AV Rant #271: Slow Clap for Sony
Welcome Liz back. We’ve got a couple of things on the horizon including a potential interview with a film director and a guest spot for Tom on another podcast. This week, lots of listener questions/comments from Jason, Grant, Alex, and John. Whitney Houston passes and Sony…well, you can read about it here. Class act that company. How iTunes Match is making artists money…but is it enough? More on iTunes quality including compression and download policy. There is a new super tweeter in town, and it is totally cute…in a terrifying way. Onkyo’s new line of budget receivers is out and Tom is not very impressed. Tom is in love with Alan Parsons. Read his remarkably sane interview here. Who shot first? George weighs in. Thanks for listening and don’t forget to vote for us at Podcast Alley! To see our (mostly) complete collection of show videos, click here. Download Tom’s FREE ebook Bob Moore: No Hero which is pretty much available everywhere. You can also check out Tom’s new book, Bob Moore: Desperate Times on Amazon,iTunes, Nook, and pretty much everywhere else. Friend Tom and Liz on Google+ to join in on one of our hangouts.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
iTunes Match is $25 per year, not month. My whole collection is ripped lossless onto a Mac Mini hooked to my main A/V system. With iTunes Match, every bit of it is available at 256kbps on all of our computers and iDevices. At $25 per year, it’s an absolute no brainer.
Yeah, I was informed. I misread that. $25 a year really is a no-brainer.
Twice in the past month or so, it’s been mentioned on the podcast that Adele’s recordings are of good quality. I like her songs and love her voice. The studio recordings themselves are of high quality, with no clipping that I can hear. That being said, I cannot get to the fourth song on 21 without turning it off. Ever.
The dynamic range is compressed and the peaks are limited and overwhelmingly irritating to my ears. Listening to the same songs on Live at Royal Albert Hall is completely different and pretty wonderful. So now I am rounding up as much of her live material as possible so I can enjoy her talent.
The recording industry is destroying its sound. Seems they really think that this type of recording sounds better on ear buds. I just don’t get it.
I really think they are recording it directly for radio. I maintain that the dynamic range compression is needed for radio but should be performed at the station and not in the mastering room. More on this on this week’s podcast.
Since they’ve been able to implement dynamic range compression in the form of night modes on receivers for years, I’d think they could have a setting for it on all devices, including iPods, phones, and car audio equipment. You can always compress dynamic range after the fact, but you can’t get it back once it’s baked into the final product.