The age-old question persists—how is recorded music meant to be heard? Is it the warm crackle of vinyl, with all its analogue imperfections? Is it the pristine audio quality of lossless FLAC and its ever-evolving permutations of audio compression codecs? As an adjunct professor in the audio engineering department at Devry University, I’ve simply heard it all and I’m here to set the record straight.
The purest form of listening to music is the 5 disc-changer I got for Christmas in 8th grade.
This exceptional piece of hardware from the fine folks at Sanyo was truly the vanguard of audio technology in 2001, which, as detailed in some of my previous writings, is considered to be the greatest year in audio innovation ever. So why then did my mom decide to throw it away, like literally side of the curb next to the trash can instead of, oh I don’t know, donating it to the Devry Institute Museum of Sound!?
Sadly this is nothing new for the 5DC, oft-maligned for its rudimentary functionality and cumbersome appearance. The 14-second pause between songs was far from a distraction. The whirring, mechanical noises of the 5DC’s inner workings was a necessary palate cleanser that is all but missing from today’s “I Want It Now” culture. Why does it have so many flashing lights on its interface that you literally have no way to turn off unless you unplug the unit, you may ask. Umm, because it’s fucking awesome.
You have to understand, there was a level of swagger and pizzazz at play in audio technology in 2001. It was big, it was bright, and it looked sweet as hell in my room. A common misconception about audio quality is that it’s all about “audio quality”. Wrong! It’s about attitude. And personality! In fact, there is no better way to define oneself than selecting 5 CD’s from your binder and listening to their tracks in randomized order.
And while the CD curation could be a highly personal and divisive task, I’ve found, through vast research, the most objectively pure rotation to be Goldfly (Guster), Lost and Gone Forever (Guster), Out Cold sdtk, The Good Times (Afroman), and a CD-R Matt made of the best Guster and Dispatch songs.
But sadly the unhinged nature of the 10DC proved to be the most prescient harbinger of audio tech, giving way to unfocused Spotify playlists, zipping around from artist to artist without a care in the world! There’s already too much change happening as it is, what with your parents’ divorce and high school right around the corner. The last thing we need is an algorithm shoving new music down our throats. What we need is Guster.