"sound quality is overrated"

Here's a novel concept: Maybe some non-audiophiles can't tell the difference between good and bad sound quality. Or they just don't care, of course.

 

And then it depends on the type of music as well. Nobody thinks of sound quality when they're listening to an old Carter Family or Robert Johnson record.

 

Novel, but not necessarily logical if one looks at the entire spectrum for guidance. If, for instance, the listener can’t tell any difference between music heard over a standard car radio and the same music played back over a high end stereo system, then your point is well taken. But if the comparison is truly a revelation, then it becomes a moot point. IOW, the listener doesn’t have to be an audiophile to appreciate better quality heard via better gear.


Cat

 

Sounds perfect!

 

Some of my most-memorable listening experiences were on a cheap plastic transistor radio. Hearing "Like a Rolling Stone" for the first time, for example.

That said, I love my SACds.

 

Truer words were never spoken. I'll add this to the quote: "If you're cranking a boombox at the beach after three or four boozy, fruity drinks, or blasting car radio on a warm summer day with the windows down, no it doesn't matter."

 

I'm sorry about your sister's unfortunate health issue. One can only hope in such circumstances that there remains chance for some happiness, by whatever measure it is found, best wishes.

 

Another question - not that my last was answered - for people who say they don't care about sound.

Does music sound better to you live?

 

It is.

Next?

 

RJ Centennial Edition is my go to these days. Big improvement over previous collections.

 

We're outliers. We're passionate about music. It is our hobby. Most people are not nearly so interested in it as we are. To ask if people think sound quality is overrated is like asking us if we think turbocharging is overrated, or if Japanese ceramic knives are overrated, or if the graphics processor in the PS4 is overrated. They're all points of interest only to those within the hobby.

I've never quite understood why people here expect 'civilians' to feel the same way about audio that we do, or express surprise that they don't.

 

Love the music first. Everything else is secondary.

 

I’ve always strived to get better sound quality via locating well mastered recordings and acquiring associated gear that provides the best sound for dollars spent. If that makes me an oddeo-file, I’ll plead no contest. This goes all the way back to my college days playing LPs over homemade speakers via a receiver and low to mid-range turntable. That said, I’ve never been drawn to the cost-is-no-object “Grey Poupon” side of things.

These days there are great relatively inexpensive choices for gear and speakers that’ll get the music lover closer to the source in a home listening environment as determined by hearing preferences and associated acoustics (factoring in room size, gear/speaker matching, etc). IOW, one doesn’t have to break the bank to achieve great sound, and if I were a gambler, I’d wager most folks here would be able to tell the difference.


Cat

 

In a time where basically everything modern release on streaming platforms sounds "basically the same" in terms of quality -- that is, they all sound pretty good -- then I can see how people would say that sound quality is overrated. Everything already sounds decent enough, therefore sound quality becomes less important in terms of enjoyment.

 

While it’s always mighty fine to have great-sounding releases there’s nothing quite like creating mix-tapes like I did back in the day. CD-R’s aren’t the same.

 

Well...

 

I'd love to be able to walk into a high end audio store and relish in the glory of audio bliss in the sound room. Where can I find such high end audio store? All high level audio stores I've visited demoed super expensive equipment to me, but that super expensive equipment produced sound that was hard, harsh, unpleasant.

 

Replace good and bad sound quality with good and bad wine quality, and you've described me.

 

If I don't want to destroy my speakers when cranking it up, sound quality is what guarantees this most of the time. However, if music is recorded/EQ'ed so that most of the bass and drum are high pitched and punchy, I don't care how seasoned an audio engineer is in their remixing and remastering, I'm not going to play it on my system. There's so much good sounding music that doesn't do this to the audio spectrum that I now have a lot of choices in what I play.

Steve Wilson's Chicago II remix has some of those high pitched percussive elements and sure enough when I cranked up the volume in my car with subs, I got harsh sparks and crackly sounds on my Polk 6x8's that I had to turn the volume way down.

 

Interesting. Being not a wine connoisseur and someone who only very occasionally drinks the stuff, I can easily tell the difference between good and bad wine quality. Perhaps if I were a connoisseur it would be more difficult.

 

IMO sound quality is overrated if you reject music outright because of the sound quality of the source. When I see statements like "all modern music is bad because it's compressed" at places like this I roll my eyes. Of course I would love for it to sound better but the quality of the art and performance are always first and foremost to me.

For the music I love I want to hear it in the best sound quality, and I think many music fans agree but not at the expense of music itself. For many streaming is a tradeoff of lesser quality for more access, which makes sense to me, even if I care more about SQ.

 

We were born in the same year...I don't think my tastes solidified at that age, mainly because I'd had no touch with the experimental scene in the UK at that age and didn't until I was 20 and a major door opened. But I don't think a piece of music has to be contemporaneous to form part of your life's soundtrack - there are hymns and orchestral pieces that are a major part of mine, as well as 60's and early 70's stuff and, in particular, a LOT of things that happened within my lifetime of which I was unaware at the time (esp UK post-punk '78-'82-ish). I still encounter people regularly who are enthusiastic about music but are not in any way audiophiles. They're happy with their earbuds and their streaming and their in-car radio. There are times I envy them...

 

There's a minimum sound quality that matters to me--I don't want to listen to music via most phones over the built-in speaker, I wouldn't want to listen via headphones sitting a couple feet away from me, I wouldn't want to listen over a transistor radio with a single cheap speaker--but once that minimum sound quality is met I'm not very concerned with sound quality beyond that, which is why I'm not an audiophile. The sound on Amazon Echo devices is good enough for most of my listening, for example. And most of the time--when I'm out and about, at the gym, biking, etc., I use really cheap over-the-ear, old Walkman-style Panasonic headphones--they're like $8 a pair, maybe. I like them because I don't have to worry about breaking them. I just buy another pair. I always have a replacement pair or two ready to go (they typically last at least a year). That's good enough for me.

I don't use earbuds, by the way, because I can't get them to stay in my ears. I don't know why. Maybe my ears are shaped weird?

 

You can save lots of money by buying Crosley.

 

If sound quality is overrated then I guess all records can be recorded on a dictaphone.