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Old 11th March 2009, 22:26   #1
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Younger people prefer digital shimmer to accurate sound

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Jonathan Berger, a professor of music at Stanford, tests his incoming students each year by having them listen to a variety of recordings which use different formats from MP3 to ones of much higher quality, and he reports that each year the preference for music in MP3 format rises. Berger says that young people seemed to prefer 'sizzle sounds' that MP3s bring to music because it is a sound they are familiar with. 'The music examples included both orchestral, jazz and rock music. When I first did this I was expecting to hear preferences for uncompressed audio and expecting to see MP3 (at 128, 160 and 192 bit rates) well below other methods (including a proprietary wavelet-based approach and AAC),' writes Berger. 'To my surprise, in the rock examples the MP3 at 128 was preferred. I repeated the experiment over 6 years and found the preference for MP3 — particularly in music with high energy (cymbal crashes, brass hits, etc) rising over time.' Dale Dougherty writes that the context of the music changes our perception of the sound, particularly when it's so obviously and immediately shared by others. 'All that sizzle is a cultural artifact and a tie that binds us. It's mostly invisible to us but it is something future generations looking back might find curious because these preferences won't be obvious to them.'
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Last edited by greenhorn : 11th March 2009 at 22:27.
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Old 11th March 2009, 23:25   #2
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well whatever is ones poison.. but interesting article
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Old 12th March 2009, 11:02   #3
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It's true. One can also attribute this to the fact that the younger generation has pretty much no exposure to live music... The nearest reference they have to "LIVE" is club sound!
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Old 12th March 2009, 12:05   #4
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people have been listening to music with bass and treble pushed to the max, that they forget what its like to listen to music naturally. With ye olde sources, you couldnt push the bass too much because with turntables, you'd get rumble , and tapes didnt have much bass anyway, and both these formats suffered from noise/ wear and tear in the HF region. Now that perfect sound is available , people want to turn it up even more. no wonder people want 5 ways and TS 20's so much
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Old 12th March 2009, 12:32   #5
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Its true.
Kids these days just don't know what mids are.

Last edited by Rehaan : 12th March 2009 at 14:43. Reason: tr00 = true. Please avoid SMS language as per the Team-BHP rules.
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Old 12th March 2009, 21:11   #6
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Originally Posted by gunbir View Post
It's true. One can also attribute this to the fact that the younger generation has pretty much no exposure to live music... The nearest reference they have to "LIVE" is club sound!
I guess what you mean is unamplified live sound. Most open air concerts sound worse than what my home audio setup produces because of poor quality loudspeakers/amps. Its the same in most concert halls atleast here in bangalore. I've never been impressed by the sound.

However I once had the pleasure of listening to Diana Krall live, unamplified playing/singing in a garden. Now that is an experience I shall cherish forever.

Coming to the point, I'm not surprised. It is a commonly known fact amongst most audiophile circles that once you are used to a particular "house" sound, you'd be stuck to that for quite a long time. I'm guessing that the newer gen is just too used to listening to mp3 music on their crappy sounding ipods.

Also I'd be very interested in knowing what equipment they used for testing - if the equipment is poor, I'm sure it wouldn't matter whether they testing 128kbps mp3s or whatever else.

Last edited by reignofchaos : 12th March 2009 at 21:16.
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Old 12th March 2009, 21:35   #7
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Most of the youths are ipod/mp3 player users who I don't think have an idea about midbass and low bass.
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Old 12th March 2009, 23:05   #8
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Music is supposed to be enjoyed and as long as Mp3 serves the purpose, it shouldn't really matter.

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Old 12th March 2009, 23:44   #9
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blame opera house installers (not the aussie one) for the above impact!
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Old 13th March 2009, 10:51   #10
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The aussie opera house is an accoustical disaster and the interiors are ghastly too..
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Old 13th March 2009, 10:53   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reignofchaos View Post
I
However I once had the pleasure of listening to Diana Krall live, unamplified playing/singing in a garden. Now that is an experience I shall cherish forever.
where ???
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Old 13th March 2009, 11:30   #12
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I would like to say only one thing...Convenience...The Mp3 is most easily and free medium of music.

How many young audiophile do your know ? Who are serious about the equipment and software played on the same ?
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Old 13th March 2009, 11:45   #13
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where ???
Seattle . A couple of months ago. Seemingly this particular mansion is one of her favorite venues. It was quite exclusive - tickets were very very pricey. Close to 200 bux including taxes. But totally worth it.
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Old 13th March 2009, 11:50   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by low_bass_makker View Post
I would like to say only one thing...Convenience...The Mp3 is most easily and free medium of music.

How many young audiophile do your know ? Who are serious about the equipment and software played on the same ?
agree on the convenience, eqpt etc, but why would anyone like the duplicate more than the original
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Old 13th March 2009, 11:53   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by greenhorn View Post
agree on the convenience, eqpt etc, but why would anyone like the duplicate more than the original
Because it is for free !!!!
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