This is just glorious. I think we can now safely say that the whole analog sounds better than digital debate has completely lost it. Bigtime.
As an audio dilletante I am truly amazed at the lengths that some people will go to. Check out True Track Recording – Tape Mastering
I quote from the prospectus…
“We operate a especially clean sounding ½ inch Studer stereo master machine composed from parts of the MK-II to MK-IV series. The unit has been greatly modified for the best sound possible, i. e. the entire audio section has been widely improved and brought to the newest standards. The old and limited frequency response is history and has been replaced by a wide and open frequency response, with an almost unbelivable quickness and transparency, yet steadily providing the beloved tape-sound”.
So folks here is the deal, you spend an obscene amount of money buying or hiring the best mics, mixers, analog to digital convertors, digital audio workstations, amplifiers, mastering rooms and when you finally have the master CD, it is as clean and noise free as money can make it. So to improve it that final bit you ship it to Europe so that True Track can put some very expensive musical noise by recording it on the really spiffy OLD Studer recorder and Quantegy GP9 tape (what no Ampex 456?) , they then play the recording back into Lavry Blue and Gold AD-DA converters, as well as the shortest possible cable paths of extremly high quality – Silver/Gold Mundorf NF cable and Sommer Cable Epiloge and then ship it back to you.
This makes your carefully crafted music sound like the Beatles did 40 years ago and I’m sorry but this is outrageous, absolutely outrageous!
I’ve been hearing rumours ( No, not the Fleetwood Mac album of the same name… although it was probably recorded on a rig not dissimilar to the machine above… but I digress) about this “dreaded” transistor thingy, and I’m simply outraged!
Where will it all end?
Everyone knows that if your valves (see picture) aren’t made from hand blown glass by Dale Chihuly himself (I’m sorry but the minions just wont do for this), laden with gold leaf and inconceivably scarce chromium plated antimony wire constructed in a staggering achievement of sculptural imagination and your resistors aren’t wound from the hair of angels by Jeff Koons’ secret Swiss sweatshop (they do puppy cloning on the side), well you’re just kidding yourself.
But seriously folks, I’m sure the sound of the cash register turning over and over, sounds awesome. I await the Apple iPod with dual valve output stage in breathless anticipation. The valve should really put a ding in the battery life but it will sound better… somehow.