Should Sound Quality of Computer Audio be improved

PO,

There are download sites that allow you to hear before you buy, including iTunes itself. (not sure about the res though).

Can you watch a film and decide if you would rather buy the blue ray or DVD version first? No.

These points are mute. Again I find myself repeating what I said before regarding formats and competition. The file is the format.

So it will be down to the recording studio/record company/producers/artists to decide on the level of quality of the file.

It is they who will find the funds to use facilities that can record fully in a new "format" like DXD or whether they prefer to stay working with 24/192 etc.

It is not down to you! Can I decide if I'd like the latest porn film to be in real 3d? No I cannot. Can I decide if the next Star Wars movie is released in Omnimax or Imax? No I cannot. Does it matter? Probably not.

Do you see my point? The only competition is in the pro market now. As consumers you can play any format you wish. Your computer can, with the correct software, decode any of them.

I wouldn't be so concerned. Nothing stands still. The studio guys are dying to play with the next toy especially if it's better. It would seem DXD is the finest recording medium yet. But PCM at high samples rates isn't to be sniffed at either! What is best is as consumers we are not stuck with cassette, minidisk, vinyl, CDs etc. Those half way formats are now defunct and unnessassary should you choose. I'll just have the master thanks and play it any where.

In my opinion - a little bit of know-how and setup is involved but this is as good as digital audio gets:

take any recent, decently-powered desktop PC with quiet, cool-running chassis fans.

Install Windows 7. Install EAC Exact Audio Copy, use that to rip CDs to FLAC files with a log proving 100% bit-match to the digital on the CD. Install Foobar2000 or any other audio-player front end which supports WASAPI for bit-perfect audio playback. Ensure all sound effects, EQ, replaygain, etc is disabled. Set volume in player to 0dB.

If you are feeling especially careful, set the Foobar2000 -> preferences -> advanced -> playback -> full file buffering up to (Kb) value to a number greater than the size of any of your audio files. This will ensure that playback is entirely from RAM and if something happens during playback that makes excessive use of your HDD, it will have no impact audible or measurable, on the playback of your music.

Play these 100% bit-perfect FLAC tracks via WASAPI (rather than directsound).

Use USB or toslink or spdif digital to get the signal from your PC to the DAC of your choice, and it's good old analog from there.

This is absolute perfect source, true *exactly* to whatever arrangement of 1s and 0s were on the CD you ripped from. and I don't believe you can improve from this until the day comes that recording/mastering studios start putting out higher than 192KHz, 24-bit audio and we need better computer hardware to process it and output it unmolested to a DAC.

Chadeffect- "It is not down to you! Can I decide if I'd
like the latest Porn Film to be in real 3D? No, I cannot.
Can I decide if the latest Star Wars movie is released in
Omnimax, or Imax? No, I cannot. Does it matter? probably
not".
Alright, lets go with that. Based on this- who decides
"It is the Music that matters"? You would leave it to
Recording Studio/ Record Company/ Producers/ and Artists, to the exclusion of the Consumer himself. One little
problem: as a Consumer you are in competition with atleast
the Record Company/ Producers over Sound Quality. It is the
nature of any Market (Especially the Audio Market) that
the Consumer must struggle, and fight with the Manufacturer
over Quality. I.E.- "Let the buyer beware"! Are you in
business (As a Consumer) for yourself to get as much Sound
Quality Bang-for-the-Buck? I am! Are you instead in
business (As a Consumer) for the Manufacturer to benefit
from you getting less Bang-for-the Buck? Multiple Formats-
mutiple sources of High Sound Quality. Single Format- single source of High Sound Quality. Who benefits, who
loses, and who benefits at someone elses expense? I don't
know about you, but I am coming up short on multiple sources of High Sound Quality with a single Format solution. Does it matter? I am in business for myself as a
Consumer. My business is higher selection of higher Audio
Sound Quality. The more sources of this (Formats), the
more my business profits. Fewer sources, and someone else
profits off of my business. You fill in the blank of who
you believe that might be. We still have options unless you
decide to give those options up! When you give those options up, you don't get them back if you discover that
"Things don't work out as you planned". You giving up
options (Multiple Formats) also means that I have to give up these same options. There is no vacuum here in the Audio
Market. Everything we do directly affects someone else in
the Market. Does it matter? PROBABLY SO!!! Tell me how many
times you have already heard me say this? You offer nothing
to contradict this. Your arguement is simply one of
convenience for yourself. My arguement is one to benefit the Consumer in the Audio Market- of which I happen to be one of them. You can't say "It is the Music that matters",
and "Does it matter? Probably not" in the same breath. THAT
is HYPOCRACY 101! What Barometer do you use to measure Sound Quality with, the increased Profit Margin of the stock for your favorite Computer Audio Manufacturer? I guess those ears no longer serve any purpose, just donate
them to science. Just don't try to put that on the rest of
us. Your single Format solution, as a benefit to the
Consumer, just "DOES NOT COMPUTE"! Recheck your Math, or
do it through personal attacks on me. We need no stinking
Math, right?

If PO's argument is based on the general dummying down of America's mass market consumers, then I think he has a valid argument.

Luckily, that has been going on forever, and where there is enough market and interest (like hopefully in good sound) there is still quality to be found.

I neither expect that market to keep pace with the mass market nor for it to decrease in size itself moving forward. It will likely continue to grow in terms of revenue but become an increasingly small niche market.

It will be what it will be. Neither corporate conspiracy theories nor faith in open markets will change anything.

PO,

I don't see your logic. Are you assuming that the artist wants their music to sound bad? They want you to hear them sound mediocre? They want to go out of business?

The point is recording quality is higher than ever. There is a possibility of it going to the final frontier with the latest non PCM digital systems. Sure.

So how do you not get better SQ? (engineering/mastering choices aside)

How are you not getting value? You don't even have to drive to the shop.

Hypocracy? I didn't say sound quality doesn't matter. I am trying to let you see that the quality is already better than ever, and what we are talking about are subtle differences. Differences in sample rates you will hardly ever know, as the recording is the recording. Those choices were made by the record producer. It's all about the recording. Not just the sample rate.

You will never know what the same guys would have sounded like recorded via a different system. You just have what they recorded. And now without extra processes.

I dont really understand your profit argument? I haven't noticed records getting more expensive. I see a new way that records are sold. More direct than ever.

I don't understand your quip at computer manufacturing profit? Seems you were happy giving cash to a guy selling a CD player.