Style over substance?

Have advances in technology driven the desire for convenience and quantity at the expense of quality?

Low-grade music in this context is the result of two main factors, a) the delivery system (the hardware) and b) the source material (the ‘music’). Although the amplification section of the mobile device is a technological wonder, it’s not hi-fi! Nor are in-ear headphones. They can’t hold a candle to the stereo-typical system from the 1970’s. 

                                As far as the source material is concerned, it’s being over-generous to call it music if it’s a typical MP3 or AAC (the iTunes default format) download. These are both highly compressed formats with the most popular download speed of 128 kbps being about one-eleventh the size of a full resolution CD track (1411 kbps), so the quality is inevitably far inferior. Information is irretrievably lost and the full dynamic range is lacking. 

                                   Using an iPod while jogging does not really raise a quality issue but playing lowresolution tracks through, for example, an iPod docking station that feeds into a decent hi-fi system, is a disaster area. It is very poor quality made louder and this even affects the type of music listened to. For example, most classical recordings downloaded as an MP3 or AAC file are a complete waste of time because there is so much information missing, all the complexities of the music are lost, and the recordings are reduced to just the essence of a tune.