technologies which deliver an impression of high fidelity

[sterling shoote]

Thinking about the thousands of posts to this forum which debate what technologies out there today actually improve our recorded music listening experience, I thought, why not just compare yesterday's technology to today's, i.e. my circa 1959 Magnavox Transistor Radio to my iPhone 7 Plus. Listening to each, I can, for sure, say the iPhone delivers better sound in all manner that better can be discerned. It's just amazing, Now, I suppose, if we looked at the technology of these two devices, we would be able to understand why the iPhone sounds dramatically better and transfer that knowledge to our overall understanding of what is in fact important to reproducing more life-like music. At any rate, seems to me, what most effects our impressions of a great stereo or multi-channel AVS today are its speakers, with bigger sounding better. What technologies do you think help deliver a sense of realism?

 

[pewternhrata]

Id have to say the media that music is stored to, and the ability for new technology to store more data. Take a record for example, something as simple as dust can degrade the sound quality, put that record on a cd, no dust, no imperfections. Same goes for sd cards, hard drives and so on. Digital era did wonders, aside from compressing data. Lossless media to me is king.

Speakers can be built to better specs these days, but i know a handful of vintage gear that is still to this day top notch

 

[shadyJ]

Computer simulation and modeling of things like acoustics, driver behavior, speaker behavior, and so on has made a big contribution. There was a lot more guesswork involved in design in the old days. Today you can model the driver, you can model the cabinet and design, you can model the acoustics around the cabinet, and so on. You can do this very quickly too. Now 3D printing has made it easy to test models at a rapid pace as well. Better measurement software and techniques for testing have also made leaps in loudspeaker design.

 

[Bucknekked]

I would expand upon the contribution of digital media. Taking songs recorded in any of the analog formats and digitizing them makes them eternal: they do not degrade with use. Modern recording techniques that are entirely digital give us source material that can be pristine in terms of noise and defects.

I think artists have also gotten the message that high quality recording sessions do matter. The better the quality of the performance and initial recording, the better the overall listening experience. Post engineering can make it sound even better, although sometimes it takes a turn for the worse.

I too remember listening to an iPod for the first time and just being wowed by what I could do. I could literally carry around 1,000's of songs in my pocket and listen to them where ever I wish. When I upgraded my headphones and got rid of earbuds, a very early occurance, the sky became the limit. That was a genuine turning point. I have always loved music, but the digital iPod gave me a whole new view of what was possible.

Finally, one of my chief beefs with vinyl and tape is hiss, noise, pops, clicks and other irritating stuff. I am free from that now. I hated it. I am free from it now. Between songs, there's dead silence. Its a wonderful thing.

 

[MrBoat]

I

Finally, one of my chief beefs with vinyl and tape is hiss, noise, pops, clicks and other irritating stuff. I am free from that now. I hated it. I am free from it now. Between songs, there's dead silence. Its a wonderful thing.

This was always mine as well. Digital was not free from some rather problematic side effects either like on some analog to digital conversions to where I would rather have the pops and such because the depth of what I was so familiar with not being totally there.