Neil Young claims he was working on an audiophile iPod with Steve Jobs

[Dusty Chalk]

Bandcamp .

And really, it should be less than $10 or more than 16/44.1, 16/44.1 is just barely good enough. What are we, stuck in the 20th century?

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[blessingx]

I'm probably failing the audiophile team, but a non-network player and 'owning' all your music seems so limiting nowadays. Streaming audio and video services have certainly changed things for me for 99% of the stuff out there. Still good to have options for the special 1%.

[Grahame]

You don't host your own remotely accessible music server? Why not both?

[blessingx]

Different strokes of course. I don't own every album, podcast, radio stream, etc. ever created so a server doesn't get me there on its own. And so much music really is disposable after a month or two.

But yeah carry as many devices as you want.

And yes, I bought three more LPs today.

Edited March 13, 2014 by blessingx

[grawk]

I'm good with streaming and lps too.

[Torpedo]

Bandcamp .

And really, it should be less than $10 or more than 16/44.1, 16/44.1 is just barely good enough. What are we, stuck in the 20th century?

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Indeed However Bandcamp's offer of bands, styles and performers isn't as wide as I'd like. Postjack's idea of a large store like Amazon would be great.

[postjack]

FLAC quality streaming isn't too far away either. Isn't there already a lossless streaming service in Europe?

[Grahame]

FLAC quality streaming isn't too far away either. Isn't there already a lossless streaming service in Europe?

http://www.qobuz.com

[CarlSeibert]

Way cool site. I didn't know such a place existed. Too bad it's in French, translated to Googlish.

[jvlgato]

This.

I'd love such a service here! Wonder if Spotify can charge more and offer this?

[blessingx]

From today's audio news... HDTracks and Liztic LLC Partnership - The two firms have joined forces to bring hi-res audio to every music lover thru Liztic’s cross-platform music technology. It basically manages and synchronizes all of someone’s music, across several libraries and operating systems. One can have their music on iOS, Android, Mac and Windows devices, mobile and not, all at a moment’s notice. The Liztic app also allows users to play uncompressed and hi-res audio files, as sold by HDTracks, up to 192K/24bit (FLAC/AIFF/WAV) thru external DACs. Music from cloud-based storage can also be accessed, and the free basic Liztic version gets you up to 250 tunes on three devices. One-time upgrades ranging from $2.99 to $24.99 offer increased sync capacity for more devices. Both firms will also offer discounts to one another’s customers.

Edited March 14, 2014 by blessingx

[nnotis]

Bandcamp .

And really, it should be less than $10 or more than 16/44.1, 16/44.1 is just barely good enough. What are we, stuck in the 20th century?

Indeed, Bandcamp.

 

I'd appreciate 24/88.2 myself.  88.2 is the lowest available sample rate above Dan Lavry's goldie locks rate, but not high enough to cause errors.  And being a multiple of redbook is an extra convenience.  24 bits is just nice because there's no need to dither and noise shape when bouncing.  Quantization distortion is a non issue at 24 bits.

[justin]

I'm definitely not your average consumer, but give me a store full of 16/44 and I'd be a happy camper.

 

me too, but i'd still just buy the CD and rip it. the downloads cost way too much considering they have no resale value. at this point, there's hardly any evidence people can tell the difference between 128kbps properly encoded Mp3 and 16/44.1 -- maybe select passages on an ABX test by trained people. i dont want 192 or 256 either, but no one can tell 16/44.1 from 24/96 or 24/192. i'm still waiting for the blind study that shows someone can do it. if i was paying money and it was the same price i would obviously take the higher res files, but for playback portably there is a significant cost in storage space and battery life

 

the primary possibility for the high-res being better is that they will start getting different masters that will sound better in 16/44.1 than the retail CD in 16/44.1. but right now the market is still way too small to think that will happen.

Edited March 15, 2014 by justin

[Torpedo]

...

the primary possibility for the high-res being better is that they will start getting different masters that will sound better in 16/44.1 than the retail CD in 16/44.1. but right now the market is still way too small to think that will happen.

I agree with Justin, specially with the above. I'm getting one of those Pono things, chrome signed by Herbie Hancock, more for storage capacity and the hopes it sounds as good or better than my iTouch with regular 16/44 than for I believe the HD files are going to provide any better sound on the go.

 

The store is a whole different matter IMO. If they aspire to become a big name among the online music retailers, they need to either focus in a niche market like HDTracks, or offering a huge catalogue at very competitive prices. Otherwise most of the market goes pirate or keeps purchasing at Amazon and iTunes for lossy files. Most people won't care shit about sound quality, I really don't see the Pono store being a success selling only to the device owners.

[acidbasement]

The store is a whole different matter IMO. If they aspire to become a big name among the online music retailers, they need to either focus in a niche market like HDTracks, or offering a huge catalogue at very competitive prices. Otherwise most of the market goes pirate or keeps purchasing at Amazon and iTunes for lossy files. Most people won't care shit about sound quality, I really don't see the Pono store being a success selling only to the device owners.

That's what I'm most curious about, and that's where I think Neil Young has a chance of success, given his contacts (and apparently some buy-in, based on the video) from decades in the record industry.

[postjack]

me too, but i'd still just buy the CD and rip it.

 

9 times out of 10 when I want a new album, amazon will sell me the physical CD for cheaper than I can buy the FLAC.

 

One could argue the convenience of having the album "now" as opposed to waiting two days for amazon, but with my google play subscription, or any other streaming service, I do have everything immediately, just not in lossless quality.

 

So yes, I concur that for a large FLAC based store to get my business, the price would have to be right.

 

And I actually still enjoy spinning CDs themselves, moreso than listening to FLAC. But I just purchased JRiver, which makes the whole managing your library thing pretty awesome, so I might actually drift more towards computer based audio as time goes on.

[Grahame]

Sound bite: Despite Pono's promise, experts pan HD audio

By raising $4.3 million on Kickstarter, Neil Young's startup shows an appetite for better sound quality. The only hitch: experts say there's little point going beyond CD quality.

 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57620489-93/sound-bite-despite-ponos-promise-experts-pan-hd-audio/

[justin]

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[RudeWolf]

Cause file resolution equals quality.

[justin]

Question of the day at SoCal meet: "do you have any high-res on here?" And then a look of disappointment when I say no. I might as well be admitting I use cheap cables. Bad for business.

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[Grand Enigma]

64kbps MP3

[RudeWolf]

Be glad they didn't ask for DSD.

[Grahame]

No, but I have some up sampled standard rez with nothing above 22.1 KHz, taking up more storage, just like "some" hi rez Will that do?

[Grand Enigma]

Let's be honest, 90% of my listening is streaming these days.

[justin]

Low res streaming, like 16/44?

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