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Audiophile successor to iPod - Neil Young and Steve Jobs had plans!!

post #1 of 21
2/1/12 at 12:28pm
Thread Starter 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/feb/01/neil-young-ipod-steve-jobs

 

 

Neil Young: Steve Jobs and I were working on new iPod

Singer tells technology conference he and the late Apple boss planned audiophile successor to iPod with high-resolution audio

Neil Young and Steve Jobs
New adventures in hi-fi … Neil Young and Steve Jobs were working on audiophile iPod. Photograph: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images/Sipa Press/Rex Features

Neil Young has claimed he was working with the late Apple boss Steve Jobs on a follow-up to the iPod. Young said he and Jobs were developing a new device for listening to "high-resolution audio", which would download content "while you're sleeping".

 

"Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music, but when he went home he listened to vinyl," Young said during an interview at the D: Dive Into Media technology conference. He and Jobs were apparently both concerned with the dearth of high-quality listening formats for audiophiles, and the two men met to work on new hardware that could store the large music files Young prefers. Since Jobs's death in October, Young complained, there is "not much going on".

 

Young is a notorious opponent of MP3s and other compressed music formats. He even criticises CDs, which he claims offer only 15% of the audio information contained on master recordings. "What everybody gets [on an MP3] is 5% of what we originally make in the studio," he said. "We live in the digital age, and unfortunately it's degrading our music, not improving."

 

The 66-year-old singer called on his audience to improve standards for high-fidelity audio and new consumer-friendly playback devices. The main obstacle to better quality recordings is file size: audiophile-quality songs can take as long as 30 minutes to download, Young said, and current players can store no more than about 30 albums. "I have to believe if [Jobs] lived long enough he would have tried to do what I'm trying to do."

 

While Young attacked the internet's effect on audio standards, he acknowledged its utility as a promotional tool. "I look at [the] internet as the new radio," he explained. "Radio [is] gone. Piracy is the new radio; it's how music gets around."

 

Young is currently working on two new albums with his long-time on-off backing band Crazy Horse. He recently updated his website with an epic, 37-minute jam, thought to be taken from these sessions.

 

 

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post #2 of 21
2/1/12 at 1:23pm

Very interesting.

 

First, the news of Neil and Crazy Horse releasing not one, but two new albums is very exciting.

 

Second, the news of him working with Jobs is interesting. If it ever came to fruition I might finally buy an Apple product.

 

Thanks for the post.

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post #3 of 21
2/1/12 at 2:25pm

Wow, audiophile iPod is too crazy to come true. Though, I would throw out money for it.

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post #4 of 21
2/1/12 at 3:13pm

I currently have 1982 FLAC tracks on my player, i think that's a bit more than 30 albums. And if it still takes you 30 minutes to download a single song, get off of dial-up or go to the library or something like that.

 

Anywho, Apple getting in to the audiophile thing can only be good news, i think. They'll make the concept more popular/accepted and all that, and there should be more and more products for an audiphile to choose from, right?

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post #5 of 21
2/1/12 at 3:57pm

I don't mean to rain on anybody's parade , but I think some of you are getting your hopes up too high. Now that Steve Jobs  is no longer the creative driving impetus at Apple , I don't think there is much evidence that he had a ptotege waiting in the wings to carry on with Steve's visionary outlooks. I'm pretty sure the other major directors will only very grudgingly bring new technology out if they think that 90% of the public will be interested in it. Unfortunately, audiophiles are'nt even a blip on Apple's consumer radar. I would like to be wrong on this, but the evidence says I'm not.

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post #6 of 21
2/1/12 at 4:17pm

True, with Jobs gone, this idea might be gone for good.

But if they did go ahead with it, i don't think they'd have a problem. Why? This is APPLE.

If Apple says something is good, they have thousands of people who will jump on it and say it's amazing.

 

Or when rumours were flying around about the first iPad, everyone on the forums i frequented thought it was the dumbest oversized-iPhone idea ever. Look how that ended up.


Edited by andrewberge - 2/1/12 at 4:18pm
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post #7 of 21
2/1/12 at 4:26pm


5% is an exaggeration isn't it? I'd say ~60% (128kbps), ~70-80% (256-320), ~80-85% (Lossless). The remaining 15% is revealed through good cans.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ardilla View Post

Young is a notorious opponent of MP3s and other compressed music formats. He even criticises CDs, which he claims offer only 15% of the audio information contained on master recordings. "What everybody gets [on an MP3] is 5% of what we originally make in the studio," he said. "We live in the digital age, and unfortunately it's degrading our music, not improving."

 

 

 



 

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post #8 of 21
2/2/12 at 12:10am

I like a lot of Neil's music, but I must disagree with him about CD's.....they sound good enough for me. In fact, a well encoded LAME V0 MP3 still sounds pretty damn good to me, since I don't have any high-end cans. I appreciate his passion though.....maybe he'll do something about the loudness war!

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post #9 of 21
2/2/12 at 5:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewberge View Post

True, with Jobs gone, this idea might be gone for good.

But if they did go ahead with it, i don't think they'd have a problem. Why? This is APPLE.

If Apple says something is good, they have thousands of people who will jump on it and say it's amazing.

 

Or when rumours were flying around about the first iPad, everyone on the forums i frequented thought it was the dumbest oversized-iPhone idea ever. Look how that ended up.

Once again(& I hate being a "stick in the mud") I'm pretty sure it was Jobs who pushed for the improvements that led to it being the huge success it has become.
 

 

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post #10 of 21
2/2/12 at 7:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nikp View Post


5% is an exaggeration isn't it? I'd say ~60% (128kbps), ~70-80% (256-320), ~80-85% (Lossless). The remaining 15% is revealed through good cans.



 



%5 is way out of line but I think he was referring to analog or >24/88 type quality. The device would probably be billed as an all in one home/portable device and not just for cans so that HiRes would be overall more viable.

 

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post #11 of 21
2/2/12 at 1:49pm

a similar thread is now up and running on the AudioKarma forums

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post #12 of 21
2/2/12 at 3:30pm


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by goodvibes View Post



%5 is way out of line but I think he was referring to analog or >24/88 type quality. The device would probably be billed as an all in one home/portable device and not just for cans so that HiRes would be overall more viable.

 


No, I don't think 5% is that out of line for "plain old vanilla" lossless. If done correctly Redbook lossless can be pretty detailed. The problem is most people aren't even hearing how good 16/44 can actually sound on their home systems, let alone their portable rigs. I would venture to say a well recorded CD played back on an Ayre or Linn CD player will be more detailed sounding than some Hi Rez files played back through an inexpensive SACD player or non music optimized PC system.

 

 


Edited by knowhatimean - 2/2/12 at 3:32pm
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post #13 of 21
2/2/12 at 3:54pm

About those 5%. I think you shouldn't take that seriously. I mean, if you listen to venyl, there is all kinds of technical differences + venyl-sound itself. all that in sum makes it 95% different to MP3s...

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post #14 of 21
2/2/12 at 5:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by knowhatimean View Post


 


No, I don't think 5% is that out of line for "plain old vanilla" lossless. If done correctly Redbook lossless can be pretty detailed. The problem is most people aren't even hearing how good 16/44 can actually sound on their home systems, let alone their portable rigs. I would venture to say a well recorded CD played back on an Ayre or Linn CD player will be more detailed sounding than some Hi Rez files played back through an inexpensive SACD player or non music optimized PC system.

 

 


 

Well, duh. Those files aren't limited to a portable device which happen to work fine as removable drives. Conceptually, I would think that a home interface of some sort would help the marketing and sound. There's also no reason why it couldn't be used as a WiFi UPNP server for your audiophile streamer with excellent results and tie in that way. Try not to be that closed minded without knowing the possible interfacing.


I stream my music via top Naim into Quads etc. so please don't preach. I prefer it to the brands that you mentioned but that's neither here nor there and open to preference. 5% is a huge exaggeration. If you were to say that what he meant is that it doesn't reach the understanding a message stage of goodness so %'s don't matter, you may have a talking point but numbers like that are silly. I don't disagree about computer dig/usb out as limited compared to good dedicated kit but 5%? Come on.


Edited by goodvibes - 2/2/12 at 5:45pm
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post #15 of 21
2/2/12 at 8:12pm

 

 

 

 


Edited by knowhatimean - 2/3/12 at 5:44am
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