6/10 is not even remotely funny. it cannot be less that 8 or 9 basically, cause it's so good. fucking noobs that listening to bad quality mp3s...
I think all of my favourite albums would still sound great at 64 kbit/s, so that's not a valid argument. It is a bit telling as well that there's so much talking about the sound quality of this album. It may be great, I cannot really tell even though my setup is not that bad, but I don't really care about that. There's fantastic emotional depth on SAW or ICBYD and it doesn't really matter what quality the files, (physical) record or audio setup is.
I'm not saying that Syro doesn't work at lower quality, but as I said, there seems to be a lot talk about the sound quality and mastering per se, compared to other albums.
Definitely agree about an unusual amount of chatter about the mastering etc. I think part of the reason its mentioned so much is because its refreshingly 'uncompressed' sounding compared to sooooo much electronic music now. Its not in-your-face loud at every moment and has a lot of breathing room. If most albums were mastered this way I don't think it would be in the discussion so much.
that's interesting you say that since my very first impression of Minipops is that it sounded more compressed than any previous Aphex material. Of course it doesn't sound like its trying to emulate modern shitty 'edm' music but still.
anyways if people are not in love with the way the CD or digital was mastered, at least check out the vinyl (or a rip of it). It has noticeably more dynamic range and the transients are more sharp/punchy. On Xmas Evet10 for example you can hear the different volume levels of each bass line stab, whereas on the CD they sound almost the same volume the whole time. You can also much more clearly hear the piano riff on Xmas Evet10 on vinyl VS cd
my very first impression of minipops was that it blew my tits off
pressing play on syro feels like taking a drug: instant dopamine
