Mapleshade magic

Well, what do you know....it is possible to get pretty high-quality music playback on simple computer speakers playing MP3 files downloaded from the Internet. As they say, you learn something new everyday...

At this very moment while I am typing this post, I am listening to In A Perfect
World by the Andy McKee Quintet through small Altec Lansing computer speakers and all the things that audiophiles look out for are there - soundstage, imaging, clarity, transparency and dynamics. The saxophone is smack in the middle where the computer screen is and the double bass is somewhere to the right. Now I can hear the shimmer of the cymbals to the left.

I can hear all the microdynamics, the soul of the music...

It sounds a million times better than the stuff I downloaded from LimeWire.

I just downloaded a Kendra Shank track and am thoroughly enjoying it. Next will be This Little Light of Mine by Kenyetta and the Larry Willis Trio.

What happened was that I was browsing through the Mapleshade Records website www.mapleshaderecords.com when I clicked the "Music" section and found that I could download either samples or complete MP3 versions of some tracks.

If the Mapleshade recordings sound this good in MP3 format on the Altec Lansing computer speakers, I wonder what magical moments there would be if I could play the actual CDs on my big rig.

Now I am tempted to buy some Mapleshade CDs...gotta check if I have exceeded the credit limit of my credit card :)