I wonder if building quality equipment makes sense anymore?

[James Tanner - Bryston]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...6617780&type=3

[bart]

James, more than ever!
For all those jazz and classical lovers, because these recordings are getting better and better.
I also see some niche labels with very well recorded pop albums.

In 'Stereo', a German magazine, every month they give suggestions for good new releases, and dynamic range is mentioned.

[audioguy3107]

James - absolutely!, although the caveat is that making high end quality equipment will only be appreciated by the few who actually care about what is represented in that graph. If I was a run of the mill mid-fi manufacturer who made at least some effort to make nicer equipment, then I would have to wonder as well.

- Buck

[mulveling]

There's already a lifetime worth (at least) of great source material out there, especially on vinyl and high-res digital. Even pop and rock music; more often than not I can find a good sounding copy of what I want to listen to. If your main focus is on digital copies of current top-of-charts music, then yeah you're probably gonna have a bad time trying to consistently extract high-end sound out of that.

[80B]

Quality always has a place - the trend for pop will reverse at some point as well.

[audioguy3107]

Originally Posted by 80B

Quality always has a place - the trend for pop will reverse at some point as well.

We can only hope.

- Buck

[clpetersen]

Originally Posted by 80B

Quality always has a place - the trend for pop will reverse at some point as well.

It may have reversed already - in the form of vinyl. Our youngest daughter requested a turntable as a gift because, 'Dad, everyone knows that everything sounds better on vinyl'. She has a point - her music comes in two forms - the highly squashed streaming version meant for earbuds on a school bus and the (hopefully) much better version pressed onto vinyl, which is the new/old cool.

[Catcher10]

Only if the mastering/mixing for vinyl is different than the digital version for streaming purposes. If not the vinyl probably will be the same.....There is more than enough music out there that has been mastered/mixed to sound amazing on my TT.

I guess if I was passionate about current pop music, I might care, but I'm good.....

[80B]

Originally Posted by clpetersen

It may have reversed already - in the form of vinyl. Our youngest daughter requested a turntable as a gift because, 'Dad, everyone knows that everything sounds better on vinyl'. She has a point - her music comes in two forms - the highly squashed streaming version meant for earbuds on a school bus and the (hopefully) much better version pressed onto vinyl, which is the new/old cool.

Great to hear that and to see you have the Kids system as part of your signature. I've also exposed our son as much as possible to our system. I think he has better ears than me from some of his comments and the fact he's musically talented (whereas I can only play the stereo!).

In audio, it seems "bad" trends can take time to correct, and we are in an age of choices vs. just one or two media dominating everything - 25 years ago, who would have predicted streaming having the place it does, CDs in drastic decline, and vinyl on a modest but real upswing? And that ignores other media people can choose. Depending on the situation, I have cheap/convenient but also quality when it suits.

James, ironically it was my first iPod that helped set me on this expensive journey - all the dropouts on mp3 files I had something like 15 years ago (heck even a diamond Rio player before that) drove me nuts. Of course, those were more about mobility, but did influence subsequent moves. Keep improving!

[jzzmusician]

Originally Posted by James Tanner - Bryston

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...6617780&type=3

Outstanding. Thank you for posting.

- Bob