Over at Intel’s MyLifeScoop site, I wrote about my quest to put together my dream hi-fi system, circa 1972.
I have hundreds of gigabytes of digital music. Yet I listen to less than one percent of it. Why? Because it’s entirely overwhelming. I have so much, and it’s so intangible, that I may as well not even have it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the convenience of having entire days (weeks, months) worth of listening in my pocket. But scrolling down an endless list of albums just ain’t the same as flipping through a crate of LPs. Cover Flow? Please. Listening to records is an entirely different musical experience. For me, vinyl is more active. More visceral. More mindful. More immersive. I pick the album, admire the cover art, slip it from its sleeve, and play it. And after 20 minutes or so, I turn it over and play the other side. Remember “the other side”? I had forgotten until recently, when I retrieved my record collection from storage and immersed myself in the vintage audio forums online to find the perfect new, old stereo system. To paraphrase DIY hero Mister Jalopy, I don’t like 1970s stereo equipment because it’s old. I like it because it’s better.
