Music on the move
Sales of MP3 players by online retailers may have been disappointing, but in the high street they seemed to be booming. Of all the stores in Tottenham Court Road, London, in the week before Christmas, only two had not sold out of MP3 players.
When I returned that afternoon to purchase from one store, the last one had been sold. I believe I purchased the last one from the other store.
The copyright issue may have dogged MP3 but you can record CDs you have bought on to your computer and download your choice of music .
So MP3 is still a more convenient way to listen to music on the move with no risk of losing or damaging CDs or cassettes.
Carole Bonner
c.m.bonner@lse.ac.uk
I should like to make two comments on Martin Clark's notes in Online (January 6).
It's clearly wrong to say: "Giants like Sony seem ready to enter the digital audio market after years of disapproval." Sony, with Philips, launched digital audio to the public with the compact disc in the early eighties.
I wonder whether Martin has been overly influenced by MP3 hype. If "compressing sound files by cutting out sounds inaudible to the human ear" has no adverse effect on sound reproduction, why are Sony and Philips, and all other industry players, spending large sums on developing Super CD and DVD-Audio?
The answer is they have finally admitted that current 16/44 CDs are less than "the perfect sound forever", the slogan under which CD was launched. If a standard CD can't cut it, how can MP3?
MP3 is OK as Walkman music, but not as a source for serious listening, when one is trying to recreate the concert hall in the home. Ironically a good quality analogue set-up, usually vinyl discs, but don't forget reel-to-reel tape, will still outperform any 16/44CD set up (after 20 years); and, judging by early reviews, hold its own against Super CD and DVD.
It is also ironic that the performance of the analogue front end has improved so much in those 20 years, and is still doing so; witness the breathtaking cartridges now produced by such as Van den Hul in Holland, and the lucid and transparent valve phono amplifiers from such as Paul Hynes Designs.
And of course you can buy the latest dance sounds on 45.
Roger Perry
roger.perry@tesco.net
Sold short
I am a regular reader of Online. Indeed, it is the only reason I get the Guardian on Thursdays. I am therefore disappointed at the recent slimmed down coverage.
I am sure it is not the choice of the Online team but reflects an editorial decision from on high. Please convey these sentiments to whoever has made the decision to shortchange those of us who are interested in computing and see no reason why it alone (apparently) of all the sections should be minimised at holiday times.
M.E.Williams
mike@lantes.freeserve.co.uk
Time out
I experienced a delayed reaction to the Y2K bug. When I switched on my PC on January 1, I immediately pressed the DEL key to check the system date before my PC had a chance to deduce that my programs were all 100 years old.
The date was correct. My data was fine. I ran a virus check to trap any lurking Trojan horses: nothing.
My website was unchanged. I received no malicious emails. By now I was positively blasé. All thoughts of Y2K now dismissed, I opened a free coverdisk program I had loaded months before, assuming that it would have expired. The following message appeared: "You have 36,255 days of your 30 day evaluation period left." Ouch!
Lewis Peake,
Norwich
