Synecdoche: That's what the Wilson WATT/Puppy is.

Synecdoche: That's what the Wilson WATT/Puppy is.

Synecdoche: That's what the Wilson WATT/Puppy is.

Synecdoche: That's what the Wilson WATT/Puppy is.

Synecdoche: That's what the Wilson WATT/Puppy is.

As I write this in the first quarter of 2007, CD sales are off over 22% compared to this time last year. The music industry as we know it, based on sales of some kind of physical medium, is over. While CDs and even LPs will remain available—they're so easy and cheap to make—they've become irrelevant to the mass market and to the future of audiophile recordings. The major labels have also become irrelevant (not to mention highly irritating).

WILCO: <I>Sky Blue Sky</I><BR>
Nonesuch 131388 (CD). 2007. Wilco, prods.; TJ Doherty, eng.; Jim Scott, mix; Bob Ludwig, mastering. AAD? TT: 51:18<BR>
Performance *****<BR>
Sonics ****

The French have a phrase for it: <I>plus &#231;a change, plus la m&#234;me chose</I>, which can be roughly translated as "the more things change, the more they stay the same." I was reminded of this when recently reading through the December 1980 issue of <I>The Absolute Sound</I>. There on p.368 was the statement that "Dave Wilson (Virgo) has joined the staff...to construct a testing program that will allow us to determine if some of the peculiarities and anomalies we hear in evaluating equipment can indeed be numerically measured."