Apple Targeting Amazon

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

If they think they can hear a difference and enjoy investing money in their system, then it's no skin off my nose. Who knows, maybe they really are one of those few people who can hear the difference, or maybe it's just their imagination. I can't tell the difference, so I'm perfectly happy with what I have.

What I found interesting was the number of times, the participants in a sighted test could hear differences while the same participants in a blind test could not.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by DNSB

What I found interesting was the number of times, the participants in a sighted test could hear differences while the same participants in a blind test could not.

Perception is everything. If they think they can, and it makes them happy...

I've heard tell of blind taste test with wine where the tasters couldn't tell a difference between a $20 bottle of wine and a $200 bottle of wine. I never seen the actual study, so I can't say if it's accurate or not. I would not be surprised if most people can't tell the difference though.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Perception is everything. If they think they can, and it makes them happy...

I've heard tell of blind taste test with wine where the tasters couldn't tell a difference between a $20 bottle of wine and a $200 bottle of wine. I never seen the actual study, so I can't say if it's accurate or not. I would not be surprised if most people can't tell the difference though.

It all depends on how sharp each persons nose and taste buds are. My nose will pick up ingredients in food very easily, while my brother can pick out ingredients from tasting the same food.

[geekraver]

They should spend some time fixing all the bugs in the current iBooks. It has off-by-one errors in list view on Mac that causes names to switch between files and other craziness. Very buggy.

[June]

Apple getting active with “iBooks” might help the ebook sales/awareness as a whole. But it isn’t geared to people who read a lot and want to ensure they keep their ebook library safe. Proprietary system with no real way to back up and “future proof” my ebook library isn’t for me.

Now I’ll take my Echo Dot and slink off to another room to listen to my non-Apple-music...

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by June

Apple getting active with “iBooks” might help the ebook sales/awareness as a whole. But it isn’t geared to people who read a lot and want to ensure they keep their ebook library safe. Proprietary system with no real way to back up and “future proof” my ebook library isn’t for me.

Now I’ll take my Echo Dot and slink off to another room to listen to my non-Apple-music...

Of course, any ebook store that uses DRM has the same issue, including Amazon and Kobo. I think you are correct in that Apple's target audience is more geared towards the casual reader rather than hard core reader with a lot of books in their library.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Barrister1

You must not have listened to a lossless recording on a high end system. It brings out every nuance and there is no comparison. Can you listen and enjoy music on a cheap system? Of course. But the high end system is that much better and engrossing. It can be quite an amazing experience.

I have. Many times. And I've listened to music in person which is even better. I also listen on my original Amazon Echo, which has a single half way decent speaker. I listened recently to Earl Wild playing a few short piano pieces on the Echo and it was, as you say, an amazing experience. One I get to repeat at my leisure.

Every little nuance is nice but not really everything. I have a CD of Glen Gould playing Bach's Goldberg Variations and with my best earphones I can hear him muttering to himself as he plays. With the Echo I just hear him play. How much am I missing?

I'd rather hear a good performance on a mediocre player than a mediocre performance on a good player. Yes, if both are good that's nicer by maybe 5%. Who cares! Either pales in comparison to being in the same room while he's playing the piano.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm more than satisfied with streaming my digital music to a middle-of-the-road bluetooth speaker. Much like reading, I'd rather put my money in the content rather than the reader/player. More power to those who can "hear the difference," but I simply can't. The good news is that I don't feel cheated in the least.

I can tell the difference and I fully enjoy the difference but it's not that important to my enjoyment of the music. Some people love music. Some love fidelity. I'm lucky to be in the former group.

Barry

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by barryem

I have. Many times. And I've listened to music in person which is even better. I also listen on my original Amazon Echo, which has a single half way decent speaker. I listened recently to Earl Wild playing a few short piano pieces on the Echo and it was, as you say, an amazing experience. One I get to repeat at my leisure.

Every little nuance is nice but not really everything. I have a CD of Glen Gould playing Bach's Goldberg Variations and with my best earphones I can hear him muttering to himself as he plays. With the Echo I just hear him play. How much am I missing?

I'd rather hear a good performance on a mediocre player than a mediocre performance on a good player. Yes, if both are good that's nicer by maybe 5%. Who cares! Either pales in comparison to being in the same room while he's playing the piano.

Barry

I had the good fortune of listening to the world premier of Philip Glass's Itaipu, performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus back in the late 80's (at that time, the ASO and Chorus was considered one of the best in the world for choral works). I also have that performance on CD (technically I think they recorded it over a 3 day period). It's pretty difficult to capture the live experience, perhaps as much because of the acoustics as anything else. Few of us have a living room with the same acoustical qualities as a major symphony hall.

[barryem]

Every time I listen to Phillip Glass's music I'm totally absorbed for 10 or 15 minutes and then my mind wanders away. I just can't seem to stay with it.

Music, to me, is something to focus on and absorb and become part of and if it doesn't hold me I lose interest.

The movie Koyaanisqatsi, for which he wrote the music, is a beautiful exception. Thanks for making me think of this. I haven't watched it for a while.

Barry

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by barryem

Every time I listen to Phillip Glass's music I'm totally absorbed for 10 or 15 minutes and then my mind wanders away. I just can't seem to stay with it.

Music, to me, is something to focus on and absorb and become part of and if it doesn't hold me I lose interest.

The movie Koyaanisqatsi, for which he wrote the music, is a beautiful exception. Thanks for making me think of this. I haven't watched it for a while.

Barry

I really like his Symphony #1 (The Low Symphony) a lot as well. He says that the inspiration was a David Bowie song, but I sure don't hear any similarity between the two.

When I listen to Itaipu, I just close my eyes and float along with the music, like a leaf on the river flowing down to the ocean. I don't like all of Glass's music, but those two are favorites of mine.

[tiltowait]

To go back to the topic of iBooks for a moment ...

iBooks is, IMO, the best eReading app I’ve used by a pretty wide margin. If you’re all-in on the Apple ecosystem, no one offers easier sideloading, sync, etc., and the books themselves look great with some nice font options, including Iowan.

Unfortunately, I don’t use it, because Apple will never offer an eReader, which is still a better reading experience than the apps. There’s also an issue with stripping DRM from books bought from Apple, which is only possible (AFAIK) with a $30 tool. The tool does work, and it’s very easy to use, but it’s still frustrating.

[pwalker8]

My knock on iBooks is that it doesn't handle a lot of books well and sync seems a bit off at times. It's also oriented towards everything being in iCloud. For some reason or another, it just doesn't mesh well with how I want to do things.

[kyteflyer]

Until apple lets us make more adjustments for our reading experience (eg MARGINS!) I will only use iBooks if I absolutely have to.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I don't know what it is, but I've listened to some hi-res recordings where the music just shined through. It wasn't a comparison to MP3 or CD format. It just was better. You just heard the performance and the emotion. Sure you can say you can't hear the difference, but it's there.

Yep. There's a difference. Some people can hear it, some can't. Maybe it's the "imperfections" inherent in analog sound. But I've heard music that sounds better off the record than it does off the CD (analog vs digital). Somehow it sounds "richer."

Kind of a side story. When they a company hooked up a phone system (I think in Germany) that was fiber all the way from the Central Office to the phone, people didn't like the "sound" (or lack of it). So they had to add "white noise" to the lines to make them sound a little more normal.