Kevin,

But ooh them ones and zeros (with the little pauses in between) they do sound nice!

Semi-seriously, I never made the mistake of trashing my vinyl collection. In fact I'm still adding to it.

My late father had a huge vinyl collection - lots of it pre-stereo. Every time I go and visit the homestead I borrow a few from his collection. Original Goodman. Original Garland. They sound great. But my CD versions sound better.

Two weeks ago a friend from Montreal dropped off 300 albums that his recently-deceased neighbour had willed to him. He started with 350, and kept 50. I kept 50 and passed 250 on to my neighbour. And so on. Original Beach Boys. Original Beatles. Rush, The Clash, Ozzie. Pristine condition. I use a very good set-up to play them. The CDs still sound better.

And just think. To a whole new generation of music listeners out there, MP3 is all the quality that they need and want - or perhaps ever get to experience. Now that's a shame!

Jeff Mackwood