The poor quality of sound these days

This was sent by David Cavlovic as a comment on See the sound. But it deserves, and is getting, a post of its own.
I too decry the poor quality of sound these days, and the inability, even the disinterest, in the listening public to demand better sound. They are dazzled by gizmos, surround sound, etc., and therefore don't realize the QUALITY of such product has diminished greatly. How, then, do we expect them to appreciate delicate sounds such as the tremolos of the strings in Pini di Roma, or the wonderful whispers emanating from Stockhausen's DG recording of Stimmung, or the intimacy of the clavichord. At the other end, how can they properly feel the bass drum in La Valse, or the menacing double-basses in Elektra if they are only used to the boom-boom of distorted speakers playing equally-distorted-in-recording house-music.Then, of course, there is vinyl. And yes, I do have an iPod.
I still enjoy "wowing" friends and relatives who have surround sound systems (bought from Wal-Mart or Future Shop so you can well anticipate the quality) with my simple and quite inexpensive, but still higher-end, PSB speakers, Bryston amp and pre-amp and a simple, 20 year old Rotel CD player.
Cheers David Cavlovic
The gorgeous beast in the header photo is a Magnificent 829B vacuum tube amplifier; sorry but I can't get excited in the same way about MP3 files. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Comments
It's ironic, too, since in the past few years the sound quality of CDs has improved greatly, I think, in part, because musicians have learned how to play for the technology.
martin, boulder, colorado
If I lived outside an urban centre, then I'd probably spend the extra.
http://www.sennheiser.co.uk/uk/icm.nsf/root/05207
Gee, I should have added that when listening to my system on headphones, I use Sennheisers as well (but what I REALLY would like to get, when I can afford it, is a pair of Stax headphones.....sigh.....)I, too, use higher-quality headphones when listening to my iPod. And I do not download from the Web, I rip from my own CD collection. The sound of an amazing recording therefore, like Bernstein's Canadide on DGG, is not lost due to file compression.
Cheers
David Cavlovic
I don't have Stax, but I do have a pair of Micro Seiki electrostatic headphones that date back to the 1970s and which have an industrial style metal-cased transformer. The transient response and mid-range clarity is outstanding.
But, like the Stax and other electrostatic drivers I believe, the bottom end does roll off. So the Sennheiser's are the preferred choice.
Like you I rip from my own CDs. But some of the independent labels are offering 'studio quality' file downloads. Check out Linn Record's Studio Master WMA lossless files -
http://www.linnrecords.com/linn-formats.aspx
Ultimately, though, the only place where non-musicians will learn how to listen (and this is infinitely more important than a good hifi equipment) is at the life performances.
Thanks for the link to Linn Records which I didn't know.
Have you heard of OnClassical? They also sell uncompressed audio files. I interview their founder, Alessandro Simonetto, for zeitschichten.com:
http://www.zeitschichten.com/2008/12/04/interview-with-alessandro-simonetto-founder-of-onclassical-%E2%80%93-the-e-label-for-audiophiles/