Ipods Are Ruining Society

Off Topic
41

[quote]
you must live somewhere in the south. Up here in the north, people without headphones will walk by you without even looking at you or saying anything.[/quote]

All southern cities aren’t like that. In Houston people aren’t total pricks, but everyone remains detached from one another for the most part, unless you’re on Main street at midnight on a weekend getting shitfaced, then everyone seems kind of friendly.

But it’s not as bad as Dallas. Every encounter I’ve had with someone in Dallas makes me loathe that city. On top of that, I hate the Cowboys so I just stay away from there and stick to Austin and Houston. Small towns like Fairfield and Madisonville are where the chatty southerners are, but I prefer city life.

42

[quote]4est wrote:
MP3 is a LOSSY compression. You lose information. That can definitely be heard in the typical MP3. It does not matter what medium it’s saved to. It’s still lossy compression.[/quote]

Yeah, but the information that’s lost probably isn’t audible to 99% of the human population under normal listening conditions anyway. Are you saying you’re not human? It sounds disingenuous and borderline elitist to claim you can hear a difference, when 99% of the population does not.

The same goes for the BS that vinyl purists have about CDs too.

43

[quote]TeeVee69 wrote:

The same goes for the BS that vinyl purists have about CDs too.[/quote]

That’s kinda the BB equiv of saying you are better off doing leg press than squats.

The fact that Vinyl has more upper frequencies retained that Philips / Sony ommited from the original CD format thinking it would not matter. Any Vinyl on a decent turntable sounds better than CD its like night and day. You need SACD or DVD-A to replicate the quality. Vinyl ain’t always practical or that any use in cars so I have CD, SACD and Vinyl players.

44

[quote]etaco wrote:
BoxBabaX wrote:
Forget the gym, come look at my school UCSD and tell me they arent anti-social. Schools are supposed to be social places where you can interact with your peers, not places to put on head phones while staring at the ground and walking around.

Its sickening.

Hahaha. You didn’t go to UCSD seriously expecting human contact, did you? (I’m an alum) It’s a surprisingly common mistake.

On another note, I think the main factor in how friendly strangers are is less regionalism and has more to do with the level of urbanization. It’s more significant for a rural person to see another human than it is for a city dweller who has to deal with oodles of dumbasses up close all day long. [/quote]

I didnt, but it doesnt make it right lol. Btw what was your major??

45

[quote]speedy5323 wrote:
While they might be a technology marvel, I am sick of not being able to even speak to people on the street, in a gym, etc. due to the fact that everyone seems to have headphones stuck in their ears at all times. “Good mornings”, “How are you doing today” and the like are going to vanish from society due to the fact that individuals feel a need to listen to “Red Red Wine” 24 hours a day.

I live near a college campus, so I’m sure it’s more prevelant here than other places. I’m not trying to knock Apple’s stock down ( I actually own some, and an Ipod as well), but I honestly can see a shift from a society in which you can strike up a conversation with someone, to one in which people are annoyed to take a break from Hootie and the Blowfish’s “Cracked Rear View” to say hi or give you a spot. Any thoughts?[/quote]

While there are times when a conversation with a stranger will turn interesting, for the most part I’m an elitist bastard and think that the majority of the people are morons who have nothing worthwhile to say. So yes, I personally would much rather listen to music than to here your views on weather. I mean, I really don’t care if you think it’s a nice day but that it might snow tomorrow.

I don’t see a problem here.

46

[quote]4est wrote:

  1. I agree that iPods are worthless (for me). I have computer with 5.1 surround at home. There is an entertainment center in the living room. My scion xB has a stereo with CD/MP3 disc player. Actually, the xB has a jack for an iPod too. The work computer has speakers. WHY THE HELL DO I NEED AN IPOD!? Well, for me, I don’t need an iPod. It’s understandable for those who use public transportation to have iPods. Otherwise, its a stupid-ass fashionable item for trend-whores to purchase.
    [/quote]

sigh Nice that you keep an open mind about things. The reason an iPod works so well is that if you have a big enough one, you bring your entire music collection with you wherever you go.

And while there is some loss with compression to MP3, I would bank that 95% of the people out there can neither tell nor care…

47

[quote]Kuz wrote:
4est wrote:

  1. I agree that iPods are worthless (for me). I have computer with 5.1 surround at home. There is an entertainment center in the living room. My scion xB has a stereo with CD/MP3 disc player. Actually, the xB has a jack for an iPod too. The work computer has speakers. WHY THE HELL DO I NEED AN IPOD!? Well, for me, I don’t need an iPod. It’s understandable for those who use public transportation to have iPods. Otherwise, its a stupid-ass fashionable item for trend-whores to purchase.

sigh Nice that you keep an open mind about things. The reason an iPod works so well is that if you have a big enough one, you bring your entire music collection with you wherever you go.

And while there is some loss with compression to MP3, I would bank that 95% of the people out there can neither tell nor care…[/quote]

Hell, either way, it sounds better than radio.

48

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Kuz wrote:
4est wrote:

  1. I agree that iPods are worthless (for me). I have computer with 5.1 surround at home. There is an entertainment center in the living room. My scion xB has a stereo with CD/MP3 disc player. Actually, the xB has a jack for an iPod too. The work computer has speakers. WHY THE HELL DO I NEED AN IPOD!? Well, for me, I don’t need an iPod. It’s understandable for those who use public transportation to have iPods. Otherwise, its a stupid-ass fashionable item for trend-whores to purchase.

sigh Nice that you keep an open mind about things. The reason an iPod works so well is that if you have a big enough one, you bring your entire music collection with you wherever you go.

And while there is some loss with compression to MP3, I would bank that 95% of the people out there can neither tell nor care…

Hell, either way, it sounds better than radio.[/quote]

Especially the one in my gym. I don’t know about anyone else, but I find it hard to psyche myself up for a big lift when “Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners is blasting.

49

[quote]Kuz wrote:
Professor X wrote:
Kuz wrote:
4est wrote:

  1. I agree that iPods are worthless (for me). I have computer with 5.1 surround at home. There is an entertainment center in the living room. My scion xB has a stereo with CD/MP3 disc player. Actually, the xB has a jack for an iPod too. The work computer has speakers. WHY THE HELL DO I NEED AN IPOD!? Well, for me, I don’t need an iPod. It’s understandable for those who use public transportation to have iPods. Otherwise, its a stupid-ass fashionable item for trend-whores to purchase.

sigh Nice that you keep an open mind about things. The reason an iPod works so well is that if you have a big enough one, you bring your entire music collection with you wherever you go.

And while there is some loss with compression to MP3, I would bank that 95% of the people out there can neither tell nor care…

Hell, either way, it sounds better than radio.

Especially the one in my gym. I don’t know about anyone else, but I find it hard to psyche myself up for a big lift when “Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners is blasting.[/quote]

I used to have a T-Shirt that said

‘I cummed on Eileen’

50

[quote]TeeVee69 wrote:
4est wrote:
MP3 is a LOSSY compression. You lose information. That can definitely be heard in the typical MP3. It does not matter what medium it’s saved to. It’s still lossy compression.

Yeah, but the information that’s lost probably isn’t audible to 99% of the human population under normal listening conditions anyway. Are you saying you’re not human? It sounds disingenuous and borderline elitist to claim you can hear a difference, when 99% of the population does not.

The same goes for the BS that vinyl purists have about CDs too.[/quote]

simply because you don’t care enough to hear the difference doesn’t mean it’s not there.

can you distinguish between a piano and a digital piano ? live strings and synthesized ? analog or digital recording ? can you tell flourescent from incandescent, from natural light? real tits from silicone ? jap cars from euro ? can you bite an apple and tell if they over-irrigated ? can you tell if your drink is diluted ? macdonald’s burger from homemade ?

it doesn’t take a savant. anyone with normal hearing can hear the difference if they care to. why do you want less for your money ?

51

Hearing all this talk about bad radio in the gym reminds me of this guy who used to work out at my 24 hour gym. He was a HUGE black dude, had to have been 350. Big tattoos, goatee, looked like he should be playing guard for the Falcons or something.

I spotted for him a couple of times along with a friend, he was a real nice guy, said he was training for the UFC or something. Anyway, he absolutely hated the radio station that was locked in at this gym, which was classic rock. I mean, every time I saw him he would be muttering something about the music. And he wouldn’t wear headphones because he said they were always falling out when he was squatting or benching and it pissed him off.

So one Saturday he comes into the gym and there’s this girl with him, dressed in street clothes, and she’s got a freakin’ boombox. Everyone is staring at him out of the corner of his eye, the Rolling Stones or something is playing.

He saunters over to the leg press, his girlfriend sits the boom box down beside him, flips it on, and Tupac comes blaring out of the box. And as he is pressing up like a thousand pounds, she starts to dance. In between sets he would get up and start bobbing and weaving to the music while his girl would wipe him down with a towel and give him these little U DA MAN peptalks. And then he’d move to another machine or the squat rack and she’d follow with the boom box, put it down, and start a little shimmy.

This was a pretty whitebread gym with a few Tupac fans, but more than it’s fair share of folks who REALLY preferred classic rock. I thought for sure someone was going to say something to this guy, but no one ever did. I stuck around the entire hour or so he was there, just so I could see the reactions people had as they tried to pretend nothing unusual was happening. I about lost it when he set up shop beside the hack squat machine while this older George Costanza looking guy was working out on it. He was getting wiped down by his girl, just sort of looming over the machine. George couldn’t get off that thing fast enough. Probably the funnest hour I ever spent in a gym.

52

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I am very skeptical of people who claim they can truly tell a large difference between an MP3 and a CD. Hell, what about MP3’s that are saved on CD’s?[/quote]

Yes, there is a large difference. If you find it hard to notice, listen to a baritone sax solo from the original CD, and then listen to it encoded in MP3 (it doesn’t matter where you put the MP3).

This is because MP3 is a lossy-encoding. It cuts the highest and lower part of the frequency spectrum. That is why it is easier to notice the difference with instruments whose sound are made of many harmonics, like the baritone sax. For people that listen top 10 music, the difference is smaller, because most top 10 music is full of synthetic sounds (low harmonics) instead of real instruments.

53

[quote]swivel wrote:

simply because you don’t care enough to hear the difference doesn’t mean it’s not there.[/quote]
***sigh…ok, this rant is going to touch on TC’s thymos column today, I guess.

You have a point. I don’t care enough to be sitting in a sound-proof recording studio with visual displays comparing the two versions in order to convince myself that there is a qualitative difference. I play my music under real-world situations with a lot of ambient background noise and shit going on to disrupt the pure sound.

But I won’t delude myself into thinking that it really matters in the end. If it matters to you – cool, no offense intended. My point is that a lot of you purists (I’m lumping you in that category, since you responded) seem to act like savants and that the rest of us who like the new digital technology (be they mp3s or CDs) are somehow less “sophisticated” than you are because of it. Get over yourselves.

Wrong analogies – all of them – as far as I’m concerned.

Yet, you’re doing a fine job trying to paint yourself as one.

[quote] anyone with normal hearing can hear the difference if they care to. why do you want less for your money ?
[/quote]
I don’t see how liking mp3’s is getting less for my money. It’s portable, it holds more in less space, and it delivers great quality. That’s more bang for the buck in my book. But then: I’m not a savant, so wtf do I know?

54

This thread helps me realize my dream at a clarity that really makes me feel that I can get there: open my own hardcore gym.

Shitty light rock music would never be allowed to play. I would definitely have to get a sound system similar to what is used for a concert. I haven’t been back to a gym since I got my power rack delivered.

I can’t stand the feeling of how time drags on when you’re trying to pump yourself to the crappy light rock/love songs playing just loud enough to be annoying. iPods have their place, if you’re doomed to lift in a commy gym

55

[quote]brushga wrote:
Hearing all this talk about bad radio in the gym reminds me of this guy who used to work out at my 24 hour gym. He was a HUGE black dude, had to have been 350. Big tattoos, goatee, looked like he should be playing guard for the Falcons or something.

I spotted for him a couple of times along with a friend, he was a real nice guy, said he was training for the UFC or something. Anyway, he absolutely hated the radio station that was locked in at this gym, which was classic rock. I mean, every time I saw him he would be muttering something about the music. And he wouldn’t wear headphones because he said they were always falling out when he was squatting or benching and it pissed him off.

So one Saturday he comes into the gym and there’s this girl with him, dressed in street clothes, and she’s got a freakin’ boombox. Everyone is staring at him out of the corner of his eye, the Rolling Stones or something is playing.

He saunters over to the leg press, his girlfriend sits the boom box down beside him, flips it on, and Tupac comes blaring out of the box. And as he is pressing up like a thousand pounds, she starts to dance. In between sets he would get up and start bobbing and weaving to the music while his girl would wipe him down with a towel and give him these little U DA MAN peptalks. And then he’d move to another machine or the squat rack and she’d follow with the boom box, put it down, and start a little shimmy.

This was a pretty whitebread gym with a few Tupac fans, but more than it’s fair share of folks who REALLY preferred classic rock. I thought for sure someone was going to say something to this guy, but no one ever did. I stuck around the entire hour or so he was there, just so I could see the reactions people had as they tried to pretend nothing unusual was happening. I about lost it when he set up shop beside the hack squat machine while this older George Costanza looking guy was working out on it. He was getting wiped down by his girl, just sort of looming over the machine. George couldn’t get off that thing fast enough. Probably the funnest hour I ever spent in a gym.[/quote]

That’s fucking priceless!

56

[quote]magnetnerd wrote:
The only time I use my mp3 player is in the gym. I don’t like people trying to make small talk with me during my workout. I’ll occasionally have someone ask for a spot, which I don’t mind. I still greet the “regulars” in the gym; my earbuds don’t get in the way of this.

I think the people you see walking around listening to music all the time are the same ones who you’d have a damn difficult time striking up a conversation with anyway - the people who give you one word responses to anything.[/quote]

whatever

57

There is an enormous difference between MP3s and CDs - instantly recognizable. Do you know that repeated digital reproduction can alter the actual TUNING of a musical piece?

I do quite a bit of musical production (musician and all), and the difference between uncompressed audio and something like an MP3 is tremendous! Listening to original uncompressed audio vs. the audio on CD vs. an MP3 is painful. To be honest, most people won’t be able to tell the difference. I was working on a project where the whole tuning of a piece was off by 6hz in the final MP3 placed on a website. Crazy, huh?

I do like Apple’s AAC encoding - it’s darn close to a CD, but still not perfect.

58

Whoever you’re trying to talk to are listening to some very shitty music.

Hootie and the Blowfish-HAHA.

59

[quote]AgentOrange wrote:
brushga wrote:
Hearing all this talk about bad radio in the gym reminds me of this guy who used to work out at my 24 hour gym. He was a HUGE black dude, had to have been 350. Big tattoos, goatee, looked like he should be playing guard for the Falcons or something.

I spotted for him a couple of times along with a friend, he was a real nice guy, said he was training for the UFC or something. Anyway, he absolutely hated the radio station that was locked in at this gym, which was classic rock. I mean, every time I saw him he would be muttering something about the music. And he wouldn’t wear headphones because he said they were always falling out when he was squatting or benching and it pissed him off.

So one Saturday he comes into the gym and there’s this girl with him, dressed in street clothes, and she’s got a freakin’ boombox. Everyone is staring at him out of the corner of his eye, the Rolling Stones or something is playing.

He saunters over to the leg press, his girlfriend sits the boom box down beside him, flips it on, and Tupac comes blaring out of the box. And as he is pressing up like a thousand pounds, she starts to dance. In between sets he would get up and start bobbing and weaving to the music while his girl would wipe him down with a towel and give him these little U DA MAN peptalks. And then he’d move to another machine or the squat rack and she’d follow with the boom box, put it down, and start a little shimmy.

This was a pretty whitebread gym with a few Tupac fans, but more than it’s fair share of folks who REALLY preferred classic rock. I thought for sure someone was going to say something to this guy, but no one ever did. I stuck around the entire hour or so he was there, just so I could see the reactions people had as they tried to pretend nothing unusual was happening. I about lost it when he set up shop beside the hack squat machine while this older George Costanza looking guy was working out on it. He was getting wiped down by his girl, just sort of looming over the machine. George couldn’t get off that thing fast enough. Probably the funnest hour I ever spent in a gym.

That’s fucking priceless!
[/quote]

Seriously wish shit like that happened at my gym.

60

Wow, I’m really sorry I started this godamn conversation, I wasn’t even talking about sound quality with my original post…

But while we’re at it, there’s a huge, and I do mean huge, difference in certain kinds of music. Classical music is almost unbearable on an MP3, for example. As far as more hardcore shit that you’d want to listen to in the gym, you won’t hear a difference in that situation. For most pop music, and by pop music I now mean pop as in not classical, the difference is heard if you really pay attention or if music is your thing and you just look into that type of stuff. The average listener won’t hear it.