That Jazz - Monkey Max Music and File Download

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Part V: The Part of Tens
When shopping for CDs, watch for the word remastered on the cover. It means
the sound of the original record has been cleaned up and optimized for CD. If
a title you want isn’t on a major label, read a review in a jazz magazine before
you buy it. You’d think that digital music on CDs would all sound pristine, but
a surprising number of bad CDs with muddy sound are out there.
As with records, your keys to getting good CD sound are a decent sound
system and a quality CD. Most of the music released on CDs by major labels
sounds good. Specialty labels like Proper and Rhino (see Appendix B for
more about them) do a great job of re-releasing vintage jazz in the beautifully
packaged box sets with extensive liner notes.
College age or younger music lovers gather most of their music digitally.
A laptop computer or mp3 player holds thousands of songs. They can be
arranged into categories by style or artist or into playlists by mood or theme.
CDs offer better quality sound than digital downloads, but most listeners
can’t tell much difference.
Put Together a Good Sound System
You can get decent sound on a budget starting from $100. I’ve heard turntables
that cost $20,000 and systems that run well into six figures. On the other
hand, an mp3 player or portable CD player plugged into one of those $50
computer speaker kits from a discount store pumps out surprisingly good
sound, too.
Here are some basic sound system options:
� 20–60gb mp3 player, with computer or mp3 speaker system: Computer
sound systems with a subwoofer for bass are designed for loud video
gaming, which means they also have good volume and range for music.
An mp3-based system has huge capacity and is very portable if you buy
a compact speaker module made for your player. See the next section
for more details on mobile music systems.
� All-in-one compact stereo: Sony, Pioneer, and other companies make
these systems, and the sound is surprisingly good. They have enough
power to pump out bass, and they come with decent speakers. I had a
system with a built-in 25-CD changer, and it lasted for several years.
Set your multi-CD changer or mp3 player on random or shuffle, and
enjoy the sound of a radio station programmed by you. My 300-CD
changer in this mode comes up with combinations I never could have
imagined. French pop to Art Ensemble of Chicago to Outkast to punk
rock? Anything’s possible.