Surprise

I am not an audiophile. I listen to mp3s almost exclusively now, the speakers on my computer came with it, and my beautiful new flatscreen TV is hooked up to an eight-year old Dolby 2.0 system.

But I am curious. I hear all the time that CD sound is superior to standard mp3 sound. OK. But can I tell the difference? So, I pulled my Achtung Baby CD out of my CD drawer and put it into my DVD player, which is hooked up to the stereo. I then put my iPod on "Zoo Station" and plugged it into the iPod jack that feeeds into the same stereo. To accommodate the iPod, DVD player, and TV I've got a switcher plugged into the stero. So i was able to, with the push of a button, switch from the CD to the iPod. And back and forth.

Now, I wasn't able to get the volumes synced, so that the CD was louder than the iPod. But still, the sound did sound richer, deeper, fuller. I'm still not convinced how much was quality and how much was simple volume. Like I said, I'm no audiophile. But I was surprised to hear a difference. I'm not going back to CDs - I do too much listening on the train, and I'm not going back to sorting CDs for the car. But I might just be more inclined to pull out a CD and listen at home. And that's a good thing.

Until Whenever