09-16-2011, 03:01 PM
freeradical wrote:
[quote=N-OS X-tasy!]
[quote=macphanatic]
Dire Straits first CD. I believe it was the first CD that was completely digital as opposed to analog recording converted to digital.
That wasn't their first CD - that was Brothers in Arms. It set the early standard for what a recording on CD could achieve.
Dire Straits first album was vinyl, and definitely analog, so any CD would have to be AAD.
There were vinyl albums back in the late 70's where the master tape was digital; they were primarily classical recordings on Deutsche Gramophone etc.
I have a vinyl copy of Ry Cooder's "Bop till you Drop". This was the first digitally recorded pop album. It sounds far better than the CD's that followed. Sadly, when CD's became popular, the standard for digitizing music went down. I remember how horrible Stevie Ray Vaughn's album "In Step" sounded. :barf:
The poster child for shitty sound on a CD was always The Police's Synchronicity, a weaksauce, virtual screechfest compared to the LP.
The music labels, Sony's "Perfect Sound Forever" ad campaign and audio magazines who should have known better all lied to us with nonstop hype, instead of revealing how good LPs could sound with a little effort. But each had agendas to sell instead.
Thankfully, CDs and players have become much better over the years. But 16/44 files' time has long since past being a standard to strive for, and so many years of subpar sound quality paved the way for the public's acceptance of even worse sound later from lossy files. Don't get me started.