Music subforum?

[MajorFubar]

How about a Music forum, where members can ask questions about different pressings and masters of CDs and LPs? So many versions of so many different albums....good place to share the knowledge and experience of separating the wheat from the chaff. E.g.: I recently asked a question about which version of Lexicon of Love is the best in terms of SQ, and there was nowhere suitable to ask it. It's not off-topic enough for off-topic IMO, but neither does it comfortably fit-in with HiFi.

 

[CnoEvil]

Good idea. It's about the music, after all.

 

[expat_mike]

Major,

One way of looking at this question is to say that we already have the forum subdivided into sub-sections devoted to the physical elements of hifi systems (eg amps, cd players, speakers, dacs, turntables,.......etc). That then arguably leaves a space for the inputs that are fed into the hifi systems (ie the source material), which could be divided into say music, films, radio (or possibly spoken word?).

 

[MajorFubar]

Yep sounds good to me, though obviously it would be up the dev team how it was implemented. Just think it would be a great and appropriate place to share knowledge in terms of superb/rubbish masters, pressings etc, especially these days.

 

[dtmark]

I'd concur with this. I can't listen to CD, it just doesn't do it for me.

All the modern vinyl I've bought is clearly a CD pressed onto vinyl. Or, the recording was at such a low resolution (44.1/16) that all formats would sound appalling.

I feel cheated, as, if I wanted to listen to it with terrible sound quality, I could just call it up on YouTube on the TV, typically on the official artist channel, and listen to it for nothing without having to hand over £15+.

For me, the listening experience is the culmination of the music and the quality and while we all have very different tastes and it would be sort-of-pointless to have a forum that rates music as such, one thing that can be clearly rated is the sound quality. After all isn't that what the magazine is all about

 

[jjbomber]

Good idea. It's about the music, after all.

I thought it was about cables????

 

[MajorFubar]

Old farts like me who bought the magazine in the 80s and earlier will remember the days when it routinely reviewed selected new releases each month and commented on the production and recording quality. First it was only LPs of course, then LPs and CDs. In fact if memory doesn't deceive me WHF had two Album of The Month awards (pop and classical), and frequently the recommended albums were used in the product tests.

 

[John Duncan]

What's wrong with 'This week I have mostly been listening to/watching...'?

"Pass on your latest music and movie discoveries to other Forum users"

 

[spiny norman]

Old farts like me who bought the magazine in the 80s and earlier will remember the days when it routinely reviewed selected new releases each month and commented on the production and recording quality. First it was only LPs of course, then LPs and CDs. In fact if memory doesn't deceive me WHF had two Album of The Month awards (pop and classical), and frequently the recommended albums were used in the product tests.

Agreed with JD on the 'This week...' section, but doesn't the magazine still have a couple of pages covering new releases (movies, music, games and things)? Not sure whether it's still there, or in what depth it looks at releases, as I haven't seen a copy of the magazine for ages.

Mind you, I think it must be tricky doing such a thing in a monthly magazine these days, given the lead times for printing and distribution, when you'll always be playing catch-up with the instant gratification culture of the internet.

Perhaps that's a case for the magazine doing more movie and music reviews on the website? I think it used to do more of these, but seems to have got sidetracked into the occasional review of a new movie (which is not much use to the home cinema enthusiast) and the strange selection in the 'this week on TV' thing.

That almost by definition can't comment on 'sound and vision' quality, but seems to be more about attention-grabbing programmes most people interested in that sort of thing will know all about already.

 

[Andy Clough]

We do indeed cover new music, film, TV and game releases every month in the 'Playlist' section in the magazine, a regular four-page feature. The reviews also go online. FYI, we've just published this one:

http://www.whathifi.com/news/fast-furious-7-blu-ray-review

Also, you can follow Playlist on Twitter @WHFplaylist.

And we have monthly music playlists we produce on Spotify and Tidal too, featuring music we have been using while testing:

http://www.whathifi.com/news/listen-to-what-hi-fi-playlist