Blue Tooth Speakers

Since the subject of vinyl records and audio quality is being discussed, I thought I might share this fascinating presentation on the technology involved in vinyl records. It just showed up in my youtube feed today. I hope you enjoy it as much as I just did. Fran gets really deep into the technology.

 

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YES!!! Exactly!

I find it extraordinary that people put up with such poor sound quality nowadays. (But then they put up with bread that tastes of nothing and gives you indigestion - just goes to show that not every innovation is an unalloyed improvement.)

A number of visitors to my house have commented on the quality of sound from my Hi Fi system, which dates from the 1970s and 80s and was nothing special for that time, and the younger ones are astonished at the quality from my vinyl LP records from that era, which I still occasionally play. People have forgotten.

Mind you, at least bluetooth headphones give you better sound than those silly little Walkperson earphones everyone uses.

 

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I think part of the problem is that a lot of music today is dynamically compressed (as opposed to data compression) to be listened to on earbuds and/or in the car.

I find it odd that digital music finally gave us the ability to reproduce the full dynamic range of tape. But instead, now that have an objective value for maximum volume, we destroy any dynamics and compress everything into the top of the range.

 

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People's priority now seems to be for immediacy. They want it on tap wherever they are and whatever they are doing, and that, evidently, takes precedence over good sound quality. They expect to download it immediately rather than go to the shop for a recording and they want a means of listening to it while out walking, on the underground, wherever they are. This also means, probably, that they do not expect to give music their full attention. I have not researched it but would not be surprised if the way popular music is now composed is such that it sounds half decent on crappy earbuds.

Many of those of us who were into Hi Fi in the 70s and 80s were listeners to classical music, which sounds really shit on poxy earphones. I still buy CDs in preference to downloaded music.

 

i have the curved series speakers and subwoofer by cyberacoustics (OfficeMax) and it's as good as bose speakers. they are compact and pack a punch. you don't need a huge system that takes up a wall for the same sound quality. these little speakers fills the entire apartment and the sound is sweet. i'm very impressed with it and i'm not easily impressed with speakers as i'm picky about sound.

though I do like the nostalgia of rotary phones (had one just for decoration) and those vinyl players that you had to hand-crank, I think technology has just added more convenience without sacrificing quality.

 

Both audiophiles and engineers tend to obsess over weeding out the weakest links in the recording/reproduction chain, i.e., having amplifiers, preamplifiers, cables, then all the particularities of the tape and recording equipment (for the engineer), or the turntable, cartridge, etc. (for the listener) be of comparable quality--but then when your source material is already compromised, it pretty much renders all of that moot.

It's kind of amusing that bootleggers (of live material or otherwise unreleased material) have a more stringent code of ethics with regards to quality, by thoroughly documenting the lineage of everything they share and ensuring that lossy (data) compressed material is never burned to cd (unless the specific compression ration is made blatant).

 

Then there's always the subjectivity of the listener:

Tony Banks, somewhat infamously, used two different Mellotron tape sets to record the intro to "Watcher of the Skies"--the Mark II Brass and the Violins. Apparently, certain intervals didn't sound quite right when played with the violin set exclusively. As to whether this was a consequence of the original recording, or the particular set of tapes, or even an issue with specific tape heads, springs, or whatever on this particular Mellotron (click here <<< for a basic explanation of the workings of a Mellotron)--who knows?? The "issue" was one of the tuning of a couple of notes being off by a couple of cents, and, of course, it was far more apparent with certain intervals--the chords in question: Bmaj7/F# and C#/F#. However, this 'tron was obtained from Robert Fripp, who had used it it with King Crimson for a couple of years--even improvising aplenty--without complaint, and it's hardly as though anyone could describe Fripp as being insensitive to minor tuning discrepancies.

 

I just got Echo Dot and ordered a Bose blue tooth speaker for Alexa. All I have to do is say "Alexa play such and such" and it happens immediately. If I just say play a certain artist, she will play a shuffle of their music. Technology is amazing.

 

Agreed.

 

S

Depends what part of the song is most interesting. Is it the subtle tones of the instrument? Some genres aren't exactly subtle.

 

Technology will probably only get better with time.

 

Bought these neat wear around the neck ear bud Bluetooth headset. Rechargeable battery. No real need for top notch sound but the quality is good anyway. Good to use walking around the house. Has inbuilt SD card slot to use as self contained player

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The ear buds have magnets and they attach to the idents in the ends of the neck piece

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thanx for the mnemonic



years ago
Bolero came on the truck's radio just as I pulled up to the lumber yard
so
I parked at the open garage type door(but bigger), cranked the volume, told the dog to stay in the truck, and left the doors open.
The sound echoed by the building was fantastic.
many of the other patrons and staff were moved toward the music
really nice to see their interests peaked

 

Looks good! Bluetooth is a cool technology.

 

How is that Echo Dot working for you? I ask because I purchased one on Amazon today, along with a Fire TV Stick. I'm not certain my wife can adapt to the new technology.