Dig that Japanese Vinyl, Baby!

As Marshall McLuhan famously noted, "The medium is the message." I don't know if Mr. McLuhan was an audio/video enthusiast, but that pronouncement, I think, perfectly describes a peculiar affliction that is all too common among us enthusiasts. Perhaps, just maybe, he was talking about you.

- KEN C. POHLMANN

Mr. McLuhan was a communication theorist. His famous aphorism was the title of the first chapter of his book, Understanding Media: the Extensions of Man, published in 1964. It perfectly expresses the notion that, in many ways, the communication medium is more important than the messages it conveys. The beauty of the declaration is that it might seem askew at first, but the more you think about it, the more plumb it seems.

In the world of audio/video, the medium is monumentally important. From a purely informational standpoint, all that gear in your home theater room is simply a communications medium. Also, clearly, the better the medium, the more information it can convey.

For example, an FM broadcast conveys more information than an AM broadcast. A color TV conveys more information than a black-and-white TV. A Blu-ray disc conveys more information than a VHS tape. And so on.

From a user standpoint, as the medium's quality improves, the message's fidelity improves as well. A recording stored on a 78-rpm record has a limited frequency response compared to an LP record. The recording on an LP suffers from wow and flutter, whereas a recording on a Compact Disc has essentially none.