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The Dumbing Down of Audio


jacksonbart

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When the marketing gurus started the mantra that Bose had great sound -- fabulous, high fidelity, just-like-the-real-thing sound and it was pounded into the lemmings heads, it became true to the masses that Bose was the standard.

i listened to a Ipod Nano the other day, and while its darn impressive to get 1000 songs into a vehicle the size of a credit card, the sound involvement was not impressive.

This "dumbing down" makes us doofuses with all our components and beefy speakers look like dinosaurs. All I wanna say is "Roar"!

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Although I completely agree with most of his points, I disagree slightly on the MP3 front. Yes, compression at low bitrates makes drastic changes in the sound (192 or below sound noticibly worse). Also the codec is very important.

But...compress music using the Exact Audio Copy/LAME compressor combo at top 320Kb or even Top Quality VBR, and I'll challenge anyone to hear the difference. Using the LAME codec, music retains all it's dynamic range, stereo imaging, and crispness.

I've done many A/B tests on this material and have not been able to tell the diff between these MP3 files and the audio on the source CD.

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But...compress music using the Exact Audio

Copy/LAME compressor combo at top 320Kb or even Top Quality VBR, and

I'll challenge anyone to hear the difference.

So what are the stakes? I'd love to take you up on the challenge. [;)]

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I made a special trip into the city to check out the latest trends in audio and I was totally appalled by the available choices; i.e., there weren't any. Absolutely appalling... horrible. But no Bose to be seen! But their "tracks" were there!

Homogenized and sanitized for your protection...

DM

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I have had many a Bass Module apart and they have multiple drivers in them. They basically use smaller drivers in a tuned cabinet to get the bass they want. Also they all have limiters in the circuit so that you can't push them hard enough to break them. Well, it works in theory... What really happen is the modules are pushed so hard that the limiters burn out and the drivers burn up also. The bass module is ALWAYS, I will repeat this for effect, the Bass Module is ALWAYS the weak link in the chain for the Bose Lifestyle system. The little cubes will take quite a beating and keep going. Some do fail from abuse, but not many.

Sheesh! You guys got me talking about Bose again.....[:P]

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A topic that has been discussed here before. The link is to an artical some might find interesting.

http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/DumbingDownAudio.php

Good article,I couldn't agree more,been my point on a few posts here in the pasts,fell on deaf ears(eyes).

How do we end up knocking Bose systems? Some people like them, not me, it's all they need,or want.

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I am not sure I agree at all with the posturing on MP3 / iPod and the like.

Simply put - this is portable audio and portable audio was never very good. As a kid I would walk around with a transistor radio jammed up against my ear to hear music - and an iPod or equivalent (in my case my phone) sounds a whole lot better than that.

It is no accident that the main marketing thrust of digital music is for portability - this was the gap in the marketplace. Sadly portable CD players (that I have experienced) were either no better sounding than my MP3 player (actually worse in the case of my old Sony CD walkman) or would skip and play eraticalyl when out walking / jogging etc.

When looking at music servers for home duty most seem to offer an uncompressed (CD quality) option. I have not experienced these but there are some that are supposed to sound every bit as good as a decent (if not high end) CD player.

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maxg I went to the mall yesterday and saw sony style store. They had a cd player that was pretty thin and such. I had a sony cd player with that max skip protection that did not involve buffering and such but more an active suspension that had a battery life of 90 hours to boot. But alas someone asked to borrow it in high school and we graduated...... But yesterday I saw a similiar system but they had a sticker that said intergrated internal amp. Heh maybe that is made for better quality listening instead of saving battery life?

Also the iPod serves a purpose in life. Not everyone has the room for say heritage models or even the rf series. Or they live with neighbors that will not tolerate noise (city apartment dwellers). Also for city people, what better way to listen to music on the commute (usually a hour lost anyways on the subway/bus)

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