‘Audiophile’ Quality?

Tim Bray on “audiophile” quality:

It seems fantastically dubious that something 43 cm wide, with a listed bass floor of 53 Hz (the bottom string on a bass is 42 Hz), weighing 6.6 kg, and costing $349, could actually produce “audiophile” sound. But you know, it’s not impossible; if they design for truth and accuracy as opposed to fake-bass thump and scary volume, it could turn out to be pretty useful. In which case, it’d be a complete waste to play your average iTunes-store-sourced lo-rez lossy-compressed MP3 through it. But you can get audiophile sound out of your iPod, and for quite a bit less than $349.

★ Tuesday, 28 February 2006