Re: [ARSCLIST] CD versus Download was "All hail the analogue revolution..."

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 25/09/06, Mike Richter wrote:

> The market for commercial classical CDs has no significant competition
> from downloading. The customer wants both superior sound and the
> packaging. There are exceptions, but I believe that that is generally
> true.
> 
> On the other hand there is an active market for live material,
> broadcasts, and recordings long out of print. In general, neither
> sound quality nor packaging offers any advantage comparable with the
> cost of the CD - even when that CD is an underground product from a
> label such as Gala. That business is likely to be destroyed by
> downloading, which appears to bother no one but those living on its
> proceeds.
> 
> Now if only the people uploading realized that an AM broadcast does
> not benefit from 48 Ksps, 320 Kbps MP3s in "stereo"... <G>

It would not be helped by lossy compression or any other kind of
distortion.

The worse the sound, the less you can afford to lose before it becomes
unlistenable. If it is already just about at the limit of what the brain
can interpret, any further burden on the auditory processing pushes it
over the limit.

Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx