As in other areas, Digital Kills. The audiophile obsession grew from the belief that there was magic embedded in the record groove, which justified medical-quality equipment to extract the very small ore, and of course you needed something with the mass of Hoover Dam as a stable base for the delicate instruments. Stylus shapes, Zen-like Japanese catridge designers, jewelry quality arms were all marshalled to extract the minute signal, which needed to be equalized, pre-amplified, and passed through more special instruments and cables to the speaker. Being analog, there was always "better" and forever getting halfway nearer to the absolute. What glorious obsession and joy in that. But alas, digital is just there, everywhere, all 1's and 0's and emotes so loudly it has to be attenuated, and just soul-killing efficient like so many other areas that digital conquers.
