Cory Doctorow: "Hardware ebook readers are a dead end"

[Quoth]

Most people can use a light switch, but actually have less of an idea as to what's happening than a Mediaeval person burning a rush light.

I was in a big posh shop getting a refund and the HQ sent an email with a PDF attachment of the confirmation.
The guy printed the email and was puzzled the document from the boss wasn't there.
I peer at his mad Windows 10 email
"Click on that"
The attachment opened in some PDF viewer I'd never seen.
"Now find the Print option on that Window"
He printed the PDF.

Actually none of it was obvious if you'd never done it. Their local payment terminal was down and so the boss was told over the phone and then emailed PDF of his camera phone picture of his printout from Merchant system. Obviously the mysterious HQ boss knew how.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jbjb

Given that CD at 16/44 is already massively superior to vinyl in every way, then 24/96 obviously will be too.

While 24/96 will clearly be technically better than than 16/44, I doubt the difference would actually be audible in practice when used as the delivery format. There are valid arguments for using higher resolutions during mixing and other processing, so that rounding errors don’t add up etc., I don’t see any reason to go beyond 16/44 for final delivery.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm going to disagree that 16/44 is better then vinyl in every way. It's not. It's better in some way, but I've heard plenty on LP that sounds better then CD.

24/96 is better then 16/44. I have a number of 24/96 recordings and some do sound really good.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

OMG, that's my clientele. Couldn't side-load to save their lives.

Hitch

My mom didn't side load to her Sony Reader. I did that for her. I would remote connect to her laptop and have her plug in her Sony. I would manage her eBooks for her. It worked out well and I didn't mind at all. My mom was very good at following directions.

[JSWolf]

@Hitch, if your average customers don't know how to side load, does the fact that we know how to side load make us above average?

[Quoth]

I can duplicate a vinyl LP to CD.
No-one can hear the difference. Rotel RA-810 amp and serious big speaker cabinets (main driver is 8″ and decent moving coil tweeter, not inferior ceramic discs).
Creative Labs SB0270 external USB adaptor on Tape2 I/O of the Rotel RA-810 amp.

But a master recording to CD will be lower noise and lower distortion and have no rumble. Also if the LP is played about x10 times on an average record player the CD will also have better HF / Treble response.
So yes a decent CD and vinyl LP will sound different, but you can make the CD sound like the vinyl LP using DSP. You can't make a vinyl LP on even a good record player sound like the decent CD, the information isn't there and it's too corrupted.

Thus vinyl LP is inferior.

Even a 256 kbps MP3 rip of Abba Gold CD is better than the vinyl LP of Abba Gold.
I've a few vinyl LPs only played much on a Lenco deck or now a Dual 505-2 (new belts and new stylus). Yes there are better players or amps or speakers, but not many people have them.

My mum pinched a lot of mine and my dad's vinyl 45s and LPs in 1970s and got my grandparents' collection in early 1990s. But she only played a couple of the LPs for a short while and then they lived in her garage till last summer. I may digitise them as playing wears them out.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

@Hitch, if your average customers don't know how to side load, does the fact that we know how to side load make us above average?

Well, Jon, we all know that YOU are above average! :-)

Hitch

[jbjb]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm going to disagree that 16/44 is better then vinyl in every way. It's not. It's better in some way, but I've heard plenty on LP that sounds better then CD.

Some LPs do sound better than some CDs, true, but that's not because of the format, it's just because of the way some (particularly early) CDs were mastered. It took a while for audio engineers to work out how best to make use of all that extra dynamic range, signal-to-noise ratio, stereo separation etc. that CD has - many got carried away with the opportunities and produced some very bad masters (e.g. the 'Loudness Wars'). That's in no way a reflection on the CD medium itself, though, just the way it has sometimes been used.

By every possible measure I can think of, CDs are technically superior to vinyl. If you can think of an objective measure where that's not the case, please point it out.

Note that by 'superior', I mean in terms of objective accuracy. If you're talking about 'sounds nice' in a subjective sense, then I'm happy to accept that some people find the distortions and imperfections of vinyl pleasant sounding.

24/96 is better then 16/44. I have a number of 24/96 recordings and some do sound really good.

I suspect that'll be down to the way they were mastered. I'd be very surprised if one of those good 24/96 recordings sounded any different to human ears when competently downsampled to 16/44.

[Ripplinger]

Sound from vinyl might be considered superior if you listen to the album once and put it away. If anyone else listens to music like I do, I actually play music that I like hundreds and hundreds of times. I don't care how careful you are with vinyl and not doing damage by dragging or dropping the needle onto it, replace the needle often (and they can be expensive), clean the vinyl with antistatic cloths when needed, only touch the edges of the record, it WILL start to have unwanted scratch sounds, hisses and pops when playing it. And that sounds just horrible and ruins the music for me. I have bought enough vinyl in the past and highend players to know that there's no avoiding it if you play the records often.

CDs were a huge improvement for me for longevity, MP3s are the best to me if you like to listen to your music often. Rip your CDs, put them away in case you lose the MP3s for some reason, and you have your perfect sounding music always.

[theducks]

There were different (pressing) 'cycles' used depending on the content.
Also, Classical and others with quiet parts spread the grooves further apart to reduce print thru (where 1 grooves signal displaced material onto the other.
Then there was the quality of the vinyl. 'Virgin Vinyl' was used where noise was a problem. The trimmings were used for 'pop' pressings.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by jbjb

Some LPs do sound better than some CDs, true, but that's not because of the format, it's just because of the way some (particularly early) CDs were mastered.

It's also true of many modern releases, due to CDs being butchered by the loudness war.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by jbjb

Note that by 'superior', I mean in terms of objective accuracy. If you're talking about 'sounds nice' in a subjective sense, then I'm happy to accept that some people find the distortions and imperfections of vinyl pleasant sounding.

Same with valve amplifiers. Objectively inferior to transistor ones, but some people like the 'warm sound' their specific distortion generates.

[Quoth]

There are rubbish transistor ones, but you can now simulate any valve amp.
The sound of a Marshall for stage, an old late 1920s triode amp, basic 1950s radio and high end Saba or Grundig late 1950s German models or some of the Japanese and UK HiFi valve amps are very different. Some valve amps have very little distortion: using NFB per stage, overall from secondary of speaker transformer, push pull and even Screen grid negative feedback.

The speaker driver & cabinet has more effect.

[ZodWallop]

Fifteen year old thread about the long term viability of ereaders is revived and changed into a debate about vinyl vs. CD. I'm here for it.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Fifteen year old thread about the long term viability of ereaders is revived and changed into a debate about vinyl vs. CD. I'm here for it.

I'll jump in when it gets to codex vs scroll

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I'll jump in when it gets to codex vs scroll

The clay tablets are very durable. Makes them more robust if the library is burnt down.