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In Reply to: Thanks for the advice but it costs money to audition music posted by Frank Hardly on November 14, 2002 at 18:11:13:
Very strange, doesn't the CD shop allow you to test the CDs before buying?
Of limited help are sites that contain streams such as CDNow, Amazon, TowerRecords etc. Sometimes label websites have a more complete version (e.g. Naxos)Lastly, you can try mp3 servers such as Kaaza and the like. If you're lucky you may get to download it.
Follow Ups:
Thanks for the more helpful advice. My problem is that I haven't found shops to be very conducive to accurate listening as the demo gear isn't of a quality that I could readily judge the performance. I imagine I would have a similar issue with MP3. Neverthless, thanks for the input.
What kind of equipemnt do they have?? To judge performance, a discman is more than enough! So anything better than that is already a fantastic bonus. If you need to listen to details, maybe you can bring along a decent pair of head or ear phones. In the abscence of room acoustical factors plauging almost all audio systems high end or otherwise, using head/earphones are as good as it gets. Just that you have no proper representation of soundstage maybe.Anyway, I just shared with you how I look for my CDs and music. Typically the length of time for me to look for something vary quite a fair bit. From 15 seconds (i.e. the Kreisler play Kreisler) to 4 months (Chopin Ballades) to 2 years (Beethoven's violin concerto)
Don't mean to 'ram' my opinion down your throat but it does seem that you concerns seemed quite contrary to evaluating the musical performance.
You know, it really seems a stretch to imagine that a record store would tolerate me opening a dozen different versions of a particular piece to compare performances. Especially when it means opening their factory packaged shrink-wrap etc. Hence, the value of a good guide to narrow the field - precisely the question I opened this dialogue with. Perhaps, you inhabit an extremely tolerant version of reality where such actions are encouraged. Not in my part of the world.
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