[Gordy]

Link to the PF article... http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue25/sacd_olson.htm

[DSK]

Link to the PF article... http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue25/sacd_olson.htm

So much for progress, eh.

[JoshK]

Its all been said before, but to make matters worse, us audiophiles don't even have all the same taste in music.  So when you take a niche and try to market to it, you have to divide that up another hundred or thousand times based on tastes and your not left with much left.  I think this is why nothing has been done about it.

Take me for example.  I am a lover of hi-fidelity but I am still well under 40, don't like jazz, beebop, chamber music or many of the other audiophile approved tunes.   I am not alone, but there aren't too many like myself either.  

Then we aren't the warmest and welcoming-est group either.  We aren't out there trying to convert the masses, preaching the gospel of good sound.  So by this we alienate ourselves more.  anyway, its late and I am rambling....

[jon_010101]

Lynn might be overlooking an interesting possibility... he comments on people downloading hundreds of MP3's and such, but why not move to internet distribution?  It is only a short matter of time before bandwidth will reasonably permit transfer of lossless 24/96 files.  If "big" companies sense a threat to profits from "little" independent labels and individuals, I think they will make a move to provide what people want.  

I think he is dead-on that the recent trend towards loud dynamically-constricted music is contrary to progress ... but I'd argue that if anything is going to get the masses out of that funk, it is the iPod.  The headphone listening experience is a huge step up from a boom box, and many people now are switching to midrange isolation phones which sound shockingly good for the price -- while reducing the need for dynamic compression and exposing the artifacts of lossy data compression.  This just butters people up for future high-end purchases, and creates greater interest in music that is properly recorded.  While many of us seem to fear digital distribution and portable audio, I think it might be an unexpected way to rescue the masses.