I really enjoyed your "Hearing
Voices" piece [Features, Feb. 2003]. Very poignant. Two summers ago, my
grandfather was attending the yearly family reunion, despite his poor health. My mother
brought a tape recorder and had him tell stories. He told familiar stories, stories of his
childhood, and told about the places they were driving through like Henefer, Utah, where
he grew up. Gran'pa died about two months later. The set of tapes Mom made are priceless.
She made copies for each of her siblings. His pictures are still on the shelf, and it's
nice to have recordings of his sturdy, old voice, too. It's funny how I remember him
when I see pictures, yet how I start to miss him when I hear his voice.
...Wyatt Brockbank
Having just read your dissertation
on vinyl [Audio, Jan. 2003], I am perplexed by your arguments. You imply the reason
that CDs were able to replace LPs was not that CDs are a superior-sounding product.
In fact your own statements give some credence to vinyl being superior -- CDs replaced
vinyl not because they were inherently superior to vinyl but rather that they were
superior to vinyl in the mass market. CDs do sound better than any all-in-one jobbie with
-- God forbid -- a record changer. Then came CDs -- damn things were idiot-proof;
convenient; and, compared to that cheap player, excellent sounding. So to the masses it
was superior. But as you yourself point out in your article, the high end seems to be
stuck on the idea that vinyl is superior.
Those people to whom the absolute best-sound possible is a
passion, people to whom listening is acute, people who have studied good/great sound will
say vinyl is superior. This is why you are hearing about the return of vinyl. It may
become the big number-two format again.
...Mark Dunnweber
Under the absolute best conditions, a vinyl LP can be a
match for a CD in terms of frequency response, dynamic range, and so forth. But those
conditions were rarely met, and even if they were, LPs were still prone to surface noise,
warping, and all the other gremlins that bedeviled the format. Even the cheapest of CD
players can match that performance without special attention, so in that sense, the CD is
superior.
And forget it -- vinyl is not coming back in any
big way. The record companies killed it, and they are determined to make sure it stays
dead.
...Ian G. Masters
I stumbled on your web page when I typed your name in a
search engine. It's refreshing to find a website with more of your writings. I truly miss
the old days of Sound & Vision (Canada), when I could find an audio publication
free from the true-believer ideology, heavy editorialization, and fluffy product reviews.
It remains the only audio publication that I could accept at face value without
questioning the credibility of the material. I enjoyed the clarity of the articles, the
brevity of its reviews, and its willingness to choose reason and experimentation over
conjecture. I'm glad you still continue the tradition with your MastersOnAudio.com site.
Just out of curiosity, whatever happened to some of those
other contributors, such as Larry Klein, Ed Foster, and Alan Lofft? I'm sure other readers
would be interested as well.
...Daniel Ho
Thanks. We were proud of the old mag (no relation to the
current U.S. publication of the same title, in which I also write a column).
My masthead-mates are mostly still around. Larry Klein,
Daniel Kumin, Brad Meyer and Tom Nousaine all appear frequently in U.S. audio
publications. Floyd Toole is head technical honcho at Harman International in California.
Robert Angus and Edward J. Foster are both retired, Bob in Connecticut, Ed in Florida.
Alan Lofft, the magazine's long-time editor, was senior editor for Audio magazine
from the time he left S&V until Audio ceased publication a couple of
years ago. He's now dispensing his expertise online, on behalf of Axiom Loudspeakers, and
can be reached through their website.
...Ian G. Masters
I have an older Montgomery Ward color TV. I accidentally
dropped the remote control and entered some type of factory setup menu on the TV and have
since then lost our sound (it plays very quietly) and ability to control the sound.
Otherwise, the set works well and all other functions work well. It is a good TV and seems
a shame to have to replace it.
...Mike Latusick
It's difficult with those department-store sets, because
nobody at the store will likely be able to help you, and it will probably be impossible
for you to find out who actually made the set. If the problem is that you accidentally
bumped some sort of "reset" button, there should be some way to undo that
through trial and error. If something broke inside the remote, however, you may not be
able to do anything about it.
One thing you might try is a third-party universal remote
that may work where the original one no longer does. You'll probably have to do some
experimentation to get it to work with your set. One by one, punch in the various
manufacturer codes (from the remote's manual), and hit the power button each time. If you
find one that turns the set on (or off) go with that.
...Ian G. Masters
I want to make copies of a family video to send to some
relatives in Australia (I am in the U.K.), and want to know if the number of heads on a
VCR makes any difference to the copied tape. My VCR is a six-head one and I was going to
borrow a friend's which has only two heads, to carry out the copying process. Will the
picture quality be as good as it would be if I used a better quality VCR? There is a
six-head VCR on offer in a local store half price and I am tempted to buy this if it will
improve the quality of the copies I want to send to my relatives.
...Martin
The different heads are mostly important for playing
rather than recording, so if you make sure to dub from the six-head to the two-head
machine, you should end up with the best tapes. That's a generalization, however -- I'd
try it both ways and see which looks best.
...Ian G. Masters
How long can I expect my VHS Hi-Fi recorded tapes to last
and will my SVHS tapes last longer?
...Christopher Lewis
The format in which you record your tapes has very
little to do with their longevity. Some tapes deteriorate over time, others do not -- I
have lots of tapes from the '70s that play just fine. On the other hand, there are stories
of particular batches of tape becoming unusable after some years. This doesn't occur
predictably with just certain brands, so if your tapes are precious, I'd back them up on
other brands of cassette.
...Ian G. Masters
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