JoeH
30 August 2009
You may not have heard of it (and I have no connection whatsoever to the author or the publisher) but there's a very good new book out there, written by Greg Milner, entitled: "Perfecting Sound Forever". (It's a play on the Sony/Philpis sales pitch for CDs when they were first introducted: "Perfect Sound Forever")
From Edison to MP3s, acoustic, analog and digital realms fully explained and explored, without taking sides (well, not TOO much anyway).
It's a good read; very highly recommended reading for anyone who has an interest in recorded sound; how we got where we are today, and where we MIGHT be heading. I couldn't put it down, and read it in a couple of days; a real page-turner for audio nerds. 8-)
Comments
But Joe, you remember back in the late 1970s, throughout the 198
But Joe, you remember back in the late 1970s, throughout the 1980s, we had a problem with " sticky tape". Those chemical engineers and all others supposedly tested their tape stock under "tropical conditions" and we were told they would last 100 years. As we all now know, they didn't last 10 Not from any of the manufacturers. So I would take this all with a grain of salt. Who is going to be able to play back a homemade CD or DVD 50 years from now? What about 10 years from now? I have less confidence than I have ever hand from our supersmart intelligent engineering community. They have proved to me that their R&D efforts which come into the "theory versus practice" highly flawed. It is us who really have to deem what is good and what is marketing hype fueled by greed. And we won't know the results for years to come. That's unfortunate for most people reading this. Yes, the EPA has a purpose but not when it comes to ruining our history. My analog tape from the fifties, sixties & seventies still play. I can't say the same about my tapes from 1978 on. Those are all screwed, glued which puts me in a bad mood. Baking? They gave me that instead of broadcasting in 1970 in high school. I have to do Windows but I don't cook much. Marinara sauce on recording tape is just not very tasty. Both are flawed formats and fake nutrition.
What will I be listening to 20 years from now?
Mx. Remy Ann David