Survey shows increasing preference for MP3 by youngsters, audiophiles weep
Lsi9
Posts: 616
The future of high quality music? man kids dont have any clue what good sounds are...
"We can already envision the flame fest on this one, so we'll just cut to the chase. Jonathan Berger, professor of music at Stanford, has been conducting some pretty interesting tests on incoming students, and he's been recording results that'll surely make audiophiles cringe. He has been asking his students to listen to tracks in MP3 format as well as in formats of much higher quality, all while asking them to select the one they like best; increasingly, youngsters have been choosing the sizzling, tinny sounds of MP3 over more pure representations. The reasoning may have more to do with psychology that audiology, as many conclude that generations simply prefer what they're used to. Ever known someone to swear that vinyl sounds best, pops and all? So yeah, what we've really learned is that MP3 is more of an "acquired taste," but those still attempting to build their SACD collection should be genuinely afraid of the future."
Article here
"We can already envision the flame fest on this one, so we'll just cut to the chase. Jonathan Berger, professor of music at Stanford, has been conducting some pretty interesting tests on incoming students, and he's been recording results that'll surely make audiophiles cringe. He has been asking his students to listen to tracks in MP3 format as well as in formats of much higher quality, all while asking them to select the one they like best; increasingly, youngsters have been choosing the sizzling, tinny sounds of MP3 over more pure representations. The reasoning may have more to do with psychology that audiology, as many conclude that generations simply prefer what they're used to. Ever known someone to swear that vinyl sounds best, pops and all? So yeah, what we've really learned is that MP3 is more of an "acquired taste," but those still attempting to build their SACD collection should be genuinely afraid of the future."
Article here
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Post edited by Lsi9 on
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those still attempting to build their SACD collection should be genuinely afraid of the future
I know that I am.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
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F*&K those kids; they can take my SACD collection when they pry them from my cold, dead fingers....TNRabbit
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More vintage records for me, no problem!Zu Soul Supreme
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They will Rabbit, they will. Of course by then they won't know how to play them. :eek:F*&K those kids; they can take my SACD collection when they pry them from my cold, dead fingers....
Damn kids. Oh well, for some it'll be a gateway to high-fi.~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
That study is one of the first that makes some 'sense' to me in terms of what I do for a living. Habituation and socialization do impact the average human. I had a friend in the field of linguistics who once said "Language was a form of hypnosis!" And he meant it, suggestibility is great and social pressure and perceptions additive and coercive.
So 'learning to listen' is something we're all too familiar with. My wife can't distinguish a book shelf pair of Sony speakers I have from my JBL Studio Monitors (cerca mid-80s). She can't distinguish Standard def programing from HD unless I shuttle back and forth from one to the other a dozen times!
Oh well. Is the format you listen to your music also a kind of hypnosis?
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They will Rabbit, they will. Of course by then they won't know how to play them. :eek:
Damn kids. Oh well, for some it'll be a gateway to high-fi.
You raise a good point here and did not even notice. Let me expand upon your brilliance for just a moment...
There has been talk of marijuana as being a gateway drug that leads to other, more dangerous drugs. Do you mean to imply that MP3s are like pot and that once a person starts down that path it leads to more dangerous behavior like killing people to take SACD's from them so they can sell them for more downloads?:p:eek:The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
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This reminds me of a "Zit's" comic strip in the Sunday paper a few weeks ago.
It show's the parent's looking at their kid hanging out with a few friends...In one panel, it shows all of the kids sitting in different parts of a room, all of them with Ipod's in hand, with headphones on, in their own worlds. In the next panel, it shows them all on their cell phones standing in a group talking amongst one another.
The parents then say "Wow, remember when listening to music was something you shared, and phone calls were private?"
I guess it's just what kids are used to anymore. Most newer music is recorded in a way so that it will sound good compressed all to hell and listened to through a crappy pair of ear buds. They run the mixes really hot, so that it gives you the illusion of sounding good, without actually sounding good.
Most kids anymore have never even heard music in a proper stereo. It's always on a crappy car stereo with the bass cranked to the moon, on some poorly set up 15" subs...no mods were done to the other speakers of course. What's treble? That actually exists? They just want the bass. Gotta love that "rust falling off the bottom of the car, trunk rattle" noise.
Aside from the poorly set up car stereo, it's always on the Ipod...on which sound quality isn't even a factor. They look at it more from a "how much can I fit on here?" angle.
I don't own an MP3 player...nor do I plan on getting one anytime soon...Or ever for that matter. I'll stick to my CD's.The nirvana inducer-
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Lol. Great comic strip. However, you shouldn't generalize all "newer music". I think you mean "all newer POPULAR and mainstream music". Also, you gotta keep in mind there are alot of studios whose work is just downright shoddy. Good production value in music is really hard to find. There are only a select few studios to trust anymore nowadays, especially with equipment and computers and software allowing artists to produce their own music. Therefore, you will often find it hard to distinguish music coming from compressed and crappy sources and music coming from good audio systems.
Also, note that much of popular music nowadays has alot of bass because they like to dance to it. Used to be that dance music would be classical music because people actually knew how to dance with steps and leading and other techniques. Now people just jig, jive, and bump and grind (I am guilty of this).
As for the last bit about iPods... Can't bring up a point about that. I think it's just preference. Some people just want to hear music. They don't care about quality. Technically speaking, that is a more pragmatic approach to a commodity such as music. Much like proper grammar and pronunciation when interacting colloquially. The point is to communicate, not to be proper. same with music. The point is the feel and hear the rhythms and melodies of the music, not to nitpick at the smoothness of the highs and lows. Your brain corrects most of the off-color noise and sounds that doesn't fit with the music, anyhow.comfortablycurt wrote: »This reminds me of a "Zit's" comic strip in the Sunday paper a few weeks ago.
It show's the parent's looking at their kid hanging out with a few friends...In one panel, it shows all of the kids sitting in different parts of a room, all of them with Ipod's in hand, with headphones on, in their own worlds. In the next panel, it shows them all on their cell phones standing in a group talking amongst one another.
The parents then say "Wow, remember when listening to music was something you shared, and phone calls were private?"
I guess it's just what kids are used to anymore. Most newer music is recorded in a way so that it will sound good compressed all to hell and listened to through a crappy pair of ear buds. They run the mixes really hot, so that it gives you the illusion of sounding good, without actually sounding good.
Most kids anymore have never even heard music in a proper stereo. It's always on a crappy car stereo with the bass cranked to the moon, on some poorly set up 15" subs...no mods were done to the other speakers of course. What's treble? That actually exists? They just want the bass. Gotta love that "rust falling off the bottom of the car, trunk rattle" noise.
Aside from the poorly set up car stereo, it's always on the Ipod...on which sound quality isn't even a factor. They look at it more from a "how much can I fit on here?" angle.
I don't own an MP3 player...nor do I plan on getting one anytime soon...Or ever for that matter. I'll stick to my CD's.SDA 1C, SDA 2A, SDA SRS 2, CMT-340SE, Swan M200MKII, Swan D1080MKII, Behringer MS40
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Yeah, not ALL newer music is like that. Most of the stuff that's popular is though unfortunately. There's still plenty of music being recorded in high quality settings today.
I like music that has a lot of bass too...but a lot of people ignore the other aspects of the music. A good majority of the people out there that think they have "badass systems" in their car...really don't. They upgrade the head unit, put a couple subs and an amp in it, and leave the other stock speakers in space. They have a ton of bass now...so they think they have an awesome system. It goes "boom boom" really loud now, so it must be awesome right?..lol Like I said...I like nice rich bass too...but I like to be able to hear midrange and treble as well...lol
Like you said, not everyone is really that concerned with sound quality. Not everyone is an audiophile. There are many people who honestly can't really tell the difference between a high end system, and something that they got from Walmart for 50 dollars.The nirvana inducer-
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My boys are learning what it's all about and appreciate music's past, already and how it should be heard. My 11 yr old loves Zeppelin, Floyd, Beatles, etc, etc."SOME PEOPLE CALL ME MAURICE,
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My boys are learning what it's all about and appreciate music's past, already and how it should be heard. My 11 yr old loves Zeppelin, Floyd, Beatles, etc, etc.
You should see my 20 month old...and he can't leave the equipment alone either. Always tinkering with them when he isn't listening or jamming to the music.
