Comments on: RESPONSES TO THE APPLE / LALA PIECE YESTERDAY

By: gold prognose

gold prognose — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:50:01 +0000

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By: SourDeez

SourDeez — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:19:47 +0000

Also, my point is that 192+ mp3 is NOT crap, it’s just worse than the best mp3. Crap is below 192 as far as I’m concerned, and plenty of iTunes tracks are more than 192. My overall point is that being inferior to the absolute top quality shit does not make anything crap. Being worse than acceptable makes it crap, unless you’re a perfectionist. To give another analogy, the weed I smoked today was not the most expensive OG Kush from California, but it was also way better than mid-quality shit and it got me very high. The OG Kush would have gotten me blazed out of my fucking mind. I wouldn’t call the weed I smoked bad just because it didn’t get me as high as the OG Kush would have. Also, inferior products are not being “forced” upon anyone. Better audio products are not disappearing because of mp3s. Any willing and able person can still pay for the best speakers, the best quality vinyls, etc. Nothing is stopping you from doing that, or even making it harder for you.

By: SourDeez

SourDeez — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:09:09 +0000

I see what you mean now, and I agree, if you want a high powered listening experience at home mp3 just won’t do it. In fact, if you’re gonna blow your nuts off, vinyl is the only way to go. But are you implying that this service being offered by apple is going to make CDs and vinyls disappear completely? Because if it was affordable I would definitely pay a low subscription fee to hear unlimited free music on the go AND listen to a lot of the same songs on vinyl at home. It’s not an either/or scenario. It’s like having the Ferrari and the Mini at the same time, except you don’t have to be filthy rich to do it.

By: jibbler

jibbler — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:31:00 +0000

As you’re flying around the Nürburgring in your Mini powered Ferrari look in your rearview mirror. See that thing way, way, way back there? It’s the point. You missed it. Completely.

The analogy is not about listening in the studio. I, and many others, would be quite happy to drive a Mini powered Ferrari to work every day (MP3 on headphones). The reason – because the busy roads and speed limits do not allow you take full advantage of the Ferrari powered Ferrari (CD or FLAC) therefore there is little need for it.

However, on the occasions that you do take your Ferrari to the Nürburgring (high quality amp & speakers) you want to take full advantage of it’s ability, you can’t. With a Ferrari powered Ferrari (CD or FLAC) you’ll get to enjoy it a lot more than a lesser product, the Mini powered version (MP3 on headphones).

So we agree that you don’t need high quality on iPod/headphones because you can’t take advantage of the quality because you won’t get it. But…..and this is the point you missed….is that once you can ONLY buy a Mini powered Ferrari (MP3) and have no option to buy the Ferrari powered Ferrari (CD or FLAC) then you’ll never be able to go to the Nürburgring and really enjoy it. Once you’ve taken something away you can never get it back. EVER.

Agreed that CDs are over priced. However, cheapskates who want to save themselves a few bucks and get an inferior product are entitled to do so. But with the way things are going, inferior products are being forced on everyone including those who are happy to pay for quality. The same cheapskates will pay for MP3s are probably the same who buy a 10MP digital camera and set it to take pix at VGA quality so they can fit more on their memory stick and then bitch about the fact they try and print it out at A3 size and it looks like crap. Don’t force crap on those who are willing to pay for quality just because others are cheapskates and are happy for pay for crap. How, as you put it, fucking ridiculous.

By: jibbler

jibbler — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:29:42 +0000

As you’re flying around the Nürburgring in your Mini powered Ferrari look in your rearview mirror. See that thing way, way, way back there? It’s the point. You missed it. Completely.

By: ezra

ezra — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:38:05 +0000

NERDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Dysenteric

Dysenteric — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:12:03 +0000

Spotify is quite useful, fits in well with my “try before you buy” policy, and it’s helped me satiate my craving for releases I plan to buy in the future, like Evangelion and Grindvirus.

I couldn’t care less about what Apple are doing, to be honest. I’ve always viewed the iPhone as a technological white elephant. So I didn’t join in the argument a couple of days ago. Even so, Vince…

Viking-Shredder: “I don’t know man. I’m still a fan of actually owning a physical copy of the music. Just something about having the physical copy makes me feel safer than confiding in computer files.” Also, you must like riding a horse and buggy because it’s “safer.”

…that response was uncalled for. Viking-S was only voicing an opinion.

By: \m/Eluveitie\m/

\m/Eluveitie\m/ — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:07:19 +0000

Yeah, listening to some really low-fi albums through the most crystal clear audio setup available is a lot like having really clean urine. It’s still piss.

By: Facebook User

Facebook User — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:58:15 +0000

I still haven’t got an answer on why I should buy an iPod. My iAudio cost $30 less than iPod. Both were 8gb. On the other hand, for those $30 extra, I get crappier sound, slower transfering process, a limit on which headphones I will be able to use…hmmm When I look at it that way the iPod should’ve been the obvious choice. Yeah, right.. The crappier sound doesn’t matter when I’m listening to Darkthrone, but when I listen to Ahab, I sure as hell want a lot of bass.

By: Dysenteric

Dysenteric — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:52:25 +0000

I’m like that.

I listen to a lot of very underground stuff that usually has less than perfect production, especially goregrind and black metal. 128kbps or 320kbps, Flac or .mp3, whatever, it’s not gonna make a lot of difference if the production is crappy. And I have never looked at what format iTunes is converting my CDs into, because it’s really not important to me.

I do use 320kbps .mp3s when I’m importing vinyl onto my computer, otherwise, I just leave it as it is. I still prefer blasting out of my speakers as opposed to straight into my ears. I’m getting a new speaker system for Christmas, can’t wait to use it.

By: \m/Eluveitie\m/

\m/Eluveitie\m/ — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:56:15 +0000

I’m not too picky. As long as it’s above 96kps I’m fine with it. Most of my songs are 256, but I can usually listen to 128 with no qualms. Most of the time I’ll just pop a cd in my stereo though if I really care about sound quality.

By: SourDeez

SourDeez — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:16:40 +0000

It’s not the major artists I’m talking about, it’s the non-major artists. Plus, I would definitely say FLAC is limited if I can’t find Crack The Skye in FLAC. That was pretty much the hottest release of the year. Major label, major band, no FLAC. Also the size problem is significant. I have over a month of music in my iTunes library and I add to it every day. I’m running out of space on my hard drive. I can’t imagine what it would be like if all of those were FLAC files. I’d be forced to buy an external hard drive. Also 192k is perfectly listenable, and iTunes music is never lower than that. It’s actually 192 at WORST. Sure there’s a difference between that and 320 but if the music is good and the sound quality isn’t complete garbage then there’s really no problem.

By: SourDeez

SourDeez — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:06:12 +0000

You can’t share your library on iTunes for PC? I thought it was exactly the same as the mac version. If it is you can definitely set your library to be shared.

By: SourDeez

SourDeez — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:01:42 +0000

That’s fucking ridiculous. First of all, the analogy is bad. My whole point is that iPod use is like driving to work, whereas your analogy of driving around the Nurburgring is like listening to a song IN the studio. You don’t need a sports car at all to comfortably drive to work, you can drive a Toyota and it’s still fine. Similarly, you don’t need the highest quality audio when you’re using your iPod, which is most likely in a situation where there’s tons of ambient noise anyway like walking around or driving to work. I live in New York. I could pay for the absolute best quality FLAC files, but the constant street noise is guaranteed to cancel out whatever boost in quality there is when I’m walking/driving around. Also, you can’t say it’s like buying a Ferrari and then putting in a Mini engine because the whole point is that you’re paying less money from the get-go. It’s like buying the Mini to begin with, which is not a Ferrari but absolutely no car to sneeze at. Which is exactly my point. You’re not paying the same price for shittier music, you’re paying considerably less than CDs for slightly lower quality, the 5-10 dollar difference between iTunes and real CDs really adds up when you listen to a ton of music every day. When was the last time you went into a music store and every single CD was 10 bucks or less?

By: PhreQuencYViii

PhreQuencYViii — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:00:56 +0000

Zune has been doing a great subscription model for years now, so…I dunno.

By: TheRooktrocity

TheRooktrocity — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:38:59 +0000

I also buy physical copies and will continue to do so until I cannot. I think a certain portion of the population always will.

By: Kevin Halsted

Kevin Halsted — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:56:31 +0000

Wow Vince, how old are you, 8?
You made valid points, I guess, but can you stop sucking Apples dick now?
Fine, you think its awesome, so does the vast majority of the unthinking public because they have cool commercials, but do you really need to turn your website into a big ad for apple products?
Retard.

And at the risk of being made fun of in bold type, I like physical copies too. I like actually having something when I pay money for it. Call me old fashioned.

By: jibbler

jibbler — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:06:41 +0000

Paying for MP3/AAC instead of CD/FLAC is like buying a Ferrari and saying you’d like to save some money by putting in a Mini 1.3l 4 cylinder engine then 6mths later saying you want to take it around the Nürburgring. Actually it’s worse – at least you could replace the engine (albeit at great expense), you can’t replace missing frequencies.

By: SourDeez

SourDeez — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:50:31 +0000

I think a main problem here is that some people think iTunes downloads sound horrendous. Yes they’re bad compared to the best audio possible (like FLAC, which takes up way too much space), but honestly you have to be an audiophile to the point of masturbating to Meyer Sound catalogues if you find those files unlistenable. Every day I fucking rock out to all kinds of shit, and most of it is either from iTunes or from torrents. I have fucking great headphones, that’s good enough. Everything sounds clear as crystal. To have it sound better than that is just overkill. I don’t need all my music to sound like I’m in the studio producing the fuckin shit, and if you do then maybe you’re not paying enough attention to the music itself. Saying iTunes and other mp3s are complete shit is like saying every car that isn’t a Ferrari is a worthless piece of junk. It doesn’t have to be the absolute best to be good.

By: DemonicLemming

DemonicLemming — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:49:50 +0000

You can’t “up-convert” standard 128/192kbs music into FLAC music, the same way you can’t truly up-scale a 480p signal to 1080p. It’d be like trying to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the peanut butter and jelly – you just don’t have enough material at the start to do it. FLAC isn’t “extremely limited” really – a lot of major artists, including Nightwish and Opeth, just browsing through my collection really quick – have quite a bit of their material in FLAC format. It’s not so much an issue that there’d very likely be no streaming FLAC music (probably inherent with the size of an individual FLAC song as with Apple’s refusal to use anything standard and run with their AAC), but the fact that any music released by an Apple service would likely only be 192kbs, at best. Even with mid-level headphones, there’s a difference in 192kbs and something like 320kbs.