Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music

Perfecting Sound Forever is an indispensible history of recorded sound, from the first experiments by Thomas Edison and others in the 19th century through the development of wire recorders, LPs, multi-track recording, CDs, and digital sound files. Journalist Greg Milner writes about both ends of the recording process -- how engineers captured sound and how audiences listened to the results -- in admirably clear and descriptive language that assumes the reader is reasonably intelligent but not necessarily technically-minded. Milner doesn't hide his biases: he thinks LPs sound better than CDs, which sound better than mp3s, and he prefers Shellac to Dire Straits. But he's not a shrill partisan: the lengthy section on The Loudness War (in which both CD mastering engineers and radio stations sacrificed dynamics for volume) details both why it happened and what was lost in the process without devolving into the usual Steve Albini-esque rants about tin-eared, money-mad, evil corporations. Filled with fascinating anecdotes from throughout the history of recorded sound, Perfecting Sound Forever is an essential read for anyone who has ever used phrases like "180-gram vinyl" or "lossless formats" in casual conversation.