Bad News For Hi-Rez Music

Shouldn't your statement be qualified by "you think and in your system" that sacd "may sound a little better". Granted sense you said it it is your opinion. That being said the absolute nature of the post makes it appear that your opinion is fact, when it isn't.

 

In my opinion the typical person buying the $700 set up is getting a lot of the software side of it for free. As such they don't worry about that expense and can shift monies they would have spent on the software side to the hardware side.

 

There are some SACD's with mono layers. There are some early, very hifi jazz recordings that have been released on SACD in mono.

 

I hook my iPod up to my system via the AUX. Going back and forth from college a few times a year, I don't really feel like lugging a few hundred CD's with me. My iPod solves that problem with a relatively small decrease in fidelity (I rip them well). Besides, I buy so many used CD's and LP's as it is, it's not like I'm taking uncompressed music out of the equation.

 

Not in today's modern cars. My Lexus is super-quiet and I hear a lot things on my Mark Levinson sound system. Hirez would be heard in all its glorious quality...how do I know? I have heard for long sessions 24/96k recordings on the Lexus GX via the rear seat entertainment system.

You hear the midrange purity most of all.

 

OK, but you did not say that. I forget that you equate the two.

Although you are probably right, discrete surround sound in a car is going to be even more of a challenge.

 

Its hard to do do multichannel in cars, because you are not sitting in the center.

 

Geoff,

Yeah, sorry about that. I do sorta think the two go hand in hand. Really, I can honestly state that, even though I have DVD-A in the car, once the car is rolling, the audio quality becomes somewhat moot, as the DTS CDs I have sound just as good as the DVD-As that I play. However, if I just sit in the car with the motor off, and listen, I can tell the difference instantly between a DVD-A and a CD.

So, in retrospect, I think I should have stated that the SURROUND part of the equation will benefit from having players in the car, not necessarily hirez (although I certainly prefer 5.1 SACD and DVD-A over DD and DTS.

As for surround in cars, I think you would be surpised. I have sat in the drivers seat and the passengers seat, and the surround is perceptable in both. Something about the confines of the small cabin negate the need for a "sweet spot" per se. It's hard to describe until you have heard it.

Someone sent me a DTS CD of a 5.1 Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy broadcast from the BBC, and I listened to it in the car and was totally blown away that voice and sounds could be done so effectively, and listened to in the car. Imagine the narrator in the center dash, and the 4.0 sound-scape around the listener trapped in a small "box". The direction of the sound is much more prominent than in a large room.

 

I really dont think Hi Res in cars is anything to put stock in.

1) Your focus should be DRIVING safely, not concentraing on what channel the triangle is coming from

2) Your sitting off to the left, how can you have a balanced listening field?

3) Listen to Hi Res at home.

 

There are mucho SACDs that are mono only, I own at least 30.

 

Comon Mikey! There were never accidents caused by Quad 8 Tracks!!!

Until you hear it in a car, with a system that was DESIGNED for the car, you cannot reasonably make statements 2 and 3 with authority.

http://www.audioworld.com/news/0403/15.acura.els.audio.challenge.shtml
http://www.surroundpro.com/articles/publish/article_200.shtml
http://bg.mixonline.com/ar/audio_panasonic_acura_elliot/
http://www.elssurround.com/philosophy.asp

 

I understand that, but $700 is too much for the low-quality sound that results.

 

You have quality-sounding music and equipment at home. However, for most people, the iPod is probably their main or only music gear. I understand the draw to an iPod, and I want one myself. However, given my home-audio experience, I can't see spending $400 for the iPod. The performance doesn't justify the price. That's just me. If the 40-GB iPod ever comes down in price to $200 or under, I'll gladly purchase one.

 

I just got a Creative Labs 30 GIG MP3 player for 199$ 30 GIGS!!!! 8,000 songs at 128kps.

The audio quality is excellent also.

 

When the Acura TL finally showed up at the local dealership I went and listened to it & the surround field was easily heard and sounded fine to me. Maybe it wasn't perfect but then again, what is?

And as far my comment on the DTS-CD format goes, I only mentioned it as a reminder in case the other surround formats go swirling down the porcelain throne (& it has bass management for people that can't install a center speaker and/or subwoofer in their vehicle).

 

Rocky, How does a poor dude who works for the Wally Mart own that many SACD's? Do you guys a WM get a special discount?

 

Admittedly, I haven't researched this much. Why, then, are the iPods so expensive and what makes them so popular?

 

Mikey, is this the Creative Labs unit you have?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1077626018247&skuId=6399532&type=product&cmp=++

 

From what I have read Creative Labs have some reliability problems. The iPod, price-wise, is pretty much on par with iRiver and RIO. It's the most popular because of the trendyness of it, and also, many believe it is the best, regardless of how popular it is. Form factor is excellent.

 

Guys, you're missing the point on the iPod. It sells a lot and commands such a high price because it's cool. If only HiRes surround music (and the necessary players) would have been presented like that. Instead, its all been about couple of obscure formats that appeal to geeks and audiophiles.

Just imagine an image of a few cool-looking young people listening to HiRes surround in a cool-high-tech-looking room. Accompany that with interesting disc titles and a lot of mention in hip magazines and MTV and it would have flown. Instead, it has been sold, mainly due to original pricing reasons to middle-aged guys like me who have basically been offered 60s and 70s music to hear (apart from Jazz and classical).

Hey! We love that music, and a surprising amount of young people do too. For example, you have a The Who song as the main theme for CSI. But HiRes, until now, has not been given the hip image treatment. Thus, its condition as an 'erratic releases' format for a niche market.

BTW, you can include this lack of popular and hip targeting in the non-existent ads for budget universal players.

Meanwhile, Apple has been flooding all those communication channels with its hip ads and cool image. (MP3 file availability notwithstanding) no wonder it sells... and at such a high price (somebody's got to pay for the ads).

 

Is there a center channel speaker? Are the 5 speakers roughly equivalent? I know nothing about this, except perhaps something I read in Stereophile - but I can't recall the details.

It appears from my reading that the folks who get really good stereo sound in their cars have quite a different setup to what we see in most car systems, and push a lot more through the front speakers to make the soundstage work. It's very early days with discrete 5 channel (plus low bass) as DVD-Audio has just appeared in cars, so I think we are going to see a lot of innovation to get the best out of it.

 

Try this
http://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3357

 

For you it's too much. Obviously by the popularity of the ipod and of its accessories it's not to o much for many people. I just offered a reason why they might justify the price of $700 when a lot of the money they used to spend on software could be transfered to ipod and it's accessories.

 

Giving hi-rez the "cool" advertising treatment isn't going to help it's sales to the people who are buying ipods to play mp3. The trick that apple pulled off in it's marketing of the ipod is that it's "hip" ads for the ipod are advertising a specific physical item that actually is "cool" to many people. That physical item happens to be a specific hardware item, the IPOD itself which is "cool" to these people. The technology that it uses to store music has nothing to do with the ipod being cool in the advertising. If factor's such as style, ergonomics, and design are what contribute to making the ipod "cool" in reference to how something looks, feels, and operates then some entry level sacd player, the actual sacd player hardware, isn't going to have any of that to offer. For that matter most sacd players period aren't going to have that. So the fact you could try and give hi-rez technology "the hip image treatment" with advertising would be a waste of time, money, energy, intellect, common-sense, and advertising creativity sense what your trying to make "cool" is a technology and not the hardware.

 

Thanks.