[rpf]

Checking out Stereophile, I came across this petition. Worthwhile, I think.


http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-loudness-wars-and-release-high-definition-music-downloads

[JerryM]

Did Neil Young start this? 

[geowak]

Why would I sign a petition published in Stereophile??

[rpf]

The petition is published on Change.org. It is referenced in Stereophile.

Are you not interested in quality recordings?

[medium jim]

I agree, why sign it?  The simple solution is not to buy music that is not recorded to your standards.

Jim

[Trismos]

Neil Young..... Ha. Good one. Let's listen to distortion in HD.

In this day and age of the I-Pod a petition is not going to be of much relevance.

What music are we talking about anyways? I don't listen to Bieber and hearing him in HD won't change my mind about it. That is the type of music making money for the industry now a days.

I'd be curious to know, given the technology available today, how much more expensive or difficult it actually is to record in HD verses whatever else.

[richidoo]

Kids like the sound of pop music all crunched and edgy. They want excitement. Since the tweenies are RIAA's last major crop, it will stay that way. Kids don't use music the way audiophiles do. Audiophiles haven't bought current pop music in a generation.

Hifi biz always wants to poor sound quality on one hand, and sell sound quality on the other. People buy hifi as an investment in the music that they love, not for the sound quality per se. With current top 40 music being mostly void of deeper meaning, the general public (who the hifi biz desperately needs for sustenance) has little reason to invest. Baby boomer audiophiles float the hifi biz now, and the industry sees the writing on the wall. Boomers listen to music that is deeply meaningful to them, not to music of today no matter what SQ it has. "Katy Perry Unplugged" on vinyl is not the answer.

There are lots of great recordings of great new music in genres other than pop. It is made for people old enough to appreciate meaningful new music. It is great art that deserves to be heard on a hifi. It is not marketed like pop so you have to seek it out, as music lovers always have. The music loving audiophile will never run out of music to enjoy. But there's not so much of it on the top 40 chart anymore, with rare exception. And so the general public will never buy hifi gear again, because they don't LOVE the music they listen to everyday enough to invest in it. They invest $200/mo in TV instead. Pop music is just a caffeine pill now. The stimulant is the abrasive sound quality. It is more psychologically engineered than you think. The new ear candy. Kids love it and they pay the bills.

[Diamond Dog]

Not sure I'd go along with the view that someone who listens to music on an iPod or whatever is the dingus of choice doesn't "love music" as much as an audiophile engaged as much in gear fetishism as in music. How many times have you folks seen a post by someone who is saying that they recently heard a new act they enjoyed but won't buy their music because it isn't hi-fi enough to grace their sacred system ? A lot of good music is being recorded today (poorly and otherwise) and I want to hear it, skinny legs and all. Like the Alabama Shakes, for example. Nasty recording but Great Gawd Awmighty that woman can sing - and she should be heard. Even by audiophiles.

Or you can listen to ladies in cocktail dresses sing immaculately-recorded rehashes of the Great American Songbook in front of pristine lil' jazz combos
ad nauseum if that's what blows your hair back. It ain't no nuthin' to me....I got some of that, too.

D.D.

[medium jim]

Not sure I'd go along with the view that someone who listens to music on an iPod or whatever is the dingus of choice doesn't "love music" as much as an audiophile engaged as much in gear fetishism as in music. How many times have you folks seen a post by someone who is saying that they recently heard a new act but won't buy their music because it isn't hi-fi enough to grace their sacred system ? A lot of good music is being recorded today (poorly and otherwise) and I want to hear it, skinny legs and all. Like the Alabama Shakes, for example. Nastyrecording but Great Gawd Awmighty that woman can sing - and she should be heard. Even by audiophiles.

Or you can listen to ladies in cocktail dresses sing immaculately-recorded rehashes of the Great American Songbook in front of pristine lil' jazz combos
ad nauseum if that's what blows your hair back. It ain't no nuthin' to me....I got some of that, too.

D.D.

Mediocrity is good if one takes to heart what you are saying.  It doesn't cost more to do it right!

Jim

[Diamond Dog]

Mediocrity is good if one takes to heart what you are saying.  It doesn't cost more to do it right!

Jim

That's not what I'm saying. What I said is what I'm saying. And Lord knows that there is enough, no, more than enough gloriously-recorded crap out there which is the very definition of musical mediocrity but sounds all shiny and special on our whiz-bang super-systems. We all know it. A lot us of own a piece or three of it. Musical turds polished to a high audiophilic sheen. If that's what someone enjoys because the delivery system has taken precedence over what is being delivered, fine and dandy. As your beloved Frank Zappa used to say, if that's what you choose to be a consumer of, it's there for you to consume. Have at it. Again, it ain't no nuthin' to me.

D.D.

[FullRangeMan]

This petition is excellent even, a great idea.
But it seems taylored to collect personal cadastral data, as address, zip, city, full name, beside the usual email.
Recently in this year, this kind of unasked benefit offers(*) are commond in my country, even in shops where I pay in cash, it was offered to me as a raffle to a prize.

* : Which want your full personal data

[medium jim]

This petition is excellent even, a great idea.
But it seems taylored to collect personal cadastral data, as address, zip, city, full name, beside the usual email.
Recently in this year, this kind of unasked benefit offers are commond in my country, even in shops where I pay in cash, it was offered to me as a raffle to a prize.

Bingo, we have a winner! 

The only way to change an industry that makes mediocre products is to not give them our money.  The loudness wars has subsided for the most part IMHO.  But I don't listen to Bieber or modern pop and certainly don't spend money on it.

Frank Zappa did an interview in around 1984 where he discussed the music industry and I will be damned if he wasn't on point to all of it. In shorthand, he said it will be the bean counters that will tell the artist how and what to play and how it would be produced and marketed.  Moreover, the only way to hurt them was in the pocketbook or wallet.

Funny thing, I own around 1,000 Cd's and I will choose the properly mastered ones over the ones that I really like musically of late.  Then after inbibing a little single malt I will then put on mediocre mastered, but preferred music.  However, I'm sort of lucky as most of my Cd's are not compressed into a narrow band to enhance their spl/sq. 

What is sad, I like Joe Bonamassa, but after buying on of his Cd's and found it to be overly compressed, I decided not to buy anymore.  Why support him with my money by buying his Cd's that don't sound like what he sounds like live?! 

The premise of an audiophile is the act of reproducing music as close as possible to live and not having to be liberally libated to make it enjoyable.

Rant over...

Jim