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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | James K Cribb <jkcribb@twomp.com> |
| Subject | Re: RIP CD |
| Date | Thu, 03 Mar 2005 07:55:21 -0800 |
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For me the real potential loss is in the quality of the recorded sound.
While Apple's iTunes codec is pretty remarkable in terms of file size vs.
sound quality trade off, it is still a lossy compression.
It would be a shame to see a move towards more and more music only being
available as compressed downloadable files.
The "deep" reissues of the Verve catalog and Mowtown singles that are
available only as downloads on iTunes are examples that quickly come to
mind. While its great that this stuff is widely available, it is
bittersweet knowing that it is available only in a format the delivers
inferior quality sound. (Admittedly, Apple's ACC is very good, but in my own
A/B comparisons to the same content as reissued on CD, it had a slightly
dull or blunt sound, especially compared to CDs that were HDCD encoded.
Little nuances, particularly at the high end are missing -- think Abbey
Road engineers vs. tape hiss)
I would give up the professionally produced booklet, etc. and pay more in
money and time, if this material were also available as high quality
downloads with PDFs that included the graphics, liner notes, track listings,
etc.
Just one "collectors" opinion.
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