CD format war and resultant music players

I certainly am not going to toss my CDs away either. It's just that all of the current equipment selections, from CD players to preamps, becomes rather pointless until this format war is over. So on one hand, who wants to spend serious money on equipment offering technologies that are obsoleting right in front of your eyes. On the other hand, my personal feeling is that there will be a preferred format for both video and audio combined in less than 5 years. So focusing on just CDs alone is a safe bet with its popularity out there. But that is not a complete picture. I don't want to invest thousands of dollars in CD player and preamps only to find out 3 years from now there exists something else which combines CD with this new but well accepted format. And that something else performs just as well on CDs while obviously showpieces the superior sound of this new audio media format. Given SACD peformance, though being phased out as it is, you just know that the next generation audio media will perform significantly better than redbook CDs.

Basically I just poll and see if anybody out there think there soon be a new audio media, and what choices of media might there be.

The SACD & DVD-A market is essentially dead, thanks to our friends at Sony. The major difference between them and CDs is they have lots of memory space to store digital information. Well, somebody else would take advantage of the upcoming video-formated disc, when its market is secured, and utitlize it for audio. Given such major improvement over CDs, it might fly. No I wouldn't buy a copy of the same thing if it's an incremental improvement. We are talking about huge result here.

On the other hand, this hard drive concept is something to chew on. I don't hear about hard drive sound superiority if any. Even computers are suitably design to slip into family room audio-visual arrangement these days. And the mp3 market is booming. This computer stuff is much more mature than your blu-ray and hd-dvd. Perhaps it would only take 2 versus 5 years for the audio chip to fall into place.

Well then, would somebody be willing to talk about where real audiophile equipment manufacturers are at with computerized music. I am not talking about mp3, ipod, or any mid-fi companies. I am talking about, if such exists, of people at the caliber of Levinson, Meridian, Linn type. I am the traditionalist into disc players, preamps and amps, thus am unfamiliar with exotically new technologies. It would help knowing about the technology and how far on the horizon might it be. Thanks.

The transport from the hard drive itself into your DAC involves a number of components--the hard drive cable, the motherboard, the soundcard, the I/O between the sound card and the DAC, and all sort of computer components that could general noises to the line. And I don't know about performance differences between various multimedia softwares regarding their reading of these digital information. One would think that pure "1" and "0" binary numbers from your hard drive are just that until they are converted into analog signal by your DAC. Yet CD transport is a technology by itself. So what about hard drive transport? It would help if the real audiophile manufacturers say yeah or neh as opposed to relying on the computer geeks.

So then, now we just have the top end CD players and turntables. Only a few years from now, somebody decides to turn a reader that just reads CDs into one that reads CDs and hard drives. The player could be an independent box hooked up to your DAC or preamp. Or it could be an audiophile computer. Will I have to invest in such music player all over again, after doing something about my system now? I rather think not. The point is that hard drive is rich with space. A lot of digital information could be stored per song to make it sounds good relative to redbook CDs. So the general public have their boring computers to download music. While these audiophile companies turn the hard drive transport system into good sound producting computer. And who knows what kind of preamp it takes to receive such signal from the hard drive transport.

This hard drive thing is a serious contender. It's not just us amateurs talking here. I read an article in Sound and Vision a few hours ago discussing the shrinking market of CDs in light of music download. The professionals already started throw up out number of years before possible disappearance, complete or partial, of CDs. That article even mentioned certain bands who won't release music into CDs. Instead it would strictly be for downloading. Somebody complained about how the recording studios took all their money through CD mastering and distribution.

I finally look around on the Internet regarding music server versus CDP. It appears that usb DAC, with the included interest from Stereophile, performs at least at the level of the Linn Unidisk SC which is an upper but not top end CDP. I also searched for comments on the Squeezebox version 3 to wirelessly remove the noisy server away from the stereo system. And there are design limitations to this piece, along with suggested modifications from private outfits. It seems that the music server/DAC idea give traditional CDP manufacturers a run for their money. However, the technology is young and need time to develop. Basically we are back to the sit still and do nothing with traditional equipment upgrade or cutting edge technology.

Anybody cares to disagree? Thanks.

The young technology is about hooking up your computer to a DAC at the audiophile level. If you don't know what to do with usb DAC because there is only a handful of products and comments out there, then there are plenty of standard DACs. But to hook up a standard DAC, you would either have to use the soundcard S/PDIF output or a limited choice of connecting boxes one of which is the Squeezebox. So far I have not heard anything conclusive reports from reliable sources that the whole setup is leap and bound above all CDP available out there.

As to quiet PC, I have been using various components recommended by silenpcreview.com on my main computer. They are quiet relative to the standard stuff. However, the whole box is not as quiet as a good CDP.

I do agree with you that music server will most likely be well received by the general public in the immediate future. Perhaps the current audiophile DAC manufacturers would adapt their DACs with proper hook up for the computer. There are different kinds of ports on the motherboard. It does not have to be through the soundcard if they really want to develop the DACs. In my specific case however, it seems that spending serious money on top end CDP and preamp is unwise given the CD market trend and the music server technology. While spending money on music server right away does not get me far beyond my current music quality attainment.

We are not dealing with the far future here. I suspect two years from now this music server setup will present itself with a much more developed technology. We all know the computer industry sheds its face by the month. Let's see what the audiophile DAC people will do. In fact the CDP people have their own DAC board inside their equipment. This DAC thing might as well be their evolving product to stay in the game.

You mentioned about not many people have "professional" equipment. You also mentioned about your new acquisition. Would you comment on yours as well as other professional pieces out there. How are they hooked up? Especially how do they sound in compared to traditional equipment? Thanks.