Blu-Ray albums target hi-fi fans

[Oldrottenhead]

i wonder if this will take off and be another cash cow for record companies.   selling albums that where recorded on steam recorders    or if it will provide new artists with an opportunity to present their new work at the highest quality. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24441979

[peterp]

Or will PONO (formerly called PureTone) win. PONO is running at 192k sampling
Has been in the works by Neil Young and some record companies since 2012.
Will require purchasing a pono player, due for release in 2014.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pono_%28audio_format%29

Another BetaMax/VHS battle forming ?


Problem with Blu-Ray is even though many people have a player, they are connected to TV's using the TV's speakers or to multichannel amps with 5.1 /7.1 speaker systems designed for movies not high quality sound, or those sound-bars becoming popular now. None of which are good options for high fidelity listening.

Both of these new formats will require the audience to go forth and purchase actually decent sound systems to get any benefit from the new formats.

[Greeny]

Christ on a bike. I'm still pissed off at having to replace all my tape cassettes with CD's. Don't tell me I'll have to buy Sgt Peppers in ANOTHER bloody format! ;-)

I think I'll wait till you can have all your favourite media streaming from the cloud into a voice (or thought!) activated brain implant reader / AV system.

[Oldrottenhead]

Both of these new formats will require the audience to go forth and purchase actually decent sound systems to get any benefit from the new formats.

according to the article that is not the case.

"The magic of this format is that you buy a £60 player, you put the disc in, you play it through a basic stereo sound system - the sound is incredible."

[64Guitars]

Knowing the way the recording industry works, these Blu-Ray discs will no doubt be sold at a much higher price than conventional CDs. So the question is, will anyone be willing to pay the higher price? I believe the answer is no. As the BBC article mentioned, they've tried this before with Super Audio CD (SACD) and DVD-Audio. Both failed because very few were willing to spend the extra money. It's a matter of diminishing returns. The quality of CD audio is already pretty good. Most people think it's good enough. Sure, it's not perfect and improvements can be made. But those improvements are minor and most people don't consider them worth the extra cost so they're not willing to spend more than the price of a regular CD. The only way Blu-Ray is going to be accepted is if they stop making regular CDs and sell the Blu-Ray discs at a similar price. If the price is reasonable and Blu-Ray is the only format available, then people will buy them. But as long as they have a choice between a regular CD and a higher-priced Blu-Ray (or whatever higher fidelity format) disc, they'll buy the regular CD.

I also find it interesting that the music industry keeps inventing new formats to try to persuade people to re-purchase their classic albums from the past. It suggests that a growing number of people are happy with the music collection they already have and are unwilling to waste money on the crappy new music being made today. The greedy music industry has figured out that these people aren't buying new music, so the only way to get money out of them is to persuade them to re-purchase the music they already own in a new format that's supposedly better. I definitely won't be replacing any of my albums.

[64Guitars]

Both of these new formats will require the audience to go forth and purchase actually decent sound systems to get any benefit from the new formats.

according to the article that is not the case.

"The magic of this format is that you buy a £60 player, you put the disc in, you play it through a basic stereo sound system - the sound is incredible."

I agree with peterp. The Blu-Ray disc will only sound as good as the sound system it's being played through. If that sound system is a TV with 3-inch speakers, for example, it won't sound very good. Even if the TV has a good quality sound system, it was designed for movies, not music. To get the most from a Blu-Ray disc, you'll want to play it through a sound system designed for listening to music. So, even though you might already have a Blu-Ray player connected to your TV, you'll most likely end up buying another Blu-Ray player to attach to your stereo sound system for music listening. The DVD player connected to my TV is capable of playing audio CDs but I never use it for that. I play my CDs on another player that's connected to my stereo sound system. It will be the same with Blu-Ray audio discs. Nobody will want to play them on their TV, even if the TV already has a Blu-Ray player attached. So they'll buy another Blu-Ray player to attach to their stereo sound system.

[SteveB]

Knowing the way the recording industry works...I...find it interesting that the music industry keeps inventing new formats to try to persuade people to re-purchase their classic albums from the past. It suggests that a growing number of people are happy with the music collection they already have and are unwilling to waste money on the crappy new music being made today...I definitely won't be replacing any of my albums.

+1 

[Speed Demon]

The term "crappy new music" pretty-much defines the commercial music industry today. Enough said about that.

No music heard on the radio will come close to the quality of a digital version played on a computer.
I prefer to run music on one of my computers and send its output to headphones. I rarely ever use the sound system for playback.

A point about listening: The placement of the speakers will play a large part in the quality of what the listener hears.
A difference of as little as seven inches from the listener's position and the left and right speakers will put high frequencies acoustically
out of phase to said listener.

If stacked multiple speaker cabinets are being used, how many people bother to vertically align the speaker magnets, instead of the front of the cabinets? And make sure all speakers are wired to be electrically in phase. They all need to perform compression and rarifaction simultaneously. Like an army marching in step.

Of course, none of this matters if you are deaf. Or maybe a little bit dead. Just enough life left to turn the volume knob to ten.

[Flash Harry]

I'm seriously considering a return to vinyl...

[Gnasty]

I listened to Pink Floyd on blu-ray on an incredible stereo system and it indeed sounds incredible. But i really hate that Pink Floyd has remastered like 3 times in the last 20 years now. If they needed the money they should of did a tour when they had the chance. Anyway that`s another subject.

What the music industry fails to still realize is that the ages that buy the most music are 12-20 year olds. That`s your target audience.  Now are you going to tell me kids are going to sit in one room and listen to a whole album without wanting to change it?
I just bought a blu tooth stereo for work. I have a ton of songs on my phone. I put it on shuffle and can change from anywhere with one push of a button. That`s what everyone wants to do these days.

Anyways this remastering BS is another cash grab in my opinion. They have the ability to boost any old album to sound new.
The best remaster i`ve heard and i`m not talking blu-ray is ACDC Back in Black. It`s unreal good quality like it was made yesterday.