Certain ideas (or memes in Internet jargon) seem to achieve instantaneous critical mass, at least if you judge them by how frequently certain web URLs are transmitted among friends. One article that appeared in our inbox many times this week linked us to research by music psychologist Adrian North of the University of Leicester, who led a team of researchers who monitored 346 people for two weeks, evaluating how they related to music.North concluded, "The accessibility of music has meant that it is taken for granted and does not require a deep emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation." We haven't been able to find a copy of the research paper itself, only articles trumpeting that conclusion, so we have no way of assessing how the researchers isolated ubiquity from other factors, such as performance or sound quality. We'll continue to look for the article and get back to you.To the audiophiles who forwarded the Leicester apathy article our way, there was little doubt that MP3's poor audio reproduction was the likeliest cause of the numbing effect on listeners. If that's true, given the now universal nature of such files, what are the chances that people can reconnect emotionally to pre-recorded music?
Fortunately, the Internet supplied an answer to that as well this week. Responding to John Atkinson's 1999 As We See It "MP3 & the Marginalization of the High End," Sound Genetics' John A. Robb wrote, "As an audiophile you are well acquainted with the reduced fidelity produced by MP3s. Did you know there is a way to actually restore fidelity to MP3 playback?"I'm not talking about simply moving the energy around to make it sound 'better,' I'm talking about actually recovering some of the fidelity of the audio. This is achieved by using something called the Sound Genome Theory. If you are interested in understanding the theory there is a 12-page explanation on our website. I find the best way to understand the theory is to experience it. We have a free download on our site so you can try out the SX Fidelity Amplifier and see for yourself if it actually improves the fidelity of MP3 playback."Does it work? We haven't tried it yet, but the free trial is tempting. Of course, it's far better not to throw data away through lossy compression than attempt to reconstruct it—even with sophisticated algorithms. However, consumers who have amassed collections of MP3s through download services (legal and otherwise) might find those collections more engrossing if they could recover some of that missing information. With Sound Genetics' SX Fidelity Amplifier free trial, perhaps now they'll be able to find out (some) of what they've been missing.
