What would you like the future of Hirez Audio to be? (2 Viewers)

[Lee Scoggins]

I am wondering what people here would like to see hirez become. In other words, what possible future do you want to have for hirez?

I don't want to have any format war discussions; just an honest opinion about where hirez could go as a product.

You can include any format, DualDisc & BluRay & HD-DVD formats, whatever you like...just tell us what your dream scenario is....

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Here is my best future:

1. I think I would like to see either hirez format, DVDA or SACD, enjoy enough popularity (and hence profits for labels) for titles releases to improve.

2. An ability to playback my hirez in the car environment. I would enjoy having several auto playback options in terms of players.

3. Future DVD players include a LSI chip that decodes both formats so any title works.

4. Future hidef video players have universal chips as well.

5. More classic albums and newer pop titles come out in hirez.

6. Hybrid CD become increasingly common as labels differentiate their product from downloaded music improving value to the customer.

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I am most interested, though, in what you might want to see....

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

 

[Rachael B]

I just want software that's good enough that hardware, not software determines how great your system can sound. I think that if the industry doesn't make DVD-A and/or SA-CD into standard/s, many folks are going to lose more faith in the industry. I certainly will.

 

[John Milton]

I've been pretty impressed with the clarify of stereo SACDs. The perfect hires future to me means a huge availability of titles in hybrid SACD format. I hope Sony gets it right and makes all U.S. Blu-ray players capable of playing SACD from the getgo.

 

[Dale Van Minsel]

First, we need to make sure that all formats are recorded and mastered to an established standard and sound as good as possible.

Then, I would prefer a properly manufactured (no cracking allowed) hybrid SACD.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Thanks all for the comments.

Dale, I think you hit on an interesting point. Mastering and recording quality is all over the map. I would agree that labels could do more to make the sound quality more faithful to the actual event. Limiting compression usage and placing more emphasis on natural sounding work would be a big step in the right direction.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

The downside of limiting recording to set practices and tolerences would limit the number of recording studios, engineers, and sound mixing people that could be employed. A commitee and governing body, along with testing and certification would all have to be installed, and you'd need an Army of "recording cops" to ensure that the new material followed the rules.

naturally only big studios could afford to do this, and then only with a select few artists who are guaranteed to sella bajillion CD's. And most of todays 'Pop' music would sound like monkey-ass under the new guidelines. And even if you bought a new "super CD" it would likely cost $117.99 for eight tracks.

It would effectively bring about the end of the studio system.

Then everybody would have to make money selling stuff on iTunes for $.99/song. By using independant labels effectively eliminating Hi-Rez and Mid-Rez (CD) by making MP3 (or AAC, ATASC, whatever) the only music format that would be economically viable to garage bands ("Professional" musicians would no longer be able to support themselves). OR you could only experience music from live performances at bars.



And then the next-day you wake up and robots are making people work in salt mines.!


Personally I'd like the Chinese to develop a 500-disk universal player that sound better than the $3000 SONY ES single-disk player and sell it for $199 US. Then I wouldn't care anymore which format your particular studio released material on, as long as everything wasn't mixed to a terrible 5.1 mix just because everybody else is doing it.

No OSM (original stereo mix) = No Sale!

 

[Will_B]

I'd like them to stop with the spinning discs and instead make a credit-card sized plastic card (artwork directly on the card, so no need for packaging).

 

[Carl Johnson]

I'd like it if I could take full advantage of a hi-res player without having to upgrade to a receiver with 5.1 inputs.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

I would not want to limit anybody, least of all the specialty labels, or put in such a big enforcement infrastructure. But the Big 5 could easily adopt a set of recording and mastering guidelines and engineers who follow them might be able to certify a CD or hirez disc as "RIAA approved Premium Sound Quality" or some such logo. I think it would work best on a voluntary basis, particularly if product got some sort of marketing dollar advantage for participating - a sort of financial incentive program...

 

[Phil A]

They could easily put something on magnetic storage that would insert into a PC. Playing back from the PC's memory will basically mean jitter issues are practically non-existent. I see the connection to a PC as part of a multimedia center as having good potential. There could be cos. that specialize in audiophile PCs. Of course the hardware and software manuf. would not want to see this. They would rather sell an audiophile a $3k player instead of that audiophile having a PC that could top it on playback. I think most people are happy with the quality of CDs or even compressed music so I think it could be that any new format will have to be a niche audiophile thing that makes some money and gains minor mass market acceptance.

 

[Angelo.M]

While we're wishing for improvements to hi-rez, let us also continue to wish that recording engineers will strive to produce excellent Redbook recordings. I'd like to see less variation in the quality of Redbook performance, less use of compression and other techniques that degrade fidelity, etc and so on.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Excellent point. Convergence between all these devices is arriving quickly.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

I'd like to see Beatles discs with the following contents:

ORIGINAL UK mono mix (not the '87 CD remixes)
ORIGINAL UK stereo mix (not the '87 CD remixes)
NEW 5.1 surround mix

Weird, alternate mixes like the US 45 of HELP would remain collector's items.

 

[Thomas Newton]

Getting rid of moving parts sounds appealing. There are some practical obstacles.

Flash memory cards with enough capacity for uncompressed Red Book audio (10 MB/minute => most albums would require either a 512MB card or a 1GB card) are rather expensive. Buying one per portable music player is one thing, but I would rather not add $80 to $180 to the price of each and every pre-recorded album.

A plastic card with a super-high-density mag stripe would probably be subject to all of the same wear and tear as a credit card or ATM card. My banks replace those for free; will record companies replace erased or split music cards for free?

 

[Phil A]

According to this the future is Super DVD:

http://www.stradivarisociety.com/News-JapanDVD.htm

including the statement:

"Mark Levinson astonished Forum attendees with the revelation that the PCM recording system that is currently used for our CDs, DVDs, television, and cell phones has a negative effect on the body—and that, in addition to the extraordinary improvement in high fidelity, one bit technology has a very positive physical effect."

So my prescription is to take 2 SACDs before bedtime

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Phil,

I saw that and was really confused...what exactly is "Super DVD"? They really did not explain that. If the sampling rate is more, how much more? Does it have any label or hardware support? Will it be part of BluRay?

Something seems fishy about this....

I'm also skeptical about some of the health reasons brought up. I would not be making those claims without some real medical studies to back it up.

 

[Phil A]

Lee, they really did not explain much. I just happened to see the story. Mark Levinson has done a bunch of things but I don't think he is an MD. I agree that it is foolish to make claims without multiple impartial expert opinions or some type of study. I don't believe Red Rose supports DVD-A.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Dude, 8-track is so dead. Let it go.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

 

[Seth--L]

Classical labels need to come up with better pricing schemes. It's ridiculous that discs which have been available at mid and budget price as fine to excellent redbooks since the early 90s are now being sold at full price as SACDs.