OTHER TECH

What kind of car do you have? I drive an '03 Jaguar. I've got my Sirius satellite radio in there, and, of course, it sounds good. But I'm not home that much, you know?

You're not a fan of CDs, are you? Let me put it this way: CDs are the biggest fraud perpetrated on the public in the history of show business. That's a scientific fact. God forbid anybody get out their vinyl records and A-B them with CDs.

What makes vinyl better in your mind? It's a scientific fact: Vinyl has more frequency. Digital technology is square, and the analog frequency is round, and you get all the in-between notes, the stuff that counts; the resonance. But, yes, progress has been made, our ears have adjusted, and there's no going back. Every year, it'll get better.

DVD-Audio, surround sound - is that a better compromise? Well, that's an improvement for certain things, yeah. Like for the movies, sure. Me, I'm not kidding, I don't even like stereo. I don't like it, all right? It's not the way things are meant to be heard. When I play Beatles music, I take care to play the original mono mixes, because that's the way it should be heard.

Now, you can hear the quality improving on Sirius and on DVDs. But I would predict that within 5 years - maybe within 10 - everybody will be asked to buy all their albums again.

First Published - April/May, 2004 - roadgearmag.com