Phillips no longer producing transports


Hi folks, as many of you are no doubt aware Phillips have decided to stop producing the Pro 2 LH transport used by ARC, Ayon, Vitus and others. What does this all mean? I'm informed by one manufacturer who I wont name that their stock of transports is good for another year or so of production whilst maintaining stock for warranty service. I'm told they are now moving toward designing a server to replace cd players in future. Esoteric are still manufacturing transports, and Accuphase have moved to a proprietory transport mechanism, so cd players will still be produce into the future. But for a powerhouse like Phillips to give up on cd transports is a harbinger, a sign of things to come and the likely phasing out of cd production. It is likely in future cd production will only continue in small runs of for audiophile labels and boutique producers, and high res downloads will continue to develop and become more mainstream. I think Bob Dylan said "The times they are a changin'".
melbguy1

Showing 1 response by dhl93449

Its no surprise to me. Bryston discontinued the the BCD-1 over a year ago for the same reason, no available drives.

Phillips needs a large consumer market to keep up production and that is dwindling.

And I am not certain I see the need for real time CD playback given that the "ripped to file" systems are at least as good or better sonically, and they need much less expensive CDROM/DVDROM drives and a few chips to implement.