Sound reproduction and playback

[pbrower2a]

(08-17-2016, 04:28 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:

(08-16-2016, 06:25 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(08-15-2016, 10:11 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(08-11-2016, 09:43 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(08-11-2016, 02:54 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: How does recorded sound become irrelevant?

Recorded sound in such formats as tapes and CDs become unnecessary as personal possessions (barring some copyright Gestapo). Oddly, vinyl discs seem to be making a comeback.

Recorded sound will not die. How else could one hear Schnabel on the piano, Oistrakh on the violin, or Rostropovich on the cello? Or for that matter the great singing voices of Maria Callas and Sarah Vaughn? Or Pete Fountain on the clarinet? Lionel Hampton on the marimba?

We will not need the playback intermediates of the disc or tape. Someone else might hold them in a library function.

Digital smart phones and computer speakers can't readily replace stereo hi fidelity, can they?

Smart phones and computer speakers are not high-fidelity devices. A reader is apparently OK. People will want high fidelity back. We Boomers know. We used to spend as much as the cost of a four-year-old used car for stereo equipment. Few people do that now. It could be smaller living spaces and neighbors who hate hearing Led Zeppelin or Schubert's Octet.  

I am not convinced that after 100 playings that vinyl disks are as good as a compact disc. You will fall asleep without putting the disc back in its jacket. I thought that CDs were as good as vinyl discs at the outset, but that they were less likely to warp, stretch and unstretch with temperature fluxes, and, of course get subjected to dust and worn needles.

I dedicated a reader to my stereo system almost exclusively for getting music off YouTube. But I have yet to dispose of my compact disks. I have some fear of a copyright Gestapo cracking down on us (Make sure that you have paid $50 to listen to that piece of music or we will attach your bank account or garnishee your wages). Remember: I have good cause to not assume the best behavior of capitalists and their flunkies.

Or another sort of problem ... wages of cyberwar ... "All your MP3s are berong to us!"

Do you remember the old control on computer-generated or computer-stored data that one absolutely needed? One needed a 'hard copy' for official purposes because computer files are easy to delete. But that is for documentary purposes. Something like the original files for a mortgage cannot be simply digitized onto a computer with the originals destroyed. (The tempting urge to do forgery for personal gain always exists, and digital data is easy to forge).

Copyrights can be enforced by elaborate rules of licensing, especially if the owners control the politicians and hence law enforcement. A hard copy in the form of a vinyl or compact disc sold by an entity with the right to sell the disk. Never mind that most copyrights are practically worthless except as a source of 'gotcha' revenue from people who can potentially be garnisheed for hundreds of dollars for having or using a bootleg copy of recorded music or video.

Technology is itself amoral.