do rarely get cds now seeing price point for a album is crap. it really up to the buyer one what he wants. hell now you see tv that have sd ports! thats telling you something one where the market is going.

[stalepie2]

Loved your work in "Short Circuit"!

[burnout44129]

I'm only 19 years old and I have my own "music room/ studio" and it is kinda surprising to hear sumone like me say this but... I can't stand c.d.s and mp3's, I do suppose they are better while on the move but no matter how well you take care of you're media,vinyl will outlast it... when I'm dead and in the ground my great grandkids would still be able to listen to my vinyls it doesn't stop with music either, videogame systems are absolute crap !!! I still play my intellivision and collecovision ( had to sotter some wires for the power button on the collecovision ) and they still work fine NO COMPLAINTS while companies like microsoft release so called next-gen systems that have a failure rate of over 30 % I purchased an xbox 360 and exactly 3 days after the warranty ran out it took a crap on me !!! thankffully the particular issue was covered by an extended warranty... HOWEVER 2 weeks after I received my BRAND-NEW one it was broken just wizzing off $100 for something "next-gen" it's absurd

[VineeleeniV]

As long as you have a reasonable gap between iPods (or other music player purchases) and/or buy the cheaper iPods (i.e. nanos), yes it is cheaper. You refer to dollar amounts and forget something incredibly obvious: that money could've been invested. I bought a $350 iPod in 2002 and got a new $200 nano in 2006, 4 years later. Assuming an average 7% return on that 850 I saved by not getting that expensive machine, I calculated I could get a new $200 ipod every four years and my $850 principal would still be getting larger.

So to answer your question, if you don't notice/don't care about the sound difference between LP and mp3, the way it is for most people, I imagine, then you are financially better off not buying more expensive, but more durable high-end audio systems.

[ekp62]

I bought my no-name turntable in November, 1981. I think I paid about $125 for it along with a receiver and dual cassette deck. All of the components still work great, and I use them frequently.

[mishmash04]

I think we need to take a pause and look at the utility of each thing. The ipod is a convienient way of listening to music - you couldnt take a turntable to the treadmill!! But when you have the moment and the passion and want to put your legs up and listen to "sweet and warm" music you could play your turntable the way I do.

So lets learn to co-exist with many things at the same time.

The one thing though is the need to focus on re-use and recycling. Is there a way of reusing the many digital devices rather than causing electronic garbage across the world? There sure are ways - but the digital citizen of the earth does'nt seem to care now.

mishmash

[edhidemiya]

Well I have an Denon DP-1.200 it was made in the end of 1977 here in Japan (I beat your friend's one ), still working and i use it almost everyday , one detail it is older than me.

About the iPods me and my fiance together , we had 5 in the last 6 years , all been replaced because an HDD or battery problem, and if a put the costs of all of the iPods together , i maybe could by a decent and new record player today (But my Denon wants to work for more 30 years)

About the fight between records and CD's i have an simple rule:

-If the original music is recoded and mixed the analogue way ,(AA) i take the record

-If was recorded in analogue but mixed the digital way ,(AD) Still i take the record but also i can take the CD if i don't find it on the primary source.

-But it it was digitally recorded and mixed digitally (DD or DDD for CD's) i will take the CD, super Audio CD and DVD Audio (but were you can find the last 2 sources and it has only a few titles available)

And re-mixed music from the 60's and 70's , on an CD format , really sounds bad in my opinion, you lose all the details.

And about my system is also mixed the pre amp uses transistor (because it is an AV receiver) the denon AVP-A1HDCI(A) but here in Japan the model code is different and it is in gold color.

But for power up the 2 main speakers main left and right i use a Mcintosh VACUUM TUBE power amp the MC2102.

The other channels i don't really think an vacuum tube power you make a big difference for that reason
i use an transistor power amplifier the Rotel RMB-1565, after all i just use these channels for a 5.1 DVD/LD , 7.1 Blue Ray disc , some super audio CDs and Some DVD audio.

And 90% of the time i use my system in stereo mode for music "pure direct mode" on the receiver with the Mcintosh tube power amp just make my day perfect does not matter the Audio source , i just follow my rules.....

The speakers are old but all B&W total 7 speakers and 2 subwoofers, in will not take my time moving then just to get the model , they are from my first AV setup almost 13 years ago with an Yamaha DSP-A3090 receiver , the main speakers are an big large towers.

The rest of the Digital sound components the DVD, CD, MD, DAT, DCC, LD, Mac Mini and PS3 they are not the top of line models, why?

Because the denon AVP-A1HDCI(A) and even the old Yamaha has a great D/A built in convertor , all the components are connected in the receiver via coaxial or optical fiber cables , this mean I'm using all that sources components as a transport , why i will spend a lot of money on a high end CD player for example, just to use it as a transport , and also I'm saving a lot of money on cables doing this way , you can not get any kind of interference on the optical cables, even the coaxial you don't get it .

The only expensive cables on my set up is the one in the record player and the speakers ones also the cables between the AV receiver to the power Amps because they are using analogue signal.

In the end i believe i have an low cost high-end set up , and believe me the Denon do an miracle when playing records and other stereo sources , he sounds great than any stereo pre amp, maybe better , because I'm not losing audio quality between the components with digital out out , because it is converted to analogue on the Denon, and plus i have a home theater , the video upscaling on this receiver is also amazing, the old LD's they look great, and they sounds better than the DVD, because the audio is not compressed , and for live concerts LD's the Dolby PIIx in music mode , do a decent job simulating an 7.1 multi-channel just close to the dolby digital or DTS on the DVD, but still is not the same for the surround feelings on the LD but is good enough for me..

We are in the 21 century , from now everything is digital, but still your ears will just hear analogue signals , for that reason is good to mix the old with the new , and i really love the vinyl sounds quality for old music.... by my simple rules... digital and analogue can live in harmony.......

[darynray]

My brother bought a Technics SL - 10 linear tracking turntable in the mid 70's and I swear that if you put it on a store shelf today it wouldn't look out of place. I remember watching it & thinking now that's cool!!
Seemed to me it weighed about 50 lbs. I know he still has the turntable and lots of LP's & 45's from the 50's - 80's which is around the time he put everything into storage. After reading the many passionate comments on here I think I'll ask him if I can hook his SL - 10 up to his Sansui 7900Z receiver and his SP-3500 Sansui speakers with the beautiful curved lattice grills ( all in storage ) Then I can do my own actual side by side comparison versus my modern gear & CD's. I gave away my small vinyl collection after buying my first CD player which of course I now regret. I haven't listen enough to make a comment either way ( Vinyl or CD ) but I do look forward to seeing if I can try out my brothers turntable & records. My best recollection of listening to vinyl records would have been around 6th grade. There was a girl
I was infactuated with. " Susy Darling" I think her name was, who had a player but not many records.
I remember having a bike with a banana seat & sissy bar and loading my brothers 45's on each of the ape hanger handle bars until I could hardly steer. I know, probably not the best way to transport them. No wonder he beat me up alot. " Oh, Susy darling .................... I thought that you knew ............................
you were all the world to me ........................ all my dreams come true " ........................................................