<< it's interesting that so many people are still lauding analogue as the bee's bollocks. >>

it's the same thing as all those fetishists who insist on vinyl-only.

That's not entirely fair. As one of the fetishists in question, I have many reasons for buying largely vinyl rather than CD. First off it's cheaper. Records are on the whole WAY less expensive than cd's. Especially if you're buying them from fools who have no idea what they're worth or used from stores who aren't familiar with the genre etc. For example, I got my near mint vinyl copy of Adventures for $7 from a used record store in Cambridge Mass. :) Plus, a lot of old recordings which were analog to begin with sound better than their cd counterparts. A TON of music is available only on vinyl like old stuff, or new promos. The orb once more 3x12" promos are a perfect example. If you bought the cd you only got about 2/3 of the mixes. I like the format more generally, in terms of artwork, and in terms of the way it looks generally. Jewel cases just suck. The japanese, at least, generally have transcended the lame-oid standard plastic case with slip-in artwork. Finally, say what you want about CD-based mixing, but nothing beats the tactile experience of mixing vinyl records. I just find it easier and more fun to use vinyl than cds for DJ purposes.

but here's a thought: it's only in the music world that you get this. you never hear video people bitching that DVD is Digital Video, and is thus "less real" than analog video.....

why is that?

Because there are a lot of very vocal audiophiles who care a really really lot about how close their recording is to the original. I agree it's kinda stupid to just declare that one format is better than the other, but for a given individual and set of circumstances (as above) I think one can make a judgement call. Another thing is that most new movies are filmed digitally to begin with, so when you transfer to magnetic tape there's already a loss in quality. But primarily I think this has to do with the simple facts about magnetic tape (VHS). It's a shitty format. It degrades over time, and each copy-of-a-copy you make yields lower and lower image and sound quality. So when you make a DVD from the original analog 135mm (or whatever format it's in), you often get a much better quality than your average VCR tape. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail