High fidelity takes backseat to portability (CNN Article)

[meccajay]

"Are these the final days of hi-fi sound? Judging by the 2 billion songs downloaded from Apple Inc.'s iTunes service, the ubiquity of white iPod "ear buds," and the hundreds of thousands of folks file-sharing for free, the answer is yes."

 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/23/lofi.america.ap/index.html

 

Yes I'm capt obvious with this, but since weve been on the 'last days and times' mode here for the last few weeks, thought I'd post this lil article..

[Wide]

 

"Are these the final days of hi-fi sound?

 

 

I hope not, it's so much fun to watch cork-sniffing audiophiles argue.

[Rabid]

I wonder if they have been reading the forum? Jeff the Weasel has been talking about this for the last two years.

[blue2blue]

 

"In many ways, good enough (sound quality) is fine," said Paul Connolly, an art installation specialist and longtime audiophile from Sugar Land, Texas, who's now in the process of digitizing his 2,400 CD collection in Apple's lossless digital audio format. "The warmth and the nice distortion that the album had was beautiful," he said. "But do I long for the days of albums? No. Do I long for the days of CDs now that we've gone digital? No. It's a medium."

That audiophile needs to bone up on his recorded music fundamentals... he seems to be under the odd notion that CDs are (were?) not digital.

 

I'm hoping it was an editing error... then again... that would mean the article author and/or his editor are the big dummies...

 

One way or another... someone's a dummy.

[goldear]

Well my most rewarding sound system was not digital. When I was in my early twenties, I had a big Harmon Kardon Citation amp and preamp driving my turntable thru 2 AR90's with I think 10" dual side firing woofers. I know it didn't have digital specks, but It had awsome sound to me. Right now I have small speakers with a sub. It is not the same. I want no parts of even less capable mini sound devices.

[Frantag]

Think about the marketing possibilities five years from now. everyone is going to have to have the new HD mp3/video/pc/phone/satellite entertainment device. Just wait until you have to replace your mp3 collection with 1 bit high resolution audio files. Instantly downloaded to you receiver chip. Hi Fi will be back. Just like graduating from 45's to LP's.

[meccajay]

Well my most rewarding sound system was not digital. When I was in my early twenties, I had a big Harmon Kardon Citation amp and preamp driving my turntable thru 2 AR90's with I think 10" dual side firing woofers.

 

 

I always loved the sound of a great HK amp thru some Infinity Beta 50's, or the old Kappa 600 towers!! Lots of balls, with great clarity and definition!

[Ender_rpm]

 

That audiophile needs to bone up on his recorded music fundamentals... he seems to be under the odd notion that CDs are (were?) not digital. I'm hoping it was an editing error... then again... that would mean the article author and/or his editor are the big dummies... One way or another... someone's a dummy.

 

 

I think the quoted individual was referring to the Medium the music is shipped on (CD vs download as data), versus the method of recording (ie analog or digital).

[Cry Logic]

Hi fidelity is already coming back.

Increasingly, many torrent sites

now have FLAC versions of music

available with no perceivable

difference in quality from the

original.

 

Over time as bandwidth increases

and huge amounts of storage

become the norm, High Fidelity

will slowly become the standard

and the need for decreased file

size will be a thing of the past.

 

It's just a function of the switch

from mechanical playback to

non mechanical playback.