Does Sound Quality Matter?
Most people can -of course- tell the difference between poor and good quality sound, but how many people can really notice 'excellent quality'.
It seems that most people are pretty happy with MP3 quality, ready to copy all their CD-Quality sound onto their computers and at the same time downgrade it so that they can fit as many tracks as possible onto their player.
What is the difference?
CD-Quality is 384Khz and while you can go higher (Super Audio CDs) most people can't really tell the difference if they're asked. It seems more for the 1 in a 100 people (usually audiophiles) who are blessed with excellent aural-range.
I recall doing a test in a store where you had to listen to the same track on three identical headphones and identify the MP3, CD and Super Audio CD ... got it right but the CD to Super Audio was hard to tell. Other testers couldn't distinguish the MP3, which is probably because they didn't know what to listen for.
MP3s can be as low as 44Khz and as a compression technology lose the high-end and the bass while keeping the treble. For the quality of most headphones (especially in-ears) you wouldn't even notice it as they can't reproduce the bass anyway (speaker is too small/ can't move far enough).
So how about PA?
Most PA is mono at best, getting to stereo tends to be inappropriate in the small setup as you don't really need to create an audio 'picture', or people are so spread out or close to the speakers that you can't or one side wouldn't hear some of the key instruments.
Perhaps in a sense clarity and lacking that problem of 'buzz' is more important then the question of quality comes second. Certainly you get something different from a live performance, something more visceral which makes up for any lack in picking up all the frequencies. Indeed you probably have to cut some to combat buzz and popping p's and s's.
So what next?
Perhaps in a sense we're at the mercy of both MP3-player and headphone manufacturers. If Apple keep popping out sub-standard headphones and people seem happy with them then there's no need to upgrade.
Hopefully storage on these devices will increase and MP3-sites will provide all their tracks at higher quality (not charging a premium) and as a result higher quality sound will become a default, but it'll be a while yet.
And as for me, why didn't I buy the more bass-driven headphones to replace those that came with my iPhone ... well I wanted some that didn't stick out too much (needed for extra bass), were small to carry around and had a microphone on them too, so I got Sony's bog-standard iPhone ones. And I'm content.
