The technical limitations of early recording technologies did not deter the nascent gramophone industry from attempting to capture on cylinders the great Wagner singers of the late nineteenth century. As recording technologies improved, with inventions such as the microphone, magnetic tape, the long-playing record, and stereophonic sound, more Wagner, at greater length, was committed to disc and broadcast on the radio. Performance history can be traced through recordings: from who sang what where, to stylistic choices. Yet recordings have also shaped performance styles over time, with certain voices proving more easily reproducible than others and editing enabling a technical perfection rarely attainable live on stage. Listening to Wagner on headphones as one walks through a city or rides a train is far removed from making a pilgrimage to a production at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.