Is Hi-Fi dead??

[mrt2]

somewhere a sad hpm is thinking "oh no, what did i do now?"

hpm?

 

[JohnVF]

hpm?

When I hear 'japanese speaker with giant white woofer' I think HPM-100, and it's been a punching bag around here lately. Were you referring to those cheap chip-board boxes like the ones Fisher seemed to put out by the thousands?

 

[djv8ga]

My main concern for the future lies in the recording/mastering of our music. Will hi fi exist there? - this is the key for me. I really don't want to deal with a shrunken selection of overpriced recordings made for hi fi enthusiasts that cost a fortune. Mainstream recordings should be hifi, then play it on whatever you want.

I'm not sure how this will be addressed in the future but hope favorably for us AK types. I think there will always be hifi equipment to purchase, if you have the money to afford it, (plus vintage) but if the recordings are so - so to crap, the hifi experience will be limited.

+1. You look at our systems and it's hard to believe it's something we have to worry about. Talk about de-evolution. :tears:

 

[titanstats]

Don't sweat it. There's no shortage of choice in the world, and there'll always be music. Enjoy your stereo, enjoy your tunes (but for god's sake, keep looking for new stuff!), and share it with your kids, if you have any. The future is bright...

 

[klama2006]

My younger co-workers have always thought I was nuts, for not fully embracing cheap digital audio products. however, Most of them are impressed when they hear my analog system.

I've also intern embraced mp3's, and with the right equipment. I believe they could sound pretty darn good, and It's only going to get better. I think the future of hi-fi looks pretty good, but I also believe it will always be a fringe culture that tries to extract the best possible sound. Most people don't care, and don't even know what were trying to reproduce even exists.

Mention a term like soudstage, to one of today's youth. I guarantee you will get a blank stare back.

 

[moinau]

I quote: "The near future death of CD (and possibly vinyl) and all the hi-res CDs (like SACD)"

Good sound, good music, and good equipment will always be with us, no matter what. Vinyl never died and CD,and SACD will always be with us, in a smaller footprint, same as vinyl. At the moment, Digital sound, for the most part, is not very good, except for a few exception. It is getting better and will be of exceptional quality in the near future. People than, will have a choice, computer, digitized music or Vinyl/CD/SACD. As for me, CD/SACD's player with a good transport and DAC, vinyl, and an analogue tuner are my choices for now. I do download through Apple, but MP3 and other medium are somewhat lacking in general, for the moment.

 

[klama2006]

A loseless digital format sounds very good, I believe this is where were going. Especially since recently storage space prices have dropped to the point that they literally cost next to nothing. A few days ago, after my pc crashed, I picked up a terabyte drive for $70.

 

[moinau]

A loseless digital format sounds very good, I believe this is where were going. Especially since recently storage space prices have dropped to the point that they literally cost next to nothing. A few days ago, I picked up a terabyte drive for $70.

Very true, and this is only the tip of the Iceberg, and a big one it is. It will only get better in a hurry, but the old medium will never disappear. The future, I think, looks very good indeed.:yes:

 

[markshan]

The problem is that digital can be easily and exactly reproduced. When a digital release is properly mastered, the label is literally "giving away the master". I believe that this (cynical as it may sound) is really where the volume wars come from. If the labels can release and sell a trash master, then they still have something to sell down the road when it is time to "remaster" it.

 

[titanstats]

When a digital release is properly mastered, the label is literally "giving away the master".

Ya know, I'd never really thought of it that way before... :scratch2:

 

[klama2006]

The problem is that digital can be easily and exactly reproduced. When a digital release is properly mastered, the label is literally "giving away the master". I believe that this (cynical as it may sound) is really where the volume wars come from. If the labels can release and sell a trash master, then they still have something to sell down the road when it is time to "remaster" it.

I guess that's where were going then. Sometime in the future, you could always "up-convert it" couldn't you? Gee, I wonder?

 

[mrt2]

The problem is that digital can be easily and exactly reproduced. When a digital release is properly mastered, the label is literally "giving away the master". I believe that this (cynical as it may sound) is really where the volume wars come from. If the labels can release and sell a trash master, then they still have something to sell down the road when it is time to "remaster" it.

I think this is off the mark. The newer, shinier reissue thing was a marketing technique for the cd era, when the record companies figured out that by offering a promise of better tape sources, better higher resolution remasters, bonus cuts, photos and essays, was a way to sell the same old analog tape based back catalog.

There is no doubt the loudness wars were intentional, but it defies belief that the industry is collectively holding pristine, uncompressed masters and not releasing them, waiting for just the right moment to reissue. If history is any guide, the reissues of a lot of popular titles over the last decade were more compressed then the older, unremastered versions.