The Compact Disc is a format that is becoming extinct. Streaming is the mode of the moment; for a few euros a month, we have all the music (or almost all) we could ever imagine. Just connect your computer or cell phone to a good DAC and you have a convenient and inexpensive digital source. If you have a good CD collection, the ideal solution is to extract the tracks onto your computer, catalog them, and listen to them whenever you want thanks to a good DAC (which some modern amplifiers also have built in). So what is the point of spending money on a CD player today? For those who appreciate having a physical medium, the CD remains a source that can sound really good. Prices are very low, even though CDs are actually coming back into fashion and could become more expensive. But there’s more…
Author: Pasquale Robustini
I still play vinyl – should I also play poly?
The HiFi section of this site is called I Still Play Vinyl. But “vinyls”, turntables, tonearms and cartridges have now reached such absurd prices that it has become uneconomical. Perhaps I should update the title (or add to it) with I Still Play Poly(carbonate).
For a long time, the Compact Disc, a format considered almost dead, experienced a decline in sales and consequently in prices, making optical discs a good deal again! And I remember well when people complained about the price of CDs! Now they are coming back into fashion and prices will surely rise again.
One year with the Alfa 159
An Alfa Romeo is normally a choice made with the heart, not with reason. This theme was also used in an old Alfa Romeo advert. In fact even my choice was purely of the heart, if not for a few hints of rationality. Basically the question is: why buy such an old and in some ways polluting car? My first personal answer might be: because I was looking for an Alfa Romeo, not a car in general. There are also newer models like the Giulietta, but they were at least twice the price. So the obvious choice was an Alfa 159.
A guitar for my 60s
Non so come sia potuto succedere ma anche io sono arrivato in un battibaleno a 60 anni. Fa impressione solo scriverlo qui. Una bella età, nel senso che gli anni non sono pochi e per certi versi si sente; per altri non mi sembra di averli davvero. Sarà che continuo a strimpellare allegramente? Penso di sì, anche per quello. E forse perché ancora alimento i sogni, il sale della vita. Fin da giovanissimo ho sempre sognato di avere una Fender Stratocaster. Come è accaduto per molti, il mio idolo chitarrista ne utilizzava una ed è così che ho conosciuto il celebre modello di chitarra elettrica nato in California negli anni 50. La prima Stratocaster che ho avuto è stata una imitazione piuttosto economica, regalatami a 15 anni dai miei genitori. È tuttora il regalo più bello che io abbia mai ricevuto. La prima chitarra non si scorda mai e, sebbene fosse ridotta male, costruita con materiali di bassa qualità, fatta eccezione per gli ottimi pick-up della Di Marzio, ne ho un ricordo affezionatissimo e maledico il giorno in cui l’ho data via.
But am I even capable of appreciating the differences between various phono cartridges?
Here I go again. I had already written an article about the same excitement, on the wave of enthusiasm after the purchase of a new Grado Prestige Blue 3. I was delighted to be back listening to records with a Grado cartridge, not least because I love their philosophy of doing business and their history; their cartridges are still hand-assembled in a Brooklyn workshop using 50-70s instruments and watchmaker’s tools. The reality is that I came to resell the Blue 3 because, sadly, I just didn’t like the sound of it. Did I set it up wrong? But my Shure M97HE sounds great. Had something changed in my taste? Was my memory of a nice Grado sound linked to the use of the prestigious 8MZ stylus that I then stupidly damaged? Or am I unable to discern?
The klon wars
The world is strange, people are crazy, and the extent to which this is true can sometimes be seen in market dynamics. I am by no means an economist, but as a buyer and sometimes seller of electronics, be it hi-fi or guitar electronics, I realise how sometimes it gets to the point of sheer madness. Now, allow the guitar that had once belonged to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton or David Gilmour; the fetishism in this field can almost be understood, just as one can understand the desire of an enthusiast who also has considerable financial means to own an instrument that had once belonged to a music legend. Even if vintage guitars cost as much as a good new car of a certain level (indeed, vintage cars themselves can cost impressive sums of money), it’s fine… those who have so much money they don’t know what to do with it will invest in such purchases. But what I have seen happen within a few years before my eyes with a simple guitar pedal effect is surreal. Guitarists know what I’m talking about, others don’t (but who’s going to read me anyway): meet the Klon Centaur!