Re:Neil Young launches new music player
by stevejohnson on Monday March 10, 2014 @05:20PM
(#7375759)
This video helped me understand the actual issues around digital audio encoding. It's nice to use brain space for facts instead of woo. If you're convinced that digital anything is inherently inferior to analog, it should clear some things up.
Re:Neil Young launches new music player
by Fomite on Monday March 10, 2014 @04:42PM
(#7375556)
"passionate consumers, who hunger to hear music the way its creators intended" - Unless this device teleports me to Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, it fails at this goal.
Feel free to substitute your concert venue of choice here.
Re:Neil Young launches new music player
by zacinbusiness on Monday March 10, 2014 @05:15PM
(#7375736)
I would think that the headphones/speakers would be as important, if not more so, than the device. If you crank out high fidelity music through ear gummies that you get for 10$ at the drug store then you're not going to get great sound. But if you take your standard iTunes MP3 and push it through some decent cans, or even better a proper stereo like a set of B&O speakers, then you will get sound that's great and clear. 100% of my music listening is carried out via extreme-quality streaming through Spotify via a set of Bowers and Wilkins P3 headphones, and I'm always happy with the results, regardless of whether it's from my laptop, iPhone, or iPad.
Re:Neil Young launches new music player
by VikingCoder on Monday March 10, 2014 @05:02PM
(#7375678)
"If Neil Young, age 68, who’s played feedback-drenched noise on stage for the past forty-odd years, can reliably tell a Pomo file from a FLAC prepared from said Pomo file in A/B/X testing, I will give you a lollipop. Two lollipops."
You're cheating. The real challenge is a Pono file, encoded to CD, then FLAC'ed, versus the Pono file. CDs are not that impressive, and there is more advanced technology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Audio
I'm not endorsing the Pono, but I'll also bet you a lollipop that 95% or more of your music collection came from data that was on a CD.
Re:Neil Young launches new music player
by davidgerard on Monday March 10, 2014 @05:46PM
(#7375892)
>encoded to CD, then FLAC'ed
You realise that's a no-op, right?
I also give you this marvellous study on "golden ears" and "high-resolution audio" versus science: "Audibility of a CD-Standard A/D/A Loop Inserted Into High-Resolution Audio Playback."
Re:Neil Young launches new music player
by SideburnsOfDoom on Monday March 10, 2014 @07:15PM
(#7376331)
> > A PONO file, encoded to CD, then FLAC'ed
> You realise that's a no-op, right?
Given that the PONO file will have more bits per sample than the CD encoded version, from a digital point of view, no, it is absolutely not a no-op. It has different data in it, even when the reversible compression has been reversed.
If a person with good ears can tell the difference, that's a different question. And even if someone somewhere can tell the difference sometimes, do enough people who pay for music care?
Re:Neil Young launches new music player
by davidgerard on Monday March 10, 2014 @07:51PM
(#7376494)
The CD to FLAC bit is a no-op. To say that suggests not paying attention when writing.
If a person with good ears can tell the difference, I'll give them three lollipops. The record of actual A/B/X testing of such is a pretty consistent "no better than chance".
Re:Neil Young launches new music player
by arh68 on Monday March 10, 2014 @05:25PM
(#7375790)
What a headline. iPods got a lot of praise for including Wolfson DACs. The hardware was better than most and they sounded better. The ES9018 in this might indeed sound great, too.
Wouldn't it be nice for this to catch on? A chance to move all audio from v0/16/44 to lossless/24/192. With DMCA, maybe a good player to jailbreak and put linux on. If anything, it'll give Apple a reason to update the iPods.
Re:Neil Young launches new music player
by davidgerard on Monday March 10, 2014 @05:48PM
(#7375907)
As far as I can tell, Machina Dynamica actually started off as a parody of audiophiles ... then a tidal wave of idiots bashed down their metaphorical door, screaming "TAKE MY MONEY!!" As woo-hostile as I am, I can't quite bring myself to completely condemn them for just taking such resolutely stupid people's money. I must write up the story for RationalWiki.
https://www.xiph.org/video/vid2.shtml
Here's a post on the same site that addresses Pono more directly. Also very helpful for developing your understanding.
http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
Feel free to substitute your concert venue of choice here.
You're cheating. The real challenge is a Pono file, encoded to CD, then FLAC'ed, versus the Pono file. CDs are not that impressive, and there is more advanced technology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Audio
I'm not endorsing the Pono, but I'll also bet you a lollipop that 95% or more of your music collection came from data that was on a CD.
You realise that's a no-op, right?
I also give you this marvellous study on "golden ears" and "high-resolution audio" versus science: "Audibility of a CD-Standard A/D/A Loop Inserted Into High-Resolution Audio Playback."
http://mixonline.com/recording/mixing/audio_emperors_new_sam...
No, it is certainly not. Encoded to CD is most definitely not a no-op.
It's like I said, "Shot in the head, and then tickled with a feather."
Don't tell me that together, it's like being tickled with a feather.
> You realise that's a no-op, right?
Given that the PONO file will have more bits per sample than the CD encoded version, from a digital point of view, no, it is absolutely not a no-op. It has different data in it, even when the reversible compression has been reversed.
If a person with good ears can tell the difference, that's a different question. And even if someone somewhere can tell the difference sometimes, do enough people who pay for music care?
If a person with good ears can tell the difference, I'll give them three lollipops. The record of actual A/B/X testing of such is a pretty consistent "no better than chance".
Wouldn't it be nice for this to catch on? A chance to move all audio from v0/16/44 to lossless/24/192. With DMCA, maybe a good player to jailbreak and put linux on. If anything, it'll give Apple a reason to update the iPods.
I have 96 FLAC albums on my Mac, and they take up 42GiB.
I wonder what then "high resolution" is supposed to mean.
It appears they made a mistake in the press release originally and have now corrected it.
It used to say 1000 albums, they meant to write 1000 songs.
Speaking of that I need to stop by the store and pickup a new electro-static sound filter for my car speakers