Is music quality moving away from the "audiophile"


I recently read an interesting post on the production of the new Metallica album and how its sound has been catered to the Ipod generation. Formatting the sound of the album toward the ipod itself. With computer downloads, mp3's etc, etc. it seems that "compression" over quality is becoming the norm.

In the Metallica example, I have been a fan since 84. Now, i know they are not a good example for the so called "audiophile", but that being said the production on this album is terrible. Actually, worse than their previous album St. Anger. Who makes the call on this? The band, engineer, record company? A combination of all?
zigonht

Showing 2 responses by gawdbless

I personally think maybe its the other way around in that hi-fi equipment mainly loudspeakers most of which are are very expensive and quite a lot are more than the price of a house (not a present but when the housing market is at a decent level) do not do the 'lesser engineered' cd justice in playback. If any cd sounds awful through ones multi dollar speakers, then I think its the fault of the equipment rather than the cd.
If one has a cd that is unbearable to play because it sounds bad, but sounds acceptable through a ghetto blaster for instance, then surely something is amiss when the big boys have their turn and you grab the remote quickly turn it down or off? IMHO, naturally.
I am not a huge fan of Metallica, but I will try and purloin
a copy of their latest cd to have a listen to see if the quality is that bad on playback through hi-fi grade speakers, maybe the RMAF will be the place to take it?
How can a 'high end hi-fi' be classified as 'high end' if the music does not sound good?