Post by Owen Y on Dec 10, 2019 17:31:34 GMT 12
Steve Guttenberg Audiophiliac gives his summary of most significant audio changes of this decade: - 2- Channel audio - still going strong
- Home Theatre - still exists, but has not grown into the mainstream
- Music streaming - the big growth story of the decade
- High-Res music - increased in availability, but...
- Sound Quality - of most recorded music has generally declined
- Active speakers with DSP - has not yet invaded the High End of audio
- Loudspeaker technology - very little fundamental change in driver technology
- Affordable audiophile-oriented products - many new brands, a welcome increase
- Vinyl record audience - has increased, but CD playback has very much declined
- Brick and Mortar audio stores - definitely on the decline
- Audiophile YouTube channels - not print media, is the next generation of audio criticism, journalism
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Post by Owen Y on Dec 18, 2019 11:47:06 GMT 12
John DARKO gives his opinion on & highlights the key factors in this decade from a DARKO AUDIO standpoint - hi-fi based on subjective listening & emotional response, especially for 'affordabe' to moderate sized budgets, for moderate sized rooms. Key points: - DSD (SACD) did not take off as a popular high-quality audio format - so will the same happen to MQA? - The arrival of music downloads & music streaming. - The arrival of High-Res audio - but 'CD-quality' music (eg from Tidal & Qobuz) with its huge catalogue, will inevitably limit the popularity of 'High-Res' music. - Dynamic Range Compression in music mastering (the 'loudness wars') has continued into this decade unfortunately. - Digital 'front ends' have changed, from optimising Mac Minis & Macbooks & computer audio, to ' streamers'. - Interest in DAPs (Digital Audio Players) has declined - due to improvements in smartphones & add-on DAC-dongles, etc. - Active speakers are beginning to enter the audiophile market. - All-in-one ' super-integrated' DAC-amps - like actve speakers, allow for more compact music systems. - The blossoming of headphones & DAC-headphone-amps. - R2R (Resistor Ladder) DACs - return in popularity. - Online ' flame wars' continue to damage the relatively small audio online community. - Affordable audio is now more affordable than ever. - Uber-expensive audio products continue to increase - perhaps reflecting the increasing 'wealth gap' in many/most countries. - More mainstream press coverage of the audiophile world.
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Post by michaelw on Dec 18, 2019 12:58:06 GMT 12
DRC is my big low of the decade. it has escaped from the music world and invaded the moving pictures, in particular the popular streaming services, which with a few exceptions, have uniformly poor sound despite new tech like dolby digital surround and atmos add-ons. and with disney becoming the true behemoth of home entertainment, they are imposing their particular brand of weedy, muffled, flat, undynamic sound across their physical disc releases. marvel, disney, fox releases have all been blighted. industry sources say disney are using multimedia mixes (designed for audio challenged devices like phones, tablets, pcs) on all home media releases, including bd/4k. 
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