hifi

this is Serious Gourmet Bait to get me to write a long hi-fi thread. maybe these could be sit and talk videos instead if there's any interest.

* here's a tldr; on the hi-fi format wars in 2025:
- vinyl is still enormously popular and many serious audiophiles optimize their entire system for vinyl playback rather than CD or streaming
- despite CDs being largely forgotten by the average consumer, audiophiles still love CDs and often prefer them to streaming
- streaming is becoming more and more prevalent, to the extent that it's the default for most showrooms. arguably the most complex and expensive to optimize vs. vinyl and CDs.

fresh batch of CDs just arrived from japan including this rare hybrid SACD reissue of Herbie Hancock’s album Head Hunters. it comes in this huge oversized paper sleeve that makes it look like a 45 rather than a CD.

the track Watermelon Man from this album is one of my fav hi-fi demo tracks due to its wild and inventive instrumentation. apart from just being good music, it helps to demonstrate a system’s ability to reproduce timbre accurately across a wide range of frequencies.

Farcaster-native research: https://paragraph.xyz/@matthewb | prev. Juicebox, Nouns, RAW DAO | casting about coffee, hi-fi, and other rabbit holes

I love Head Hunters! Have gotten to see Herbie a few times, impressive energy and performer for his age

such a classic album. have listened to it a million times.

never seen him live though, jealous! was it at some type of jazz festival?

Same, have listened to it quite a bit. He plays at the Hollywood Bowl every summer, I always try to make it