#114 - Does the mainstream listener care about sound quality? Should we care?

Today post from Paul McGowan had interesting observations about opinions and experts. Below is the link to the responses. It's an audiophile forum that can get a little snarky at times even though Paul is as kind and gentle as can be. Paul owns PSAudio, a well known high end device manufacturer. Today he tips his hat to Jim Austin of Stereophile for saying... “There are as many opinions as there are experts”.

https://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/opinions-and-experts/?replytocom=256099#respond

One reader pointed out that most people don't care and listen in earbuds... to which I agreed. Below is my complete response, if anyone is interested. :)

Thank you, Reed. All valid points. The mainstrean listener doesn't care about sound quality. Unfortunately, most musicians and professional audio engineers don't either (some of it due to the fact they were never told/taught about better sound quality in audio schools).

The recording industry in general doesn't care about quality for the most part because there's not enough money in it. I'm not talking about our world of audiophiles, but the general public. Some of the worst offenders are the mastering engineers, many of them I call friends. We just don't talk about DSD :)

There are a very few like Paul, Gus and others who do care and have made a decision to support formats like DSD and strive for better listening quality in the home and studio. I didn't start recording to DSD for anyone other than myself. I started on tape and found PCM unlistenable in the studio after decades of trying.

My own 'day of reckoning' came when I had submitted a mastered recording to Rounder Records back in the early 2000's. When I heard what happened to the sound of this project on iTunes, I was horrified. It didn't sound like anything I had recorded.

So, we started our own HD download store back in 2008 (now called bluecoastmusic.com) to have control over the sound being sold to consumers. We didn't consider selling DSD at that time even though we were recording to it... until Gus said, "why don't you release the DSD recordings". To which I responded... "but who can listen at home? there are no DACs available in DSD for consumers". Then Gus explained a way that a few people were doing it. I said, 'Okay'.

That was 2010... we released our first DSD download. Koji Oishi, from Korg, was the first to buy our downloads. We had a few meetings with Korg who greatly help advance DSD listening. Next was Andreas Koch, who released the first consumer DSD DAC 6 months later at a crazy price and he sold out of them. Andreas said to me, "I was just waiting for someone to release downloads first." Paul/PSAudio came very soon after and has been extremely supportive ever since. Kudos to Paul for everything he's doing.

There are a crazy few of us who love the sound of DSD. It's not a rational business decision to follow the path of DSD audio for making money. Even less to confine one's business to only selling DSD... but the new truth is that streaming on Spotify would have most likely killed our record label off entirely if we hadn't found the niche DSD consumer.

This niche consumer audience is willing to pay $30-50 per download for the DSD experience. We also sell PCM albums from $12-30. But guess what... 70% of our consumers buy DSD. Less than 5% buy a PCM 44.1 or 48. Those of us who love DSD recording and playback do it first for ourselves. If anyone wants to come along, great! If not, that's okay, too.

Streaming music doesn't pay for a recording or an acoustic musician career. Does that mean all acoustic musicians give up recording because they don't put out an Adele album? If you talk to pop music producers you'll find many mix engineers are lucky to receive a 44.1 or 48 overdub.. and in many cases it's mp3.

I'm so very glad to have Paul support us and his own adventures in DSD land.

Have a great listening week!

Cookie Marenco
Blue Coast Records and Music
https://bluecoastmusic.com/