That's when I realized that striving for ever more accurate recordings wouldn't improve sound quality. The things that make sound pleasing to the ear aren't limited to making technically better recordings (or hi-fis). Great-sounding recordings sound great mostly because of the hundreds or thousands of decisions made by the engineers who recorded, mixed, and mastered the music. Their choice of using a microphone that flattered the vocalist or saxophone, the acoustics of the recording venue, the processing that was used to create each sound within the mix make or break the sound. The recording format also plays a role, but analog or digital, they're just a small part of the overall sound picture. Perfect sound isn't really what most engineers are striving for; they just want to make a recording that sounds good. And good sound is a purely subjective call.

The Echo Show 5 packs all the usual Alexa-powered voice goodness and adds a 5.5-inch screen, while the Echo Auto is all about delivering Alexa features in your car by connecting to the stereo. While the Echo Auto is an audio-only experience, the ability to access things like navigation and app launchers on your phone is worthwhile. 

Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the School of Natural Sciences at Trinity, Balz Kamber, said: 'Our findings provide further evidence that some very large terrestrial impact basins were created by comets, which is important and interesting in the context of the early bombardment of our inner Solar System - it might well be that comets were responsible for bringing volatile elements to the young Earth.'

Previous studies had found women were twice as likely to give their phone number to man with a luxury car than a medium or low-value one. But the new results suggest women do not see men with flashy cars as good long-term prospects.

As I said in my recent article about distortion for Stereophile magazine, "Harshness isn't just a byproduct of compression, it's an integral part of the sound of today's music." And that will remain true for as long as the vast majority of listeners -- teenagers, commuters, doctors, teachers, garbage men, musicians, etc. -- don't have home audio systems, and listen only in their cars, or on crap headphones, or via plastic computer or Bluetooth speakers. Music is background sound for almost everyone, most of the time, and heavily compressed, and even harsh music is a plus when you want the sound to remain at a constant volume level.

The Loudness Wars refers to mixing and mastering techniques that squash music's natural soft-to-loud dynamics. Obviously, you can control the playback volume of your tunes, but once the engineers compress the sound, there's no way to restore the true dynamic range. This problem doesn't just affect obscure records; Grammy Award-winning CDs, like Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" suffer from loud-all-the-time compression. I love their music, but I find "The Suburbs" hard to listen to. Before we go any further, I'm not referring to MP3 "lossy compression," that's a completely different malady. If you listen to downloaded or streaming music, chances are you're getting the worst sonic effects of dynamic and lossy compression!

'It will also be under warranty, so any mechanical problems will be covered for a few years.' The flashy man, Dave, has the same amount of money to spend but wants a car that he can feel proud to drive.

There are also mega motorhomes from German manufacturers, such as the Morelo Grand Empire, which has a starting price of £550,000 and offers a home on wheels plus an onboard garage big enough to carry a Mini Cooper S. 

I remember just before the CD was introduced 30 years ago thinking that digital audio would be a giant leap forward in fidelity, but as soon as I heard a few CDs I knew digital wouldn't do a thing to make music sound more realistic. The CD was vastly better than LPs and cassettes in terms of noise and distortion, but voices still didn't sound like they do in real life, and pianos didn't sound as big and powerful as they do in Carnegie Hall. That mystified me; those early digital recordings were compression-free, and I was told digital didn't add or subtract anything from the sound the microphones recorded. Digital sound should have been perfect, but it was just different than the analog recordings I grew up with.

If you play music in the car through your phone, you should really start thinking about upgrading your vehicle's stereo head unit for smartphone integration -- and if you have an iPhone, you want Apple CarPlay. There are perks to using CarPlay beyond access to great music, too: Anyone with an iPhone can use Apple CarPlay for navigation, sending texts, taking calls and more with a simple voice command. You don't need a brand-new ride to experience any of this functionality in a safe, distraction-free way either. Since Apple CarPlay's debut in 2014, aftermarket stereo truth (https://vivaldiaudio.com/) manufacturers have been designing head units with Apple's automotive OS to fit a variety of vehicle models.