Rants

Kickstarter funding for a Tower Records documentary film

I loved Tower Records, but I never felt a thing about any of the other big record store chains like Sam Goody, Virgin, or HMV Records. I'm sure that over a 20-year period I bought 1,000 albums at Tower Records in New York City, vs. maybe one or two at the other chains. It's easy to explain why; the other majors weren't interesting enough to hold my attention. Their inventories were too superficial; when they'd have just a small handful of Miles Davis titles, Tower had a hundred.

Tower stores were in sync with the … Read more

Poll: Who needs home theater surround speakers?

I view the rising popularity of sound bar speakers as proof positive that more and more people are rejecting the notion of deploying five or more speakers in their home theaters. It's not just the number of speakers, people are also not thrilled by the idea of running wires to the far corners of their home theaters. Truly "wireless" surround speakers are a recurring fantasy, but I've yet to see a wireless surround speaker that doesn't have at least one wire; most have two (one for signal, one for power), which as far as I … Read more

A CD player built to last 30 years?

While most of today's consumer electronics goods are designed with limited life expectancies, high-end audio gear has always been built to last for decades. Sure, it's more expensive to buy the good stuff, but when you stop and consider how many years of enjoyment you'll get out of a pair of really great speakers (or electronics) the investment makes a lot of sense. So instead of buying and replacing gear over and over again, just buy something really nice, once.

My Samsung Blu-ray player conked out just before its second birthday, and the one before that was … Read more

Apple standard procedures won't work with security

On May 24, Apple posted a support forum entry on how to avoid or remove the MacDefender malware that's been plaguing an unknown number of users since early May. And I'm glad they did. But the support forum is way overdue, and Apple's standard method of responding to user issues--ignore them until they won't go away and then issue a response when the outcry gets too loud--simply won't fly where user security is at stake.

Mac users are a juicy, unprotected target for hackers, phishers, and scammers, and Apple needs to drop the impenetrable fortress … Read more

Will digital audio ultimately cause the music business' demise?

More people are listening to music than ever before, but the record companies are all in dire straits. Starting in the 1980s the CD brought booming sales and profits, and the record business fell head-over-heels in love with digital audio. CDs were selling for double the price of LPs at the time, so profits soared.

But what about the music? The 1980s wasn't such a great decade for music; it peaked early with Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in early '83, and then rock music stagnated. Rap and hip-hop, born in the digital era, were the only new … Read more

What happened to live rock music on TV?

Rock music on TV has a long history, starting with "American Bandstand," which ran from 1952 to 1989, and in the 1960s shows like "Hullabaloo" and "Shindig" had the biggest bands, groups like the Beatles, James Brown, the Rolling Stones and the Who were on every week. In the 1970s "The Midnight Special" had the likes of ABBA, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Marvin Gaye, Billy Joel, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, The New York Dolls, and Fleetwood Mac.

"Music Television" started nearly 30 years ago, so if you'… Read more

Audiophiles in the age of 'good-enough' sound

Linton Weeks' March 5 National Public Radio article, "Whatever Happened To The Audiophile?" questioned the pursuit of better sound. It was one of too many articles written by an outsider who had no idea of what he was talking about, but that didn't stop Weeks from making his case for the demise of audiophilia. Weeks spoke to the usual suspects--professors, industry spokespeople, and even an audio journalist or two--but the tone of the article was skewed. It presented audiophiles as oddities, people desperately clinging to their hi-fis, while everyone else is happily listening to music over the … Read more

Physical media vs. files: And the winner is?

In 20 or 30 years, how will you feel about the downloaded music, movies, and books you buy today? With physical media you may have written notes on the books' pages or spilled coffee on them. You might remember the day you accidentally ripped page 202 of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," or lent an LP or CD to a friend who put a small scratch on "OK Computer." I have literally hundreds of LPs I bought in the '60s and '70s, most of which I never replaced with CDs. Just holding the LP jacket … Read more

Will you still watch TV at home in 10 years?

Twenty years ago, most people listened to music at home. They'd pop on an LP or put in a CD and listen to music on their hi-fis or home theater systems. Sure, they also had music in their cars, and maybe some sort of portable tape or disc music player, but home-bound music listening was still pretty common. If you asked me in 1991, "Will people always listen to music at home?" I could not have imagined what would change that. I knew the technology would continue to evolve, but what could possibly replace music at home? … Read more