incision recording and its attendant surface noise. In 1949 the 
era of electric hi-fi was another rescuer of the phonograph 
business. The hi-fi quest for “realistic sound” soon merged with 
the TV image as part of the recovery of tactile experience. For 
the sensation of having the performing instruments “right in 
the room with you” is a striving toward the union of the audile 
and tactile in a finesse of fiddles that is in large degree the 
sculptural experience. To be in the presence of performing 
musicians is to experience their touch and handling of 
instruments as tactile and kinetic, not just as resonant. So it 
can be said that hi-fi is not any quest for abstract effects of 
sound in separation from the other senses. With hi-fi, the 
phonograph meets the TV tactile challenge.

     Stereo sound, a further development, is “all-around” or 
“wraparound” sound. Previously sound had emanated from a