A smaller percentage of Americans see their TV sets, dishwashers, clothes dryers and other “old” household technology as necessities, while a growing number describe broadband and iPods that way, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.

About 1,000 U.S. adults were interviewed by land-line phone and cellphone earlier this month and asked whether they considered 12 common products necessity or luxury items. Researchers at Pew’s Social & Demographic Trends Project compared the responses to a similar survey conducted in 2006, shortly before the recession started.

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Are iPods changing our perception of music? Are the sounds of MP3s the music we like to hear most?

Jonathan Berger, professor of music at Stanford, was on a panel with me at a meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Mountain View, Calif., on Saturday. Berger’s presentation had a slide titled: “Live, Memorex or MP3.” He mentioned that Thomas Edison promoted his phonograph by demonstrating that a person could not tell whether behind a curtain was an opera singer or one of Edison’s cylinders playing a recording of the singer. More recently, the famous Memorex ad challenged us to determine whether it was a live performance of Ella Fitzgerald or a recorded one.

Berger then said that he tests his incoming students each year in a similar way. He has them listen to a variety of recordings which use different formats from MP3 to ones of much higher quality. He described the results with some disappointment and frustration, as a music lover might, that each year the preference for music in MP3 format rises. In other words, students prefer the quality of that kind of sound over the sound of music of much higher quality. He said that they seemed to prefer “sizzle sounds” that MP3s bring to music. It is a sound they are familiar with.

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So, just how big will be the bargains tomorrow when Apple (AAPL) unveils its pricing for Black Friday?

Bigger than last year, asserts Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu.

Wu, who just yesterday picked up coverage of the stock with a Buy rating, asserts in a research note this morning that discounts on Macs, iPods and accessories this year could be up to 15 percent, compared with discounts of 5-10 percent in previous years. He said it is “unclear” if there also will be discounts on iPhones.

Wu notes that Best Buy (BBY) and Amazon (AMZN) are already selling Apple merchandise at discounted prices.

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Can a Metallica album be too loud?

The very thought might seem heretical to fans of the legendary metal band, which has been splitting eardrums with unrivaled power since the early 1980s.

But even though Metallica’s ninth studio release, “Death Magnetic,” is No. 1 on the album chart, with 827,000 copies sold in two weeks, some fans are bitterly disappointed: not by the songs or the performance, but the volume. It’s so loud, they say, you can’t hear the details of the music.

“Death Magnetic” is a flashpoint in a long-running music-industry fight. Over the years, rock and pop artists have increasingly sought to make their recordings sound louder to stand out on the radio, jukeboxes and, especially, iPods.

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You know what would be cool? If you could stream Sirius (SIRI) or XM satellite radio
on your Apple (AAPL) iPhone.

As it happens, Citigroup’s Tony Wible this morning writes in a research note that there are “reports” of a new Internet streaming application that would allow SIRI users to listen on portable devices. Wible says the idea highlights that SIRI’s value “lies in its content and not its hardware or infrastructure.”

Wible notes that as the seller of iPods, Apple is often seen as a competitor to satellite radio. But he says the new streaming application suggests the two companies may complement each other.

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Best Buy (BBY) shares are on the rise this morning on news that the company’s Best Buy Mobile stores will carry the Apple (AAPL) iPhone starting Sept. 7.

Pricing will be the same as it is through Apple and AT&T (T) stores: $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for 16GB, with a two-year AT&T service contract. Best Buy stores already sell iPods and Macs.

Meanwhile, Radio Shack (RSH) shares are sliding today. The retail chain already sells AT&T wireless service, but for now at least, isn’t going to be selling iPhones. Also hurting Radio Shack: news that the company has sold $325 million of 2.5 percent convertible senior notes due 2013.

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Such is the frenzy for information about potential new products from Apple (AAPL) that the blogosphere has begun to lose track of the rumors.

On Macrumors.com, a post this morning makes reference to a report purportedly put out today by Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson. The report, which supposedly details expectations of upgrades to Apple’s laptops and iPods that may materialize in September, sounds suspiciously like a report put out on Aug. 6 by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

In fact, they are the same report! There were no new reports from either Munster or Olson today, as a quick phone call to Piper Jaffray’s media relations department revealed. Olson and Munster work together, sharing coverage of Apple, and the one report they filed on Aug. 6 is being confused as two separate reports a week apart.

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Amazon.com (AMZN) shares are sharply higher today, aided by a bullish note this morning from Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney focused on the company’s Kindle e-book reader.

Mahaney today doubled his 2008 unit estimate on Kindle sales to 380,000 from 190,000. He notes that 380,000 is exactly how many iPods Apple (AAPL) sold in the first year. “Turns out the Kindle is becoming the iPod of the book world,” he writes.

Mahaney thinks the Kindle could turn out to be one of the top “gadget” gifts of this year’s holiday gift season. He thinks the company can sell 150,000 Kindles this holiday season.

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