[drjjpdc]

You know there is a real simple way to find out how bad mp3 really is. And it matters not that a lot of mp3 stuff is listened to on earphones or some cheap ipod dock.

Take any mp3 that you have and get the CD (if you have it) that it came from. Put the CD on your stereo (or a friend's) and listen to the CD track. Now plug in your ipod/mp3 player and listen to the mp3 track on the stereo. If you think the mp3 track isn't bad then any further discussion about sound quality is moot.

Now I made cassette tapes from CD's for my car, but a car is a noisy environment. I would not think of listening to a cassette at home if I had the CD or the LP.

[putz]

Rclark said:
So on tube gear would that be a fresh coke, with vanilla syrup, cane sugar, on ice?

I love Neil, but I have to agree with pehare, his new one, "The Treasure" leaves something to be desired in the SQ.  Neil was in Salt Lake/Park City at the alternative festival to Sundance, called Slamdance, to promote his new concert film, which is the feedback/noise side of Neil's music.  Very loud, and hard to listen to for long.  His "Live at Massey Hall" which he released about 5 years ago was very good for song content and sound quality.

That's whats great about Neil. You've got Folk Neil, Country Neil, Electronic Neil, Grunge Neil, Crazy Horse Neil, Rockabilly Neil, Feedback Neil, etc. Neil. Name another artist who successfully coverered so many genres. I almost wish there had been a Disco Neil album.

I love the Massey Hall album. I also love Le Noise. I saw him live in NYC last year performing the show featured in his new movie. Awesome. Can't wait to see the film.

As far as him pushing for better quality recordings. More power to him. It's be nice if more "influential" artists joined the cause but someone has to speak up first and get the ball rolling. That's also what's great about Neil. He speaks his mind whether it's the popular thing to do or not. And more often than not, he's been proven right. Like his Living With War album when most everyone was still supporting the war in Iraq and GWB. How did that turn out?

[*Scotty*]

Regrettably there is now an entire generation in America that has never known the taste of The Real Thing. The New Coke fiasco happened 1985, then by May of the same year Coca-Cola Classic was introduced and it was very similar to the Real Thing but it was sweetened with hi-fructose corn syrup. This marked the slow inexorable move of Coke ever closer towards the taste/sweetness profile of Pepsi. Sweetness sells soda among other things.
 Unfortunately by the middle of the 1990s the taste of Coke deviated from that of Coke Classic/methadone so much it couldn't ever be mistaken for The Real Thing.  Which is about the time I gave up on Coca Cola products.
 Pardon the ranting of an "Old Coke" addict who remembers the good old days. The entire sordid story can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke
End of off topic rant.
Of course when I can no longer buy CDs or even made on demand CD-Rs you will hear from me again.
Scotty

[pansixt]

I remember an old post where I admitted to being an early on Digital Hater and quoted Neil as another like minded individual.

Thankfully, both of us have lived long enough and experienced enough to re-think
our position.

I have gained this experience passively. Neil, however, being whom he is, continues to keep his hand in the industry he loves and continues to push his love for music and the reproduction of such, in a positive direction, as he feels it should be.

Few of us are in such a position to take such an active roll. I applaud him.
Do I think he is trying to please himself. Uh, I don't think so. He is a proponent of all music lovers. Analog, Digital, I really don't think he gives a rats ass. It's the music he loves.

[pansixt]

http://www.contactmusic.com/news/steve-jobs-preferred-vinyl-to-mp3-says-neil-young_1289629

Just ran across this Food for Thought.

[SteveFord]

I read that last night on another site and that's what convinced me to put my quest for perfect sound forever on hold for a year or two and get another turntable.
When Steve Jobs went home and listened to albums, well, that says an awful lot!  It's not like he couldn't afford to buy a good digital set up.
They're right, it does feel much better when you stop banging your head against the wall.

[Russell Dawkins]

Here's a video of Neil making this point: http://tinyurl.com/6pz9poy

My one quibble is the 30 minutes that Neil suggested it would take to download a single hi-res song - at 8:30 into the video. What is he thinking? He is shooting the hi-res solution in the foot by saying such a thing. Thirty  minutes, conceivably, with dial-up - but that's not common these days.

I don't think he makes his case very well, moreover I think still the most important aspect of playback quality (and the biggest variable by far) is the loudspeaker, and neither he nor Steve Jobs (rest his soul) seems to realize that.

I'd bet that if he had a decent playback system he wouldn't care so much whether he was listening to vinyl or mp3 - he would simply be enjoying the music!

[Thump553]

Neil Young is one of my favorite artists, having avidly followed his career since the release of his second album.  That sad, take this article with a grain of salt.  Young has been on an anti-digital diatribe since the birth of CDs a couple of decades ago.

[doug s.]

Neil Young is one of my favorite artists, having avidly followed his career since the release of his second album.  That said, take this article with a grain of salt.  Young has been on an anti-digital diatribe since the birth of CDs a couple of decades ago.

i will agree w/one thing you said - neil was on an anti-digital diatribe when cd's first came out almost 30 years ago.  but - neil was correct and he's still correct.  which is why i don't take the article w/a grain of salt.   

ymmv,

doug s.

[nathanm]

You know there is a real simple way to find out how bad mp3 really is. And it matters not that a lot of mp3 stuff is listened to on earphones or some cheap ipod dock.

Take any mp3 that you have and get the CD (if you have it) that it came from. Put the CD on your stereo (or a friend's) and listen to the CD track. Now plug in your ipod/mp3 player and listen to the mp3 track on the stereo. If you think the mp3 track isn't bad then any further discussion about sound quality is moot.

I agree with the result, but in my experience with this exact same scenario (except in the car, not indoors) the main cause I hear is not necessarily the deterioration from encoding, but rather that the iPod simply does not have enough output from its jack to drive the car stereo properly.  I think it has more to do with the electronics.  Also, if you have a Loudness compensation turned on in the car stereo this effect is more pronounced at low levels.  When you have to crank up the car stereo to compensate for the low-output iPod the boosty EQ goodness goes away.  That's how it works with my system anyway.