Community weekly poll: Quality vs. Convenience vs. Intellectual Property

Quality vs. Convenience vs. Intellectual Property

I find myself torn especially since I am upgrading my home system to a 5.1 system. 16 bit CD's generally sound quite good but there is better, such as DVD-audio and 20 bit recording. I resent that advances in better fidelity have been slowed by the MP3 juggernaut. Try listening to the LSO or to a recording with a good horn section opn an MP3 Sometimes cymbal sounds come off really sloppy.

On the other hand, MP3 quality is acceptable when you are not attentively listening: while you are doing other things like walking, driving , or working. For critical listening. For many of us, that is most or all of the time.

E-music is what I subscribe to for MP3's. I get a decent selection of classic jazz, and for electronica or other new stuff, good but obscure artists and am satisfied to know that royalties get covered. I also like the fact that for an inferior format I pay less than itunes prices.

But, I now have two classes of quality. Those I listen to on my home stereo and others that I don't.

But then again, MP3's are small and quick to download. One DVD-Audio disc would fill an ipod mini and the 5.1 speakers would be wasted.