audioraptured said:
It seems we are going from quality, (I sill use wav files for music I've burned), to the 128kps, to less and less and etc. I teach in a high school and for the majority, they don't really care any more about great quality and fine sound. Its just noise, (have you heard rap music on these ipods?), and the latest junk, (I'm sorry, funk); but somehow they can afford a $300 player. I brought in "Take Five" and played it for them on my system I hooked up in Science class,and most couldn't believe the difference. Man, has the mass market pimps ever made junk music addicts and impulse buyers out of this group. A sad condition for all.
Rant ends.......
I'll piggyback onto your rant audioraptured. I couldn't agree more. We live in a culture that really does prize convenience over quality for the most part, and it's not just limited to music playback. It's true of our fast food restaurants, drive through Liquor stores, 300 store shopping malls and online everything and anything under the sun. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good Taco Bell burrito now and again, but I do feel like we live in a culture that has replaced an appreciation of quality with instant gratification.
I've only recently purchased an i-Pod for myself, and frankly I'm glad I did because I can take my music with me wherever I go. However, I only rip my own CD's, and only at the highest quality setting that the medium will allow. I mean I've got 60 gigs of music avaialble, what do I care about file size as long as it sounds better, and it does sound suprizingly good.
So let me postulate this to the group; have you ever brought along a neophite to share in one of you're hobbies? I've taken people mountain biking here in Colorado just to share the thrill of taking a bike up and down a mountain that very few people would even walk on. I've brought folks into my listening room becauise they know that they love music, but have never heard it on a high end system, or even more appalling, on vinyl ("can you even still buy those things?"). I believe that a part of any enthusiasts journey includes the yoke of education. If one of your co-workers is blown away by the sound systems over at Circuit City, Best Buy or the freakin' BLOWZE store at the mall, we owe it to the entire audio community to expose them to the whole new world of the High End. No matter what your passion, if you don't expose others to it there may not be enough users to ultimately support the manufacturers that create the very things you prize, enjoy and lust for.
Which kind of brings me back to the point I was trying to make in this thread originally. Do I believe that SACD will be a viable mass market format? Oh hell no, which is why Circuit City, Best Buy and even Barnes and Noble will be oblivious to their existance, just like they are to the existance of vinyl, high end audio and music beyond the playlists of mass market, top 40 pop, rap and country music radio stations and MTV. In order to find and appreciate those things we'll need to look to those who cater to our specialty - High End audio retailers, local music stores run by actual music lovers rather than souless corporations, and on-line retailers who can support our special needs in markets where distance or population serve to isolate us from what is available.
Phew, I feel better, thanks...