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Generally it is very uncharacteristic subject in audio: the destiny of audio reproduction. Destiny might be only with something that has its own lifespan. Audio reproduction is in a way an imitation and therefore should hot have own destiny because it coupled with the subject of imitation - live sound. Well, it is not so simple.  Audio reproduction as it understood toady in so-called High-End audio if far from simulation of original sound and audio reproduction fully developed its own life. Therefore it is perfectly possible to observe the rules and properties of the audio reproduction as a self-contained entity.

The dissociation between audio reproduction and live Sound took place long time ago. I will live this subject aside as it is not necessary the fault of audio itself. Sine then Audio developed itself into as self-serving entry with own rules and definition of success. The destiny of Audio took hit after hit: the introduction of ported enclosures, the introduction of solid state electronics, introduction of soft suspension, introduction of first badly implemented digital, shaping up the industry propaganda mashie and many others. It was long time ago and it’s all pilled out a layer after a layer from the body of civilized Sound. Among the events that took place recently there was also one very important event that moved general state of audio in listening rooms of general audio public from being just a mediocre  sound imitation to being an expellant surrogate of  sound abstraction. I’m taking about introduction in the end of the 90s a notion of high resolution digital.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong in the notions of high resolution digital. Those 16-bit are not enough and the difference between 16-bit and 20-bit is very auditable even within a scope of a D/A processor that costs $10. However, with high resolution digital unfortunately we did not have the promised high resolution but we had a very badly implemented (in most cases fraudulently implemented) pseudo-high resolution, or a sort of “something new and something blue” to justify the new marketing taking points. Get a good quality 24/94 A/D processor, makes a live recording and then compare it with the crap that “they” push to us as DVD-Audio? I’m even taking about SACD that Ed Meitner slaughtered what he went form 4-bit DSD to single bit SACD. Any civilized engineer, even without hearing, who has his IQ higher then air temperature in Massachusetts during January would tell you that it is juts imposable, juts mathematically impossible to get SACD properly implemented at 1-bit,… still the audio Morons keep “love it” that new “high resolution SACD”…

Well, do you remember as in 80s-90s people were renovating our concert halls trying to make the concert halls to “response” similar to the sound of cheap solid state electronics? The very same effect took place in 2000s. The introduction pf the high resolution surrogate switched the entire high-end industry to a very specific direction. The industry, literally, begun to aim itself to impersonate what that bad pseudo-high-resolution did. As the result: everything that I ever heard from 2000 and up to now has that glare of “expedited resolution”. It is interesting that the expedited resolution has nothing to do with true resolution. The expedited resolution more reminds me a silver film playing at 35 frames per second. It has almost caricature quality and it would be even funny to watch if people do not take it seriously. The biggest problems that people do take it seriously, not only take it seriously but also they completely lost their minds about own listening objectives and the nature of non-expedited Sound.
 
Let me say again: I do not know any single manufacture in today audio that stay not affected by irrational expectations of today's listeners. This ever-present surrogate high resolution become an identity of today audio, the unfortunate identity I have add…. The next post I will dive into the nature of that “new identity”…
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Rgs,
Romy the caT

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