Do consumers really care about sound fidelity, at least outside the aficionado niches? In other words, is good enough, well... good enough when it comes to 90 percent of music fans?
Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine not only thinks that consumers want higher-quality recordings, but that they're willing to pay for it. As in, upgrading their MP3s to high-end, studio-quality tracks, perhaps the first digital format replacement cycle. Sounds exciting, but if history is any guide, most won't be coming to this party.

Still, signs of life exist in the digital era. Higher-priced Beats by Dre headphones could be validating the belief that fans want better sound. Or, they could simply be demonstrating the power of good branding and a desire for something besides white earbuds.
...And what about vinyl sales?
On the sound quality front, vinyl suggests that a niche of fans care about things like 'warmth,' though the real driver in that story could be nostalgia and lost elements like gatefolds. And, there's a strong argument that vinyl sound quality is technically inferior to CDs and higher-end digital files.