I fear for the ear of the youth of today. What I mean by that is that I'm afraid that many people may never get to hear what music really sounds like. Why?
There are a number of technology innovations that have slowly but steadily transformed the way we listen to music. Most people now listen to their music through a much larger variety of delivery mechanisms. They listen on their phones or tablets, on their computers or laptops and on their vehicle's sound system. Or, they listen live, in concert.
Now, if they're lucky, the live listening experience is rather good. If they can listen to music in an acoustically tuned concert hall, where the audio is not cranked to 11 (Spinal Tap reference anyone?), they might hear the music very close to the way it was intended. But the majority of live music venues focus more on volume than on quality, especially large stadiums.
Getting back to the other delivery methods, if you're listening on a portable device or a computer of some kind, I'm sad to inform you that you're being subjected to music processed by mediocre audio electronics. To add insult to injury, you're probably listening to mp3 files, which distills the original uncompressed music down to a waveform that buries a lot of detail, especially if it was encoded at a lower bit rate (less than 320kbps). If you're listening on the tiny speakers built into the device, you may as well be trying to hear ants perform. If you're using little desk speakers, even the kind with little subwoofers, you're being robbed of both the highest and lowest frequencies in the music. If you're listening on headphones, you might be getting better sound, depending on the quality of the headphones. In-ear buds are robbing you of natural bass. Trendy, but otherwise pathetic headphones like Beats and their kin (sorry, the truth is brutal) may deliver a lot of brain slamming bass, but that bass is likely hiding the headphones' weaknesses in other parts of the music spectrum. If you're listening to music played back through consumer grade electronics over quality headphones, you're beginning to hear the sad truth. The music is polluted with noise by the hardware. When I listen to music on good headphones from a computer with a standard sound card, there is no silence in between the notes. Whether the music's playing or not, there's a floor of noise so obtrusive, I can almost hear my computer move my mouse pointer around on the screen.
Listening on a car stereo isn't much better, because even if you sank some serious coin into a decent car stereo with good speakers, the noise alone from the wind, the engine, the tires, the road, and the traffic is going to mask much of what you should be hearing.
No my friends, if you really want to hear what music was meant to sound like, you're going to have to spend some money on some quality audio equipment. Either that, or visit someone who already has spent that kind of money. I'm not talking about a Sonos system, or a bookshelf stereo. I'm not talking about the Bose Wave either.
I'm talking about a system where the the speakers are worth at least $300. Each! Made by brands you may not be familiar with. Paradigm, Polk Audio, Klipsch, Energy, Wharfedale, PSB, KEF, B&W. Without getting into a full on speaker consult, you can probably keep the price reasonable by getting a pair of really solid bookshelf speakers with a nice, musical subwoofer to round out the lowest frequencies.
Next, you want a good amplifier. Go ahead, get a receiver, where it's an all-in-one tuner, pre-amp and amplifier in one box. If we're throwing brands out there, I'm talking about Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, Harman Kardon, Pioneer, Marantz, Sony. Just don't skimp on power. If you insist on a box that only puts out 50 watts per stereo channel, you're playing on a stereo that's akin to a 3 cylinder Smart car. Sure, it'll get you around, but the minute you floor it, you risk burning everything out. Also, amplifiers that can get loud enough without getting near their top end have much less distortion. You will hear the difference. Remember my rant on noise earlier? Good amplifiers don't have any.
The debate I will not get into in this article is which music source you should be using. CD or vinyl record. Insofar as we're trying to show you what music is supposed to sound like versus your iPhone with your Skull Candy in-ear buds, I guarantee you it won't make any difference whether you choose CD or vinyl. They are both infinitely better. So long as you play them on a CD player or turntable that didn't come from Walmart. That's right, even the damned player has to be decent quality. It's the part that converts the recorded music into an electric waveform that the amp can use to push those speakers with. Would you paint a masterpiece with a basting brush? No. And neither should you be playing your exquisite music on a toy.
I am truly speaking from experience here. I remember the time I visited a home that was equipped with an incredible sound system. It was playing some Steely Dan and I nearly wept. It motivated me to never ignore the quality of my home audio gear again, and although I couldn't afford the system I was priviledged to audition (certainly worth $6000+), I made sure to at least get gear that could do the music justice.
Now I realize that people today don't typically buy albums in physical form anymore. It's sad, but true. So for most of us, we're stuck with mp3 files, or some other digital equivalent. Hopefully you're at least getting them encoded at a high bit rate. Then at least you're not missing as much critical musical detail.
But you probably can't afford a pricey stereo system either. And besides, the modern music aficionado prefers to take their music with them everywhere. So what's a rambler to do? First, get some good, neutral sounding headphones. My current fave is the incredibly priced Status Audio CB-1 ($110 on Amazon, although they do go on sale for under $90). They're not too bassy and they reveal a lot of detail. But what you really have to deal with is the substandard DAC in your playback device. Whether in your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer, the electronics that convert the digital sound (DAC) to something analog to feed the headphones has to be bypassed for an upgrade. Get yourself an outboard DAC / headphone amplifier. Fiio (pictured) make some great ones. I've seen people strap one of these to their phone with elastics. Try one out at your local audio store. You will have embarked on a journey where you finally get to hear what the music really sounds like.
It will be like hearing your music collection for the first time.
