Music, Hi-fi I Pods Etc..

i would like to know were are we going and did we lost the enthusiasm of the relationship with music production due to the basic analogue systems we used to have wile growing up from 45's and tapes have now become more of a specs sage systems and technology are more important then the pleasure you used to get from old music being played in unimportant gear? but still enjoyed the music?

 

Would you like to re-phrase that Nando? Let me attempt an answer to the question I think you have raised.

The majority enjoy better quality sound now on their iPods and ear buds than was possible in the past with a record player, combination portable tape and radio box or cheap "HFi" stack bought on the high street.

Many of the bigger iPod docks will better these old technologies.

The problem today is to convince folk that, given the clarity of sound available from even cheap digital sources, it is worth spending some money on projecting that sound into a room. We need to convince them to but good loudspeakers, and probably active one to make it neat, easy and cheap.

The high street solutions for stereo or multi-channel fall seriously short of what is achievable at just a little more cost.

How does this failing affect the enjoyment of music? I don't know. Most don't seem to aspire to better.

 

i like that,so it is true the "feeling" of music has gone to clarity and to hear how clean it sounds and convenient it is Reuther, can anyone tell a note or lyric being played on a song they bought or they just listen to what ? i know what you are saying brian, but....? i think it is sad but i do agree that it does depend on the individual how he or she prefers to listen to music, i just would like a general view as to where music media in public methods of listening at home is going to.

 

it's going to high resolution master files, hopefully exactly what the mastering engineer hears.
Keith.

 

i used to work in recording studios in the 70's early 80's believe me what most engineers heard and wanted to reproduce was not always the case, but i see your point of view keith,

 

does it mean that vynil and other analogue sources are finished? i thought that the final reproduction of sound is or was analogue,

 

Reference Recordings say they record and master in 24/176 and then sell the exact file ( in 24/176) on a data disc to the customer, I can't see how it can get better than that.
Keith.

 

what player could handle playback of that data and speakers would ? not to mention analogue amps, forgive for my ignorance! but to me we are not progressing or are we?

 

Surely by the time all that data reaches the amp / speakers, it's in an analogue format anyway, so the concept of data rate isn't terribly relevant. It's just a matter of having a DAC that can handle it properly.

 

A DAC that is capable of 24/176, all the new ones!
Keith.

 

frequencies as well as sampling can only go so far that data can be enhanced and lost, in the end it is the human brain that allows what you are hearing is harmonic to your pleasure, not all people hear things the same, hence why we all prefer what systems we choose to have personally to reproduce the music in the way that we want to.

 

I personally think that the money is better spent on decent headphones to first appreciate the "clarity of sound available from even cheap digital sources". That might be enough persuasion to go down the HiFi route, it was for me..


...considering myself 'today's folk' being in my early 20's, having had no previous experience with HiFi I invested in a decent entry pair of headphones after discovering the likes of Spotify and Amazon mp3 which made it very easy and quick to listen to a wide variety of music.

Hearing how good the headphones sounded over all the previous cheapy stuff I'd owned I did a little research and brought a DAC with a built in headphone amp (Beresford Caiman) which improved the experience significantly so I upgraded to a premium account.

I then started buying CD's again, still using the PC as the source but ripping them into high quality FLAC files instead of 128kb/s mp3's as I used to.

As soon as I'd left home I went straight out and bought my first HiFi second hand* and am now re-discovering music!

The single item that convinced me it was worth spending the money on quality kit was the headphones (thank-you Sennheiser). I looked at active loudspeakers as you mention, but with the regards to being cheap; I think if I'd spent £100 on active monitors instead of over-ear headphones I wouldn't have been able to appreciate what I was missing in terms of quality.

Until the headphones I was quite happy with my PC 2.1 system. I still have a 2.1 system, except now it consists of a *Roksan amp, stand-mounted B&W speakers and a sub..

My little brother seems quite content with his ipod etc but when he played a few tracks through the system he was astonished.

I can now see what my Granddad was on about (and why he had a room full of audio equipment).

 

Agreed.

I had the pleasure of trying out Tony L's Sen HD600s last week and they sounded superb just driven from the output of a notebook. In many ways better than any conventional system using loudspeakers driven by the finest sources.

 

I am fortunate enough to have owned a pair of Stax Sigmas for the last 25 years.

I have still not heard a set of speakers that come close.

Chris

 

quote

i have hd 600's will never get rid of them, super they are.

 

Hmm, I was toying with auditioning a pair of the Sennheiser HD600s or HD650s as a replacement to my HD555s. I've recently started listening a lot more using my iPhone whilst walking to work and back. Been finding the HD555s can be a touch strident in the upper reaches when listening at a reasonable volume. Not sure I wouldn't be presenting too hard a load to drive though.