GenZ Demands Better Sound Quality & Spatial Audio!

[gene]

IN A WORLD WHERE - sound quality has been crushed beneath the hegemony of convenience and scale, young music fans learned to actually prefer the tinny tones of compression and exaggerated recording levels while dynamic range and fidelity became distant memories. Into this dystopian world where secret societies of old folks and hipsters clutch tightly their vinyl records and boutique turntables comes… The Survey! The Dolby Labs' survey could be a game changer for the future of consumer audio. Let's see what new market-intel uncovered by Dolby Labs could tell us about the future of audio.

Read: Dolby Survey: GenZ Could Save Music Sound Quality!

 

[davidscott]

Gene, my like was mainly for that great picture.
But the article was good too.

 

[lovinthehd]

Hey Wade, where/when did Spotify release lossless?

 

[Trebdp83]

They still haven't done it.

Spotify promised to add Hifi a year ago. Where is it?

Spotify is set to miss its own deadline to add HiFi CD quality audio. Meanwhile competitors Apple Music, Amazon Music and TIDAL have offered improved audio at no additional cost.. Continue reading

www.hypebot.com

 

[lovinthehd]

They still haven't done it.

Spotify promised to add Hifi a year ago. Where is it?

Spotify is set to miss its own deadline to add HiFi CD quality audio. Meanwhile competitors Apple Music, Amazon Music and TIDAL have offered improved audio at no additional cost.. Continue reading

www.hypebot.com

I heard at one point there were some test markets here and there....but not much on that either.

 

[-Jim-]

Too bad Wayde missed the mark on Spotify. Lost credibility with that one. (I've been waiting for the Spotify upgrade all year it seems).

 

[Wayde Robson]

Too bad Wayde missed the mark on Spotify. Lost credibility with that one. (I've been waiting for the Spotify upgrade all year it seems).

It was "announced", God only knows when it will actually be deployed, I'm waiting for it my region too, but I hear it will be deployed slowly region-by-region. Hey, I make no promises about Spotify. I want to test it out and compare it to others, I've been waiting since last Feb when they announced it for the year 2021, but they're running out of time, they've got around 12-hours or Spotify looses credibility IMHO.

Even Apple's "lossless" stream is imperfect, it's only available over very specific setups and not at all if you're using a Windows PC, support for which is apparently coming anytime now, I'm still waiting.

 

[Trebdp83]

I hope they get it going soon. It’s the one service I haven’t tried because they haven’t turned on HIFI. Apple Music is a mess and not too far off from Tidal. Lossless and Atmos are fine for the most part on both services, but requiring external DACs for Hi-Res on Apple and MQA supported devices for Hi-Res on Tidal is bulls#%t. Prefer Qobuz for two channel lossless and Hi-Res but they don’t deal in multichannel atmos tracks.

 

[Old-Timer]

From my own personal experience, I think that vinyl has a lot to do with the resurgence of quality audio. I remember playing some music for my sons (music which they had already experienced in low-bit MP3's), and their response was overwhelming. Things like, "So big", "So clear", and "I never knew those instruments were even in there" were their unsolicited reactions. I believe that, given a choice, they would all choose lossless formats. I also believe that too many are unaware of the alternative.

 

[eljr]

IN A WORLD WHERE - sound quality has been crushed beneath the hegemony of convenience and scale, young music fans learned to actually prefer the tinny tones of compression and exaggerated recording levels while dynamic range and fidelity became distant memories. Into this dystopian world where secret societies of old folks and hipsters clutch tightly their vinyl records and boutique turntables comes… The Survey! The Dolby Labs' survey could be a game changer for the future of consumer audio. Let's see what new market-intel uncovered by Dolby Labs could tell us about the future of audio.

View attachment 52695

Read: Dolby Survey: GenZ Could Save Music Sound Quality!

it's but a handful

It's not an generation. Just a few who think it's cool as a point of differentiation.

 

[VonMagnum]

I was with the article until the bit about occasional "low bitrate" iTunes song purchase. 256kbps AAC is nearly 100% transparent in every double blind test thrown at it. And while Apple headphones and earbuds are highly questionable, the quest for "lossless" music online is one of the least rewarding for that reason. It speaks more to Stereophile hysterical nonsense than an actual question of high fidelity. Moreover, Dolby Atmos streaming won't save you if that's what you believe becauseit is most certainly NOT LOSSLESS in Apple Music. You must buy honest to goodness Blu-rays if you want lossless Atmos audio.

Sadly, the industry wants physical media to die a swift death as they have no control over you with physical media (the real reason to buy it). If they want to change the lyrics to some woke nonsense or ban albums entirely they can't do it while physical media exists! They can wipe music or replace it with a "remastered" version from your flipping RENTAL subscription any time time they feel like it. Welcome to the dystopian future of your dreams (or nightmares).