Should Sound Quality of Computer Audio be improved

Only like pulling teeth because you sometimes don't listen to what is actually being said - your own opinions powerfully drowning out any other voices.

I don't remember anyone saying "computer audio SHOULD replace all other formats". Personally, I do believe it WILL likely replace other digital formats but analogue is likely to continue being a niche market. This is not my wish, just market forces. It's just much cheaper for recording companies to offer these digital music files without physical media - and the majority of people are happy with MP3 quality (i.e. the 99% of the population not having these discussions on audio websites). For the rest of us there will be CD or greater quality downloads - as long as it is profitable for the record companies.

Again, this is not my WISH, just what I believe is likely to happen in the next decade or so. And I don't believe it is necessarily anything to fear. CDs don't really offer anything that a downloaded computer file doesn't - other than guaranteed 16/44 storage and something to hold in your hands while the music plays. As long as there is demand for CD or greater quality downloads and the recording industry can profit off of it, it will continue to grow as CD shrinks. Again, all in my opinion.

Please don't turn around and say I want to wipe out all other formats, adopters of high res computer audio want to wipe out other formats, Bill Gates wants to kill our first-born, etc, etc. If anyone is to "blame" here I believe it is the recording companies and the non-audiophile general public - they're the ones happy with MP3s.

Me - I'm more excited at the sound I get from my Mac -> Wavelength front end and at the possibilities of resolution far exceeding redbook CD.

"Someday all New Music will only be available as Music
Downloads". I can guarantee you that it is "NOT" likely
to happen. Computer Audio is still coming out as 50/50.
Half are extremely satisfied, half are extremely dis-satisfied with the Sound Quality. You want to pave over,
sweep under the rug, ignore, ridicule, anyone who has a
serious technical issue with the Sound Quality of Computer Audio. ANYTHING BUT CORRECT IT! You don't correct it, it happens again and again and again. Dis-satisfaction
accumulates, and it will make swiss cheese out of any
likelyhood of Computer Audio replacing all other Formats.
The wheels of Computer Audio are falling off way too many times, the word is already out on the street! I ask you
to atleast glue the wheels back on just to save this Format. You live in denial, and insist that it isn't a problem. Do nothing, and allow Computer Audio to rack up
enough failure to establish a pattern of unreliability.
I was trying to save Computer Audio, but if you want to make me the bad guy trying to end it- guess my job here is done! Computer Audio is likely to shoot itself in the foot
before it ever replaces any Audio Format. With the assistance of Microsoft, Apple, Macintosh, and you guys-
failure is guaranteed! So sad, it had such great potential!

Regarding your quip about ignoring and ridiculing - your continued inability to comprehend what is being said has unintentionally made you the master of irony!

And again, your last post leaves me wondering whether you really believe what you are saying or are just baiting us for chits and giggles.

I mean c'mon:
"The wheels of Computer Audio are falling off way too many times, the word is already out on the street!...I was trying to save Computer Audio, but if you want to make me the bad guy trying to end it- guess my job here is done!...With the assistance of Microsoft, Apple, Macintosh, and you guys- failure is guaranteed!"

Never mind the grammar and punctuation - the tale you tell is gripping! The fallen hero - trying to save Computer Audio but thwarted by us simpletons bowing at the altar of the big computer corporations, all conspiring to destroy music. You, standing as the lone warrior, single-handedly trying to save music as we know it!

LOL!!!

You are trying to save computer audio? I asked for real suggestions from you to take to manufactures. You mumbled out garbage. I'm sorry to sound this way, but you have ridiculed everything about computer audio without a single real suggestion of how to fix YOUR COMPLAINTS, not ours. You say yourself that 50% is extremely satified, I'd say it is more like 95%. Have you ever thought about asking someone experienced for advice?
Please state where you get the statistic that 50% are unsatisfied.
Where is did your facts come from that computer audio is unreliable? On this thread there are maybe 20, 25 or so people. I see 1 person complaining, not 50%... unless no one else counts and you are much too late, computer audio has already made it. I hope someday that you can find enough hi res downloads to make you happy. I have about 1800 songs downloaded and I admit only a 100 or so hi res, but I can attest that redbook cd's downloaded are better playing off files from my computer through my dac than any cd player that I've had in my system. I'm sorry that you are unhappy... Life is too short for that. Myself and it seems many others are very happy with our computer audio setups.... Maybe you should go fishin. Life is too short to be this aggrivated. Tim

Petty,

I actually understand your apprehension when it comes to big corporations and their motives, which are no mystery by the way, and there may be some validity to your fears about what lies in store ahead in terms of recording quality, but there is really nothing new there. High quality recordings and high end audio are luxury items. Look at the glass as half full maybe. There are still a lot of very good recordings available for reasonable cost despite the fact that 99.9% of the world probably doesn't care. NEtwork bandwidth is the bottleneck still for most home computer audio technology. That has always been the prime motivation for "acceptable" lossy formats like mp3, etc. However technology will progress and even that bottleneck will fall eventually and provide a more suitable for high res audio, video, and whatever. TEchnology is still the bottleneck more so than any evil corporate aspirations. You have to have the intrastructure to support hi res digital and that comes with a cost. It will get better over time. Until that happens, CDs and other hard storage formats will not go away. PEoples wants and needs will still drive markets. Audiophiles will always have to pay some degree of a premium somewhere in order to satisfy their luxurious wants and needs.