CNN on 10 Cool Inventions

The story is here.  The music device from Neil Young et al intrigues me because I *hate* the sound of CDs and MP3s, particularly when playing music that I know well from my youth and “audiophile” stereo.  Ah, those were the days…

About David

Professor of Law, Mercer University School of Law. Formerly Of Counsel, Taylor English Duma, LLP and in 2012-13, judicial clerk to Chief Judge Rader.

4 thoughts on “CNN on 10 Cool Inventions

    1. 2.1

      Are you talking about the lossy compression in MP3 files or about dynamic range compression? The former is not an issue on your CDs. The latter might be, but that’s the result of poor engineering in the recording process, not so much a limitation of the CDs themselves, which are capable of a pretty good dynamic range compared to LPs, and certainly compared to audio tape.

      The problem Neil is really addressing is the poor recording/mixing/etc. Take one of his high-definition digital audio tracks and properly convert it to CD format and it will sound pretty great, and indistinguishably great to most mortals.

      By the way, have you listened to Neil’s Le Noise album? It’s kind of funny that he doesn’t want any distortion of all those fuzz and distortion effects.

      1. 2.1.1

        Le Noise was, um, interesting (the only memorable song I thought was “walk with me” and even that was, um, forgettable), and the new one is unlistenable – it was recorded in some old recording box. It is done under the guise of a recording made to “home” and his mom. Don’t listen to it!

        I hear a difference with CDs – truncation or flattening is the best way I can describe it. I was playing a record on Sunday and it’s remarkable to me how different records sound from CDs and, especially, MP3s. Maybe it’s my imagination but I don’t think so! I can hear the difference though can’t quite tell you what it is.

        Music is much much more interesting to discuss than patents. Listen to The Lone Bellow if you haven’t!

  1. 1

    Pono will stream music in 24-bit, 192-kHz sound, which is far cleaner than mp3s and even better than CDs.

    Now all you need is a set of headphones with a flat frequency response all the way up to 96 kHz or so.

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