The death of hi-fidelity?

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidelity

"it's like going to the Louvre and instead of the Mona Lisa there's a 10-megapixel image of it," he says. "

How true

I went through that.

Not good, but the popular artists will follow the market [and why not if it gets them loads of money], so it is inevitable. If most people want rubbish tailored for MP3 that is what will be produced. No good worrying about it. If you want to listen to the kinds of artists who are more interested in money then art, then sell the hifi and buy an MP3 player.

It will be a strange world when buying hifi is limited to those who seek to replay classical or jazz music, but the time is here! So high hifi is going to get an even smaller and more expensive niche market, I would guess.

ATB from George

quote:

the popular artists will follow the market

Yes, but George, what about the not so popular ones that I like - I really hope the folkies stay with CD for a while - there's very little new on vinyl - so CD is the best I can get and it's pretty good IMHO. MP3 is horrible.

I've no problem cutting my own CDs, if the music is in an uncompressed format. Low bit rate though is why DAB sounds to inferior to FM - surely some younger folk are in to quality.

ATB Rotf

Dear ROTF,

Probably the "Folkies" are actually serious enough to actually listen to the music properly - not merely use it aural wall-paper - so the people buying the records will continue to buy something capable of being used to present recordings with decent quality.

But do you think of most people with mini MP3 players are they actually listening at all? Hearing perhaps, but listening? I think not. Or else the actual sounds would drive them quietly up the wall! Either that or a diet of "Nite Clubbing" has so shot their hearing that quality is no longer relevant!

I think that for all but the most popular end of the market music will continue to be available in high quality media, LPs CDs, decent downloads ... whatever. But MP3 will become the mass carrier whatever any of us might say!

ATB from George

And people will stay away from cinemas now that we have television.


Nigel

How can you fill thousand pages if there's nothing really happening to write about?

Do aliens like rock'n' roll?

going off track a bit lads.. its about the quality of the reproduction, not the availability.

to me, what really matters is music. I totally disagree that one cannot actually listen to the music when played on an MP3 player. yes, HIFI does it better; no, MP3 is not as good as CD; yes, vinyl sounds better than CD (perhaps); no, I really don't like this compressed sound the article describes. but ultimately, I like music. and I won't stop listening to it (and enjoying it) just because of technological issues. I agree with most parts of this article, pros and cons: it sounds ugly but this is what (a part of) the market wants and I'd rather have ugly sounding records than no records.

some people decided that High Fidelity died the day the CD came out; facts proved otherwise. to me, MP3 is just another way of selling music. I'm pretty sure online shops will add high quality downloads as an extension to their offer, if only to prove they have a better offering than others. 256 kbits AAC (as opposite to the standard 128 kbits MP3) is only the beginning.

Music is not about hearing. It is about listening!

quote:

Originally posted by Gianluigi Mazzorana:
How can you fill thousand pages if there's nothing really happening to write about?

Do aliens like rock'n' roll?

quote:

Originally posted by worm:

quote:

Originally posted by Gianluigi Mazzorana:
How can you fill thousand pages if there's nothing really happening to write about?

Do aliens like rock'n' roll?

I still can't understand why such magazines keep on scarin' people with these "pieces".
I wonder if they still do have something interesting to write about.

quote:

Originally posted by Gianluigi Mazzorana:

quote:

Originally posted by worm:

quote:

Originally posted by Gianluigi Mazzorana:
How can you fill thousand pages if there's nothing really happening to write about?

Do aliens like rock'n' roll?

I still can't understand why such magazines keep on scarin' people with these "pieces".
I wonder if they still do have something interesting to write about.

It does not bother me one bit.

The sooner people regard CDs as yesterday's format the happier I will be (and this is from a man about to buy a CDS3).

I can't wait to go down to the local charity shop and buy a handful of CDs at a £1 each as people chuck them out.

But back to your original point - there is so much to talk about with music that they leave unsaid. They should take a few more risks, I would much rather hear about new bands rather than this sort of stuff.

Cheers

worm

quote:

Originally posted by worm:
I would much rather hear about new bands rather than this sort of stuff.

Cheers

worm

Exactly.

Bunch of slightly random observations

Yes hearing about bands is good but so is hearing about the medium. If you do a bit of research you will soon realise that the way people get their recorded music has always been in a state of flux. One medium is on the way out, another may be mature and new ones are arriving on the scene.

Each medium had its pros and cons, supporters and detractors. There have always been those that are into quality and the majority that saw music as a throw away item. Get one record, play it to death then its yesterdays fad.

Reading about current trends is reading about history as it happens.

The medium also impacts on how we listen to music & vice-versa. 78s were shorter in length, LPs were better for classical pieces and CDs meant that 7 or 8 tracks became 12 or 13. As each medium has matured the sound quality has improved. People lamented the passing of the 78 because they said it sounded better than the 331/3 long players.

I don't see anything wrong with advocating quality. If you don't ask you will never receive. Discussing the issue makes people think about it. It makes you part of history and the future if you express an opinion.

I'm stating the obvious, but I think most folks here are concerned about quality primarily as they enjoy that side of music but also because they have invested a substantal proportion of their disposable income on high end gear so that they can appreciate that quality.

I hate to say it but in many ways the latest album by Radiohead (in CD format) is equally enjoyable on my PC. Of course on my PC it is just background music as I type but they obviously engineered the recording with this in mind.