I have looked at Best Buy, Amazon, and Ebay. I am looking for high quality versions of Stevie Ray Vaughan at good prices. I was wondering if any one knows of other places to check. Like this one here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270478345273&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
John, I purchase my hard to find cd's from www.cduniverse.com. Most of the music I like is acoustical, so, needless to say requires high quality control in the reproduction in order to be able to appreciate the full range of highs, mid range and bass. I have not been disappointed yet from these people. While not audiophile quality equipment, I'm pushing the cd's through a decent Onkyo 606 receiver and 4 Cerwin Vega E-710 tower speakers with an E-76 Center speaker and a 10" sub. My home theater room is only 12'x18' so the 5 10" woofers supply plenty of tight bass.
John, do you rip your CDs onto your computer and listen to them that way? If so, you probably are ripping them onto your hard drive as mp3 which compresses the music.. thus lowering the quality. There's a program called Exact Audio Copy where you rip the CD as a wav (no quality loss). If that's your problem, then there is your solution. However if you want higher quality stuff than what's originally on the CD, I am not sure where to direct you... you'd probably have to contact someone in the record distributing business or someone affiliated with SRV.
That's a very nice AVR for the money. I currently have that as my spare, because I upgraded to an 876.
Thanks Stiches. The 606 serves me well, I haven't rented or played any DVD's in years. I just use it for tv and cd player. Just not that many movies being made that appeal to me. I really miss the deep richness of music delivered through a tube amp and lp's and may get back into it some day.
These days it's all about compression and saving space on your hard drive. It's sad that the quality of music is being pushed away to save space to the average user... And most don't even realize it.
This is just my opinion, I believe that most music today isn't created for the benefit of enjoying it through a good sound system other than being loud. In the day, music was produced for good separation between the channels and the ability to hear the full frequency range. I've had old tube amps. that the hotter they got the better they would sound. You could actually hear the power being delivered through the amp begin to pump, producing deep bass, mids and treble. In a room moderately designed by placing the speakers properly, the sound image would locate itself right in the middle, between the speakers delivering to the listener what the artist and producer wanted them to hear. Each and every instrument was engineered to be heard as well as the vocals. I truly miss this.
That's why I love blu-ray and HD audio. Got my 7.1 setup (wish I had 7.2 ), and I love hearing every nuance that goes on in the movies. I'm not as big into music, but I can appreciate the sound that you're seeking.