Younger generation audio quality ?

[davidavdavid]

We need to get away from such threads and discussions. Generations following us are opting for mobility and convenience over what most of us recognize as sound quality. For a lot of people and not just the younger generations, Spotify is more than adequate and who can blame them. Audio and music just is not as important/vital as we perceive in our respective lives.

We are going to like to listen and experience the music the way we like to and it may rub off on SOME of our friends and acquaintances, but we shall always be in the minority and that should be okay with us. It does the pose the problem of rising costs of gear, because there is something to "supply and demand" and manufactures/vendors need to make a living so we can enjoy our music.

 

[Julf]

I was thinking today about the younger generation ,
Will they ever get to hear decent quality audio?

They already do. In another thread, I already linked to Archimago's measurements of the iPhone 4 and iPhone6, showing that the iphone6 DAC already beats a lot of "high end" gear from a few years ago. A good pair of headphones is way cheaper than speakers, and most modern digital formats are way better than any sources most of us grew up with.

 

[nmtjb]

Mine seem to be able to listen to any quality of replay on a day to day basis, but often comment on how good my vinyl/valve system is compared to their mates Dads, which is reassuring.

 

[dtd]

Even if the younger generations do have an interest in HiFi, they often dont have the space for anything but a headphone setup in reality. The young and HMOs especially down south is a given barrier, for sure.

 

[davidsrsb]

40 years ago there was a routine - go to university, collect grant cheque and off to Comet to buy first system. Few had cars and there were no mobile phones to consume time and money

For the present day with competing demands Smartphones and Internet players are an excellent choice

 

[auric]

A decent pair of headphones (say £100 or more) plugged into an iPhone playing 320kbs AAC or better is *very* decent audio quality IMO. It takes a heck of a lot of cash to equal that sound in-room with a conventional audio system. I suspect many young folk care a lot about audio quality, hence the buoyant state of the headphone market.

But box count, size of speakers & accumulated lifetime cost of acquiring such kit may in the mind of the owner (and circle of friends) trump the quality of sound offered by the Tony L described system. I feel that such a system as Tony L describes does collect a load of bonus points for offering quality sound while on the move, does size still matter?

 

[Darth Vader]

They both have a love of music. My son's sung in a rock band and is quickly teaching himself how to play the guitar. My daughter loves musicals and has sung for others on several occasions. They're both from an extended family that loves music. That's where it stems from. They go to live bands together etc and my son loves Nick Cave and Elvis Costello, just like me. I can hire them out for a reasonable sum.

Same here. My 20 year old has grade 8 singing and has also had training under an opera singer in Paris. She has easily hit top E. Loves to sing in the local musical productions performed in our town theatres. Has a part in the Xmas production of King Lear as Regan. I always had in the back of my mind that opera is where she should be aiming but time will tell.

I recently went over the cost of my Hi Fi system and told her to get best price when I go to that great gig in the sky and ask pfm guys for guidance. "Oh No! I want to keep it" she said. Blow me down. You never can tell what is going through youngsters minds.

Oh and I have had to tell her to stop buying me LPs........

Cheers,

DV

 

[Joe Hutch]

Same here. My 20 year old has grade 8 singing and has also had training under an opera singer in Paris. She has easily hit top E. Loves to sing in the local musical productions performed in our town theatres. Has a part in the Xmas production of King Lear as Regan.

Interesting choice of panto there. 'We're on the edge of a cliff!' 'Oh no you're not!'

 

[flatpopely]

A decent pair of headphones (say £100 or more) plugged into an iPhone playing 320kbs AAC or better is *very* decent audio quality IMO. It takes a heck of a lot of cash to equal that sound in-room with a conventional audio system. I suspect many young folk care a lot about audio quality, hence the buoyant state of the headphone market.

I think the headphone market is buoyed up by fashion more than any requirement for good sound.

 

[Del monaco]

Oh and I have had to tell her to stop buying me LPs........


Yes. They can sometimes take it too far can't they.....

 

[Darth Vader]

Interesting choice of panto there. 'We're on the edge of a cliff!' 'Oh no you're not!'

Weren't that there Edgar guy who fooled his blinded daddy Gloucester to think he was at the edge? But 'Oh no he wasn't!' Not sexy Regan. She only tortured Gloucester and plucks his beard. Not like that Cornwall fella that gouges out the poor guys eyes- whist the crowd calls out "look out he's behind you!". Nice bed time story 'Once upon a time there was a King who had three lovely daughters'.

Cheers,

DV

 

[adam69]

These poor kids today, they'll never experience tape hiss, their favourite tapes getting chewed up, walkmans whose batteries lasted 20 minutes, amstrad hifi towers, it was so much better in my day. Hi-Fi shops everywhere, (I think there was 1 in Essex 30 years ago).

 

[mmaatt]

Someone I was working with a week ago asked if I'd like to sample his new headphones plugged into an i-phone, he was obviously proud of them informing me (laughably) they had a sub-woofer and tweeter built in. I can only say that the sound and music were excruciatingly awful - it was clear but tinny in sound and scale.

mat

 

[S-Man]

A couple of years ago one of my mates asked me to listen to his son's iPhone + big 'phones (looked like the old white Pioneer ones). I think he said the 'phones were about £100. Once I had found some music I recognised - which took a while - I was stunned by the SQ. The bass in particular was full/ripe/tight/tuneful etc etc, but everything else was damn good as well. Very few hifis can produce such even handed quality as that.

My daughter seems unbothered by audio quality, despite her being very into music. However I notice that she always commandeers my best sounding ear buds!

 

[davidsrsb]

For most of us listening to music is a solitary occupation, so the only reasons for speakers are home theatre and parties - which we have long grown out of.
If high quality personal stereo had existed 30 years ago, maybe I would have taken a different path

 

[auric]

For most of us listening to music is a solitary occupation, so the only reasons for speakers are home theatre and parties - which we have long grown out of.

Cast you mind back to the liberation offered to the masses by the Disc-man and Walk-man products, the customer is always right - even when wrong.

 

[dweezil]

For most of us listening to music is a solitary occupation, so the only reasons for speakers are home theatre and parties - which we have long grown out of.
If high quality personal stereo had existed 30 years ago, maybe I would have taken a different path

That is so sad.

We usually listen together and take turns to choose what's next.

Youngest is 18 so sometimes there's a bit of rubbish to sit through, other times she comes up with new interesting stuff.

Unfortunately working in the office today though so a nice bit of solitary Shpongle appreciation.

 

[Julf]

This weekend is the Amsterdam Dance Event. In addition to all the house parties, there are also a bunch of music business-related seminars, talks and workshops. One of the ones I went to was a panel discussion at the Concergebouw with David Byrne and independent music promoter and publisher Michel Lambot. David Byrne told that his 24-year-old daughter usually listens to music just through the speaker on her smartphone. He said that he was initially horrified, but then realized it was no worse than the cheap AM transistor radios he had at the same age.

Lambot presented some interesting figures about revenue through spotify and other streaming services, and showed how music revenue in Sweden is actually up from 2005 levels, despite sales of physical media having dropped dramatically. He also told that spotify pays the artist and record company 10 times as much as youtube, and 100 times as much as BBC Radio1 per listener.

When asked to predict what would happen to music distribution in the next 5 years, both stated that CDs, DVDs and SACD's will be gone, as physical distribution of binary data doesn't make any sense. Byrne stated that vinyl will hang on as a "fetishist" format, but streaming/online will be the only format to matter. No mention of hi-res, and Byrne laughed at the idea that there would be significant quality differences between the different streaming services, again referring back to the smartphone speaker of his daughter.

 

[Whaleblue]

The mistake being made here is to assume that because most teenagers aren't into HiFi, that they're not interested as a whole.

How many 50-something blokes are into HiFi? Not many. We're a minority here, and a similar minority probably exists in every other age group. Of course the youngest don't have cash to buy, nor houses to put expensive HiFi in.

 

[Nic P]

A decent pair of headphones (say £100 or more) plugged into an iPhone playing 320kbs AAC or better is *very* decent audio quality IMO. It takes a heck of a lot of cash to equal that sound in-room with a conventional audio system. I suspect many young folk care a lot about audio quality, hence the buoyant state of the headphone market.

Carnival Records in Malvern has lots of young people buying vinyl. Old farts like me are starting to feel outnumbered


Nic P