John Smyth wrote:

>It is the obsolescence of CDs that has caused me to actually *buy*
>music again.  Was there really much left to buy in the old format?  We
>have competing recordings of 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th-rate composers and
>the posthumous torsos of Cui, completed by....  You get the idea.  Maybe
>the switch is easier for me because, evolution willing, I have a good
>50 years still to collect and listen, and I haven't lived through and
>lost money on endless new format offerings.

I read your post a number  of times and darned if I don't keep comming
up with the conclusion: you care more about the technology and the sound
that new format makes possible than you do about the music the technology
makes it possible to hear.

How else could you make such a fantastic statement "Was there really
much left to buy . ." unless you simply looked at music as an excuse to
show off the technology?  "Posthumos torsos of Cui ...  " - what will
you do when those torsos come to the new format?

I remember when I was a teenager, LP's were just comming out and for me,
Hi-fi because an addictive hobby.  I loved building audio kits from Eico
and Radio Shack.  I was 15 when 331/3 rpm LP's first because available
- at least in the little town I grew up in.  I would listen to KFAC then
bug my mother to take me to the local record store to buy the LPs I
wanted with money earned from mowing every lawn in town.  As I remember
it, high fidelity and the LP kind of came out together - remember the
Westminster Lab series?  So, I got introduced to a lot of classical
either because I liked  what I heard on the radio or I liked it's sonic
qualities.  Two of the sonic experiences I remember was George Wright
's performances on the Theatre Organ and the Mercury sonic blockbuster
"Bach on the Biggest".

In listening to these and other sonically advanced recordings - as
contrasted to a garden-variety LP with, say, Karajan conducting Mozarts
Sym #33, was how it seem to separate me and my friends into two camps:
those who were captivated by the sound the technology was making possible
and those who were captivated by the music the technology was making
possible to hear.  As the early high fidelity era gave way to the stereo
era the same thing happened: people either either loved the sound first,
then - if ever - the music - or loved the music first and then the sound.
Hell, I fell  into that mode of expectation myself.  In 1958 I and a
couple of friends stationed in Norman OK, drove to Kansas City becasue
we heard there was a record store that had a stereo recording of Bernstein's
"Rite of Spring".  We were transfixed with what we heard.  I was so
seduced by the sound it was like I had never heard the Rite before.
It was the first time any of us had heard stereo.  But as I listened
to more stereo, I appreciated it for it's ability to bring me a rewarding
music experience.  Stereo was nice - the music was great!

But if your collection and music experience demand the finest sound and
you are willing to change formats because "was there really much left
to buy?" then I suspect you'll keep buying the same stuff over and over
as new advances in technology bring out more alurements.  Since you refer
to the fact you have 50 or more years of collecting ahead of you, I
suspect you'll hear some wonderful sonic advancements.  I hope you finally
get around to appreciating the really wonderful music all that technology
makes it possible to hear.

Dave Harman