So over the holidays I purchased a copy of “Abbey Road” on vinyl. Not a special reissue on fancy 180-gram vinyl. Just an ordinary original copy from Capitol, but in mint condition, never opened. Fired it up on the Linn-Naim rig at home and oh my God. It’s like discovering the Beatles all over again. No wonder we all loved music back in the Sixties and Seventies. First of all, the music was just so friggin good. And what is it about vinyl? It friggin breathes, and I don’t know how or why. I’ve brought all my iPod engineers in here to listen and try to figure it out. We’ve got “Golden Slumbers” on right now and Paul’s voice is making the hair on my neck stand up. It’s like he’s standing here in the room with us. This is on my old office rig, which is a nothing-fancy Rega turntable with Quad electronics and a pair of old Quad speakers, from my Quad phase. It’s stunning. I’m sick. We’re doing A-B tests with the iPod HiFi and it’s humiliating. Friends, I promise you we will not rest until we can match or exceed the sound quality of vinyl in a digital system.