“Music? Noise? What makes sound, sound so good?”

 This isn’t exactly about what makes sound, sound so good. What makes music so good. And how I’m having a hard time explaining myself. But about admiring the beauty of music itself, if it is “your cup of tea”. But then again, certain people don’t enjoy music as much as I do. Or at least claim to. With me having $599.99 USD (it is 2023 in the U.S.A.) headphones, a portable amplifier, and an optimal source device (Phone, etc.). But is it really about blowing tons of money into the idea of aspiring to have the highest audio quality when listening to your favorite songs/albums?

I used to collect vinyl records, and I believe the main reason was because I had some sort of “fabricated perception” that “vinyl records deliver the best audio quality for listening to music”. But really, with all the surface noise, sibilance, and ways the vinyl can get defected. Not to mention it being another money pit to deal with, other than, blowing all this money on the best headphones and portable amp to listen to music on smartphones. But is that all even needed in the first place? Most people you see just listen to music on Apple AirPods of some sort, a bluetooth speaker, maybe a soundbar (if that’s still in). All about the Bluetooth technology, which is apparently horrendous audio quality on paper compared to an “old-school” wired connection.

Lossy vs. Lossless (if we stay in the digital realm), there’s Google if you don’t know what this means. There’s of course also “uncompressed” with an audio file like “.wav”, because lossy and lossless files both use some form of compression. With Lossy equaling compression with loss of audio quality, and lossless equaling compression with no loss of audio quality (perhaps theoretically). And then, you got Dolby Atmos nowadays, a “somewhat” new technology as of today in early 2023. I use Apple Music, so I know they utilize this “new” technology. TIDAL apparently does as well. But I believe they also utilize a 3D audio format made by Sony as well as Dolby Atmos. 

I think the Dolby Atmos format is interesting, as it does give you a reason to revisit old recordings you know and enjoy and experience them differently. They’re also of course beginning to issue new music (at least the commercialized, “big names”) in Dolby Atmos, as well as your typical “Stereo” recording, which they include with it. They include both. And I know at least on Apple Music, you can change it in the settings depending on which version you would like to listen to. I heard eventually (I could have sworn) that they will release “commercial” recordings only in Dolby Atmos, as there’s no need for the “Stereo” version. This is of course a “headphones thing”, as I could have sworn that originally Dolby Atmos was exclusively a speakers thing.    NO HEADPHONES. Something with home theatre, putting speakers on the ceiling or something (I could imagine if that’s the case). I wouldn’t think it to be possible to utilize these Dolby Atmos technology recordings that Apple Music and TIDAL provide through a “professional” Dolby Atmos speaker setup. That of course would also cost way more money than a lousy pair of AirPods, but at least you could experience the greatness with fellow human beings.

This is just me going on and on about things related to music. It’s not what I expected to start discussing first, or even at the beginning of typing this up. But it’s what came out, and what relates to what’s going on in music and audio reproduction today in 2023. Perhaps it will become a time capsule. I think I’ll come back here and discuss more on the lines of the beauty of music in itself rather than the “slightly-controversial” confusing state, money-driven-pit, that is audio reproduction for consumption by the masses.

P.S. Hope I got all the errors.