you don’t need a killer system to notice the difference in sound quality between LPs and CDs. And the record players you can buy at Bed Bath and Beyond aren’t real good for any kind of rapping, and really the whole scratching thing is very 90s and nobody does that anymore.
What’s questionable about the e-book data is that Amazon give ZERO specifics about their sales and has always been that way. They like to give highlight data, especially when it makes them look good, but we have no specifics, and lacking specifics even the highlight data is suspect. A couple of weeks ago Amazon said their e-book sales passed their hardback sales, now they’re saying their e-book sales have passed all their book sales, but we have no idea what any of those numbers are. We don’t know what their e-book sales are, we don’t know what their physical book sales are, we don’t know how any of that data relates to the market in general, we don’t know if they’re counting all book sales including Amazon marketplace (3rd party via Amazon). In the end we don’t even know if they’re telling the truth.
Good points on the eBooks. There really is no way for the average person to know how many copies of any particular e-book really sold. They are all virtual copies with no mass, no tangible proof the sale took place or way to validate that a copy really was sold - other than audit the customer base.
But, a good book is a good book - without regard to the medium. I prefer the e-book because I can’t misplace them, they require no storage space in my home, and when I move it’s one less heavy box to haul up the stairs.
As an audiophile and an engineer with a past involving designing audio amplifiers for companies such as Harmon Kardon - I would beg to differ with your analysis on sound quality of the CD vs vinyl. The reason the heavy duty audiophiles insisted on vinyl was because the delicate harmonics required higher end gear to hear and appreciate. A Master LP on a good system sounds fantastic - however I’ll put the best Master LP against a SACD anytime. Unfortunately for all of us, the market has spoken and determined that .mp3’s are ‘good enough’ for most, and that CD’s will remain the most popular medium for outright sales.
The other thing that has not remained still is technology. A class AB amplifier system of the 70’s and 80’s is no match for the Digital amplifiers of today. A relatively low-cost quality receiver from a quality manufacturer exceeds the best receivers of just 20 years ago. With Ultra THX II becoming almost standard today - there is nothing that can match that capability from the times that LPs were made.
One could argue, with good cause, that the difference you hear in listening to the LP has more to do with harmonic distortion and ‘coloration’ found in the pre-amplifers than in any improvement in the source medium. Consider, the music that was cut into the LP was first stored in magnetic media on 1.25 inch audio tape; and since about 2000 - the method of storing that music was digital.
So, in short - what is on the CD is what was used to make the LP. At least, that is pretty much what is going on today. True, the digital methodology used in the recording studio is closer to SACD than current CD technology - it’s no longer analog from the guitars and vocals all the way to the platter. Those days are gone.
“Amazon /quotes/comstock/15*!amzn/quotes/nls/amzn (AMZN 129.28, +0.42, +0.32%) says it’s now selling more e-books than paper-based books — about 43 % more in the last quarter, including about 80% more in the final month”
That statement is misleading. I believe what they mean is that Ebooks are selling 43% more than last quarter, which may be a higher percentage than how much the sale of hardbacks/paperbacks grew since the last quarter. I work for Amazon, and at our last meeting Amazon grew about that much in the last quarter counting everything altogether.