mattman - 15 October 2009 01:12 AM

Well, in my experience the DA-Converter matters a lot. I’ve got a stereo setup, with a DAC between my computer and amplifier. I usually rip music to 320kbps MP3. I’ve done a few ABX blindtests to see if I can hear the difference between FLAC, WAV and various bitrates on MP3.. In all 3 tests I can’t hear the difference between 320kbps, FLAC and WAV. However, there’s no doubt there’s a big difference between 320, 256, 128kbps… And that’s not mentioning the acoustics in a room, positioning of speakers, possible sources of distortion on the signal (PCs being especially prone to this).

All this techno-talk leaves me dreaming of a new age of 5.1 surround sound music… Might there be a future of Twisted releases in multichannel?

All this techno-talk leaves me thinking JUST ENJOY THE MUSIC!!!!!!! This site seems to be (understandably) full of men obsessed with their pc/stereo/music production kit/quality of different audio formats etc. Once upon a time we just used to go down the shops, buy the album for

“ANY stereo” isn’t going to allow you to hear the subtle brilliance in music like Shpongle.
If you’re going to throw in some shitty loud pop/rock/rap…then yeah…“ANY stereo” will do.

But not Twisted’s music…no sir.  It deserves better.

Cloudwalker - 27 November 2009 06:26 PM

“ANY stereo” isn’t going to allow you to hear the subtle brilliance in music like Shpongle.
If you’re going to throw in some shitty loud pop/rock/rap…then yeah…“ANY stereo” will do.

But not Twisted’s music…no sir.  It deserves better.

Well I guess you could say that any artist deserves their music reproduced at the best quality, I guess it is up to the listener what they prefer to use. Would be interesting to have ‘blind hearings’ of all the new formats on different set ups and see what people prefer. I bet vinyl on a

just bought the new one today through emusic… i wonder how much they get from that?

ditto: first shpongle album i don’t own on vinyl.

damn, Nothing Is Something Worth Doing was fabulous at the live show at the roundhouse… really happy i have this album finally.

I am really happy to see that Twisted is releasing Ineffable Mysteries of Shpongleland on a limited 180 gram pressing.

Having a decent collection of vinyl and discerning ears I can say there are a few tradeoffs with vinyl and it does matter whether the recording or original master is analog or digital.

True analog recordings to vinyl sound WAY better in terms of realness, 3d sense of depth and fullness. They are pretty uncommon these days, but I am astonished how good some of my parent old 70s Dylan and Fleetwood Mac pressings sound.

Many records (esp. those from the 90s) use more or less the same master from CD so there is no improvement of sound. You would be better off with the CD because it has less noise.

Even so, good digital recordings to vinyl can sound much better than CD for two basic reasons:

1) The mix that is cut to vinyl is usually at least 24bit, and often 96k or higher

2) The quality of the mastering house’s digital equipment (converters foremost) is far and away better than what is in your stereo. For example, the Digital to Analog converter chips in an iPod probobly cost a few dollars, whereas what the mastering engineer is using (Prism, DCS, Meitner, Lavry, etc.) are literally $5,000-$10,0000 (sorry, didn’t do the pounds conversion). You are getting an analog representation of a digital setup none of us could afford.

The not so good:

Vinyl lacks in the end a bit, and gets worse with more plays+ noise and distortion.

I would speculate a Twisted vinyl issue means:

An analog copy of 24bit 44.1 digital mix, with analog mastering processing (compression, eq), a little less highs and more noise.

I think that would sound pretty good!

done and skawoodlingly dusted…

and two shirts to boot.

younger brother clothing please!!

Update : the new Younger Brother album, we are working at 48Khz 24bit WooHoo! Do you think you’ll hear the difference?

I can only hear the difference if I have the material in different formats, and listen while alternating between them.

I can tell if its a bad rip or something, however.

With myself being a Vinyl addict and i still buy vinyl when i can i’ve only recently bought myself my first set of CD players . Yes they do come in handy for tracks i can now use where as before i couldn’t . However I am gutted i missed out on getting the last 2 Sphongle releases on Vinyl mainly because of Financial constraints still at least i’ll be able to get them on CD gotta be thankful for that when i get paid . However i’ve people sell them for £80/100 each

As for MP3’s never been a fan of them soley for value reasons let’s get real MP3’s will not increase in price not by a long shot they aren’t even collectable mainly because of the form they are created easy to replicate and hard to verify authenticty of release date etc etc .. all the details .