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I'm planning on replacing the stereo and speakers in one of my cars, and was hoping to go to some stores where I could listen to various speakers. Anyone have any suggestions other than Best Buy?
Originally posted by Clamato: I hope it isn't the new acquisition. That car was meant to be original. Don't mess with it, my man.
Yep - the new old car.
Right now it has an 80s POS in it. I could either spend big bux on a rebuilt original, or there are a couple of older looking options. In either case, I'll need new speakers.
And I agree, the engine makes some mighty purty music!
Listening to the speakers in a store will not sound anything like when they are installed in your car- Crutchfield has the best tech advice I have found.
Originally posted by Biostitute: Listening to the speakers in a store will not sound anything like when they are installed in your car- Crutchfield has the best tech advice I have found.
Thanks. It is quite a quandry, tho, isn't it? Trying to figure out what will sound the best to YOU personally?
Spoke to Crutchfield once - may give them another call.
I know you're joking but there is a big battle going on among recording engineers who are being forced to dummy down the audio quality of their product so it sounds good on a crappy Ipod amp vs the rest of us that would like to hear the full fidelity of the recording. For some reason I resurrected my old turntable, bought a new cartridge and the vinyl (analog) version of Dark Side of the Moon (which Pink Floyd faithfully still puts out). Good God what a difference from the cd version. Really surprised me as I forgot how "warm" vinyl can sound. Plus when I play my vinyl records that I saved- unless they are really worn your brain ignores a little hiss and pop. That surprised me also as I bought into the "clean" sound advertised about cd's.
Many years ago I found myself in a high-end recording studio in New York City. Best of the best. Huge speakers configured for “Quad” sound. Incredible sound.
On top of the mixing console, dead center, was a little box with a single little 3˝ speaker in it.
When I asked the engineer what that was for, he said, “AM radio.” Everything they mixed had to be given one final listen-to to hear what it would sound like on the crappy little transistor radios of the day.
Posts: 1342 | Location: Glen Ellyn, IL USA | Registered: March 21, 2003
That's interesting that the same stuff was going on back then. Maybe after that it was the advent of stereo radio and "high fidelity" that the recording engineers got to do what they were best at?
And if you want to listen to headphones use a headphone amp like headroom- bid difference.
45s were mono (as was AM radio). Stereo 45s were pressed, but only for use in jukeboxes.
Quad was kewl... four discrete sets of amps and speakers... you sat in the middle, as if you were in the center of the band orchestra. A four-piece band would put each instrument into its own speaker. Best played over 4-track reel-to-reel tape, which never really caught on.
Stereo as we know it (and surround sound) followed... much more “natural.”
Ver wierd. Strangely unnatural.
Posts: 1342 | Location: Glen Ellyn, IL USA | Registered: March 21, 2003
A few years ago the Grateful Dead resurrected an old, badly recorded live concert where the phasing/mics were off (go figure) leaving what at the time was a useless gibberish recording. Using modern tech they were able to triangulate the sound between the instruments and mics literally figuring out where each musician stood on stage during the recording, correct the error, and reproduce the original recording digitally in good fidelity. Amazing!
Bio (and anyone else interested in recording techniques and technologies of The Day) — the best web sete evar for reliving the good ol' days of recording technologies belongs to Wendy Carlos.
I first met and worked with Walt Carlos — before “Walter,” before “Switched on Bach,” and before (obviously) Wendy.
Walt, a musician and a technician, was one of the best recording engineers in New York. He allowed me to fiddle with the world's first and only Moog Synthesizer and a magic electromechanical device called the Eltro which allowed recordings to be speeded up or slowed down without changing their pitch. WLS used it to play complete songs in about 90% of their original time, which allowd them to not only play “More Music,” but also made space for more commercials.
Two interesting and highly detailed dissertations on Wendy's site include the history of Surround Sound and details of the Eltro.
There's a lot of fun stuff there... worth a few hours when you have the time.
Posts: 1342 | Location: Glen Ellyn, IL USA | Registered: March 21, 2003
The first artificial post-producting echo chamber was an elevator shaft in the CBS building which had a speaker at the top and a microphone at the bottom (or visa-versa. I forget.)
The CBS recording engineers would have to shut off all the elevators in the building for 3-4 minutes while they played a song and added the echo. Needless to say, most of this final mixing was done after normal business hours.
“Flanging” — as heard first and most noteably on Timi Fisher's “The Big Hurt” — was discovered quite by accident when someone played two identical recordings on two different machines at the same time and got that odd “wooshing” sound... not knowing why.
Another recording engineer friend, Lenny Stea, made Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons stars. Lenny worked for a little hole-in-the-wall studio that was all Valli & Co. could afford when they cut their first record.
Lenny screwed up and had the bias set incorrectly for the tape he was using, which gave the playback that sort of harsh, somewhat high raspy sound the group became known for. Lenny's ears knew something was wrong, but the customer was happy and Lenny didn't discover his mistake until after they left.
After their first record became a hit the group could afford a classier studio... tried a few... but didn't like the clean “sound.” They came back to Lenny's place.
Lenny — understanding the “problem” — mis-adjusted the tape bias setting again, then and every time after that they came in, and they cranked out hit after hit.
(Lenny was actually a classical music buff, hated Rock, and was convinced the Seasons would go nowhere.)
I gotta write a book...
Posts: 1342 | Location: Glen Ellyn, IL USA | Registered: March 21, 2003
