CD is the new Vinyl

Way back I was skeptical about mp3s because they're lossy, meaning they lose data and therefore quality. Then, like with the cellphone I was sucked into listening to them and m4a's and whatever other digital formats are out there. My belief that CD quality was audibly better became just that, an assertion that was rarely put to the test because of the inconvenience of actually putting a physical CD into a player. Recently, I've been listening to CDs and they're so much better. There is a lot of hand waving about vinyl and the "warmth" you can hear in it as compared to CD but this difference is much more pronounced. I clearly hear things that are (I can't say "literally" because I don't know exactly how mp3 compression is done but I trust it's analogous to image compression) blurred in the new compact formats.

To me this sacrifice of quality is like what is found between the cellphone and a land line and between web interface and desktop application interface, laptops and desktops. It fascinates and boggles me how we're willing to give up so much for mobility. Curiously, the motivation for doing things one way, that is not to have a cell phone and a land line, web and desktop versions of the same application, CDs and mp3s, has forced us to pick, as it turns out, the crappier choice each time. That is, even when we don't need the more convenient technology we still use it. I have to admit, it is somewhat pendular - as technology catches up quality improves but it's still not there, we're still doing things suboptimally because it allows us to be on the move.

This has to be a statement about who we are and how we're not happy in one place. Or doing one thing at a time. Maybe not a very original conclusion but that wouldn't make it less true.