LPs, v. iPods - round 1


Controversy! While watching the Yankees beat (finally) the Red Sox yesterday, I saw a great TV ad. A guy fights with his significant other because of the giant stacks of LPs all around the apartment. Clutter, clutter everywhere, nor any place to sit!! She storms out, flinging a record at him.

Next scene … he proceeds to rip every record to an electronic file and loads the files onto what appears to be an iPod in a docking station.

When the girlfriend returns home, all the records are gone and the spotlessly clean apartment is decorated in some sort of post-modern IKEA stuff. Where did the records go? A tag sale? No time for that. Goodwill? Maybe. A dumpster? Most likely.

The punch line of the ad is to buy the vendor’s digital audio product – because low bit rate digital is A-OK – and restore harmonic bliss to your life. The subtext of no need for high quality audio reproduction in your life is lost to all but we audio hobbyists and music lovers, I suppose.

I don’t really know why, but this ad really bugged me. I like the Yankees and the Red Sox. I like records. I like girls. I even like the iPod. Maybe it’s the representation of music lovers, record collectors, audiophiles as socially deficient pack rats. Are we really perceived by society as such?

Just a rant, I guess.

Bob R.
rmrobinson1957
vinyl their is no other. i-pod's are for sh-tz and giggles only .the nano is for girls so sayeth borat. go pistons
hey Tfkaudio i liked the way the Cardinals whiped the Tigers butts. i love dem red birds. baseball and rock and roll instead of the TV audio.
on the commercial i think like all else going on in todays world men and what we like does not fit into a woman's way of looking at things. we eater go along or we are out of the club. and i dont know why but we go along with it humm. i think its called p---y whiped, Bose has made its way just for that reason. small box speakers and a hidden base module.
i thought the room looked just fine the way it was.
Hey man, Clemens is back. He is 44 years old, got a $28m contract and can not pitch the entire game....forget the TV ad man, we have bigger problems!

:)
I'm almost part of the "don't own a TV" crowd. I own one, but I rarely use it. I plugged it in to watch the World Series last October, and it's been unplugged ever since that god-awful series came to a merciful conclusion.
But, I finally saw said commercial at my girlfriend's house. When the commercial started, she said "that's you!" (apartment full of LPs). When it ended, she said "That's not you!" (apartment with iPod and all LP's gone).
And she doesn't want me to be that guy. I've found my true love!

Cheers.
David,
All hail to the no tv crowd. How many here can say that. mMaybe just you and me. After all, why enslave the mind with 1 and 0's when you can have the whole range.

I'll sponsor you. I think I'll call this organization "have not a tv and fellin' better every day."

Peter
Hello,

My name is David, and I am a socially deficient pack rat. I don't own a TV, but I have vinyl all over my family room.

There. I feel better already.

Anyone want to be my sponsor?

:-)

David
round 1

guy with no nuts - an ipod, happy girl friend and no lps

me - an ignore ipod, dump the girlfriend, keep lps

gotta love those ipod docking stations - this is hi fi?
Did you read the article about Ry Cooder in Stereophile? He didn't like the sound of his CDs and asked that the master be ripped to an ipod before the final master was released. Like most of us here the word "heresy" was used. But Ry Cooder found it more pleasing to listen to.

I believe Robert Baird wrote the article. It was the last page of a Stereophile issue fairly recently.
I'll buy that guy's records if they are any good.

Every new introduction since 1990 (when lp's were replaced by MP3), has been strictly for convenience of use, not for sound reproduction quality or permanence of storage.

For cleanest sound and permanence, vinyl still reigns.
Its important to be flexible in both worlds. I own the pod. I own records. When I'm drivin in my car or out in my garden I listen to the pod, although mildly annoyed.

When I open a 12 year single malt and put up my feet at the end of that day well...let the vinyl play.

Flexibility folks. After all, we can have our cake and keep stuffing ourselves.

Peter
I also read the CNN article. It seems the point is that convenience is the only thing that really matters. Maybe that's what irritates me so much. The triumph of mediocrity.
I saw the ad last night also but more in passing so didn't have a chance to study it. The question I had was, how long was she gone for? Must've been weeks if he was going to rip his entire collection.
No sense fighting the future.
Did any of you see this article on cnn last week? High fidelity takes backseat to portability. CNN article
I seen the same commercial but when I seen it for the third time that is when I noticed he also pack up his nuts he wont be needing them either.
what i think the add is trying to say is, and i saw this as well,as i was watching the yankee game, is....digital media including the ipod...is the future, and it will get much better as time goes on, where itunes will make the downloading as good as if not better then the cd itself....look at tower records in n.y. alone and other states all closing becouse of itunes and all other sites!!
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF AUDIOPHILIA!!