I take it you didn’t grow up in church. Hear me out: Audiophilia is a combination of technophilia and ritual, and it’s no surprise that Japan is the center of t

I take it you didn’t grow up in church. Hear me out: Audiophilia is a combination of technophilia and ritual, and it’s no surprise that Japan is the center of the audio technology world, given its culture. All sound perception is subjective. In “MP3: The Meaning of a Format,” the author sites a study that showed college students preferred the sound of 128 MP3 over “lossless” or “HD” audio, probably because that’s what they cut their teeth on. This is why we have mastering with blown-out loudness and compression, even on CDs. For others, though, even secular people, music is sacred. The quest for the perfect sound through fiddly nobs and fancy cables is like building a personal cathedral. It’s all subjective, but there’s no denying that ritual enhances it.