From: mark (mark_at_imap-partners.net)
Date: Tue Feb 17 2004 - 08:14:15 PST
Sushi wrote:
> When CDs were introduced, the so called audiophiles reacted the
> same way. The sound quality with CDs was not as good. You
> could actually hear the difference they claimed. Some went so
> far as to state that music was being butchered via conversion
> to CD. Yet today, everyone seems to support the CD as the
> music standard for quality sound.
This is something which has changed with time. At the outset, there was a huge difference in quality between CD Players and Record Players (companies like Linn, Roksan, Thorens, Riga and Pink Triangle had been making top class record players for a long time and companies like Philips and Sony were in the process of figuring out how to churn out mediocre CD players).
A consequence of this was that for a while after the introduction of CD, there was no real audiophile (horrible word) market for CDs. Many of the companies that made high quality vinyl recordings stayed away from CD for a while.
The fact was, that, even a long time after the introduction of CD, you could reach a level of sound quality with a well cut LP and a not-too-expensive record player-based hifi that was simply unattainable with a CD player-based hifi - even if you could get your hands on a well-cut CD (which you generally couldn't).
IOW CD was playing catchup. Of course, some of the hifi big guns saw the writing on the wall and started working on CD players so that today high quality is available and affordable in both CD players and CDs.
In retrospect, CDs were forced onto the market long before the technology had matured to the extent that it could replace LP in the sound quality stakes, but I guess they had to start somewhere.
> Anyhow, I would venture to say, that the average person can not
> tell the difference between a CD version and a quality MP3
> recording of a song when played through the same system.
Quality MP3 ?
Anyway, the "obviousness" of this difference depends on the system. A half-decent one will easily show it up. Its much less noticable with AAC at e.g. 192 kbps and probably also with AAC 128 (though I haven't tried it) which is what the ITMS serves up. Right ?
> And to have the advantage of carrying around a huge collection
> in the palm of your hand, in itself, is reason enough to have
> an iPod or mini iPod.
This is very true. With a decent pair of headphones you can get a mighty fine sound out of an iPod. Great stuff.
mark.
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