|
In other words...
"When we had finished a song, we'd take a drive and listen to it on the car stereo to give us that extra objectivity. When you are working so intensely you can lose that objectivity. And when you're in a studio you're listening to the absolute best reproduction of the sound. But most people won't hear it in that environment. So we'd go for a drive – the car test."
As told by Sharon Robinson about the way she and Leonard Cohen would work.
|
From what I read somewhere, music is often adjusted to what it is expected to be played on. I guess that what you heard in the car was not expected to be played on a higher quality home system. |
geoffkait, "High end audio has always been part of CES....Been there done that." We have a culprit for the title of this thread! |
geoffkait,
Too bad they did not name it High-End Audio Show Las Vegas. You would have been correct then. Maybe next year.
|
geoffkait, CES is Consumer Electronics Show. It is not, and was never meant to be, High End Audio Show.
>>>>Huh? Then how come I participated in a system at CES that was valued at $300,000 and won best of show?... In order to get an answer to your question, you should have read my sentences that immediately followed those you are referring to. Selectively picking will get you, well, to appear desperate to counteract for no reason. Here is what followed, so you do not have to go looking... "So-called High End might have been more represented there in the long-gone times when consumer electronics consisted of barely anything more than music reproduction devices. As the field expanded, High End Audio become less relevant." |
In order to talk about HEA (High End Audio), we may need to establish some definition of it. It is inconvenient, if not impossible, so we conveniently do not mention it.
CES is Consumer Electronics Show. It is not, and was never meant to be, High End Audio Show. So-called High End might have been more represented there in the long-gone times when consumer electronics consisted of barely anything more than music reproduction devices. As the field expanded, High End Audio become less relevant. In some way, it could soon still be called CES (Car Electronics Show).
|
Michael Green may be right. It is shifting.
"Higher price to lower price"
It is not that the price is substantially lower, it is that advancements in technology made same quality available at lower price. Of course, there could be a debate if iPhone is really lower price (they seem to go up in price with every generation). Higher mass to lower mass
Most of the people got used to having it all and having it small, in their pockets, thanks to advancements in technology "Higher heat to lower heat"
Advancements in technology and nothing else. "More crossover parts to fewer."
Almost everything electronic has fewer parts these days, when compared to the same functionality in the past. Advancements in technology. "Fixed sound to variable sound" Sound modes have been available on receivers etc. for a few decades now. With advancements in technology and science, it is possible to have variable sound on new smaller devices. "One volume control to more control."
Advancements in technology made it simpler to add controls of whatever kind we desire. "Harder to drive to easier to drive."
Advancements in technology provide for more diverse combinations. "Playing less to able to play more."
Advancements in technology allow us to listen to distant radio stations/Internet and explore what was impossible before.
All in all, the paradigm is shifting and majority is moving away from bulky, seemingly built complicated, equipment. However, it is not because they read through the HEA conspiracy and do not want to be fooled anymore. It is because advancements in technology made things possible that could not be achieved in the past and people like convenience. |
acman3,
That is one audiophile family. I just never encounter people, not even older to be perfectly clear, who are interested in higher quality sound. Your family is probably unusual, when it comes to listening to music, although it is really great they enjoy it.
|
"Heavy chassis don’t produce music." Over time, reading through advertising materials, I got the impression that is why they are put there. To reduce vibration or something like that. Basically, to minimize "producing music". Isn't it good then? |
"Maybe he forgot everything he knew." Maybe he learned something new along the way. We all change our perception of things at some point. Better that than to stubbornly push one "wrong" view forever. Nothing to do with Michael Green’s speakers and their real value. I know nothing about them and would give them benefit of the doubt until I hear them (and I doubt that I will ever have a chance). |
sleepwalker65, "The real reason millions of lemmings are connected to headphones is because a rapper made them think they needed to." I was thinking about headphones more along the lines of people using them with Walkmen ever since 1979 or so. No doubt that Beats by Dr. Dre, if that is what you were referring to as "rapper", elevated aftermarket headphones into some other galaxy. However, it was a couple of decades after sidewalks and urban transportation had become flooded with head/earphones. I think that rapper convinced people to buy his particular brand and did not change the mode of listening towards headphones that much. |
"I see alot of young people discovering vinyl and the social aspects of spinning records...building speakers...serious headphone setups." Observations like this, undoubtedly true to whatever extent "a lot" is, puzzle me. A lot of my communication, daily, is with 15ish to early 30s people. Basically, I am surrounded by them. I would think they are the "young people" we are talking about here. Over the last decade, maybe more, only one wanted to buy a turntable and that was an $80 amazon.com wish. She wanted it not to play music but because it would look cool in her room. She, in fact, did not even plan to play it at all. She said she would continue listening to her iPhone. Where do you guys see all those young people doing these things? Who are they? |
geoffkait,
I am sorry. I do try to keep you out of the holes you keep on digging under yourself. I succeed at times.
At some point, I will look up what your baby, rabbit, and fox references may mean.
When it comes to mid-fi, my Walkman can beat up your Walkman.
|
geoffkait,
You are partially right. By far, the largest number of people who listen to music are doing it on low-mass systems, namely cell phones. They are connected to some kind of ear/headphones or, at home, to Bluetooth speakers or similar quality equipment. Nobody switched to those because of sound quality, except maybe you. They switched because of convenience. It has been that way for about 40 years.
Sophistication and advancement of technology made it possible that higher sound quality, whatever that is, is nowadays available from smaller format devices. Add to that the possibility to get content that was previously practically unobtainable. End-user experience is definitely simpler and richer, but technology used is far more complicated. Nothing wrong with that. Give it another 50-60 years and common devices will approach the sound quality of your Walkman in a package that will fit in your pocket.
I think Michael Green is right. Overall music listening is switching to smaller and easier-to-use devices but the driving force behind it is not sound quality. It is convenience made possible by advancements in technology. How room tuning and other approaches fit into that story about smaller and simpler is another topic. Kind of exactly the opposite, but not harmful at all. Thankfully, it is hard to take cover off an iPhone and continue using it as before.
All of that applies to major market, not very small marginal group that takes pleasure talking about fuses, cables, pieces of wood under the electronic components, and what not. They are in their little world that is less and less important to anyone, including show organizers.
|
Reading OP, I got the impression it is about High Cost Audio, not High End Audio, whatever the definition of High End Audio would be. "Watching the pendulum swing from expensive, high mass and complicated back to simplicity, low mass and thoughtful is exciting." This is really multi-layered thought. I think it is correct in the end. iPhone, becoming a primary music source for many, is not exactly cheap and is only one source. High mass, bulk, is definitely going away. Even very expensive components are these days often relatively small. It used to be, the heavier the better. Complicated turning back to simplicity is true, when it comes to ease of use for the final user. It does not seem so simple when taking into account technology implemented for simple common, dare I say "most common", way people listen to music these days. I suspect there is way more sophistication and engineering/designing (pick your favorite word for "inventing" or similar to it) going into a miracle of music playing via Spotify, or an African Internet radio, on an iPhone than it is going into a nice old-fashioned system, even the heavy "over-engineered" one. Just my guess. It may be a mistake interchanging "smaller" and "simpler". It may be a wonderful time to explore the music, but it is not because it is simpler deep inside. It is because it is much more complicated and many bright girls and guys made very complicated things simple for us to use. That is thoughtful, indeed. |
