So my trusty Diskman finally gave up the ghost. Accordingly, I got my first MP3 player. A Creative Nano 1gb on sale at CC for 60 bucks. I got home and was estatic. Without even realizing it when I bought it, it has an FM radio and direct recording from a mini-plug input. Bonus!

My computer instantly recognized it as did my MusicMatch software. How's that for zero setup time. The computer randomly loaded a bunch of songs on to the player, and I went out to rake the leaves. We have five huge oak trees in our yard so its alot of raking/blowing. Listening with earbuds and -30db ear protectors (gas powered leave blower) it sounded great. I like how the earprotectors seal out the outside noise. I couldn't believe the detail and fullness of the music, albeit with the EQ engaged. And shuffling really is cool. It sounds dumb that something so simple can make you rediscover lost corners of your music collection.

I had never listened to MP3s on anything other than earbuds and computer speakers. So after I was done with my leaves, I went in and plugged it into my receiver's frontpanel inputs. Boy o' boy did it sound like garbage! I couldn't believe this was the same thing that I just thought sounded so good. Good thing I never claimed to have a golden ear.

What a modern dichotomy. The MP3 is perfect for what it is, i.e. small, highly portable, highly temporary, music on the go, when fidelity is not primary and "good enough" will do. Yet here it is being touted as a replacement for bulkier high resolution formats. I'm just old enough to still be amazed at how small CDs are. I truly was saddened at the idea that there are thousands of college dorms full of kids that think 10,000 songs on a hard drive are a music collection, especially in light of its dubious fidelity. Yes I know that there are better compressed and lossless formats out there, but I kinda doubt thats what's coming off Kazaa.