Bono, Steve Jobs, etc.

[Joe Allonby]

Full agreement with this statement. The reason why MP3 are a
successful format is that most people can't tell the difference. But
they still get to buy cool toys which is really what it's all about.

A car is a horrible environment sound. But people still pump money
into car stereo despite the diminishing returns. In the 80's there
were the "wattage wars" in car stereo. Guys would actually claim that
their car stereos "put out 100 watts per channel". At the time I
played through hundred watt Ampegs and Marshalls. In a good sized room
I could make the furniture dance. Audio salesmen make used car dealers
look like paragons of virtue.

I find Macs easier to use then PCs. I used Apple products first. I got
used to a PC really quickly. For my purposes, there is almost no
difference. Didn't like Vista, but that's gone.


On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 2:44 PM, Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net> wrote:
> A few more silly data points in a silly matrix:
>
> Imagine yourself unfamiliar with any personal computer, starting from zero.
> You'd find 95%+ of what you'd need to learn a PC *or* a Mac is the same.
> I've used both as long as they've been around, and -- other than
> professional respect for Apple's ability to market the remaining <5% into
> such a big deal -- couldn't care less. Five minutes after I start *doing*
> something on either, it's transparent.
>
> I used to be a moderate audiophile, but at 60 I've lost a lot of
> high-frequency response and most of my ability to obsess about hardware (see
> above.) In terms of hours, the great majority of my listening these days is
> (1) via earbuds from a pocket player or a PC at work, and (2) CDs in the
> car. For (1), if there's a difference between AAC and high-rate MP3 I can't
> tell through earbuds (if I ever could have). For (2), wind & road noise
> swamps any fine detail. When I sit down at home and concentrate on music,
> it's mostly with deep-cushioned Stax electrostatic headphones made c. 1965
> -- they eat watts, but I've never heard a pair I liked better, and I'd have
> to drastically remodel the room and upgrade $2K worth (long ago) of amp &
> speakers to $10K or more to come close to that clarity in open-air
> listening.
>
> Bottom line: the Firm successfully markets graphite skis and tennis rackets
> to a hundred consumers for every one who is skilled enough to use the extra
> few percent of performance they enable. In the same way, they market the
> narcissism of small differences in user interfaces and in music
> reproduction. And we eat it up, don't we?
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
> Of Robin Landseadel
> Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 7:17 PM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Bono, Steve Jobs, etc.
>
> On Jan 6, 2010, at 7:06 AM, Bekah wrote:
>
>> I'm going back to my old cheap but trusty Sennheisers.
>
>
>
> Sennheiser makes some seriously fine headphones.
>
>