Rational decisions in the UK

[dsrtao]

There exists at least one case of an industry self-regulating itself appropriately: the UK Advertising Standards Authority. Here's a recent case:

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_44177.htm

Of course, the ASA appears to be an exception, not the rule...

Comments

[robertdfeinman.livejournal.com]

Back when there was a Hi-Fi industry (that I was marginally involved in) my favorite claim was for a wall clock that you plugged in to a nearby outlet and it "cleaned" the electricity that was flowing to your components.

Nowadays the FCC seems to have given up on electrical noise (even though their rules are very strict - on paper) and interference from one device to another seems the norm. It's not power line noise that is the problem (every decent hi fi component has adequate filtering and runs on DC internally, anyway), it's radiated interference. The microwave interacts with the wireless phone, or PC connection, etc.

Compressed music and video means that people's expectations are not as high as in the days of the "golden ears" and the lack of high frequencies in the transmissions and the poor response curves of portable and undersized loudspeakers covers up much mischief. I suppose earphones have good response, but they tend to be used in noisy environments which masks noise as well.

We seem to have traded quality for quantity.

[dsrtao]

I would say that the number of people concerned about audio quality has not decreased -- possibly even gained. But relative to the number of people who are interested in having music of their own selection available at their convenience, the ratio is low.

You can buy excellent equipment these days for relative low costs -- amplifier quality, for instance, has improved tremendously in all but the low-end of the mass-market. Digital sources of amazing quality are extremely cheap. That leaves speakers, which are distinctly not of uniformly high quality. There are certainly bargains to be had, however. If you want it, it's there.

But most people would rather have good music at a low price than great music at a moderate price. I cannot blame them, either. The shortage of high-quality recordings in the first place makes this somewhat moot.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

This is a pattern that I see in many other places as well. Most close to home for me is in videogaming. There are no fewer hardcore gamers, numerically, than there used to be, and possibly even more. But their percentage of the market has shrunk drastically in the wake of gaming becoming more mainstream.