1972 was, however, hardly the high point of sound quality for Gotham Audio. That would have been in the tube days, when signal paths were simpler.

The CD does not have an adequate bit rate for really good digital audio, It was a compromise determined by Herbert von Karajan’s desire for a full length rendition of (I believe) Beethoven’s Eroica on a disk that could fit in a drive that would fit in a 5 1/4 floppy drive slot or a DIN dimensioned car radio. I believe DVD-Audio and SACD both satisfactorily solve the problem.

But the core problem the music and music recording industries face is not technical. Even MP3s are more than good enough when the music itself is not any good. We simply, as Bob Ohlsson says, do not have the systems in place where young people can learn the craft of pop music anymore. You have people who can’t play singing and playing stuff by people who can”t write lyrics or compose music.

There are exceptions and in fact one consequence of this is that moderately good people can become superstars. Most of the superstars right now are in fact moderately to very good in historical terms. But decades ago moderately good in and of itself got you nowhere. There were tons of excellent musicians and singers out there. They knew what they were doing. They’d paid their dues and they had a place to do it.

I don’t know how to fix the problem. I wish I did. But it is a fact and evading it isn’t going to do any good.