[tsotha]

Reminds me of people who said CDs would be a flop because they reproduced sound too faithfully, and consumers would be uncomfortable listening to music that didn't have the distortions and white noise record players produced.

In other words... BS.

[waterlesscloud]

Did people say that? I just remember the other side of it, people saying that CDs were lower fidelity than good vinyl recordings.

Of course, now we listen to MP3s.

[KaeseEs]

People still say that, and there is a tremendous market for things like tube amps based on the idea that the lower-fidelity stuff 'sounds warmer'. And it does, because you're passing your signal through a filter than adds a small amount of mostly low-frequency distortion which some folks have grown accustomed to.

[evoxed]

As a counter argument, people on the high end do actually buy equipment to suit their preferences in that way. If you want classical music in perfect clarity, many people feel that Grado cans are like sticking a sharp needle through their skull. Even if the reproduction is more faithful, the experience isn't enjoyable and so they might opt for high end Senns instead (still extremely accurate across the spectrum but a tad darker).

[ahi]

People will still be buying record players long after the last cd player gets tossed.

[sliverstorm]

To be completely honest, I actually still prefer radio for casual background listening because of the distortion and white noise.