Originally Posted by
neorev
As for Japan pressing CDs, it is believed because Japan sets higher standards at their plants and using better materials. It's about error correction in your music players. The crappier made the CD, the more audio correction needed, leading to a more inferior playback quality. SHM-CDs are slightly thicker and lets less of the laser pass through its surface unlike normal thinner CDs that are fairly transparent. They also make SHM-SACDs, which I imagine would be higher quality since they can hold higher bitrates.
Honestly, music should simply be moved to Blu-ray for superior quality. Most folks have the ability to play Blu-rays in their homes and it wouldn't be that hard to upgrade. Just like people who installed CD players in their cars and cassette decks went out of style, the same could be done with Blu-ray. That way you still have physical packaging and a format delivering high quality audio. It is really not that difficult to move people over to the format because it already exists. Even computers have Blu-ray players.
Blu-ray can even be used in ways superior to vinyl when it comes to delivering artwork. Not only could you deliver 5.1 and stereo sound simultaneously, you would now have a new way of delivering artwork to people through through their TV screens. Tracks can have dedicated visuals, moving images, lyrics, etc. You could really turn the music listening experience to a full immersion with Blu-ray. Not including having a booklet with your case/packaging. I think if folka care about quality, convenience, artwork, and immersion... Blu-ray is a much better direction. There's so many opportunities that this format gives us, but instead we go backwards.
