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General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

Re: "...does the public in general recognize the advantages and benefits of new formats. Apparently it doesn't."

I've seen, or seen a reference to, quite a many studies from the late '70s and early '80s, just before the digital format was launched, regarding just about every parameter of sound reproduction & audibility in terms of PCM vs. analogue, mostly coming from Japan. But I don't know off hand of any industry studies on hi-rez vs. PCM, even though there must be a lot of those, too, and I'm not even sure if these are what you meant, and in any case please don't ask for any references for now since today is ... my free day!

Despite all the general concerns and specs design going into them, it was of course the "compact" in the compact discs that sold everyone to them. Ditto now with downloads and iPods now. As I remember it, just about the only sound improvement-related comment you ever heard anyone say at the time was that with CDs, there was no rumbling and no clicks and pops. Which was quite nice. The rest was taken at the face value.

Of course, we were all lied about their physical indestructibility and longevity. There were these amusing demonstrations were CDs were thrown around in the room like frisbees...

I think what the non-youths amongst us would hear in hi-rez is increased definition and dynamics, if nothing else. That should be evident even with age-related hearing loss affecting the audible bandwidth in its upper ranges, shouldn't it? But even significant improvement in those areas might be too little reason for most, as you say. There are too many other factors to worry about when thinking of your sound system, and almost all of them surrounded by thick mists of confusion and false information.

And with the unprecedented array of new possibilities and prospects already in sight (creating competitive pressure) there was of course no way to secure broad-based consensus and no motivation for commercial risk-taking in the industry, so there you go. By the time the future was decided (or rather left totally undecided) it was already clear that audio wouldn't for long be the moneymaker, least of all those niches inside it where there was innate interest in propagating the sound aspect. Moreover everyone had just bought again all their recordings in the disc format and wouldn't be easily persuaded to do that again, for another while.

TL


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