Kevin Cramb wrote, | I've always read that MP3 doesn't sound as good as the original, Neither does MD. Its compression is lossy as well. | I'm no audiophile but I like to know the music I listen to is the best | reproduction I can get on my system, so I'm not into MP3 for that reason. And yet you use MD (presumably, since you must have some reason for joining this mailing list). MD sounds plenty good enough for me -- I can't hear a difference from CD -- but if it bugs you just to know that you're getting anything other than the absolute best, MD must go against your grain. | Are we the first generation of people who lower their standards of | listening? No, categorically. At every point in the history of recorded music some people at some times would accept a poorer-sounding copy for free over a better-sounding but costly copy. For a first-hand example, in my teens we taped off the radio rather than buying the record if our funds were strapped or if the song was not too important to us. The vinyl would sound better than a tape recording of an AM broadcast with a blabbery DJ, but to save the money we lowered our audio standards. For another, consider used record stores that sold scratchy, worn-out vinyl at bargain prices; they've been around longer than you or I have, catering to those who would take poorer sound for a lower price. I'd also disagree with using a term like "lowering standards" for it: includ- ing the speed, the cost, and the ease of acquiring the music in the standard as well as sonic fidelity to the original isn't necessarily "lowering". By your own admission, | I am into free music but that's a different issue. It is not a different issue! Those who want music for free also want free delivery, and it providers who give away the product and bear the costs of transfer are motivated to use cheaper delivery (say, of a small file) rather than expensive delivery (of a large file or worse, of a tangible medium car- rying the data). ----------------------------------------------------------------- To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
