New decade, end of the CD?

Dean wrote: A little unfair (but funny). I have only ever praised his system, and that's without hearing it. I would give it  a fair listen.

Here's an honest question...how much does the playback system matter in "how good" something sounds in relation to the quality of the original mixing / mastering process on average.

Sure - probably. But once you own the NAD / B&W system, your opinion will be biased. If it is generally more powerful than your previous system and your room is reasonably big, chances are that it will sound better simply because you don't have to crank it up as much as the old one to reach the same volume, and you'll get more precision throughout and especially in the low frequencies. The problem is that whenever people upgrade their system, they don't really have the opportunity to do objective comparisons of single factors. Even if you just change the speaker cables, it takes some time to change them and you can't really switch back and forth while listening to the same recording. This makes it exceedingly difficult to assess without bias whether any given change really led to a significant improvement. Most audiophile enhancements, in my opinion, don't change the sound in any detectable way (except for the coloring effect of tubes) - so people are presented with a more expensive and impressive looking system that sounds just as good as the old one (objectively). Naturally, knowing that they a) spent a lot of time and money in the upgrade and b) it looks cool/impressive and c) it sounds awesome, they'll tend to become convinced that it really sounds better than before. It simply *must*, and the longer they think about it, the more convinced they become, as the brain tries to dissolve dissonance and re-align memories to make you feel more comfortable about your past decisions.

Edited by Mr ProgFreak - April 13 2011 at 11:05

Totally agree!! I am trying to be smart about my purchase decision. My current amp is an Onkyo Integra receiver with plenty of output power, its just 20yrs old. I have to assume that electronics have gotten better since then. I plan to get the speakers first, as I know that will "improve" the sound quickly. Then I can ponder having to save the money as I am looking at the NAD C356BEE, seems to have all that I am looking for.

^ Yes...also materials. I am in the forestry industry and high density fibreboard and even some medium density fibreboard is very, very stable....Works excellent as a speaker enclosure and also provides a low cost material to say solid hardwood lumber, which can have internal voids and naturally not consistant. Whereas HDF and MDF are very consistant throughout.

I dislike CDs and I don't really care much about album covers or the things typically written in liner notes.

Catcher10 wrote: Also the use of Kevlar in some mid/bass units sounds very nice, I would assume very durable too.

Kevlar is not new.

I agree that the death of the CD would be a tragedy. I mean, vinyl was great because you could immerse yourself in the whole experience of a purchase, study the cover, liner notes, booklets etc, it was part of the excitement as you listened to the music, and it was expected. Since the CD, album covers are downsized and art work nowhere near the quality, the size is miniscule and it takes away that mammoth art design and especially the poster size gatefold look. Admittedly CD booklets are wonderful and CDs sound better, without the annoying scratches. But just having a download is a very cold product, no art work and totally inferior packaging. I hope CDs last for many more years, and DVDs too for that matter. Of course that is wishful thinking.

^ Actually, I'll take that back - kevlar has been in use for speaker cones for a relatively long time. What I was thinking about in my post was speaker housings and geometries - those have been improved significantly from the 90s and onward, using more lightweight material which at the same time is more stable. I don't think that this involves kevlar - it's more the domain of special plastic.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: oliverstoned wrote: Catcher10 wrote: Also the use of Kevlar in some mid/bass units sounds very nice, I would assume very durable too. Kevlar is not new. I think it is - in this application. Can you point to affordable hi-fi speakers available in the 90s which used kevlar?

Yes, for example the Focal Profile 7 which is from 1993/1996 and costed less than 1000€/ pair at the time used a kevlar tweeter.

A good, neutral and dynamic speaker that i know well.



Edited by oliverstoned - April 14 2011 at 07:49