It makes sense to me. But I am a little sceptical of the source of Stevie Wonder digital sources from this era. Often they claim to be from the master tapes. That's quite problematic as Stevie keeps the original master tapes at home.PaulC wrote: ↑2020-08-21 20:12 The Karousel deck sounded more cohesive to me. It's a point when I stop paying attention to the parts and just experience the whole. I didn't have that experience with the Valhalla deck.
I've been thinking though that something is not strictly right with our use of recordings of audio playback as a means to determining which component is better than another in a HiFi system. Here's my reasoning, and feel free to smash it apart, because I am not completely sure of my logic:
I listened to your uploads, both being digitally streamed recordings of audio playback of a Stevie Wonder track on your HiFi. For this 'listening test' I listened through 'speaker A' on 'computer B' using 'browser C'. After listening to your uploads I then opened Tidal in browser C and listened through speaker A on computer B to the audio playback of the same track (I am assuming it is the same recording of that track). Guess what? Your recordings were more enjoyable to listen to! Now, in the context of using a comparison to determine which HiFi component is better than another, this outcome is highly problematic. This is because if we are attempting to determine which of your recordings gives the most faithful playback (which I am assuming is what we are trying to ascertain) then surely listening to the actual track through Speaker A on computer B using browser C ought to give a more faithful reproduction of that track than listening to a recording of the audio playback of that track through Speaker A on computer B using browser C? This because the recording of the audio playback of that track has added an extra step to the audio reproduction. If the recordings of the audio playback of that track are more enjoyable to listen to, one can therefore only conclude that it is not because the music is being more faithfully reproduced, but rather, because the recordings have added artefacts that make the audio sound more enjoyable to us. In other words, what is being experienced as 'better' cannot have anything to do with faithful reproduction of the recorded track.
Perhaps my logic is flawed. Enthusiasts on the forum, please let me know what you think.
As evidenced by the YouTube clip Beck referenced there's a magic in the best vinyl reproductions that's hard to replicate in digital. I love my digital servers and players but that YouTube video was pretty convincing. And with Stevie Wonder I've not heard a digital copy that sounds as great as the analogue vinyl. Charlie1's clips allow me to hear the magic from the record.