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Interesting post - !
"a truly successful product provides either the richest user experience (fidelity) or the greatest convenience. Less successful products fall into what he labeled the fidelity belly, “the no-man’s-land of consumer experience,” characterized by commercial apathy, insufficient fidelity, and insufficient convenience."
Author contends MP3's and such fill "convenience" and vinyl "fidelity" making the CD mediocre to both and therefore falls. Guy may be right.
"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad"
Follow Ups:
This may be heritage here but i'm not trying to start a troll. I still have my Sony late 1980s CDP i bought used in the early 90s for a King's ransom. And i still have my Elipson column speakers i bought in the same era for twice that money... Lately however my amps are giving up on me. So now i have between my sources and speakers a vintage Nikko preamp and two Marantz mono blocks.
I have never heard my CDP sound this good. It's not grainy or whatever. Bass, bass drum, upright, even the bass pedals of a Hammond organ can be followed note for note. Lots of details. Big and deep sound stage. So i keep buying Cd's on flea markets. LP's are drying up and i already have most of them. Eventually Cd's will become obsolete because of high res digital downloads but right now i don't see a lot of 24/96 downloads available.
I even buy the same old pop music i already have on vinyl. I played a JJ Cale CD compilation lately. Very different sound compared to my old records. I have the impression they remixed rather than remastered 1960s/70s pop music in the 80s. It's a reason to collect the original pressings.
"The torture never stops"Greetings Freek.
seems like a smart guy, I think he works for Harman.
Edits: 05/31/12
I do indeed. One of my Harman colleagues has presented results from the first peer-reviewed scientific tests showing young listeners will prefer CD-quality sound (or better) over lossy compressed sound when given the choice . The problem is young listeners don't go for physical media.Music Think Tank just published another freelance piece of mine citing Dr. Olive's research above. Link below is the original from my online journal Surface to Air .
Cheers!
Edits: 06/30/12
Since vinyl has less than 5% of the yearly recorded music market, it's not capable of killing anything.
Napster had 20 million users before the first iPod was sold.
The CD format was doomed to failure by its very nature. It could be perfectly copied and almost effortlessly distributed. If only the majors knew what they were getting into into in 1982.
We know these as facts, by the late 80's the majority of recorded music buyers adopted the CD as their standard. Some for what they felt (and argued pro v con) was an audible improvement over vinyl and audio cassette. Most bought into CD because like in the linked article it was convenient, easy to move about from home to car to personal listening. It was flooded into stores to make buying easier. Vinyl was sidelined as a result.Vinyl was kept alive by both aficionados and hard core audio listening zealots. The argument of its superior to CD sound stayed loud and alive for anyone who cared about such. Vast libraries of discs were kept in play or at min in storage by many listeners. Ditching all one's vinyl to replace with CD was not the most responsible thing to do, add the fact that not all vinyl discs were to be remade in CD format.
As time past and the vinyl market shrunk it became more and more special and thus value for its niche. Upstart and long term smaller turntable manufactures created products that added a visual and often performance appeal to keep vinyl spinners content.
On the other side of the tracks (digital) convenience ruled more and more. Again most CD adopters DID NOT BUY INTO CD FOR PERFORMANCE! But they bought into it for ease of use and general convenience. They could more easily sold away from CD buying if other formats were seen as even more convenient. Though the newer non physical formats can be debated as being possibly NOT so convenient, more on this later. They offer daily ease of use and thus would eat into CD's sales.
Vinyl not only offers what many consider better fidelity but also a coolness, large cover art, liner notes and the effort to get playing is rewarded by its classic qualities. It just looks cool spinning on a hi-fi system. Even non hi-fi buffs or audiophiles can appreciate its visual coolness once they get the experience of such.
As the article linked noted for industry (virtually any) it's either associate a value to your product or a convenience. If you in your business (again most any) do not go down either route your business is likely to fail.
Many turntables are designed to look cool and/or stunning and not all of the looks are for better audio performance. It's a visual value added and those turntable manufactures GET IT! High end gear in general often looks stunning NOT FOR BETTER FIDELITY! But for value added in visual appeal. We hi-fi buffs and audiophiles do not merely shop with our ears we shop more than you may think with our eyes. CD's lack that appeal, though higher end CD players do well to keep it.
As to downloaded digital audio, yes it offers day to day convenience but not IF but WHEN your hard drive fails you could be seeing your music LOST FOR GOOD. Most computer uses do not routinely back up files. Convenience breeds laziness. Apple via iTunes will give you one free restore of lost files but you will likely see a lot of hassle in rebuilding your downloaded only music files.
So if you do not care to partake in analogue audio via especially vinyl It may still be in your best interest to buy your music on CD, rip the discs to your digital device and at minimum keep your CD's in storage. At least you get at minimum a 16/44 file on a physical copy vs lossy files downloaded only. But most digital only and non-physical music listeners will not do this as time passes as again downloads through day to day convenience breeds laziness and nobody ever thinks a hard drive or a computer failure WILL HIT THEM!
Vinyl will not return to its 1970's hey day. But it will remain a viable and pleasurable audio format for those who want cool physical media. CD's will be around for a long time too even in a shrinking market for them as many (even digital only) people do want physical discs. Downloaded music will keep growing and will become the dominant format soon enough but will as in our past with previous formats will not be bought by the masses for better fidelity but for convenience.
Edits: 05/31/12
"Apple via iTunes will give you one free restore of lost files but you will likely see a lot of hassle in rebuilding your downloaded only music files"
music clouds.....doesn't apple icloud allow you to store and use it as a back up for as many itune purchases as you want for free.
I bought my first CD player when I realised that I was going to be unable to continue to buy new releases on vinyl. There were benefits in terms of storage space, convenience, unbroken Bruckner slow movements,unbroken finale to Mahler 2 and easy indexing. CDs in general are less easily damaged than lp, however lps at their best can outperform cd.
I love my mp3 player for convenience, but have a mental block when it comes to removing music from it to make room for different music. I know that I ought to see it in the same way as carrying some cds in from the car to give space for different ones, but I can't.
Best wishes
The music industry wants me to pay to download music that will only last as long as my hard drive. The CD serves as an automatic external backup.
The average consumer doesn't much care. Many regard their "music" as largely disposable, i.e., they'll listen to their songs that are the current flavor of the day and don't have the audiophile's view toward building a music collection to last a lifetime. And many who do want lasting digital libraries will be content to have them backed up on extra hard drives or in the cloud. I see the CD as soon becoming a niche product and probably going extinct long before vinyl does since I can't see that format holding the same kind of manic loyalty as vinyl.
"Record Are Your Best Entertainment Value!"
All true. In fact, the CD is already obsolete even as a backup medium, but the mainstream music industry is very slow to make the most of the latest technology.
So, where can I buy a high end I Pod dock? I dont see any out there.
Some people like this one:
"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad"
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