Chicago1871
13 Dec 2005, 02:36 PM
Wired: Old Rips-May They Rest in Peace (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/audiophiles/0,2934,69098,00.html)
Paul Rossman, an undergraduate at New Mexico State University, remembers vividly the last time he assembled a music library on his personal computer. It was the third time he had converted his CD collection to music files on his hard drive, a process called ripping, and with 5,000 songs, it was anything but a trivial undertaking.
"I thought I was going to go nuts," says Rossman. "All my friends were saying, 'What's the matter with you? You already have all your music on your PC.'"
Far from losing his mind, the college senior studying civil engineering was following a path plenty of his peers have also traveled: After spending years painstakingly compiling the perfect music library, he came to realize that the sound quality of the computer files left plenty to be desired.
In the days when the original Napster was terrorizing the record industry with free, unlimited downloads of Eminem and other chart-topping artists, digital audiophiles were so excited to be on the receiving end of that bounty that they rarely paid attention to more esoteric concerns like sound quality. The MP3 format was, for the most part, the only one that shrank files to a size that could be downloaded and played on any one of a dozen or so computer jukebox programs.
Since then, a dizzying array of competing formats have evolved, offering improvements like surround sound and better compression, which allows a file to take up less space on a hard drive without compromising sound quality. Improved computer speakers and the advent of the iPod and other mobile music players mean more audiophiles are listening to their collections through headphones or speakers with higher fidelity. The changes have caused audio enthusiasts to re-evaluate the sound quality of their libraries -- and, for many, to go back to the ripping board.
Really interesting article on the evolution of digital music formats.
Paul Rossman, an undergraduate at New Mexico State University, remembers vividly the last time he assembled a music library on his personal computer. It was the third time he had converted his CD collection to music files on his hard drive, a process called ripping, and with 5,000 songs, it was anything but a trivial undertaking.
"I thought I was going to go nuts," says Rossman. "All my friends were saying, 'What's the matter with you? You already have all your music on your PC.'"
Far from losing his mind, the college senior studying civil engineering was following a path plenty of his peers have also traveled: After spending years painstakingly compiling the perfect music library, he came to realize that the sound quality of the computer files left plenty to be desired.
In the days when the original Napster was terrorizing the record industry with free, unlimited downloads of Eminem and other chart-topping artists, digital audiophiles were so excited to be on the receiving end of that bounty that they rarely paid attention to more esoteric concerns like sound quality. The MP3 format was, for the most part, the only one that shrank files to a size that could be downloaded and played on any one of a dozen or so computer jukebox programs.
Since then, a dizzying array of competing formats have evolved, offering improvements like surround sound and better compression, which allows a file to take up less space on a hard drive without compromising sound quality. Improved computer speakers and the advent of the iPod and other mobile music players mean more audiophiles are listening to their collections through headphones or speakers with higher fidelity. The changes have caused audio enthusiasts to re-evaluate the sound quality of their libraries -- and, for many, to go back to the ripping board.
Really interesting article on the evolution of digital music formats.