From where I stand

My friend Isaac Markowitz was visiting PS Audio and we got to chatting about vinyl and digital. Isaac's as whacky an audiophile as I am but he's into vinyl and I am into digital. He's in his mid-30s. I am a lot older. I grew up with vinyl and over the years found myself cursing its many failings: every copy sounded different, too much repeated play damaged grooves, the necessity to clean it before playing, the mechanical nightmares of cartridge setup. An endless list. The day digital was good enough to better vinyl I was all over it like white on rice. From Isaac and my son Scott McGowan's perspectives: two committed vinyl lovers, the very failings of vinyl were the magnets that attracted them. If every copy of an album sounds different that makes them unique, precious, desired. The ritual of playback resonates as an earned skill separating them from the chaff of MP3 lovers. As a student of human behavior I find this endlessly fascinating. From where each of us stands the greenest pastures are rarely the same.