@atdavid, "Has anyone ever noticed that it is mainly old people that complain about CDs and digital. Young people don't experience listening fatigue with it. Maybe old brains just get information overload listening to digital?"
This made me think of how little impact we audiophiles have on the actual delivery of music. Almost zero.
It's always been a business always driven by the chase for profits - and very little little else.
My dad listened to music via radio, valve amp driven vinyl and home recordings he made on his portable reel to reel deck.
I listened to music via transistors powering vinyl, cassette, minidisc, CD, radio, MP3 and streaming.
My children have only known music delivered in a digital format, usually via CD, MP3, YouTube and streaming.
The industry is only ever interested in delivering formats to the large consumer dog, and not its tiny audiophile tail.
So it's understandable that each generation may have little experience of the way the previous one listened to music.
The general consumer driven assumption that products keep getting better is, as many audiophiles know, not always true.
There are even some who believe that for the pure reproduction of the spoken voice, things have hardly progressed since the days of the wax cylinder!
Let's also remember that the anachronistic current vinyl resurgence was primarily influenced by club culture experience, not by any wish for better sound quality. The record industry was not slow in cashing in.
So far it remains the only format that came back to any significant extent.
Redbook CD is more or less dead, so naturally enough the industry looks for other means to generate income. If 24/96 is deemed profitable then that's where it will go.
Whether audiophiles actually need it is more or less irrelevant.
This made me think of how little impact we audiophiles have on the actual delivery of music. Almost zero.
It's always been a business always driven by the chase for profits - and very little little else.
My dad listened to music via radio, valve amp driven vinyl and home recordings he made on his portable reel to reel deck.
I listened to music via transistors powering vinyl, cassette, minidisc, CD, radio, MP3 and streaming.
My children have only known music delivered in a digital format, usually via CD, MP3, YouTube and streaming.
The industry is only ever interested in delivering formats to the large consumer dog, and not its tiny audiophile tail.
So it's understandable that each generation may have little experience of the way the previous one listened to music.
The general consumer driven assumption that products keep getting better is, as many audiophiles know, not always true.
There are even some who believe that for the pure reproduction of the spoken voice, things have hardly progressed since the days of the wax cylinder!
Let's also remember that the anachronistic current vinyl resurgence was primarily influenced by club culture experience, not by any wish for better sound quality. The record industry was not slow in cashing in.
So far it remains the only format that came back to any significant extent.
Redbook CD is more or less dead, so naturally enough the industry looks for other means to generate income. If 24/96 is deemed profitable then that's where it will go.
Whether audiophiles actually need it is more or less irrelevant.