Hardware and a file format that could make the audio CD obsolete
Manufacturers and buyers of hi-fi audio equipment are anal. After the LP, they have stubbornly resisted the advancement of almost every new technology, be it cassettes, CDs, minidisks or Super Audio CDs. Naturally, software-based audio formats like MP3, WMA and AAC are treated the way sports car aficionados would see the Tata Nano: A pesky nuisance that is best ignored.
Win Loss
High fidelity recordings in digital formats like the CD make for very large files: A second of CD quality sound requires 1.4 million bits of data. Audio CDs, thus, can only store a score or so of average length songs; and if you were to copy these onto a computer, you’d quickly run out of space. Compressed formats, like the MP3 (which stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) and its designated successor, AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) pack that sound info into less than one-tenth the space by using algorithms that drop some of the sound information based on the frequency ranges that most human ears cannot hear. So, when you rip a CD to your iPod, some information from the original music is lost permanently,
which is why these formats are called “lossy.”
Despite this, CDs are rapidly losing the fight for mass audiences to these formats. Sheer convenience wins for most of us. A few thousand tracks in a device that fits into your pocket? No contest.
(This story appears in the 14 August, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)