Expense is what continues to drive "quality" of audio reproduction down.
A friend of mine says everyone he knows uses these tiny Alexa "smart" speakers - one in every room.
They play in sync and so you get this "spacious" (echo?) effect from the time delay of the sound reaching you from each speaker.
To most of us these would sound like complete sh*t... but the mainstream/masses like them. They think they sound good for the $ spent.
I've seen some teardown pics of these. Some have a single 2" driver. Others have multiple 1-2" drivers, maybe an upward firing tweeter and at most a 5-inch "subwoofer" driver.
To me it seems like every decade or two the quality of audio reproduction just keeps going down. Starting from the tube-amp era of the 50's, to solid-state, and now streaming WiFi/bluetooth small self-amplified speakers.
Lately I've been trying to investigate the latest portable audio that mostly the younger generations are into... portable headphone DACS/dongles, wired and TWS-wireless IEM's (In Ear Monitor headphones), etc. A segment of the market doesn't want anything that can't be driven by their phones.
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And you can give them some massive dopamine withdrawal when you take away their phones too. No internet connectivity - watch ‘em scramble.
Me? The music plays in my head 24/7/365 whether there is a sound system available or not. The only thing that changes is which song is playing.
Me? The music plays in my head 24/7/365 whether there is a sound system available or not. The only thing that changes is which song is playing.
So the question now is ... Is 2-speaker stereo dying?... will streaming technology (WiFi, Bluetooth) and these self-amplified (mono) speakers which are being used like multi-speaker "surround sound" systems put a nail in the coffin of dual-channel stereo market? (I mean apart from us - small group of stereo "fanatics"). That plus the focus on mobile audio - phone driven and the crappy portable self-amplified bluetooth speakers.
This is what I've been trying to figure out with my attempt to understand what the younger generations are into.
This is what I've been trying to figure out with my attempt to understand what the younger generations are into.
No relationship in the two eras you speak about here. The first was a progression of audio technology, the second is all about internet capitalization. It didn't start going downhill til Al Gore "invented" the internet. 🙂
The answer is YES! Along with us geezers.
...and my wife is not helping matters. 😳
What is kinda funny to think about is... in the 40's (if I remember reading correctly) that audio systems were all mono speakers and amps and later came stereo, the new technology, was invented and took over. Now it's like groundhog day and these new smart speakers are mono again ;-)
But maybe that's just because the wireless audio tech hasn't advanced enough yet. Note: I've seen a few class-D amp boards that can do TWS bluetooth (stereo left+right channels synced to each other) but there doesn't seem to be very many fully built products doing this yet.
Amazon probably has to finish selling everyone the mono junk first, then they will release TWS stereo stuff to get everyone to upgrade, spend more $$.
But maybe that's just because the wireless audio tech hasn't advanced enough yet. Note: I've seen a few class-D amp boards that can do TWS bluetooth (stereo left+right channels synced to each other) but there doesn't seem to be very many fully built products doing this yet.
Amazon probably has to finish selling everyone the mono junk first, then they will release TWS stereo stuff to get everyone to upgrade, spend more $$.
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You need to put things in perspective. Sure technology is an advancing juggernaut however milestones are distinct leaps in advancement typically unforseen. The early period you refer to encompasses everything up until that breakthrough after which what was before became the demographic template/model. So "groundhog day"? In some respects, sure..'there's nothing new under the sun' so to speak. The major difference from then to now boils down to convenience. This imo is driven simply by the fact that music, the very thing that facilitated this industry is virtually complete. This can devolve into a whole new topic but the bottom line is the vast majority of music listened to by the masses young and old is what was done in the past. And so this 'commodity' is being served like in a fast food restaurant.
Ear buds will do.
Ear buds will do.
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Fast food is prob a good analogy. The masses was convenience and low price. Quality is a secondary concern and we must also remember that every hears things subjetively/different, and that many people judge what's "good" based on what they have experienced. Most people never heard high quality audio reproduction though with the low price of good quality ear buds and headphones now that's changing.
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I think the imprint of music is a big part of it. Certain songs bring out memories of where I was, or what I was doing, or who I was with, or when I first heard it.
Good ear phones/buds have always been around. It really is a market driven industry now as the music is established and it's the gear that is secondary as opposed to the gear when music was still coming to fruition. It's a different world now..sad to say.
Exactly. You hit the nail on the head. It's all about learned experience. Simple as that. If you were introduced to music for the first time now at your age having never heard such a thing, would it "have a hold" on you? Like voo doo? When symphony orchestra came into being hundreds of years ago many considered it a work of the devil due to it's overwhelming presence.
Not sure what you mean by fruition, music has always been established - published via vinyl, tapes, then CD's, then computer files, now streaming.
do you mean just that recording gear is so cheap now more musicians can afford to record and publish their content?
I agree. But I think this is different now given the sheer number of inexpensive products available and price vs quality.
And also usage given everyone has a phone so mobile source/player. Granted there are still as always some stupid expensive stuff too...
https://www.linsoul.com/collections/in-ear-monitors?limit=50&sort=title-ascending
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As I mentioned this could devolve into a whole new topic.. or maybe ‘evolve’? What I mean is the most melodically appealing music has already been written, hence my descriptor “fruition”. Essentially ‘been there, done that’. Which is why the bulk of music typically listened to was done by the past hit makers, pop stars et al.
It's just amazing the best music was a matter of the artists themselves bringing their talent to fruition which can be observed by their own progressive success.
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Exactly.
We are simplifying a complex mechanism, of course it is not playing video-games in itself that makes it happen: it happens if/when playing a video-game the player gets a feeling of pleasure.
For the same reason it is not listening to Music in itself that affects the reward, but if/when listening to the Music gives pleasure.
As known many video-game programmers deliberately create condition giving the specific sensation of the reward and maybe that's also why some players are led to repeat that experience again and again.
May be some composers would be able to do deliberately it as well...
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Maybe I’m one of them. I’m sitting here in my hammock reading this thread and listening to opera from French radio on my phone via the Internet. No withdrawal for me! 😛
I'd be screwed without an internet connection.
I found SO much good & interesting music on YT and Spotify I don't know what I'd do without them and my aural life would be impoverished.
I found SO much good & interesting music on YT and Spotify I don't know what I'd do without them and my aural life would be impoverished.
Same here. The brain works by association. When I listen to 70s/80s pop music, I feel that the music may not have been that great, but the memories attached are priceless. 🙂
Ed