February 07, 2005
I'm still waiting for the flying cars and teleportation beams (by guest blogger Evil Dawn)
Sometimes I think you have to be middle aged to realize how cool things are. You grow up with MP3s and iPods, as my daughter will, and it’s the way things are. If you remember the KUNK-KUNK of an 8-track tape, having a featherweight gumpack that holds a billion bits of music is really quite remarkable. (Metheny was followed by something from the “Run Lola Run” soundtrack, which was followed by “I Apologize,” by some nutless 30s warbler, followed by “Dawn” by Grieg.) And then there's the cellphones and the tiny cameras and the widescreen TVs and home computers that sing to each other silently across the world; wonders, all. This really is the future I wanted. Although I expected longer battery life.
-Lileks who should only write about Gnat and technology.
Posted by at February 7, 2005 03:13 PM | TrackBackTechnorati Tags:
"some nutless 30s warbler"
Sounds like Rudy Vallee who, as was told in epic style in his classic autobiography "Let the Chips Fall...", was almost killed by a grapefruit.
Posted by: Von Bek at February 7, 2005 03:23 PMNoooo, you don't have to be middle age to realize how cool things are.
When I was eight or nine years old, I dabbled in programming in BASIC on a Commodore 64. I grew up playing games on an Atari 2600, then a Nintendo Entertainment System. I used to listen to vinyl.
Every bit of technology I used to enjoy in my younger days has gotten better. My AMD-based PC skunks a C64, the Xbox I own is light years ahead of the NES, and practically all of my music is digital.
I guess being a techno-geek also allows you to realize how cool things are.
Posted by: Shawn at February 7, 2005 03:30 PMI have to laugh "and practically all my music is digital"
20+ years and they still can't make it sound like analogue. use the word "digital" and it must be better, right?
Posted by: supersexy29 at February 7, 2005 07:45 PMI can copy a CD or mp3 many, many times without any loss of quality. With the right equipment, I can carry 10,000 songs in my pocket or broadcast it over the Intenet. Digital audio isn't perfect by any means, but I have yet to find a reason to drop $100 on a turntable.
Posted by: Shawn at February 7, 2005 09:10 PMhahhahahahahahaha...turntable.
Posted by: Dawn Summers at February 7, 2005 10:23 PMMost people can't detect a difference in quality between CD and Vinyl. Or CD and MP3, for that matter. Yet for the true audiophiles the sound quality of vinyl is much richer than on CD, and there is a marked difference in quality between MPŁ and CD.
MP3 players are the first time we are sold products based on aesthetics and storage capacity... but no-one sells an iPod or a Creative Jukebox by saying 'awesome sound reproduction'.
Posted by: Monjo at February 8, 2005 04:54 AM...and there is a marked difference in quality between MP3 and CD.
Certainly, though that depends largely on the bit rate of an MP3. 128kbps sounds very tinny to me.
MP3 players are the first time we are sold products based on aesthetics and storage capacity.
I'd wager The Container Store beat Apple Computers to that. ;)
And I've heard many say that the iPod is very good in reproducing sound, but that really depends on two factors: the quality of the mp3 itself and if the person you're talking to is a rabid Mac fan.
Posted by: Shawn at February 8, 2005 10:17 AMYeah and if they are tone deaf. (Also speaker quality, splash out $1000 on a set of Bose headphone speakers and it may sound alright.)
I like this statement from apple's web site:
You can even choose the new Apple Lossless encoder. Music encoded with that option offers sound quality indistinguishable from the original CDs at about half the file size of the original.
Umm if its half the size, you lost half of it!
BTW as an aside the world's most expensive turntable is about $100,000 and is about the size of an Hummer.
Posted by: Monjo at February 8, 2005 10:44 AM
