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
Did any of you see this article on cnn last week? High fidelity takes backseat to portability. CNN article
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.
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.
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