What about pre-recorded Music Discs???

[Filterlab]

Thing is that the iPod has put paid to a lot of potential high quality audio, due to its 'funkiness'.

I'll go on record saying that high quality audio has been around for many many years, and in either analogue or digital form, high quality is still high quality.

Just because Blu-ray offers large data transfer rates this will still not compensate for a half deaf, convenience driven, compression happy audio engineer. Unfortunately most music is mastered by these fools these days.

However, if one is to listen to something by Supertramp, Dire Straits, Alan Parsons Project or something of that ilk, they may be surprised in that it sounds cleaner and crisper than something of the modern day.

Why? Simply because they are / were self produced musicians - the best of both worlds. Does it make any difference what Mbps transfer rate the media runs at? Course not, in fact any of these type of artists will sound amazing on redbook, but only because the original recordings are first class.

Yes, my Esocteric player has SACD capability, but I own none. Why have I not bought any? Because redbook is excellent quality as it is and the machine is engineered properly. Will the PS3 ever replace it? HAHAHAHA! Don't be ludicrous!

[drtweak]

Well Then,

I guess the public has spoken and once again has proven that they can't hear and really don't care about sound quality. How truly sad !

I totally disagree that well-recorded music sounds just as good on CD as it does on vinyl or tape, but hey, if your system is not too resolving and you are not very cognizant or familiar with high quality sound (and I don't mean something that is simply expensive and provides a lot of harsh-sounding details) then I guess there's no need for me to push for something that only a minority of those who can actually hear would appreciate.

So I guess I won't be buying into this Blu-ray garbage. I'll stick with my vinyl and tapes and save my CD's for company and non-critical background listening.

Have fun with your playstations and multi-colored iPods.

Cheers!

[frenchglen]

Don't be discouraged.


The earlier posts (1-8) got me thinking.

From a marketing point of view, maybe DVD-Audio/SACD came out too early [as much as that sounds like betraying the advancement of audio!] because really, when DVD came out and replaced VHS it was the equivalent of CD replacing cassestte tape 20 years earlier.

But now that we have "high definition" video, it's truly time that audio also goes HD. Now that people are increasingly aware of the term "high definition", an audio format can be marketed that way, and reinforced by the actual experiencing of it through BD movies in an increasing number of home theatres.

So maybe back in 2000, the benefits of DVD-A/SACD didn't click for the average consumer who didn't realise how good audio could be, cause DVD was busy catching up to CD [well kind-of, I don't like the lossy formats it uses].

But I think one problem still, is that speaker systems [especially decent ones] are just too expensive, they need to come down in price like HD monitors do. Hopefully they will with blu-ray, I really hope it becomes more mainstream, then a CD replacement format [which can be seen as NOT an alternative format to iPod, but for home listening like it has for so many years] will finally take off.

So as much as I love DVD-A now, I *hope* it will be forgotten and precede an even better format that becomes mainstream, like Laserdisc was with DVD.

[Filterlab]

Originally Posted by drtweak

I totally disagree that well-recorded music sounds just as good on CD as it does on vinyl or tape, but hey, if your system is not too resolving...

System not too resolving?!

Have you read my signature?

I agree that top quality vinyl is very, very good indeed, but tape? Come on! Pathetic dynamic headroom and terrible noise levels, even Nakamichi could never get it as good as CD.

Yes, the Linn LP12 is astonishing and others from the like of Clearaudio etc are wonderful, but CD should not be ignored as a legitimate music source.

Millions are sold every year and CD has long since overtaken total sales volume over vinyl.

Try listening to players from the likes of Wadia, Esoteric, Lindemann, Krell and Audio Research and you may be surprised.