Michael Cox's comments on my comments are interesting...uhh, comments.
About the transgression of technology....   
> 
> I thought of my own pre-hi-fidelity upbringing. 
> 
> * cheap Japanese transistor radio - perfect for late-night 
>   listening under my pillow, and easily carried for bicycle
>   trips or jaunts to the neighborhood pool.
> 
> * the family mono-console - as much furniture and hi-fi, where
>   33 & 1/3 rpm seemed an afterthought, but with a tonearm that
>   played even the crappiest records without skipping, and a 
>   big 15" woofer. 
> 
> * my own record player - a Longines Symphonette battery-powered
>   45/33 portable with the speaker in the lid, just the thing 
>   for hot summer 45 sessions on a friend's big front porch. Had
>   a battery eliminator (rare for 1965), but always keep an 
>   extra set of d-cells on hand.
> 
> Not much fidelity. But you know, the music has never sounded
> that good since. 
> 
> - michael

Gotta say, Michael.  There is definitely something to that.  And a good 
touche to 
my high-tech ramblings. (I still run 1/2" Analog 8-track in my studio for 
the... SOUND of it).   I often wonder however, if the 8-year-old kids of 
today, just getting their first (and by their teenage years, their last) CD's 
to listen to, will sit back and lament to eachother, over their virtual 
reality 7.1 Headsets, over the ultranet, and say, "geez, what happened to the 
good ol' days of simple stereo 16-bit CD's??  Huh?  I mean, remember how the 
cymbals sounded so cool and phasey-like?  And real gritty and grainy during 
the quiet passages? Wasn't that cool?  And just two channels!!!  Now it just 
surrounds you and invades your space... ya know?  It's so assaulting --  
Bill??  you there???? BILL?!!? - S%^&, these F*%#*g Terrahertz servers!!
 F^&%*i%g MSN/Sony/AOL/Time-Warner/Capitol/NotLame Ultranet Service 
Provider's!!! Ugh!!!!!!  I SWEAR I'm switching toMORrow!!"

Post note to all that is an amuuuzing article about Joe Bussard (one of the 
worlds biggest collectors of rare blues 78's), who must be at least 125 in 
vinyl-years, where he once decried "Electical recording was the death of the 
blues!  Yeah, that's when real music died - when they went from acoustical 
recording to electric".  "It's all crap after that."
Yes, Joe Bussard Parties Like It's 1929!!
... and that's a touche to all of us...
-mike 'wiz' wisland