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Author Topic: Let's talk lo-fi music and it's influences on gear  (Read 2433 times)

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drfindley

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Re: Let's talk lo-fi music and it's influences on gear
« Reply #10 on: July 09, 2015, 11:34:06 PM »

I've got their Just Like the Fambly Cat CD, but somehow it hadn't captured me.
A rather lackluster album, really. Try The Software Slump or Sumday. Under the Western Freeway is great as well, but quite a bit more uneven.

I picked up just recently Jack White's 2 latest solo efforts, Blunderbuss and Lazaretto; one of the reasons being he insists on recording in analog.  But neither of those have yet done it for me, either.
Both of those are good, but not great. Try The White Stripes - Elephant or The White Stripes - De Stigjl. Both are better (as is the whole White Stripes catalog).

Are my expectations getting too unreasonable in me old age, you suppose? 
Nah, you've just picked up the later albums when they've ran out of creative juices.

Just pulled the trigger on Carrie & Lowell, so I'm now spun up about that...  ;)
Excellent. Enjoy! It's delicate and lovely and sad and understanding and all grown up.
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maverickronin

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Re: Let's talk lo-fi music and it's influences on gear
« Reply #11 on: July 10, 2015, 12:00:42 AM »

A couple of months ago, I wanted to listen to the first recorded Mahler symphony (the 2d, conducted by Oskar Fried in 1928). The quality is abysmal--hiss like you wouldn't believe. I couldn't bear it on Paradox or HD600. But I could easily tolerate it on my lady's PM1 with the velour pads. Resolution, FR, X factor, all of the above? Dunno.

I'd say that kind of hiss would qualify as egregious, though entirely understandable for 1928!

If you're a big "analog" fan then you might want to carve out a separate category for that but I grew up knowing that everything's already quantized anyway so it never held much attraction.
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anetode

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Re: Let's talk lo-fi music and it's influences on gear
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2015, 01:23:50 AM »

A couple of months ago, I wanted to listen to the first recorded Mahler symphony (the 2d, conducted by Oskar Fried in 1928). The quality is abysmal--hiss like you wouldn't believe. I couldn't bear it on Paradox or HD600. But I could easily tolerate it on my lady's PM1 with the velour pads. Resolution, FR, X factor, all of the above? Dunno.

Paradox and hiss don't make a good combo.

I can see liking a forgiving smoothed-over ortho like the Oppo or Audeze with lo-fi. Definitely stay away from anything with spiky treble. I like the Stax Omegas (007/009) with lo-fi recordings, both have a revealing but slightly forgiving quality, with 009 for a slightly more neutral sound or the 007 for a more mello approach.
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drfindley

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Re: Let's talk lo-fi music and it's influences on gear
« Reply #13 on: July 10, 2015, 01:42:29 AM »

I can see liking a forgiving smoothed-over ortho like the Oppo or Audeze with lo-fi. Definitely stay away from anything with spiky treble. I like the Stax Omegas (007/009) with lo-fi recordings, both have a revealing but slightly forgiving quality, with 009 for a slightly more neutral sound or the 007 for a more mello approach.

Nothing quite like the HE-1K to soften that lo-fi sound :)
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Sphinxvc

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Re: Let's talk lo-fi music and it's influences on gear
« Reply #14 on: July 10, 2015, 05:08:12 AM »

Good topic.  Lo-fi probably includes streaming services like Pandora, or compressed, but convenient file formats like MP3.  If lo-fi is your primary diet, why invest in uber-gear?  But unfortunately, I don't think that means anything will do in terms of gear.  Most of what's on the market falls below the bar for passable gear, even for lo-fi listening.  My ears ask for a smooth FR, and on the IEM front, single drivers rather than multi-drivers.  Maybe that's because I hear the cross-over easier with shit quality music?  Simple sources seem to work better too.
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maverickronin

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Re: Let's talk lo-fi music and it's influences on gear
« Reply #15 on: July 10, 2015, 01:57:49 PM »

Good topic.  Lo-fi probably includes streaming services like Pandora, or compressed, but convenient file formats like MP3.

Recording and mastering quality is a far bigger factor in SQ than any modern lossy codec at a half decent bitrate.
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keanex

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Re: Let's talk lo-fi music and it's influences on gear
« Reply #16 on: July 10, 2015, 04:01:00 PM »

Recording and mastering quality is a far bigger factor in SQ than any modern lossy codec at a half decent bitrate.
I agree with this as well. Also when I mention lo-fi I meant from a recording perspective, not a format perspective. I assume that most of us are using flac or at least a transparent/nearly so lossy bit rate.
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jacal01

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Re: Let's talk lo-fi music and it's influences on gear
« Reply #17 on: July 10, 2015, 05:13:02 PM »

You guys are confusing lo-fi music with mid-fi playback equipment.  Lo-fi can actually be quite complex in transition and overlay, and any deliberate distortion is there for effect, sometimes haunting, which can be diminished in playback if not faithfully reproduced.  I for one don't wish to compromise the musical fidelity by using less than stellar audio gear.  But that's me, and I freely admit to being a resolution whore.

@drfindley:
The problem I'm having with those album releases is that those CDs (all but De Stigjl) are being held in "joint custody" by my daughter (comes from my having sent my CD purchases to her for ostensively forwarding to me while I was living in Canada - long story).  Anyway, I'm kinda loathe to buy those particular CDs again, unless there's been a noteworthy remastering since then or I've really started missing hearing that album, so I tend to buy other releases by those groups subsequently, and it's been an admittedly hit or miss affair.   
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mosshorn

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Re: Let's talk lo-fi music and it's influences on gear
« Reply #18 on: July 10, 2015, 06:50:29 PM »

Good example: with my Herus+ and UERM's, I can listen to Dinosaur Jr., but not Breaking Benjamin. Lo-fi can still be good quality. Also  no matter how hard we try, if the artist/engineer intended for us to listen to it a certain way, there is nothing we can do short of working on the tracks ourselves. See "St. Anger" by Metallica.
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Sphinxvc

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Re: Let's talk lo-fi music and it's influences on gear
« Reply #19 on: July 10, 2015, 08:43:58 PM »

Recording and mastering quality is a far bigger factor in SQ than any modern lossy codec at a half decent bitrate.

Well and true.  I stretched the lo-fi label to fit over lossy streaming/formats (with room to spare), mostly since it's relevant to my own considerations with gear.

I feel like there's greater prevalence of the lossy issue.

I assume that most of us are using flac or at least a transparent/nearly so lossy bit rate.

Very likely.  Your first post really resonated with me, but from a different starting point. 

--

Edit: Lol, maybe I did stretch it too far.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo-fi_music
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