The Dumbing Down of Audio

[Alex2507]

Hmm I'm not so sure I completely agree with that dumber teachers remark.

You'll understand when you're older.

 

[ImcLoud]

I use an ipad to do a lot of music listening, its just the most convenient way for me to listen to music, I have a cd collection, a vinyl collection, I can buy which ever sacd cd dvd's I want but it is not convenient for me, I buy itunes and can have my music where ever I want it when ever I want it...

If you do your best to make sure you get good sound, you can get good sound from these devices, I go from ipad to pure dock to dac to amp to speakers, it sounds good, its easay to use and I enjoy it, I have a b'd it with cds and its about the same to my ears.. I also sometimes plug my pc rite into my dac, also works well... I am not sitting in a "clean room" with eggcrates glued to the ceiling listening to a system built by an engineer, I am in my parlor with my speakers installed in front of a big window with some chairs half way in front of them 24 foot ceilings, no room treatments, my wife is blending a smoothie, my kids are running around like indians, and I am just happy to be able to make out the words sometimes...

I love my stereo systems, they are my way to get away but if I obsessed much more about it , I may as well start to call listening, work...

 

[fuzz092888]

You'll understand when you're older.

Pffft, statistically speaking that statement couldn't be more wrong

I never said I disagreed with dumber schools and students

 

[oppman99]

Thanks, Gene. The dumbing down of our music and music reproduction is just one aspect of the dumbing down of our culture in general. It manifests itself in film, television, and in print and internet magazines and newspapers, not to mention tattoos, piercings, hair styles, hair coloring, and clothing. We even have dumber schools and dumber teachers to accomodate dumber students.

Goodman,

Would you be so kind as to share your profession so I can make some off the cuff statements and pontificate without having any clue what the job/profession entails?

 

[Topken]

As they say Garbage in Garbage out even with the best of speakers. I personally have a Creative X-FI Extremegamer PCI edition Soundcard along with a set of Logitech X530 5.1 speakers for the PC for gaming/music/videos but if I really want to enjoy my high quality flac/hd tracks I use my Audio Technica-M50x. I tend to use the speakers when I just need something on in the background but I do have the higher quailty music and a good pair of headphones to listen to said music in a confined bubble as it were. I can hear the difference between 320kbps mp3s and flac files personally. and prefer the higher quailty encodes when I can get them. But most of the music around is in lower quality formats and it sucks most of the time. I am also thinking of picking up a FiiO E17(K)/18 for my setup at some point in the future to get the most out of my headphones.

 

[zhimbo]

I don't particularly care all that much if a large part of the audio market is overrun with crap, if there's also a greater variety and availability of quality stuff- which there most certainly is compared to what was typically available when I was growing up. I listened to a few commercial radio stations on cheap crappy speakers and even crappier headphones growing up. I feel like I'm in audio heaven these days. It's analogous to coffee: there's a lot of people out there who think Starbucks is what "quality" coffee is, and Starbucks and copycats are everywhere, but I'm also able to get an amazing variety of truly amazing coffee - in part thanks to Starbucks, who at least helped open up the American market to the idea of not-awful coffee as something to seek out. Likewise, how many people do we see come to the forums because they got started on Bose, and now want something better?

Of all the issues brought up, the hyper-compressed CD sound is the really important issue as I see it, because there often isn't an alternative. This is more of a problem with newer, popular music; more "fringey" stuff or older material is less likely to be affected (although some "remastering" jobs of older releases are horrific).

 

[Hobbit]

Like many have commented I find to first order the worst problem is poor recordings. Whether it's compressed, loud, or just poorly produced. If I take some of the best recordings I have and create even a 128kbs WMA file, they often still sound better than many of my CD's.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

As they say Garbage in Garbage out even with the best of speakers. I personally have a Creative X-FI Extremegamer PCI edition Soundcard along with a set of Logitech X530 5.1 speakers for the PC for gaming/music/videos but if I really want to enjoy my high quality flac/hd tracks I use my Audio Technica-M50x. I tend to use the speakers when I just need something on in the background but I do have the higher quailty music and a good pair of headphones to listen to said music in a confined bubble as it were. I can hear the difference between 320kbps mp3s and flac files personally. and prefer the higher quailty encodes when I can get them. But most of the music around is in lower quality formats and it sucks most of the time. I am also thinking of picking up a FiiO E17(K)/18 for my setup at some point in the future to get the most out of my headphones.

Before spending money on new electronics, try to go out and listen to live music then visit good audio store and listen some more.
What i expect is you would quickly realize that your logitech speakers are quite limited for music reproduction.
I'm not telling you that you have to buy crazy expensive stuff, but I would tell you that even on very small budgets and smart choices you can get a significant upgrade over existing speakers

 

[Topken]

Yeah I am not expecting the best out of my $60 at the time 5.1 setup but it works for games and just background noise when I need it. I have the Audio Technica ATHM50x for dedicated listening when I need it. I have the better sounding Equipment already but for basic needs the Logitech works. I needed new headphones anyways since I was using a pair of Velodyne Vfrees that I got for free but the issue with them is they hurt my ears as soon as I put them on since they basically sit on instead of over my ears.

As for upgraded speakers I am thinking I will grab one of those Vizio 5.1 based soundbars for the bedroom so I can enjoy movies and my consoles better. I will be picking up a decent AVR+Speakers for the main area once we get the new house in which is going to take 2-3 months to go in.

Soundbar is perfectly fine in the bedroom so that is an expense I do not mind paying.

As for the soundcard I already own it as well since I picked up it and the Logitech X530s around the same time back in 2008.

I tend to use Slacker Radio for background noise anyways so the Logitech work perfectly fine there.

 

[Hobbit]

Hi Gene, Something not mentioned were the video streaming services - Amazon, Netflix, et al. I find the sound and picture quality of through these services does not compare well against their BVD counterparts.

We're buying AVRs and Pre's with all this decoding capability yet about the only place to rent blu-rays is through red box, and who know's how much longer we'll be able to do that? For someone like me, while I love watching movies, I'm not that interested in owning a BVD collection. I never seem to go back and re-watch the ones I bought.

 

[amco]

Great article Gene, and I feel that your point 6 is ignored by most audiophiles who eternally compare expensive boxes with even more expensive boxes, but rarely if ever recognise the original source music as the ONLY true reference to assess the quality of reproduction. Have just scanned the entire 7 pages of comments, and as usual many are just nit-pricking. However to my surprise, no-one has mentioned the significant additional point that I believe you missed - the 21st century listening environment!

It is neither a secret nor an opinion to observe that the global architectural trend to crisp, elegant, minimalist decor has produced impossible acoustic spaces in homes, restaurants and indeed just about anywhere! And this point is well established in the many comments on offensive noise levels in many restaurants. Suddenly one day, it just hit me that ONE reason my rather nice 70s Hifi Stereo sounded so great in my parents home is that the lounge room had wall-to-wall carpet, well stuffed furniture, and smallish curtained windows. Meanwhile my fashionable new triplex appartment with 10 foot+ ceilings in the large open-plan lounge/dining area, and with huge floor-ceiling windows, is an acoustic disaster. For this reason, well-designed car systems just MAY provide better performance than a similar investment in a home system.

The unfortunate conclusion for me, and for a substantial number of all of us, is that nothing short of a demolition job can remedy the situation. Well, there is always the alternative of wholesale, agressive and highly invasive acoustic treatments that would entirely destroy the aesthetics and lead to a divorce case ...

PS: most architects seem to be entirely ignorant of acoustics issues in their trendy designs!?! Now if they were professional engineers, they might get fired for disfunctional design, but as "artists" they just win prizes for innovative design. Hmmm... take the money and run ...

 

[Topken]

Great article Gene, and I feel that your point 6 is ignored by most audiophiles who eternally compare expensive boxes with even more expensive boxes, but rarely if ever recognise the original source music as the ONLY true reference to assess the quality of reproduction. Have just scanned the entire 7 pages of comments, and as usual many are just nit-pricking. However to my surprise, no-one has mentioned the significant additional point that I believe you missed - the 21st century listening environment!

It is neither a secret nor an opinion to observe that the global architectural trend to crisp, elegant, minimalist decor has produced impossible acoustic spaces in homes, restaurants and indeed just about anywhere! And this point is well established in the many comments on offensive noise levels in many restaurants. Suddenly one day, it just hit me that ONE reason my rather nice 70s Hifi Stereo sounded so great in my parents home is that the lounge room had wall-to-wall carpet, well stuffed furniture, and smallish curtained windows. Meanwhile my fashionable new triplex appartment with 10 foot+ ceilings in the large open-plan lounge/dining area, and with huge floor-ceiling windows, is an acoustic disaster. For this reason, well-designed car systems just MAY provide better performance than a similar investment in a home system.

The unfortunate conclusion for me, and for a substantial number of all of us, is that nothing short of a demolition job can remedy the situation. Well, there is always the alternative of wholesale, agressive and highly invasive acoustic treatments that would entirely destroy the aesthetics and lead to a divorce case ...

PS: most architects seem to be entirely ignorant of acoustics issues in their trendy designs!?! Now if they were professional engineers, they might get fired for disfunctional design, but as "artists" they just win prizes for innovative design. Hmmm... take the money and run ...

I kind of touch on that subject when I said use my Audio Technica ATH-M50x for when I just want to listen to music in my quiet bedroom. I have the logitech speakers for just tossing out background noise if its to quiet for me which is sometimes. So yeah having an acoustically treated room is not needed when you use headphones. All you really need is a nice quiet room to sit in.

 

[Deep Ear]

Gene,


Loved your article “The dumbing down of audio....”. If we step further back to the fifties and early sixties, to the advent of our hobby; to the days when nasties like compression of CDs, and tiny cubed speakers did not exist, we find the glorious stereo and three channel RCA Living Stereo and Mercury Living Presence recordings. These were uncompressed recordings, captured on tape running at 30 ips, and played back on giant speakers with lots of piston area to move air, energize the room, flap your pant leg, and put a huge smile on your (most times single and well-heeled audiophile) face.

In 1957, it was Paul Klipsch who is generally credited with creating the first center channel speaker, the Heresy, to go with his Klipschorns, giant ~20 cubic foot stereo speakers specifically designed to be placed in the listening room’s left and right front corners. Back then the TV’s were 13” to 25”, and note the term Wife Acceptance Factor didn’t exist.

When I was designing speakers for a large multi-national conglomerate we (male) engineers used to say to our (male) bosses, who were always pushing us to get our designs done, “Do you want it good, fast or cheap...pick two.” Nowadays, I think the more correct quote would be, “Do you want it small, fast or cheap...pick two”.

Today, sound bars with puny drivers, totally incapable of producing the dynamic range of live unamplified music (DRM) are king. And it is the more décor and wife acceptable video display that takes all the space. Think about it, when was the last time your significant other yelled, “Turn down the soundbar!” Not while engrossed watching Sleepless in Seattle I’m guessing.

Sigh, “the more things change, the more things remain the same”. (Kerr 1849). Or, If we’re talking statistics and numbers, IMHO, what we are now experiencing after 60 years of home audio is known as “regression to the mean”. With the two major mean parameters being small and cheap. Enter the one piece sound bar! Plop and play!