"Nobody Wants A Digital Record!"

Those words were uttered by Pat McGrath, owner of Looney Tunes Records in Boston as he was inspecting a batch of LPs I needed to cash up to pay debt. Now, I understand Pat needed to dis these digital LPs so he wouldn't have to pay me the current reasonable rate in the interest of profit. How about the fact that this might be a credible, even masterful performance Pat?? What I like about digitally recorded LPs is processing the digital tape through the RIAA curve and mastering to the pre-emphasis and re-emphasis EQ tolerances of the LP format make the recordings sound WAY better than the CD issues. Take the first Philips digital recording, "Pops In Space" by the Boston Pops under John Williams. This first came out on LP and for me is a blockbuster sounding recording. When the CD issue was released, everyone in The COOP music department stood around scratching their heads and comments ranged from, "Well, it sure is LOUD", "Something's missing", "Why does the CD sound so harsh?". Fast forward to 2012 and the new Galactic album, "Carnivale Electricos". The LP includes the CD version. The LP version SMOKES the CD version in terms of trueness of instrumental timbre, rhythmic pace and extension at the frequency extremes. The CD "Sure is LOUD". This with the playback capabilities of NAD's near top of the range T567 BD machine. I ripped the CD into iTunes at 320Kbps/VBR/48Khz and played back through Winamp comes close-ish which for me is, "okay for digital". I thank any record label offering digital formats (CD/Mp3 download) with their LP releases. At least digital files played back on my iPod aren't susceptible to the stretching and breaking ala cassettes played back on the old Walkmans! And Pat, I love my digital records.