The Daily Sabbatical
Music, Books, and Assorted Maunderings

Last night I decided to test to see if I could really hear the difference between the original recording and a CD burned from an MP3 copy.  My test track was the first movement of Sibelius' violin concerto played by Cho Liang Lin conducted by Salonen.  It's a very transparent disc.  I ripped it first at 320 kbs using EAC with LAME.  On my system, which is pretty good (Rega Apollo, Creek 5350SE, Von Schweicker Mk2 speakers; for the dollar inclined, we're talking about 5k), I could not reliably tell the copy from the original when my wife, irritated at the request, put me through a blind test.  When I ripped it at 256kbs using the same method,… Read More

My recent radio silence has been in part due to the fact that I seem to be incessantly busy with refereeing articles, grading papers, writing letters and evaluating applications of various sorts.  But that is not all.  Many of my previous posts have been inspired by the best of recent indie music, but in the new year I have let that interest lag considerably.  Instead, I have become obsessed with the "classical" tradition in music--to the point that I have taken up piano once again and have been studying music as though I were back in school.  Unfortunately, I'm simply not educated enough to write very informatively about much of this music.… Read More