The Distortion Of Sound

[bruno]

Thought this was interesting, the MacDonalds generation of music!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDZcz-V29_M

[Blooby]

Watched it last week.  Hate to say it, but my ears are at the point where I can't tell much of a difference between a high quality MP3 and a wav file.  Maybe my hearing is shot, but once you start getting up around 256 kb/s, I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. I rip all mine at 192 these days, and it works fine for me.  Granted, I don't listen on the big speakered stereo as much as I used to, though.

Blooby


It was an interesting viewing, though.

[Gnasty]

Yes i totally agree with this. I don`t think it`s just the quality of mp3`s they are talking about but also
the quality of headphones and devices and listening to songs on your ipad and laptop? You`re not hearing it
right!

I`m mainly pissed about these bluetooth devices with one speaker people are buying. I keep telling people
you are listening in mono but nobody cares. 

[bruno]

I thought this was interesting - although not sure that I agree will all of it. Much of the issue is sound compression (not data compression) - which studios taking out dynamics from music to make it sound 'loud'.

I agree that streaming can very of very poor quality, but lossless compression can be almost identical. Standard compression can be bit-for-bit identical (eg ZIP compression), as it has to be - and memory is getting cheaper all the time, so we'll get to the point that bandwidth and space will be irrelevant.

There is a general move of convenience over quality - I have a 'proper' hifi, but hardly use it these days, however compare today's headphone against my Woolworth's headphone that I had in the 70's, and the £5 headphones today beat the old ones hands down.

Also, artist cry wolf with quality - but listen to Crossroads and Robert Johnson - where is the quality, but that has stood the test of time, what about early Beatles etc. So an interesting vid, but have some reservations.

B

[IanR]

Cool video.

I was not totally convinced.  They take a rather audiophile approach to recorded music which is fine. But most punters just want to hear the basics anyway.  They like the beat, the riff, the lyrics and the guitar solo. How long the cymbals resonate for is not part of the experience for them.

I agree that we should be producing the highest quality recorded music and make it available to people who want that but for those who don't have the "ear" for that, lets just accept it.  The other thing to remember is that live music is not ever perfect. Most venues are not "right" for playing music in, bands will always make mistakes, and as soon as you introduce an audience, you have ambient noise and other kinds of distractions and distortions.

cheers,

Ian

[peterp]

Interesting video, never much liked the sound of what people listen to (or on) today.
And I don't mean the music genres, the music seems to be all bass or ear splitting mids/highs boosted way beyond reason with no definition and intricacies.  

Have you tried to go to a electronics shop lately and buy audiophile stereo equipment? Nothing there anymore except multichannel systems designed for home theater use which seems to be heavily slanted towards the bass to make the explosions better. You have to search out a specialty shop if you want higher end audio gear.

Guess I am one of the old skool that likes listening to many types of music including well made classical & jazz recordings.

Good thing is I passed my latest hearing test, and I did not even study for it!
Only show a moderate dip at 8K hz, which is normal start of hearing loss as you age. And can also be attributed to the tinnitus that has plagued me since the 80's.

[Flash Harry]

Interesting program.

Mrs Flash doesn't like my Tannoy speakers so they don't get used.  I really miss them.

A friend of mine is a real hifi nut. He spent £10000, yes that's ten thousand pounds on a pair of speakers. His amps are hand made by DNM, you can hear how nice it all sounds, but it's the usual diminishing returns.
I'll stick to more affordable stuff, but I am getting a hankering for vinyl....