MP3's The Death of HiFidelity

  OK so yesterday it was cell phones today it's mp3 players, now don't get me wrong I love my Ipod as much as anybody in fact I love it to much and there is where the problem lies, the extreme portability and capacity of a good mp3 player has made home stereos and CD collections obselete.

  So you may be asking yourself, Whats the problem?

  Well I'll tell you the problem is the sound quality and to be honest this didn't start with mp3's it actually started with CD'S and the ability to digitally synthesize music and Iknow there's some old audiophiles out there shaking there heads right now saying hey what about DAT Tape, well I remember it too and for those who dont DAT stands for digital audio tape and it was supposed to be the technology to replace cassettes, but CD'S came out before DAT caught on mainstream so it basically went the way of the BetaMax ( if you don't know look it up ).

  But anyway CD's caught on and actually had better sound quality than cassettes, now vinyl that's another debate for another day.

  But I'm getting off track, so the ability to make digital music, in other words to turn the music into a data stream which eventually led to compressing, shrinking, squishing and squashing that stream down into the various formats used today, the most popular of which is MP3.

  The problem is that while all that squishing and squashing makes it possible to put a million songs on your Ipod ( a slight exageration) it degrades the sound quality and depending on the level of compression the degradation can be substantial, and I know some of you are saying hey I can't tell the difference, and that's because we've raised a whole generation of kids that have grown up with mp3's, and walkmans, and boomboxes and a variety of other low quality audio devices to the point that they have no idea what a quality recording played over a true HiFidelity system sounds like, and speaking for all the old audiophiles out there that's a damn shame!

  It's a shame that as a culture we almost always pick convience over quality, or quantity over quality, the lower price tag over the better product.

  So in closing I'd just like to say if you've never listened to your favorite store bought CD on a true high end stereo system please go and dig that sucker out  and go down to a good electronics store ( there's still a few around) andslide into the back room with the big glass door and pick a system preferably the one with the biggest speakers, pop it in, turn it up, and give a listen and I'd be willing to bet that a new stereo will make it on to your christmas wish list.

  P.S. I hope that CD you dug out wasn't Hanna Montana, or the sondtrack from High School Musical, and if you need a suggestion, anything off the Led Zepplin Mothership album will work ofcourse you may not be into classic rock and I pity you if your not, but Crystal Methods- Trip Like I Do would also work nicely.

NOW THATS A SET OF SPEAKERS!!!

            PEACE