THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON COMPRESSED MUSIC

[StephenJK]

11 hours ago, fas42 said:

 

Have to agree with this ... a big disappointment years ago was going to a "big show" - and copping an earful of awful sound - "I'm paying money to listen to this !!?" ... Ended up stopping going to anything with a musical accompaniment, via a so-called PA system - the few jewels one came across didn't compensate for all the dross ...

That hasn't been my experience.  I find that, on average the PA systems in place today provide a musical presentation with an accuracy, clarity and detail that was never there before. 

 

Sure, sometimes they get the mix wrong or the singer has a hot mike, but whether big arena events or small local theater, the sound has never been better.  

[StephenJK]

35 minutes ago, STC said:

 

He was the founding member of Musicians against Digital in the 80s. The surprise was his Pono which supposedly designed to address the digital deficiency.

Yeah, but I think most of his criticism was with Redbook CD, and that analogy of looking at slices of music because of the sample rate instead of the whole thing.  I think he's been using a digital board since the late 80's simply due to the fact that you can't fight the world.  

 

With the Neil Young Archives web site you can listen to anything he has ever released in 24/192 master tape quality.  From what I understand he owns the master tapes and has been digitizing them as a preservation effort. 

 

His comment in the NYTimes article is rather poignant - if only that preservation of a full catalog for artists no longer with us had been done for the benefit of future generations. 

 

I had a Pono, I was a Kickstarter supporter.  It filled a need, but not to the extent necessary for it to be a commercial success.  Having a small, portable player with a lot of storage capacity that could play up to 24/192 music files just didn't appeal to a lot of people, and I think too many were highly critical of that effort.

 

If you're happy listening to iTunes lossy files from your iPhone with little earbuds and think that sounds great then you just don't have a frame of reference for anything better - in the same way that some people think cooked frozen burgers from the supermarket taste just great.  

[StephenJK]

25 minutes ago, marce said:

Bit of a patronising statement...

How so?  People have different expectations. 

 

I work with people who are perfectly happy listening to low res files on their phone.  It's still music.  The fact there may be something better just isn't on their radar.  

[StephenJK]

22 minutes ago, marce said:

OK withdrawn..

Hey, no worries - it's all part of any reasonable discussion.