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tf here I was — playing in the game
room with my young nieces during what
had become a typical holiday family gath
ering. With the characteristic verve of
youth, they began rummaging through ev
erything in sight— toys, board games, old
pictures; anything and everything they
could get their hands on was tossed
about, their shon-lived inter
est shifting rapidly from
one object to the next.
“What’s this?" one of
th em exclaimed.
Turning toward her,
regarding her wide-
eyed curious gaze, I
saw her holding a
strange circular black
disk, some unidentifi
able artifact from a for
gotten age — or so it
seemed to them. As they
sat and pondered the purpose
of the rather peculiar object, a part
of me died. For in that moment, I realized
that those glorious vinyl records of my
youth were making their final descent into
complete oblivion — never to be heard
from or listened to again.
Unfortunately, my nieces' reactions to
that once-popular form of recorded music
are not that uncommon. With each pass
ing year, what was once the backbone of
the music industry is quickly turning into
a distant memory. Even some of those who
remember vinyl’s heyday would
just as soon forget it in light
of the digital revolution.
Many of my own
friends, some of them
producers and engi
neers, look fondly
upon that era back
in the mid-1980s
when CDs effected a
veritable coup d’etat
on the recording in
dustry, driving vinyl
into almost immediate
extinction.
And why not? CDs were
the latest technology had to offer,
weren’t they? They were compact, portable
and had none of the snap crackle and pop
that had plagued records for so many years.
And, of course, who could forget the most
impressive boast of all: they
would last forever, providing
a lifetime of listening enjoy
ment. Well, like most of you,
I also fell prey to this ubiqui
tous marketing campaign hook,
line and sinker and raced right
out to buy myself some of those
fancy silver disks, leaving those
dusty records behind forever. But as
the years passed, 1 soon realized that a
quality vinyl record, played on a good turn
table, sounded far better than those sup
posedly invincible CDs, not to mention the
possibihty that the readable surface on a
CD could oxidize, causing the encoded
digital information to break down. So
much for the CDs immortality. Like the
public at large, 1 had been fooled by the
recording industry into buying a new tech
nology that hadn’t even been perfected yet.
Just the other dav, I had a chance to
compare dozens of CDs with their record
versions of the same material, with selec
tions ranging from old David Bowie albums
to R.E.M.’s latest release. With few excep
tions, the vinyl records won hands-down
in every comparison. The guitars,
the drums and bass, the vocals
— all the basic elements of
the music sounded fat
ter and fuller on the
records, creating a
three-dimen
sional sound,
whereas the
CDs sounded
thin, harsh
and flat by
comparison.
After hours
of listening, I found the CDs’ brittle sound
unbearable, while the records never
strained my ears. On the cheapest stereo
equipment, I’d have to say you’re better off
listening to CDs, but if you want the best
sounding recorded music and are willing
to spend the time and money, nothing
beats the warmth and musicality of a good
vinyl pressing played over a top-of-the-line
stereo system.
So don’t give up on records just yet. If
you ever get the chance to listen to a qual
ity record on a good stereo, I’m sure you’ll
be convinced that CDs just don’t measuie
up. It’s probable that CDs, or at least some
form of digital technology, will eventually
rival records in almost every way. Until
that time, however, be aware that the
biggest advantage of a CD is conve
nience, not sound quality. Sure, records
are a pain to keep up and can sound
noisy, but for my money I would rather
endure a few pops and hisses than listen
to a quiet, unmusical sounding CD. Au
diophile gold CDs are definitely closing
the gap, but we still have a long way to
go before digital music sounds as lush and
sweet as good old ana
log records.
Taylor
Montague
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