tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24372649.post9206893216968569999..comments2023-07-04T11:48:15.633-04:00Comments on Positively Catherine Street: Pennies on the Tone Arm, MP3 StyleWilliam S. Repsherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133278490771240664noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24372649.post-981261713126244082007-06-20T18:13:00.000-04:002007-06-20T18:13:00.000-04:00One fundamental truth about technology: generally ...One fundamental truth about technology: generally speaking, the simpler it is, the more durable it will be. Regardless of one's opinion about the sound, I can tell you this: I (or someone) will be playing my vinyl records long after mp3s and CD players have become obsolete. My turntable has already outlasted three CD players. (I also have a Walkman Pro cassette machine that's even older than the turntable and still works like a charm.) Based on what I've seen, IPods and other digital players are overpriced, poorly-made devices that, even if they weren't designed to be obsolete in about two years, won't last much longer than that anyway. A well-preserved vinyl record is much more durable than magnetic tape, and much more accessible and robust over the long-term than digital data. It's so simple to decode, an alien could fall out of the sky and in hours would not only figure it out but be able to build a device to play it. Even severely damaged records can be restored quite satisfactorily. When future civilizations dig up our artifacts, whatever music they find will be on phonograph records; music kept on all other storage media will have long since become unrecoverable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com