Where do you think we will be in 50 years with technology with regard AV - Audio ?

Well, just received a call from my dealer that my Uniti Atom will be delivered in the fist week of September :-(

In 50 years I will have a Naim micro-system installed in my casket...or urn...hopefully the software issues will be resolved by then!

I think the quality and availability of streaming content will have move so far that nobody owns anymore any music, besides the one or other black gold person. Sound processing will have moved so far that digital is superior to analogue....

Black boxes will still be there while I am not sure in case they are being traded by investors...

.....but the craziest thing of all, I will most probably not care anymore as I already might have left the world....., or I am freshly looking forward to my 103rd birthday...

Actually VR audio, with my old Samsung S7 I got the Gear VR, suffice to say I gave it bad as it was so damn good, I kinda got lost for hours like a zombie with it, only the battery running out would cause a pause.

Anyhow one of the Super Cool features of it was watching a few bands recorded live in 360 VR, recall Coldplay, the video quality was 120p but the immersion was really cool, most of us sit staring at a wall or fireplace in the middle of speakers imaging the soundstage, well with the VR you could see them, but best you could turn around 360 and see all those around you, above, very cool. Better still is used my BT Headphones with active noise cancelling, that was the last straw as you then were really in another isolated zone.

Now imagine proper 4k VR on just a pair of light weight glasses some decent cans - sublime.

Bert Schurink posted:

I think the quality and availability of streaming content will have move so far that nobody owns anymore any music, besides the one or other black gold person. Sound processing will have moved so far that digital is superior to analogue....

Black boxes will still be there while I am not sure in case they are being traded by investors...

 

.....but the craziest thing of all, I will most probably not care anymore as I already might have left the world....., or I am freshly looking forward to my 103rd birthday...

But that is assuming that all past music will be available, not deleted (If I am still around and have hearing also at the age of 103, I will still want to listen to the same music as now!), and that you don't have to pay to listen.

And digital is already superior to analog!! 

Innocent Bystander posted:

And digital is already superior to analog!! 

How can any digitised signal ever be any better than simply an approximation to the original analogue tone?

There will be a DSP implant for true audiophiles that will bypass the mechanical/acoustical bits of the ear and tap into the auditory nerve. Instead of headphone you will wear the world's wiki including the music library. No need for any Statement (sorry NAIM)

Who can say, my 35 year old TT has made an appearance for the first time in two decades, I have recently reverted to new ancient headphone technology, in the form of electrostatics, my electricity supply and the air around me, (EMI) is now massively more polluted than it was when I started buying "HiFi". 

Perhaps clean stand alone generation systems and listening room Faraday cages will come to the fore,

Perhaps 'Quadraphonic sound' will re emerge as a success :0)

Clive B posted:

Innocent Bystander posted:

And digital is already superior to analog!! 

How can any digitised signal ever be any better than simply an approximation to the original analogue tone?

I used to see things that way, but ultimately everything is an approximation, and I suspect a digital approximation can be more accurate than an analogue one. Even the original studio master is only a fabricated approximation of an actual performance.

Clive B posted:

Innocent Bystander posted:

And digital is already superior to analog!! 

How can any digitised signal ever be any better than simply an approximation to the original analogue tone?

I used to think the same way, however in practice it is that word 'approximation' that is key: Reproduced with the compression and noise and frequency pre-emphesis de-emphasis and varying groove velocity, vinyl is very approximate. Digitsation and reconstruction is also approximate. The question is, which is closer to the original?

Innocent Bystander posted:

Clive B posted:

Innocent Bystander posted:

And digital is already superior to analog!! 

How can any digitised signal ever be any better than simply an approximation to the original analogue tone?

I used to think the same way, however in practice it is that word 'approximation' that is key: Reproduced with the compression and noise and frequency pre-emphesis de-emphasis and varying groove velocity, vinyl is very approximate. Digitsation and reconstruction is also approximate. The question is, which is closer to the original?

Answer: Digital.

However that's not to say that people will definitely prefer that more precise approximation, as that's a value judgement.  Some may still prefer the less accurate analogue style of presentation, choosing a different set of inaccuracies that they find less unpleasant, even if they are greater in magnitude.

Whatever happens, the UK will still be debating what to do with F.M transmission.

For audio - vinyl and streaming, much as now. With all digital features and room correction integrated into the speaker enclosures.

Speakers will be an array of single frequency harmonic generators (15Hz, 30Hz, 60Hz, 120Hz etc. (all signals can be produced by a combination of sine waves - according to Fourier).

I guess displays will be flexible OLEDs (roll up or origami style), or VR glasses.

I agree with previous posts VR will be the way - having tried the current PS4 - fifty years from now ..... you will accessing everything through VR - the quality will be astonishing - to the point where actual reality is surpassed by virtual - god knows what his will do to the human race - I can only think it is a step closer for computer like androids/robots to cross fertilise into ours and their realm. ..as in the Forbidden Plannet - Monsters from the Id......  sound will probably be via special headphones...

Richieroo posted:

I agree with previous posts VR will be the way - having tried the current PS4 - fifty years from now ..... you will accessing everything through VR - the quality will be astonishing - to the point where actual reality is surpassed by virtual - god knows what his will do to the human race - I can only think it is a step closer for computer like androids/robots to cross fertilise into ours and their realm. ..as in the Forbidden Plannet - Monsters from the Id......  sound will probably be via special headphones...

care to speculate on the modus operendi ? 

Well humans controlling - robots virtually - eventually psychologically integrating into normal physical feeling ...... Computer skynet situations arising when robots/androids become more conscious and aware ...... overtaking human physical limitations etc etc ....

Ah, I had wondered if by 'fertilise' you imagined something more literal ...

You will have to make do with imagination for the time being!

I can't imagine cables being around ?

Do you think it will go with ultra high resolution wireless ?

Thanks for all the replies

Given the recent resurgence of vinyl and folks insisting low-dynamic-range spinning disks outputting through high-distortion vacuum tubes sound best, I imagine that in fifty years we'll all be listening to wax cylinders on ye olde phonograph 

There will be a lot more Artificial Intelligence into sound processing (room correction, noise cancellation) involving the sensing of room propertities using different sensing technologies.

Intelligent power supplies will be the norm.

Speakers will also evolve to take up less space.

Big boxes will take the fate of how big chunky PCs of the 80s disappear into tablets and notebooks today. 

Audio will go opposite to electric cars, it will be heard but not seen.  Music in most rooms including bathrooms will be common. Cables are out, components will hardly be seen.

Might just go the other way. What with world war 3 and 4 and 5 draining resources of industry. We might be lucky with a tin can and string.

TOBYJUG posted:

Might just go the other way. What with world war 3 and 4 and 5 draining resources of industry. We might be lucky with a tin can and string.

Retro HiFi fantastic...!

Wealth inequality & climate change, I think we will be lucky to be worrying about music reproduction at all.

M