I am kinda up in the air on the issue of CDP vs. separates. My theory is... the CD is 16bit sabples at 44khz or so. There is a limit to how good it can sound. Only so many actual data points that can be pulled from it, upsampling, oversampling, or a future method of sampling. People are always saying that the best digital sounds so analogue like. My theory is if you want analogue, get a nice turntable that will blow the socks off any redbook CD digital known. Especially in the area of great analogue sound.
The problem with CDs is they have their limits in the sound that can be pulled off them, and I THINK WE ARE RAPIDLY APPROACHING THOSE LIMITS. Are new genearations of CDP's/DAC's really sounding staggeringly better than the generation before them??? There may be some differences, but the differences seem to be dimminishing every year we progress in technology.
Sad to say (because I think Sony is a money grubbing company), SACD is probably the digital of the future, if only because Sony has so much influence and is as persistant as Microsoft in dominating competition. Heck Sony, only this year STOPPED making BETAMAX VCR's. This fact in itself I find truly amazing. Sony still supports the minidisk in the US; however,I have heard the minidisk is big in Europe and Asia.
SACD gives us A LOT more data to work with than a redbook CD does. It is inevitable that SACD will sound better than CDs. I see SACD's becoming more available by the day. the whole Rolling Stone repitoire of albums was recently released on SACD. Sony and other companies are just going to crank out SACD Players that are backwardly compatible with redbook CDs. Pretty soon you will not be able to be able to buy a strickly Redbook CD Player on the mass market. I give it maybe 5 years, SACD players will be very prevalent.
What about DVDa? Many companies will make their players also compatible with DVDa; however, DVDa has some serious disadvantages against SACD. No really large companies are supporting DVDa like Sony is supporting SACD. This is sort of like the competition Windows operating system faces with Linux. Microsoft dominates the home operating system market because there really is no one company that is supporting Linux like Microsoft supports Windows.
Well time for bed.
Oh btw I have a Cary 306/200 CDP. It is better than any DAC/transport I have ever tried. At the moment I do not have enogh shelving for a DAC/transport combo.
KF
The problem with CDs is they have their limits in the sound that can be pulled off them, and I THINK WE ARE RAPIDLY APPROACHING THOSE LIMITS. Are new genearations of CDP's/DAC's really sounding staggeringly better than the generation before them??? There may be some differences, but the differences seem to be dimminishing every year we progress in technology.
Sad to say (because I think Sony is a money grubbing company), SACD is probably the digital of the future, if only because Sony has so much influence and is as persistant as Microsoft in dominating competition. Heck Sony, only this year STOPPED making BETAMAX VCR's. This fact in itself I find truly amazing. Sony still supports the minidisk in the US; however,I have heard the minidisk is big in Europe and Asia.
SACD gives us A LOT more data to work with than a redbook CD does. It is inevitable that SACD will sound better than CDs. I see SACD's becoming more available by the day. the whole Rolling Stone repitoire of albums was recently released on SACD. Sony and other companies are just going to crank out SACD Players that are backwardly compatible with redbook CDs. Pretty soon you will not be able to be able to buy a strickly Redbook CD Player on the mass market. I give it maybe 5 years, SACD players will be very prevalent.
What about DVDa? Many companies will make their players also compatible with DVDa; however, DVDa has some serious disadvantages against SACD. No really large companies are supporting DVDa like Sony is supporting SACD. This is sort of like the competition Windows operating system faces with Linux. Microsoft dominates the home operating system market because there really is no one company that is supporting Linux like Microsoft supports Windows.
Well time for bed.
Oh btw I have a Cary 306/200 CDP. It is better than any DAC/transport I have ever tried. At the moment I do not have enogh shelving for a DAC/transport combo.
KF