If words are concepts translated into sounds with assigned meanings, then words are expressed ideas.

Ideas have consequences whether or not we believe them to be true. Bad ideas yield negative consequences. If you think you can fly, and you jump off of a tall building, you will experience your last bad idea. So how do you know a bad idea from a good one?

The answer is truth. Truth is unavoidable. It exists; therefore, right and wrong exist. What is true is right. What is false is wrong. It’s possible to be wrong when you think something.

What is truth? It is that which conforms to what actually is. In case you think that the truth is not important, consider this. When you ask someone a question, are you interested in getting a truthful answer?

So, the truth matters. And since it does, words are important. Don’t you want to protect yourself from untruthful ideas?

Here are four logic tests that can typically find a fallacy in a system of thought. If a thought can pass these logic tests, then it is probably correct.

1. The Law of Identity- [A = A] or [If A, then not non-A]

This is how speech takes place. You understand words because they have specific meanings. If I say, “I drove in my car”, then you know I didn’t mean, “I flew in a plane.” You see, truth is exclusive. When you make an assertion, you exclude the opposite. If you affirm A, then you are excluding non-A.

2. The Law of Rational Inference- If A=B and B=C then A=C.

This is to draw a conclusion from a conditional base. When something is said, you can rationally infer something else. If someone tells you that they will pick you up at 5:00, then you can infer that they will do so.

3. The Law of Non-Contradiction- A cannot be non-A.

Two opposite answers cannot be made about the same question at the same time. You cannot defend an absolute negative. It is logically incorrect. Take this sentence for example; “Truth does not exist.” Is this statement true? You see, this law defines the line between what is true and what is false.

4. The Law of the Excluded Middle- Either A or non-A.

A proposition is either true or false. It cannot be both. The briefcase is either black or it is not black. Just because two things have one thing in common does not mean that they have everything in common. Fish have eyes. I have eyes. Therefore I am a fish. Surely this is not true.

Logic is undeniable and self-evident. You would need to use logic to deny its existence. Therefore it is self-explanatory. Without logic there can be no true or false statements. Truth gives a person’s words meaning. A lack of truth makes their words meaningless. Whose words do you accept as true? Choose your own words wisely.

I’ve always been a quality not quantity type person when it comes to my music, and Oink served me well in this aspect as well as it’s flourish of FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) rips. I’m no audiophile, but I can definitely tell the difference between a CD and a poor digital audio rip. I’ve been buying CD’s for years and even though I could download FLAC versions of them online, (which is supposed to be of equal sound quality) as of lately, but it’s simply less of a hassle to have to deal with ratio contingencies and the effort of searching, waiting for download times, vulnerabilities that come with bittorrent usage (as mentioned in a previous article), relabeling files and organizing files in your file structure. You may be wondering, that option of downloading must be easier than going to the store, browsing the shelves, waiting in line and finally paying $14 for a CD right? Downloading music is cheaper yes, but online shopping is incredibly easy.

I normally use Amazon.com’s 1-click ordering when I buy CD’s online. I typically buy them used, so I get them around half the price compared to a retail store even with shipping costs. The 1-click ordering is fantastic, when you see what you want, you can literally buy it with only 1 click of the mouse (granted you have an Amazon.com account) and you’ll soon have your new CD in your mailbox. Got to have it now? Other options are in-store pickup. Circuit City offers a guarantee that if your online order isn’t ready in 24 minutes, you’ll receive a $24 gift card when you pick up your oder. I’ve actually received a $24 gift card from them because my product wasn’t ready during a pickup. Granted my main catalog of music is digital, but when I hear a great piece of music, I typically buy the CD just for sheer sound quality purposes. I’ve also purchased CD’s directly from up and coming bands that I’ve liked in my effort to support them. I do this as well with buying their merchandise and paying to see them live. Without this support, these artists simply wouldn’t exist. CD’s may be a thing in the past, but before MP3 players were affordable, it was basically the only way to listen, especially in the car. I remember driving around fumbling with my large case of CD’s popping them in and out of my CD player until I could afford a CD-ROM for my computer and I could then consolidate a couple of them onto a customized MP3 disk and not have to swap out disks as often. Times have changed and today I’d be lost without my Ipod which is excellent when you have a CD deck in the car that can control it but compared to a CD, I’d still rather pop in a disk occasionally when I want to hear some great sound quality.

The era of having to wait for album release dates are a thing in the past, over thrown by it’s digital media nemesis. It’s more like an album release date minus a month or three when it comes to downloading and the leaking of new music via the internet. I’m glad to see more and more artists are now offering their entire CD’s for free on their websites.

Before I began to write my blog post on how I’m again buying more CD’s than normal, I thought I’d research a little and see how the mighty CD is doing these days versus downloading digital media along with the help of the popularity of MP3 players. My hypothesis was true, digital media is strong, and the CD industry and sales are hurting. According to the 2006 postings on the RIAA (The Recording Industry Association of America) website, the value of a CD and number of shipments is at an all time low compared to the previous 10 years. In a pathetic attempt to cover this fact up, the RIAA released a report in August 2007 stating “the CD has become a better value than ever before” when compared only to inflation. More silly statements found in this report that are meant to win you over compare the cost of an “album” in 1967 to the cost of a CD today. According to Wikipedia, the first CD for commercial release rolled off the assembly line in 1982, a mere 15 years later after RIAA’s cited 1967 comparison. Interesting don’t you think? Talk about comparing apples to oranges! I agree that inflation is a valid argument when debating the history of cost on an item but there are also many variables when comparing time periods, especially a year like 1967 which was in the middle of the Vietnam War. In 1967 vinyl records were the popular media for music and to compare them to CD’s boggles me. Here is another incentive excerpt from the report “adjust for the buying power of a dollar in 1967 versus a dollar now, and that album would cost nearly $22″. Wow, what a bargain.. we should not be taking CD’s for granted and all go buy some!

I grew up in the city. I’m well aware that somewhere on the fabric of space-time, over the seam and around the hem, there’s a memory of the roads you once enjoyed driving on. And now that same feeling, the one you remember; the freedom of driving carefree; crossing over into the on-coming lane without concern of anyone there to straighten out the curve in achievement of higher g-forces; looking over your shoulder into the setting sun while flooring the vertical pedal on the right to get a reference point for judging your speed; screaming at the top of your lungs in-time with the percussionist’s aerobic crescendo while the rhythm guitar keeps your heart beating faster than the sound of the double-line reflectors bu-bumping under the over inflated tires is gone it seems. Every morning more and more people clog the motorways, jam the drive-throughs, hog the right-of-ways, and obstruct the overpasses that we used to enjoy driving on. It’s not fun anymore.

I grew up in the seventies and eighties. I’m well aware that Quadraphonic 8-Track sound was all the rage in 1970. And there’s a memory of the sound your Pioneer speakers made in your ’65 Falcon. And now that same feeling, the one you remember; broadcasting the Beatles’ sound at your favorite burger joint; attracting the girls with the smell of Canoe cologne; impressing the guys with your 12 second track times in your four-speed, posi-traction, 383 four-barrel; gathering with multiple couples at the drive-in to see Katherine Ross seducing her amour away from her mother is gone it seems. Artists now-a-days are crying about their intellectual property rights while living in posh, Lake Havasu mansions; car manufacturers are crying about the cost of efficiency while increasing vehicle sizes to near-gargantuan capacity; and English Leather smells like 40 year-old whale puke. It’s not the same anymore.

I grew up with computers. I’m well aware that Zork will forever hold a place in your imagination, that games like Halo, The Sims, and Warcraft won’t ever begin to penetrate. And now that same feeling, the one you remember; spending days in your room on the Commodore 64 with a shoebox of 5 ¼ inch floppys and your 1342 joystick ready at your command; learning every nuance of the ups, downs, and ABs of Nintendo’s cheat codes; overclocking your processor and liquid cooling your motherboard to get that high-res image in your favorite fighting, shoot-em up, role playing adventure; converting your WMAs to MP3s so you can listen to the entire collection of Pink Floyd on one CDR; logging on to your favorite LUG for support when a video driver is giving your open source OS issues is gone it seems. You’d rather purchase a fully loaded HP at the box store than spend your time building a supercomputer that requires drilling your own mounting points for the flash reader. It doesn’t matter any more.

I grew up with car audio. I’m well aware that the Linear Power 5002iq was the “best sounding amp of all time.” And there’s a memory burned in your head of Zack De La Rocha wailing vociferously through your Boston Acoustics Rally Series components. And now that same feeling, the one you remember; drooling over the ADS 320i componets in the Porsche demo car at your favorite late 80s car audio shop; out-bassing the guy with the two Kicker 15s and the Hifonics Zeus amp in the home-coming parade with your Earthquake 12s in a 6th order quasi-parametric bandpass on a US Amps 400vlx; earning a trophy at the Daytona Beach Spring Break Nationals in the Amateur 0-100 watts class with a PPI 2050DM amp and G & S Redline speakers; earning the respect of your peers with your tech savviness; staying up late to finish the install on your 13 channel, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic 7.1 frequency dependent, 8 position time delayed, surround sound, actively crossed-over high fidelity in-car theater system is gone it seems. Now it’s Bluetooth cell phone conversations, factory headunits that can’t be removed, satellite radio and the IPOD revolution. And it’s great!

Come on people. Get out of mouse arrest. Cars are still the greatest piece of personal freedom that exists in your grasp. There are roads you haven’t been down yet. The old days weren’t better than today. It’s a figment of the human imagination to imagine that it was better then than it is now. Sure, you can Google (it’s a freaking verb….) anything on the planet at any given time. You don’t need to know how to spell, because Merriam-Microsoft will auto-correct the recipe for Duck a L’orange before you can hit the enter key. I know JL Audio is not what it’s hyped up to be (neither was Rockford Fosgate). But you can grab your IPOD, hit the start button on your S2000′s dash, and be listening to Tchaikovsky’s Sixth on your way to SEE one of your electronic superhighway cohorts as soon as you walk away from the irritainment box. Hit the road Patterson.

Until the failed test runs, my intentions were to continue using the classic and once reliable, Pioneer Premier DEH-P750MP. The first test run produced popping in the tweeters, the 4 gauge power wire and RCAs were separated (power on driver side, RCA on passenger side), so the ground was suspect. Adjusting the location of the ground produced the same results, so after consulting Mr. Buzz Thompson himself, Casey and I tried the other RCA outs on the receiver. After another fifteen to twenty minutes of trying different scenarios, we concluded the RCA outs were bad, all three sets.

Here I am, three weeks later, still without music to ease my nerves while driving. The effects have been truly amazing. Simple, trivial, everyday events now have this amazing ability to initiate aggression, the people at work are somehow more annoying, even my close family gets on my nerves. This almost seems comparable to a heroin addition, the whole experience has really been a wild ride. Perhaps the behavior is just withdrawal and this whole experience will end up shaping my character to make me a better person.

I’m ready to purchase a new deck and get this whole ordeal over with, but sitting here writing made me realize the pleasure I’ll experience the day of completion grows with each day I wait.

The music experience has taken a leap forward with car stereo system manufacturer’s more integrated devices. For instance cd player along with other devices has been converged into high tech gadgets. One of the convenient enhancements can be seen with sony cd changer integrated in car audio input system.

Mini-box.com manufactures a high performance x86 computer designed for vehicles and customers interested in telematic system integration. This specially designed device eliminates in-car power issues, provides navigational capabilities, video and sound output, and just about anything else you could imagine. The Mini-ITX case has its own 12V power supply that’s fully capable of providing enough power to run any operating system designed for the x86 architecture (Windows, Linux, etc).

Car audio enthusiasts aren’t dying, they’re going high-tech. Eventually, I expect to see a single touch screen that controls ever aspect of the car that, in addition, provides digital read outs/schematics in real time. Seamless control over everything from crossover ranges, cabin temperature, sub woofer volume, navigation, ignition (password entry required on the touchscreen, and that’s after you put a key in), and anything else imaginable.

Instead of purchasing several different audio components with the intention of producing the loudest vehicle on the planet, streamline everything into a centralized area that will provide loud, high quality digital sound, ease installation, and make the entire system portable from vehicle to vehicle.

Why this hasn’t already become mainstream is beyond me. I’m no expert so please share any comments, disagreements, questions in this post’s comment section.

For sure stereo speakers are the hot cakes for all cars audio enthusiastic who still love to build there own car audio system. The sound is enhanced and amplified with different combination of subwoofers audio based on power and structure of system. And for stereo speaker technology audiobahn is known brand for car audio enthusiastic.