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In Reply to: RE: Gergiev and the LSO escape the Barbican on their latest recording posted by Chris from Lafayette on November 16, 2016 at 11:18:41
" CD resolution is technology of the 80's (not that it can't still provide excellent results BTW). And this level of resolution on a brand new LSO Live album is really a bummer in this day and age. "Given that:
1. There is now only one plant pressing SACDs
2. Very few people in the great scheme of things have the ability to replay them.
3. Blu Ray audio has not been a screaming success.
4. Downloading aside from MP3s is a minority activity.It is hardly surprising that in the main record companies go where the money is; CDs (still hanging on), MP3 downloads and streaming services (uncompressed yet to prove itself economically, though I guess that's true of all streaming services at this time).
Sadly, if it is your interest, for these reasons I would not expect a great number of MCH releases in the future. Even supporters of SACD and MCH like Channel Classics are now abandoning the format.
Edits: 11/16/16Follow Ups:
Reference Recordings has released a cd-only version, then SACD, then 24/176 Download,
and there are lots of LSO SACDs, so probably ( hopefully ) this one will have Hi-Rez release soon.
. . . not just a new classical blu-ray, but a new classical 4K ultra HD blu-ray with Dolby Atmos . Time for me to upgrade MY television and sound system - but where am I going to put the extra speakers???! I mean, after all, Khatia deserves it! ;-)
downloading has become the dominant music medium. IMO, higher-rez downloads haven't been more popular because the premiums being charged for them are just too high. When technological capabilities improve, maybe that will change.
I agree the premiums are offputting. However the main barriers IMO to hi-rez downloading include first having to know where to get them. All of the suppliers are obscure, small companies that are basically unknown as far as the great unwashed public are concerned. Secondly they require more computer expertise than many are happy to cope with including many of my, admittedly now somewhat aged, friends; installing dedicated download managers, zipped files etc. No way.
Most people downloading use services like i-tunes or Amazon: see an album or track, check a button and, zap, its on your phone and/or tablet, no worries. But it's MP3. Good enough for me, they say.
I am genuinely fearful that the great mass of music consumers really don't desire anything better than 320kb/s MP3. As mass consumption ultimately defines the market, come 5 years time that is therefore all we will be able to buy/listen to (ignoring audiophile labels with artists that you have never heard of making artisically dull but technically stunning stuff). This is why, for example, I think that all of that huffing and puffing elsewhere on these boards about MQA is just a waste of breath in the face of a real threat.
Well, if listening to better sounding music requires extra computer expertise, that's a cost, right?
But it doesn't have to be that way. I think higher resolution audio and video will come to the masses.
"I think higher resolution audio and video will come to the masses."That's a good positive hope. I don't know anything about video but as far as audio is concerned I can, however, find no evidence to support this.
No hi-rez format post CD has been succesful in any true sense. The only really succesful format after CD has been MP3. I count CD as hi-rez in this respect simply so that I can include streaming services offering 16/44.1 flac streams as hi-rez. In the latter espect all of the figures that I can obtain so far (they are very difficult to find) indicate that services offering MP3 have subscriber bases many times that of hi-rez services e.g. paying subscribers: Spotify 40+ million, Tidal maybe 3+ million.
I don't think hi-rez will come to the masses simply because they have no aspiration for it.
As for needing additional computer expertise this could be seen as a "cost" but is actually a barrier. Most ordinary people (i.e. non-audiophiles) just do not find the effort of learning the skills required worthwhile as the result is not that important to them.
Just to add a little flavour in regard to the demise of true hi-rez physical medium recordings, Linn Records also now appear to have stopped issuing SACDs for new releases and only CDs are available for their latest offerings.
Edits: 11/18/16 11/18/16
I also like being able to buy one sample track before taking the plunge on a whole symphony. Save a lot of money that way.
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