Somebody e-mailed me an MP3 of "Tattoo" and it sounded positively AWFUL! All compressed, with the vocal right up front, and if I was a self-satisfied smugster I would have said it sucked.

But when I listened to a higher res version via my $250 Sennheiser headphones, when I listened on my $1500 AUX speakers, it came alive.

Now despite the advocates of the vinyl revolution, I’ve got to ask, how many people purchasing those discs have the systems to play them back on? I’m not talking about those Restoration Hardware record players we gave up in the mid-sixties, but amps with watts of power and speakers that could blow the doors off their hinges?

You see fifteen years ago, when cheap all-in-one systems replaced stereos, you got a lot of bang for your buck. It’s just that the bucks involved were about $150. Which is like being amazed that a Honda Fit drives so well when you’ve never been behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz or BMW, never mind a Ferrari.

Yup, that’s what we all aspired to. Instead of unloading our dough on electronic gadgets from phones to tablets, everybody saved up for a stereo, there were chains developed just to cater to this market. And there still are stereo shops, but if you’ve ever been to one your jaw will drop at the price. You’ve got to be rich to afford stereo today, never mind the fact that these high end shops are really video oriented, you end up getting a 5.1 system that’s good for DVDs but just ain’t right for music.

And that’s what’s replaced the stereo, TV sound systems. Home Theatre In A Box. Or a soundbar. Felice has got the best soundbar Yamaha makes, and for music it’s positively awful, it hasn’t got that power, that punch.

And then you’ve got the musicians. Cranking up the tracks they do produce so they sound good on radio, eliminating all dynamic range.

And what you end up with is music produced to sound good on the shitty listening devices people employ today. You’re gonna have a hard time making it as an acoustic act in this day and age, because there’s not one playback system that evidences that warmth, certainly not the CD whose sampling rate is too low to deliver quality.

So, we’ve got clowns to the left of us and jokers to the right and the end result is we get the music we deserve.

In other words, if you’re listening to hard rock or acoustic music on earbuds, anything but Top Forty dreck, you’re gonna be predisposed to think it sucks. Because you’ve got to feel the music. And almost nobody has enough power to generate that kind of oomph, only distortion.

And just like the rest of the problems in our nation, no one wants to take responsibility. The acts and the industry just want to blame the public.

First and foremost we need a better broadband system. So we can deliver hi-res sound over the Internet. But instead of looking to the dividends to be paid, the entertainment companies want to put on the brakes, they want SOPA, they want to jet us back to the past. If people could hear what great music sounds like, don’t you think they’d be excited and want more?

And just like HDTV was sold by word of mouth, people insisting their friends come over to see it, if we had hi-res audio playable on hi-res units, the scene would burgeon.

But even if you use good headphones on an iPod, it’s still gonna sound like shit, because there’s just not enough power to boost the highs and lows, to avoid clipping.

So stereo continues to live in darkness. (And let’s stick with stereo, we’ve learned two channels are enough, the public has shrugged its shoulders at more twice.) And it’s our own damn fault. But the problem is if you make arena rock, your potential audience is gonna hear it like a tinny radio playing in the background while you’re taking a shower. And an acoustic guitar will resemble something made of plastic. And instead of soul, we’ve got two-dimensional garbage.

I guarantee you if I packed all the Van Halen naysayers into a studio control room and blasted "Tattoo" with hundreds of watts of power via high end speakers they’d be floored.

But trying to listen to the song on earbuds is like making love wrapped in a shower curtain, with glasses made of steel wool so it’s almost impossible to see your partner.

Sex would take a hit.

And music’s taken a hit.

And nobody’s doing anything about it. Because they’re just not shooting high enough. They want better laptop sound. Higher resolution MP3s. No, what we want is uncompressed audio played through high end systems. This will sell, if someone would just lead the way.

But instead all we know is the public is stupid and won’t spend for this even though iPhones and iPads are being scarfed up by the millions and cable bills are stratospheric. People will pay if you give them a high quality offering, isn’t that what Steve Jobs taught us?

And if you’re listening to "Tattoo" on fifty nine dollar speakers, or the ones that came free with your computer, YOUR OPINION DOESN’T COUNT!