"If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" Sorry, philosophers — I'm afraid it does. Sound waves are constantly bombarding us from everywhere, whether we're actively listening to them or not. In fact, most of the sound we "hear" gets filtered out by our brains so that we don't really hear it; otherwise we'd quickly go into perceptual overload. The question was answered most concisely by Albert … [Read more...]

Before I go on about how little you hear and how much you miss when you listen to your music on MP3 or AAC files -- the skinny remains of recordings -- let's share a coffee break. Not very long ago, a good many people started their day with something called instant coffee. It looked like coffee in your cup, but the resemblance largely ended there. It had no aroma. It had no body. It tasted like water flavored with coffee. It was only a … [Read more...]