Thanks to FunkeyMonk at Slashdot, I am now conscious of a trend in which I have been unwittingly participating. I have spent quite a bit of time building a library of music that I like and quite a bit of money building a “hi-fi” to play the music, yet most of the time, I listen to compressed MP3 files ripped from my CDs. I have a “good reason” for this, of course: I am too busy to sit in my den and listen to music. So most of the time, I am listening to music as background on my computer speakers. Now that’s “high fidelity,” for sure.
The Christian Science Monitor’s article, Thousands of songs in your pocket: An audiophile’s nightmare? gets into this.
New technology can deliver ever smaller, more storable music files – but the process carries a cost in terms of sound quality. Most of what all those earbuds-wearers are hearing, say experts, is bass-heavy noise.
With the advent of the portable MP3 player, the main music listening experience for many people has devolved to earbuds and MP3 files. Worse, I often see two kids sharing music by each listening to one half of the same set of ear buds.
I know that I would have gone freakin’ crazy in high school if one of my stereo speakers quit working. Unfortunately, this seems to be how kids often hear music. I guess that means that the instruments which are not center-stage are creating optional sounds. Do kids still share the experience of kicking back in a room and listening to music on real speakers?
I do use a high quality compression level for my MP3 files. Certainly my office/computer speakers cannot reproduce more fidelity than is already available to them. But I think it is time for me to make the time for more “ahhhhh” moments in my den, sublimely listening to all of the music on a CD and relishing every note.
