Where will audio be in 10 years?


In honor of CES and some other emerging trends in electronics, where do you see the state of audio in the next ten years?

I see the audiophiles and the "general public" with two different systems. The audiophile will have, similar to today, separate components that will probably incorporate a CD-like player using blue laser technology to produce higher rez audio and video on the same disc. All the separate components, including amps, speakers, etc. will be connected via one cable of some high speed variety (HDMI ?).

The non-audiophiles will probably have a fat looking "receiver" which will have an amp/preamp and a giant hard-drive device incorporated in one box. On that hard drive will be audio (MP5:-), hi-rez video and whatever else (games, pictures, etc) all connected to a flat panel TV, that doubles as the computer monitor, attached to a speaker system. Of course it is all integrated with the internet which is where you'll order your music and movies instantly, on-demand.

What do you see the future holding?
treyhoss
Probably very similar to today, socially. The gadgets will change, but there still will be audiophiles and the general public. The two groups won't homoginize, nor vanish.
I think someone will build a DAC to enhance MP3/X compressed data. Therefore, digital sources may change.

Hopefully recording engineers will figure out better ways to record music, video, and combined audio/video material to enhance our home audio/theater systems. Which of course will have way more speakers than any one room has today.

It will be interesting to see how DSP will advance over time. They are already making more advances recently than over the last ten years combined.
I think vinyl will continue to (re)grow.
Just better analog playback.
There are plenty of lp's out there, there are new ones every day, and they are retro and romantic.
They still offer the best.
Hell, most music is inherently analog.