Quote Originally Posted by gonefishin
It's always seemed to me that some of the worst sounding CD's were made in the 80's. Even back when CD first came out I thought that there were very few exceptions of decent recordings on compact disk back then. But recording certainly have improved for redbook over the years.

There were certainly improvements made over the years for redbook, which just goes to show you that you shouldn't judge a "book" by it's cover recordings. The media may be capable of more than you first think from the initial releases. Unfortunately, pop music is the driving force. Which isn't exactly focused on recording quality or technique.

That aside...there are some nice recordings out of older music. Although I've found most of these remixes needed to be made in the mid to late 90's or later.

This is from a consumers view. I would look towards individuals who are "in the Biz". Like Sir Terrance here at AR...and others you may find at other sites.

take care,
dan

(Terrance...did you get a chance to see
this thread ? I was curious if you've found a solution...and also how the TAD center turned out. That must be some amazingly clear dialogue. regards, dan)
Hey Dan

Mostly everything back in the early 80's digital was produced on Niagra digital recorders because they were basically the only ones producing machines fit for professional recording. These machines used brickwall filters during pre filtering that rang like crazy, not to mention did not roll everything off above the cutoff point of the 44.1khz sample. Aliasing was big problem as was the ringing of the filters which made everything in that period sound harsh, lack definition and soundstaging(flat sounding)

However, there was a alternative to the Niagra, it was the Mitsubishi X-80 digital recorder with 16bit resolution and a 50.4khz sample rate. This recorder oversampled, used more gentle filters, worked and felt like a analog recorder. IMO it sounds as good as digital recorders made today. Almost all of Tom Jungs catalog at Mobile Fidelity was recorded on the machine in the 80's. His label was known for producing quality recordings of the period.

You cannot get silk out of a sows ear, but a really good external D/A converter From Theta , Wadia, or Meridian can smoothen the harshness a bit, and open up the soundstaging a bit

As far as my TAD based center channel, well I had to store it until I go front projection. I just could not get it to work in my current system. I was disappointed for about 10 seconds when my friend came to me with another realively large center speaker(28x12x15) that was also based around TAD drivers(2 8" and a horn mid/tweet). It is also phase and frequency correct, crosses over at the same frequency as my mains, flat to 35hz(-3) plays as loud as my mains, is tonally matched, has the same dispersion pattern and weights a whopping 85lbs. My croc tears dried up immediatly to say the least. In the next couple of years I will be moving into my new recording studio. At that point I will be purchasing a front projectors for both the studio, and my viewing room. I am will get some use out of my "monster" center then. For now, the center speaker I have is more than sufficient.

Thanks much for your advice Dan, I did try what you mentioned. No avail though.