I hope all of you who took time to comment also took the survey. Results improve as sample size increases.
No, this informal little survey is not perfect. It certainly has limitations. Ideally, this would be a "constant sum" question format where respondents had to allocate 100 "points" across the different options. This is much better for trade-off analysis.
I did include a lot of choices. My objective here was to help discover how an experienced audiophile would rank the relative importance of something like Speaker Placement to something like Digital Bitrate. Yes, an inherently limited way to address this question, but it is appropriate in the real world where you have uninformed, but well-meaning music fans trying to improve sound quality in the wrong way.
Spotify just announced they are introducing a HiRes plan. Amazon did the same last year. My view is that this is a marketing move to prey upon the ignorance of the average music listener. Many will pay more for a higher quality stream, only to stream this from their iPhone via bluetooth to a wireless speaker,...an absurd proposition.
For every 1 of you audiophiles out there, there are 1,000 well-meaning music lovers who want better sound but have no clue about how to get it. Over the last 25 years, digital music has delivered wonderous gains in convenience and choice. But simultaneously, and quietly, hardware has regressed. The inherent portability of digital music fueled a wave of portable devices; players, speakers, wireless, etc. Great. But we all know SQ was lost in the process.
My personal view, which I shouldn't share while I'm posing a survey question but I will anyway, is that most of these folks chasing bitrates would do FAR better if they refocused their energy and money on quality speakers and amplification,...suited to the room and setup correctly. With wires! The next "cohort" of misled music fans have accepted the above reality, but are focused on vibration reduction and cabling while their speakers are placed poorly in a room.
I woke up to this reality several years ago and have been on a hifi journey since. It has brought me great joy and I think all of us who appreciate great sound should be doing everything we can to educate others. You do not need higher bit-rates (yet), you just need to get real speakers and a real amplifier, suited to the room and setup correctly.
OK. There is some context. Don't take the survey design too seriously. It was a whim to take a quick pulse on the community.
No, this informal little survey is not perfect. It certainly has limitations. Ideally, this would be a "constant sum" question format where respondents had to allocate 100 "points" across the different options. This is much better for trade-off analysis.
I did include a lot of choices. My objective here was to help discover how an experienced audiophile would rank the relative importance of something like Speaker Placement to something like Digital Bitrate. Yes, an inherently limited way to address this question, but it is appropriate in the real world where you have uninformed, but well-meaning music fans trying to improve sound quality in the wrong way.
Spotify just announced they are introducing a HiRes plan. Amazon did the same last year. My view is that this is a marketing move to prey upon the ignorance of the average music listener. Many will pay more for a higher quality stream, only to stream this from their iPhone via bluetooth to a wireless speaker,...an absurd proposition.
For every 1 of you audiophiles out there, there are 1,000 well-meaning music lovers who want better sound but have no clue about how to get it. Over the last 25 years, digital music has delivered wonderous gains in convenience and choice. But simultaneously, and quietly, hardware has regressed. The inherent portability of digital music fueled a wave of portable devices; players, speakers, wireless, etc. Great. But we all know SQ was lost in the process.
My personal view, which I shouldn't share while I'm posing a survey question but I will anyway, is that most of these folks chasing bitrates would do FAR better if they refocused their energy and money on quality speakers and amplification,...suited to the room and setup correctly. With wires! The next "cohort" of misled music fans have accepted the above reality, but are focused on vibration reduction and cabling while their speakers are placed poorly in a room.
I woke up to this reality several years ago and have been on a hifi journey since. It has brought me great joy and I think all of us who appreciate great sound should be doing everything we can to educate others. You do not need higher bit-rates (yet), you just need to get real speakers and a real amplifier, suited to the room and setup correctly.
OK. There is some context. Don't take the survey design too seriously. It was a whim to take a quick pulse on the community.