A few thoughts have sprung into my head as a result of reading the newest posts in this thread.
First, Linda, it was very interesting to read what you said about the Faces-A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse disc of Hoffman's. To be perfectly honest with you and everybody here, I thought that there was virtually no discernable difference between it and the tracks from the album which made it onto the Five Guys Walk Into A Bar box.
Over a period of time. I have developed a gradual habit of not posting as much over there as I used to even though I would not consider myself a frequent poster. It's been a silent protest on my part over what some of you have already described. There have also been some occasions where some of the younger members have been making some cutting comments on people's posts without realizing that they are being rude to others-myself included. I still recall a guy over there who basically, without saying it outright, that I was a dork for coming in late to a Newsradio thread where people were going ga-ga over Maura Tierny. I made a very innocent and non-cutting joke about my liking her as well and then he shot back to me that he was offended. And then there are some of the older members (older than my 45 years) who occasionally make me roll my eyes in my head.
When those guys get into Beatle threads over there, the stubborness over there can get really thick. I can almost bet that there will someday come a point where I just won't want to contribute there anymore. There has never once been any kind of acknowledgment from any single person there at all when, in the early days, I tried to describe some CDs and the sound parameters I need to comfortably listen to music because of my hearing impairment (as well as my being a hearing aid wearer in both ears and a bad case of over-sensitivity in my worse ear of the two-my right). Throw in the combination that I listen to music through headphones with my hearing aids off and out of my ears so that my high-end loss acts as a high-end cut and listen to music on standard set-ups and A/V systems and watch DVDs with my hearing aids on. Well, I tried on a few occasions to tell them, especially on the headphones listening without my hearing aids, that there are actually CDs that are so bad for volume or frequency tweaking that they actually hurt that bad ear of mine painfully. And yet, I'll get an attitude like I'm being corrected for not having the proper opinion. The perfect example is the Joseph Palmaccio remasters of the Philly International label stuff he did and the Redbone hits package. I had to turn those things down so far on my headphones that I could not enjoy the music. I had to turn down the music so far that I could not discern some stuff going on in the right side of my cans (where my hearing is the worst). So, do you imagine how I feel when I get corrected or being told that Palmaccio is incredible and I don't get any courtesy of having told people that I wanted to bring a perspective that maybe they haven't considered before?
On top of it, there are guys over there who like to make fun of musicians (especially of Jimmy Page and his work on the Zeppelin remasters of the '90s) and their hearing situations. They even make fun of their own hearing after they spout how vinyl is superior to CDs, etc. I have to tell you that I'm very sensitive to this. Because of my situation, I'm very sensitive to change in music going on and in various mixes. To say that Jimmy Page's cards he can bring to a mixing table isn't of value and then poke fun that he can't do a proper remaster because he's hearing impaired because of his being exposed to loud playing over the years is greatly offensive to me. Well, Jimi Hendrix had almost all of his hearing gone and yet look at the incredible things he managed to tweak out of recording studios. They knock the crap out of Jon Astley's work on the Who remasters and then they lavish all of this praise on the 5.1 of Tommy which was overseen by Pete Townshend (who is hugely hearing impaired himself). I just don't get it. I get the impression that they pick and choose at random their ignorances their prejuduices.
Since I'm a huge supporter of many of these special musicians who have validity over what they say goes into their work on a sound level, the end result, in a twisted way, is that I feel like they are giving me a kind of back-handed slap without their realizing it. Like I said, not one person over there has ever answered back to me in one of my posts and said something along the lines of "That's interesting" or "I've never considered that" perspective when it came to talking about sound matters. I guess hearing impaired people don't bring anything of value to the table when they get involved in their "Loudness Wars" threads. That's why I love it here so much. I'm accepted for who I am and I get the impression that people respect me more over here as well.

Just laugh and enjoy the music.

Steve Talia,

You make several interesting points in your post. What some of the people at Hoffman don't get - or don't want to get - is that sound quality is a subjective thing. It all depends on your perspective and what you like. Are some remasters bad? Yes. Are all remasters bad? No.

Personally, I like the Zeppelin remasters. I don't care if the Hoffman mafia doesn't. They're entitled to their opinions, as am I. In my opinion, the original CD of Journey's Escape sounded like crap. But over there, you can sell it for $20 or more because it's an original, "unremastered" CD. I'll hold on to my remaster, which sounds much better to me, thank yew very much.

Had I had the foresight, I never would have traded in old CDs for remastered ones - I would have held onto them and saved for my retirement by selling them on the Hoffman board.

I don't always agree with some things I read here, but I try to be respectful of others' opinions. If you like something that I don't...well, good for you. I'm glad you're happy with it.

Of course, for my respectfulness, I get banned all the time. But at least I don't have to worry about being gorted out of existence.

"The Hoffia."

Some highly recommended DCC titles - Gold & Aluminum (IMO of course):

Jethro Tull - Aqualung & Original Masters
Joni Mitchell - Blue and Court & Spark
Bob Seger - Night Moves
Heart - Dreamboat Annie
Gerry Rafferty - City to City
Dwight Twilley - all of them
Cars - S/T
Elvis Presley - 24 Karat Hits

Unfortunately these go for ridculous $$ now - glad I grabbed most of mine when they were released.

That is very sad. Not enough waveforms I guess.

I find I visit the Hoffman board almost daily, but I don't read proportionately as many of the threads there as I do here. Imwan is definitely more about the music.

Great line!

I propose that if we want to compete against the Hoffman board, we need to add a new forum to the ICE board - "The Waveforum."

All posts will be required to have a waveform of your favorite (or most-hated) CD to illustrate the issues you have with its sonics.

And furthermore, I-- Um-- Hey, careful with that axe, Linda!!

I'd sooner leave the "competing" to Hoffman's imagination, and we just keep on doing what we've always done.

You mean banning Chris? I agree we should keep doing that.

Feel free, Ven. Jimbo's going to be banning Chris in person shortly so maybe you should soften him up with a few online bans first.

Great post Steve with perfect comments about your hearing issues in relation to the way a CD or LP is recorded or mixed.

To sum up yours and my experiences there is a majority of them are arrogant for arrogance sake. I almost never go there anymore because of their "school-girl" attitudes with anything different than theirs. Of course we have ours here too but for the most part they only pop up occasionally.

Thanks Rich. Linda and everybody here are people I consider to be friends. My door will always be open for any of you here.

i've been trying to get people from over there to come ever here for years.

it's almost "jonestown" cultish over there.

renny

Apparently the Kool Aid you drank was maximized and was bathed in layers of noise reduction.

Jimbo did it today...twice! I get banned more than I change my underwear. Big whoop!

More like "maccatown"

Gee Chris! You just had to bring up your underwear. LOL!

It holds the answers to all of life's questions.

Methinks some questions were meant to remain unanswered.

Chris,
With me, it determines if I breathe well or not during the course of a day.