This looks like a good place to give a shout out to Neil Young and his Pono Music project. True Hi Fidelity digital music for those who really want to hear all the music.
I can hear a difference in side-by-side comparisons, but for the convenience, streaming music is good enough. Now if someone wants a good media experience, they will watch an 8k movie.
Age has robbed my aural perception of its acuity, so I’m happy to accept the data loss inherent in an mp3 download for all the benefits that come with it. It’s analogous to the arrival of digital photography. Those of us who routinely handled the chemicals necessary for film and print processing and poured them down the drain appreciated the freedom our consciences gained when those processes were supplanted by digital imaging. Likewise, polyvinyl chloride is an incredibly persistent, pernicious pollutant, and compact discs aren’t much better with their plastic jewel cases tossed into the bargain.
Besides, I’m not convinced a diamond stylus banging around inside a pressed vinyl groove really produces all that much ‘quality’ sound. If you ask me, it’s the devices that generate the air waves we hear (i.e., speakers) that are where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. The trend there has been toward speakers that, in scale and design, resemble less and less the instruments they’re mimicking. Cramming a symphony orchestra of 80 musicians into earbuds? Listening to Hendrix on your smart speaker when he performed live with an 8-foot high wall of acoustic speakers on stage? It ain’t gonna sound the same no matter what the recording medium.
MP3 and iPod compression is just as bad. CD’s had virtually no compression, but because of digital sound mechanical and stiff. Vinyl is still the best.
This comic is so true. I remember resisting moving from vinyl to CDs for the longest time, both because of the expense and personal bias. But then I heard my favorite album on CD and for the first time realized there were huge parts of the music that had never come across on the vinyl… and I was hooked. But now we’re to MP3s and it’s worse than vinyl… yet people settle for it because they’ve been raised on MP3s and to them it sounds “fine”… and even if they did hear full-range music it possibly would sound odd to them. And try to go to a live concert and the volume and bass is so loud it drowns out the actual music.
Not to sound like an old fogey because this was a bit before my time, but what ever happened to barn dances and local musical performances? I think a lot of “real music” died when the phonograph was invented. But then, a lot of real music was created… because now we could record our work for posterity.
Give a little, take a little. But I’m sorry… MP3 is just a plain bad idea: sacrificing quality for disc space— especially in this day of really cheap Terrabyte SSD drives and whallopping huge -storage music players.
With lousy cheap earbud headhones. WHO IS TO SAVE US FROM OURSELVES?
lee85736 almost 5 years ago
A fitting song for making the San Andreas fault let go.
jpsomebody almost 5 years ago
Must be Memorex.
Larry Kroeger Premium Member almost 5 years ago
This looks like a good place to give a shout out to Neil Young and his Pono Music project. True Hi Fidelity digital music for those who really want to hear all the music.
Breadboard almost 5 years ago
Can’t help but say “Needs More Cow-Bell” ;-)
Yardley701 almost 5 years ago
Needs quiet!
kd1sq Premium Member almost 5 years ago
The loveliness of Paris, is somehow sadly gay…The glory that was Rome, is of another day…
sloaches almost 5 years ago
It is true that some vinyl records do sound a lot better than digital downloads or CDs, but it depends on how well they were mastered in the studio.
nosirrom almost 5 years ago
So streaming music gives a volume discount?
car2ner almost 5 years ago
sadly much music isn’t worth listening to any more depth. I’d love to see a renewed interest in some well mastered music.
guy42 almost 5 years ago
You cannot beat live music. It is difficult to take most of it with you though.
MS72 almost 5 years ago
Same thing can be said about the Jurassic Park movie. That ole T-Rex can really ROAR!
Ermine Notyours almost 5 years ago
I can hear a difference in side-by-side comparisons, but for the convenience, streaming music is good enough. Now if someone wants a good media experience, they will watch an 8k movie.
david_42 almost 5 years ago
In college (1972), I put a dorm-mate’s record on my system and he was surprised to hear the 32 Hz bass note that preceded the first song.
Seed_drill almost 5 years ago
I think there are some high def streaming cites, but I’m still a physical media guy.
Bill The Nuke almost 5 years ago
Are we confusing volume with content?
Andrew Sleeth almost 5 years ago
Age has robbed my aural perception of its acuity, so I’m happy to accept the data loss inherent in an mp3 download for all the benefits that come with it. It’s analogous to the arrival of digital photography. Those of us who routinely handled the chemicals necessary for film and print processing and poured them down the drain appreciated the freedom our consciences gained when those processes were supplanted by digital imaging. Likewise, polyvinyl chloride is an incredibly persistent, pernicious pollutant, and compact discs aren’t much better with their plastic jewel cases tossed into the bargain.
Besides, I’m not convinced a diamond stylus banging around inside a pressed vinyl groove really produces all that much ‘quality’ sound. If you ask me, it’s the devices that generate the air waves we hear (i.e., speakers) that are where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. The trend there has been toward speakers that, in scale and design, resemble less and less the instruments they’re mimicking. Cramming a symphony orchestra of 80 musicians into earbuds? Listening to Hendrix on your smart speaker when he performed live with an 8-foot high wall of acoustic speakers on stage? It ain’t gonna sound the same no matter what the recording medium.
the lost wizard almost 5 years ago
Real Tony.
ron almost 5 years ago
High volume has nothing to do with high-quality sound. Just the opposite is usually true, in fact.
PibCrazy Premium Member almost 5 years ago
my albums survived the ’70’s. the sktch-sktch is louder than the fidelity :(
William Bludworth Premium Member almost 5 years ago
The Universe is presented in good ol’ fashioned ANALOG! Yet we humans think a digital reproduction is better.
SMH
banjoAhhh! almost 5 years ago
MP3 and iPod compression is just as bad. CD’s had virtually no compression, but because of digital sound mechanical and stiff. Vinyl is still the best.
Snoots almost 5 years ago
This comic is so true. I remember resisting moving from vinyl to CDs for the longest time, both because of the expense and personal bias. But then I heard my favorite album on CD and for the first time realized there were huge parts of the music that had never come across on the vinyl… and I was hooked. But now we’re to MP3s and it’s worse than vinyl… yet people settle for it because they’ve been raised on MP3s and to them it sounds “fine”… and even if they did hear full-range music it possibly would sound odd to them. And try to go to a live concert and the volume and bass is so loud it drowns out the actual music.
Not to sound like an old fogey because this was a bit before my time, but what ever happened to barn dances and local musical performances? I think a lot of “real music” died when the phonograph was invented. But then, a lot of real music was created… because now we could record our work for posterity.
Give a little, take a little. But I’m sorry… MP3 is just a plain bad idea: sacrificing quality for disc space— especially in this day of really cheap Terrabyte SSD drives and whallopping huge -storage music players.
With lousy cheap earbud headhones. WHO IS TO SAVE US FROM OURSELVES?