So you like the bar being raised, but not the way that Neil Young has
attempted?
Whether the higher resolution actually degrades the quality is a
topic up for future debate.
From the ponomusic webpage:
"...and now, with the PonoPlayer, you can finally feel the master in all
its glory, in its native resolution, CD quality or higher, the way the
artist made it, exactly"
Even they are not saying it has to be higher than CD quality, just
that it has to have been made well in the first place.
I don't get why so many people are trying to paint this as
a snake oil pitch.
---
Tom.
On 2/10/2015 1:13 PM, Ethan Duni wrote:
I'm all for releasing stuff from improved masters. There's a trend in my
favorite genre (heavy metal) to rerelease a lot of classics in "full
dynamic range" editions lately. While I'm not sure that all of these
releases really sound much better (how much dynamic range was there in an
underground death metal recording from 1991 anyway?) I like the trend.
These are regular CD releases, no weird formats (demonstrating that such is
not required to sell the improved master releases).
But the thing is that you often *can* hear the extra sampling frequency -
in the form of additional distortion. It sounds, if anything, *worse* than
a release with an appropriate sample rate! Trying to sell people on better
audio, and then giving them a bunch of additional intermodulation
distortion is not a justified marketing ploy, it's outright deceptive and
abusive. This is working from the assumption that your customers are
idiots, and that you should exploit that to make money, irrespective of
whether audio quality is harmed or not. The fact the Neil Young is himself
one of the suckers renders this less objectionable, but only slightly.
Anyway Pono is already a byword for "audiophile snake oil" so hopefully the
damage will mostly be limited to the bank accounts of Mr. Young and his
various financial backers in this idiocy. Sounds like the product is a real
dog in industrial design terms anyway (no hold button, awkward shape,
etc.). Good riddance...
E
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