LoFi

Wired magazine ran a blurb caled the Digital Devolution about the trend toward decreasing music quality with the imposition of digital limitations on analog sound. The devolution starts in the studio and continues on through recording media, compact discs, mp3s, sound cards, and speakers to render sound that is an approximation rather than a reproduction of the original.

SACD and DVD-A formats will never be broadly embraced in a marketplace where portability trumps fidelity. Why would anyone upgrade their music collection from CDs to these or other hifi formats when they rip them with lossy compression and listen to them on earbuds?

I have no mp3 player. It is no great loss. My car or home stereo puts any portable listening device to shame. I never watch movies on airplanes because the sound and picture are too crappy for me to enjoy the experience. I'll take a book--an ink and paper analog book, mind you--over any other portable media.