Craig Della Penna

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since December 5, 2000

If you were to log in, you'd be able to get more information on your fellow community member.

December 5, 2000, on Stereos of the Rich and Famous:
Many years ago, when CDs were first coming in, I worked for a high-end audio salon in New York (which shall remain nameless). We commonly used to seat customers in front of the speakers and play a CD and an LP of the same recording...then ask them which was the better sounding version. They invariably chose the LP version (almost always assuming it to be the CD version!) as the better of the two. This real-world AB comparison has more validity for me than any psuedo-scientific ABX comparison or, for that matter, any recitation of specifications and/or statistics purporting to 'prove' that CDs must be superior or that nothing of significance happens above 20MHz. I'd also like to point out that while there are indeed many 'tweakos' in the audiophile world and also many foolish fads, the truth is that some people have better ears than others, hear more sound, can determine more subtle nuances in music...they really don't deserve the vilification and derision they have been subjected ...