Hiawatha Bray of the Boston Globe slices the word "better." Sample sentances: "When a phonograph player dragged a sharp rock through the groove, out came music." and "'It's like drinking light beer.'What's the point?" Her (his?) article concentrates on music and image playback systems.
vaccum tubes -> transistors -> integrated circuits
vinyl records -> plastic CDs -> magnetic-bit MP3s
Each generational change is "better" but in what sense? Music is analog, so the best reproduction should be analog -- hence the popularity of vaccum tube amplifiers and LP records among audiophiles. Better sound, but inconvenient.
Playing back MP3s on tiny players is better-convenient, but worse sound-wise. Ironically, analog rules in the end: nearly all headphones and speaker systems are analog.
And add this to the slow rising tide of resentment against all-things digital: now that the intial rush of pleasure over LCD computer screens is subsiding, the superior color reproduction of CRTs is being treasured. (CRTs for comptuer and tv screens are based on vaccum-tube technology.)
I have a Telefunken vaccum-tubed radio-and-record player my mother brought over from Germany in the 1950s. I recall my dad adding masking tape to the record player's shaft to slow it down: Germany uses 50Hz electricty, Canada 60Hz. The vaccum tubes blew, and now the music center, in its beautiful wood cabinet, sits silent in my office. When I looked into replacement tubes, I was told so many were destroyed during WWII that German-branded tubes are no longer available.
Comments