That's what started this whole mess for me. I was very content listening to my MP3s through my Onkyo receiver, and little Advent satellites. See I have a subwoofer and that made everything OK. I transferred all my CDs to iTunes and almost through them away thinking I'd never need them again.

Then one night I figured I'd give my old Hitachi turntable one more spin before it hit the trash, and even through that crappy receiver and those crappier speakers I noticed something: my old records, even with layers of dust a grit, sounded more engaging than my MP3 files. It made me want to sit and listen, not just have background music playing. I put on record after record and compared it to the same song on my iTunes and the difference was startling. I felt like Kevin Spacey's character in American Beauty waking up from a long mind-numbing slumber.

So I did end up trashing my Hitachi TT, but I replaced it with the TT of my dreams when I was a kid, a Technics 1200. That led me to Kevin of KAB fame and a visit to his home where I got to listen to his tri-amped 288/1005s and my youthful music enthusiasm was renewed with a vengeance. That led to my Heathkits and here. Tube amps followed. Then Apple Lossless files, then a killer DAC...

In hind sight, it was slow, subtle and insidious, but my music life was gradually seduced to the dark side by the convenience of MP3s...at the expense of musical listening enjoyment.

Now I want to find the recording engineer/producer that butchered Amy Winehouse's Back in Black. He should be on suicide watch for destroying what we now know was the only chance to capture this talent for prosperity.

Most modern recorded music sucks. It's recorded to sound good on iPods and car stereos. If you want extended dynamic range you have to go back to the 80s and before...before they started overcompressing everything.