The CD player is dead.......


I am still waiting for someone to explain why a cd player is superior to storing music on a hard drive and going to a dac. Probably because you all know it's not.

Every cd player has a dac. I'll repeat that. Every cd player has a dac. So if you can store the ones and zeros on a hard drive and use error correction JUST ONCE and then go to a high end dac, isn't that better than relying on a cd player's "on the fly" jitter correction every time you play a song? Not to mention the convenience of having hundreds of albums at your fingertips via an itouch remote.

If cd player sales drop, then will cd sales drop as well, making less music available to rip to a hard drive?
Maybe, but there's the internet to give us all the selection we've been missing. Has anyone been in a Barnes and Noble or Borders lately? The music section has shown shrinkage worse than George Costanza! This is an obvious sign of things to come.....

People still embracing cd players are the "comb over" equivalent of bald men. They're trying to hold on to something that isn't there and they know will ultimately vanish one day.

I say sell your cd players and embrace the future of things to come. Don't do the digital "comb over".
devilboy
"Kijanki, I still don't know why I am NOT getting through!"

I'm still not sure what you want to improve in "Music Storage". The only parameter that counts is the jitter and it can be suppressed many different ways. My storage to DAC transimission ends-up with respectable 250ps word clock jitter that is further suppressed by asynchronous upsampling of Benchmark DAC1.

"Why the double standard whenever anyone tries to scrutinize Music Storage?" - What is wrong with music storage - say it. I'm begging you.

SACD sounds much better, according to professional reviews, (equivalent of 20/96) but only if recording measures-up. SACD died because of greed. They charged at the beginning over $30 per CD while their production cost was pretty much the same (and you cannot make backup or store on HD) and lost momentum. It is very difficult to establish new standard and make people buy new equipment - unless you make media (SACD) initially less expensive. Iomega had perfect ZIP drive but wanted too much for disks and licensing fees - ended up with fiasco. It is also case of Sony Mini-Disk that could be perfect solution for portable music (car, Boom box etc). Remember Beta VCRs? Quality has nothing to do with it.

"So don't tell me that Consumers don't make value judgements about Sound Quality!" - No they don't. Most of customers are not audiophiles and care only about music. Basic quality of MP3 is more than enough for them. Have you ever seen CD being not on the top of the charts because of the sound quality?

Am I getting through to you?
Pettyofficer ..Lay off the "cap lock",no need to shout or pound you opinions on this site.IMO,most dont really care.If you dont like whats going on/or not going on in the download world,dont get involved..Simple enough,next problem!
Almarg

A well designed cd player will have jitter issues that lie somewhere between minimal and none,

A well designed dac will not have jitter issues either.
And this thing continues on forever. A couple points, Kijanki. You give me Technobabble which is completely meaningless unless you take into account the attitude of the Industry that is producing the Technology. I have already covered the Industries attitude that first produced CD, the same attitude that the current Computer Industry embraces, the same attitude that you embrace. Most Customers are not Audiophiles and only care about (sic) Music, MP3 is good enough. Alright Mr. Technobabble, then remind me again what qualifies an Computer Industry with an MP3 Technological Attitude to replace the CD? Thank God we aren't exactly hiring overachievers to accomplish this task! If you were an Employer, would you seriously hire these people? Isn't that exactly what you are doing tasking them to replace the CD? I'm sorry, but these people aren't simply qualified to do the job, not with their MP3 attitude. I would love to see them do your Taxes with their barely good enough attitude, you would end up in jail for a very long time.
The fact that a majority of consumers still listen to CD's as opposed to SACD/DVD-Audio was a value judgement based on a comparison of the Sound Quality of all three Formats. The slight increase in Sound Quality of SACD/DVD-Audio over CD didn't justify the huge increase in additional costs. Sounds like a value judgement based on Sound Quality comparison to me! It is the 800 pound gorilla
in the room, how can you possibly not see it?
People (or Computer Industry) who believe that basic quality of MP3 is more than enough, are simply not qualified to replace the CD on technical grounds, as well as on so many other levels! What qualifies them? Would you hire a 2 year old Child to be your Lawyer? Well your going to lose! Performance will always count for something, even if most consumers could give a farthing about it! That is certainly NOTHING to be proud of, certainly nothing to be shoving down the throats of others! I am just completely baffled how viraciously everyone argues against higher performance versus MP3, and still call themselves Audiophiles. They seek the destruction of Higher Performance Formats to eliminate the competition to their Lower Performance sacred cow. We have seen this before (ad nausium) with LP and CD. This is nothing new! You aren't fooling anyone. We know want you want to do with eliminating the CD Format! I don't think that you can be more transparent!
Pettyofficer - A lot of words with a little or no sense plus unnecessary name calling. Stop using, man.