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Younger generation audio quality ?

Julf said:
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.
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Bit of a problem looming for the 60% of the world without internet access then.

As soon as it gets misty we struggle even here in Essex to stream Spotify.
 
I think Tony L will testify to the long term (growing) enthusiasm for second hand vinyl, and the more recent growth in enthusiasm for second hand CDs. Some fashions have legs and IMO these trends will go on and on. Downloads will (have already) become the mainstream, but CDs, SACDs and vinyl will continue to be sold new and will have vibrant second hand markets.

Nic P
 
I visited a used record store that just opened this last week. He sells new and used vinyl and some entry level new and used turntables. I'm not sure the business model will work in today's marketplace.

I purchase all my new records on-line for much better prices than I've ever seen at a brick and mortar. His used records that were worth owning were pretty high priced and 80% of the used records seemed like unwanted records from his own album collection.

I meant to go there the day it opened but missed by two days. I imagine the good stuff was bought up day one.
 
Julf said:
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.
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Absolutely right.
Those phones have superior record and replay performance than was the case for most of the equipment used to produce the music in our collections.

I've not run a separate dac or streamer for some while now.
Just plug the iPhone or (more usually) iPad Air straight into the amp aux.
 
I use a 'joke' DAC, the XiFi HD by Creative, it's better than iphone direct.

iPhone is really very, very good but the headphone out limits the performance.
 
The headphone output produced the results in the link up thread.
There is absolutely nothing to criticise in the results, other than you can't play >48khz.
You won't find an analogue machine comes anywhere close, and likely nothing better in the digital domain up to perhaps a decade ago.

If you are going to be critical of the iPhone's audio capability, then you have to be similarly critical of every record in your collection, most CDs, and in most cases the domestic hi-fi used to play it - which is below the phone standard.
 
Robert said:
The headphone output produced the results in the link up thread.
There is absolutely nothing to criticise in the results, other than you can't play >48khz.
You won't find an analogue machine comes anywhere close, and likely nothing better in the digital domain up to perhaps a decade ago.

If you are going to be critical of the iPhone's audio capability, then you have to be similarly critical of every record in your collection, most CDs, and in most cases the domestic hi-fi used to play it - which is below the phone standard.
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And yet through a cheap as chips DAC it's improved, go figure.
 
My 17 year old, who has been gigging regularly for 4 years (80 to 100 gigs per year), so he knows about live music. He also seems to have a pretty good knowledge of music from the Stones onwards. He has two systems:

Vinyl: Project Genie TT, Inca Tech Claymore and Ruark Icons (£900)
Mobile: ipod classic and Sennheiser Momentum headphones (£400)

He also plays the ipod through the Claymore.

Wish I had kit that sounded as good at his age. Think was in my early 20's when I had PL12D, JVC JAS-11 and Epos somethings.

My other kid just listens to pop music and is perfectly happy to use the speaker on his Samsung Galaxy 5.

Each to their own.
 
Many countries will mainly have cellular Internet access and that doesn't cope so well with wide-scale video and music streaming
 
davidsrsb said:
Many countries will mainly have cellular Internet access and that doesn't cope so well with wide-scale video and music streaming
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Most mobile/cellular operators do local buffering/cacheing for popular streaming content sites.
 
Julf said:
Most mobile/cellular operators do local buffering/cacheing for popular streaming content sites.
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At their main switching centre.
They have very finite distribution between towers - microwave links are about 100 Mbps maximum and they are daisy chained. Fibre is only used in urban areas.
The cell itself has a total capacity of about 100 Mbps SHARED for 4G. Higher speeds mean smaller cell radius and more towers
 
I think parents who have a passion for HiFi should encourage their kids to do the same. Kids like to be individual and have a quirky side. What could be better than owning a retro piece of kit they can show off to their mates.
My Dad did that for me and I thought it was great and over time as funds have allowed I could expand my kit and enjoy music as best as I can.
 
flatpopely said:
And yet through a cheap as chips DAC it's improved, go figure.
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There is a massive difference between the headphone output of my iphone (5s) into my active speakers and music replay via my dac. I do think successive generations of iPhones have improved on sound quality.

I had a Systemdek 2x, Creek Cas4040 & B&W DM110's when I was 15 - I was unusual though!
 
davidsrsb said:
At their main switching centre.
They have very finite distribution between towers - microwave links are about 100 Mbps maximum and they are daisy chained. Fibre is only used in urban areas.
The cell itself has a total capacity of about 100 Mbps SHARED for 4G. Higher speeds mean smaller cell radius and more towers
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The irony is that they have done their best to kill off the obvious solution - peer-to-peer.
 
Julf said:
The irony is that they have done their best to kill off the obvious solution - peer-to-peer.
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I sometimes suspect that iTunes and Spotify looking at your local collection could be a place-holder for some future managed peer to peer system
 
I was thinking back to 1982. Just about everyone was buying starter systems. Dual 505. NAD 3020 and a pair of Kef Coda or something similar. I think the system cost was £295.

In today's money just under £1K.

I'm intrigued as to how a Richer Sounds system deal would stack up if based on say a Project Expression.
 
merlin said:
I'm intrigued as to how a Richer Sounds system deal would stack up if based on say a Project Expression.
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I suspect very well. A digital equivalent would be say a Cambridge 651C CD, 651A amp and the £250 Cambridge speakers with that really wide-band flat mid/tweeter thing that runs right down to 250Hz. I've got a 651C and it's a lovely CD player for 300 notes. Rob reckons the speakers are stunningly good and I assume the amp is up to the task of driving them.

I think things are actually damn good at present, e.g. I'm a real fan of the little T-Amp things. I've got an Amptastic Mini-1 and it really is bloody superb. It might actually be the best amp in the house, though I keep changing my mind on that as they all have things I really like (various Quads, Leak Stereo 20 etc). It costs just £100 (go buy one, drive your huge JBLs with it - it will make you laugh out loud how good it is!). Then there are active studio monitors from the pro-audio arena.... £1k buys a heck of a lot of good sound these days if it's spent wisely.
 
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