The Quest for Perfect Sound: The Myth of the CD and the Miracle of the LP

[Ron Resnick]

I consider this article by Edward Rothstein in The New Republic, published December 30, 1985, to be the most eloquent and passionate explication of high-end audio ever written. I have an original paper copy of the article but since it is so old I could never find it on the internet. I finally discovered the article in the on-line archives of The New Republic as individual photographed pages.

I post the pages of the article here in the hope that you find Rothstein's journey of discovery and fascination with our hobby as wondrous as I do.

 

[Ron Resnick]

 

[Ron Resnick]

 

[Ron Resnick]

 

[Ron Resnick]

 

[Ron Resnick]

 

[Ron Resnick]

 

[Ron Resnick]

 

[Ron Resnick]

 

[Ron Resnick]

 

[Ron Resnick]

 

[Ron Resnick]

 

[NorthStar]

I just finished reading the entire article. ...It reminded me the day before I just turned seven years old and got my first AM mono transistor radio from my grandma on that very special birthday into the world of audio, when it all started. ..That was April 1961. ...Then everything else just followed soon after; phono table, LP records, stereo speakers, 8-track tapes, radio shack cables, ...all that Beatles jazz.

 

[TBone]

thanks for the article ... got a kick out of the old adds.

 

[Al M.]

I consider this article by Edward Rothstein in The New Republic, published December 30, 1985, to be the most eloquent and passionate explication of high-end audio ever written. I have an original paper copy of the article but since it is so old I could never find it on the internet. I finally discovered the article in the on-line archives of The New Republic as individual photographed pages.

I post the pages of the article here in the hope that you find Rothstein's journey of discovery and fascination with our hobby as wondrous as I do.

Thank you, Ron, for posting this article. It was a fascinating read, not just because of the explication of high-end audio, but also because of the author's views on what seems the actual bottom-line topic of the article, "the myth of the CD and the miracle of the LP". I am wondering, do you believe that all the shortcomings of CD playback that the author mentions in this 1985 article, when the technology was in its infancy, still hold 30 years later, in 2015?

 

[es347]

Not Ron here but I'll answer for me. I have many cds purchased circa 1982 and most were pretty awful. Fast forward 30 yrs and the technology has come very long way. Of course the hi res stuff is way better, granted but I'm one of those nutcases that thinks he has some really really good Redbook cds. I have a very nice analog front end and enjoy listening to my LP collection. I primarily listen to digital because a) I'm not offended by the sonics and b) I like sitting in my listening chair without jumping up and down (two herniated/degenerated lumbar discs)...

 

[CGabriel]

Thanks for that Ron. It is good to be reminded of the history. Interesting that the arguments continue pretty much along the same divisions of perspective. What I find most relevant is that the CD was supposed to end the life of cassettes (not mentioned in the article) and vinyl. Today CDs continue to fall in sales and are nearing the end of their life span being replaced by iPods, downloads and music services. And yet the sales of records have increased every year for the last 5 years. The demand for records has outstripped our ability to produce them with aging rebuilt equipment from the 50s-70s. Who would have predicated that?

Even in its infancy, the author pointed out the great flaw of digital audio with all of its mathematical, technical and marketing driven superiority. It was the music itself - or rather the lack of musicality. Subjectively speaking of course.

So what was hailed as perfect has been refined year after year. How is it that we have managed to improve that which was perfect from the start? Utopian concepts. What is one of the meanings of the word utopian? Unobtainable?

I guess each of us just needs to recognize what is good enough for our own satisfaction. There will always be a constant progression of advancements and improvements. However, we should acknowledge that some old technologies still have something to teach until perfection is realized - again.

 

[jeromelang]

View attachment 21174

There are purists who believes that a telephone in a room with a system can affect its sound....

Ho Ho Ho, looks like I'm not the only person in the world who discovered that....

 

[CGabriel]

Ho Ho Ho, looks like I'm not the only person in the world who discovered that....

Hm, the phone did have a bell in it. And that would act as a secondary resonant radiator. Oh, wait a minute - aren't we putting those things on the walls now along with our wooden blocks?

 

[Ron Resnick]

Thank you, Ron, for posting this article. It was a fascinating read, not just because of the explication of high-end audio, but also because of the author's views on what seems the actual bottom-line topic of the article, "the myth of the CD and the miracle of the LP". I am wondering, do you believe that all the shortcomings of CD playback that the author mentions in this 1985 article, when the technology was in its infancy, still hold 30 years later, in 2015?

Dear Al,

I am delighted you enjoyed the article! I love the article more for the ride-along with the author as his passion for high-end audio blossoms, and for the eloquent statements he makes about our hobby such as "The High End is partly a Romance, a quest for something beyond the reach of any equipment. That quest means using technology to overcome itself, making itself invisible at the very moment of its greatest achievement," rather than for the analog versus digital debate.

To answer your question I state at the outset that I am almost wholly unqualified to answer your question. Because I believe for music reproduction in the theoretical superiority of a continuous analog waveform over any rate of digital sampling of that waveform, I have chosen to stick my head in the sand with respect to digital progress. As a perfectionist I would rather spend my time reaching for small improvements in analog playback (i.e., striving to achieve perfection, even with the increasing burden of diminishing returns) rather than perfecting a system which I believe is theoretically inherently inferior no matter how good it gets.

While I have not yet found myself engaged emotionally by music reproduced even by high quality DSD, I do think that DSD sounds good (and I have never heard 2XDSD or 4XDSD). I am completely making up a number here but maybe good DSD gets me to 80% or 90% of the best analog in terms of sound quality. But no digital playback I have ever heard (and, again, I readily stipulate that I have not made any effort to seek out the best digital playback) establishes for me the emotional connection with music which analog creates for me.