Low definition music - do we care?

Certainly not as much as I used to. I have a small drop in hearing ability. Actually my hearing is not lossless it is on it's way to lost. I do think that most people play their music in the car or on headphones and the high end stereophile is only for the very wealthy that debate the minute details of their equipment and it's ability to reproduce every nuance. Those audiophiles that think vinyl is the answer or proffered lose me because I never want to go back to vinyl. If that is the choice then I'm out. I will explore PONO because there are times when I want to crank it loud enough to drown out the constant ringing in my ears and hear the music at concert level volume in my little home theater room which is generally used to play only CD or Blu Ray concerts and movies. Then when you realize everything I bought a year ago is soon to be out dated I have to tell myself there is a point that my aging eyes can't tell the difference with a higher resolution picture than I currently have as my ears have limited ability to hear the difference of better sound reproduction than the good old well mastered CD.

High quality lossless FLAC files have existed for many years up to 192kHz. This is nothing new. I bought a DAC for my mac and a good pair of headphones a few years ago...and haven't looked back. The quality is incredible (bear in mind the people transferring it from other sources/the original source).
This is a clever marketing scheme with a known face to an unoriginal idea. If it plants an old idea in new heads...then welcoming it is.

When I was young I had the time to sit and listen to albums on vinyl.For me like Stu I listen in my car.Its a function of my job driving around all day.So I am lucky that I have time to consume a lot of music listening.I don't use the mp3 as a primary listening device but find more and more time  when I do now.If I wanted to go vinyl I just wouldn't have the time to listen to much.
So I do think that people are on the go and want to listen to music when and wherever they can.So portability and cloud service are making that a reality.I think I am happy with a good headphone set and my iPhone.Thinking of adding an amp to it.
It may not be the best sound but I guess it's good enough for me to enjoy.I have a pretty decent sound system at home and do treat myself when I can to it.

Honestly, I don't have the time to care. I rarely have the chance to sit down and enjoy listening to music anymore. If I had that free time, I would totally be into vinyl and the whole bit. But, for me, I'm in the car or I'm cleaning or doing something else, so mp3 it is. Maybe when I get older and don't have as much going on I'll get into being more of an audiophile, but until that day, convenience is the word of the day. Now, when it comes to movies/TV, I'm such a high definition junkie it's not even funny.

Compression has been and will always continue to play a huge role in electrically managed sound reproductions, recordings, and creations.  It is NOT something new.  In fact the 70's saw the most dramatic experimentation with compressors probably in the history of recordings.  Disco itself is the sigmoid functioning colon function of that era...has it slowly but surely peristaltically advanced to mucho crapola?! Definitely.  Some contend the loudness wars are over.  I am not sure they are anything but the professional field following the trends of the times due to "what's out there" at the time.  Looking retroactively to the original archive version whether master or late generation mutant clone...if you can do a paint-by-number, you should be able in today's tech world to wrestle the sounds (somewhat!) more to your likings.  However, I don't infer completely without the internal mangling (possibly being an incurable total bust) by any stretch of the imagination.  The average schmuck just doesn't have the time nor means nor, sometimes sadly, the desire.  To lay anything as Low definition with prejudice....tat tain't my style.  Someone somewhere will take one of our so-called low def musical entrées and call it a Thanksgiving feast.  My travels, I've witnessed it, time and again.    In fact, I LIVE it!   What's old-timey scratchy warped recordings without the same?

You wanna know my opinion on the real problem???!!! Digital every MFing thing in the world!!!  There is just something about limiting wiggle room...Take a page out of 1939.

Rock ON & Keep the Faith,
Rocket

"He still doesn't charge for mistakes! "
http://jbonamassa.com/tour-dates/
"Everybody wants ta get inta the act!"
“Now, this isn’t your ordinary party crowd, here.  I mean, there are professionals in here.”

Don't you just love Rockets ramblings. Must take ages...

Another one here also.

I don't have a problem with digital music, in fact I prefer it due to the increased convenience it offers. This is all provided that the bit rate is sufficient to accurately reproduce the music, which it is whenever you have loss less audio files or MP3s of 320 Kbps.

I think people claim digital is inferior whenever they haven't given it a fair test. If you play a vinyl record through a quality amp going into quality speakers, of course it's going to sound better than an MP3 file being played on an iPod going into the cheap ear-buds that came with it. If you were to take that MP3 file and pass it through a quality Digital-Analogue converter (DAC) then into the same Amplifier and speakers, it would sound on par with the record. I also think people have become accustomed to the imperfections that vinyl adds such as the hiss and therefore don't like the purity (for want of a better word) that digital provides.

In terms of production, over the years I've found record companies have been sacrificing dynamic range in order to have maximum volume in order to stand out on the radio. If you google "loudness war" you can find more info on it.