MP3 Can't Be Here To Stay

Something has been disturbing me for a long time. It has to do with the music I listen to and the fact that something is just not right. I think I've finally figured it out. Bear with me for a couple of paragraphs. It goes something like this:

1. 1978 - A young man and his stereo. Sixteen thousand dollars worth of discrete equipment. It was very good stuff. It included a Revox A2, 10" reel-to-reel deck, Klipschorn speakers, Macintosh power, Oracle turntable and on and on. Lotsa, lotsa money baby and man oh man did it sound good. Play something—anything—from direct to disk (LP) recordings from Telarc to the finest pressings from Deutsche Gramophone, the hardest rock and, well, you-name-it, and the walls would shake, your soul would stir and the music swept you away.
   
   
2. 1988 - Fast forward. CD had already arrived in full force, reel-to-reel tape was relegated to curiosity status, Compact Cassette was waning rapidly, and the LP record was nearing the end of its widely distributed life cycle. I started feeling uncomfortable then, but there wasn't any single factor to which I could attribute the disconcerting feeling. The $16K, six foot high stack of gear had morphed into an $8K, three foot stack. Sounded good too; expansive, detailed, open, crystal clear and powerful. What more could I ask.
   
   
3. 1997 - Fast forward. Advanced MP3 encoding arrived. More . . .