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

Hey, I'm not trying to bash anyone.

I am not kidding you. I looked into computer audio thanks to your post, and I found goodwins high end selling fanless harddrives. and they cost $2,299 for a fanless unit, and thats before a dac. and that is what I mentioned.

So you mention you can BARLEY hear anything, that means you can hear SOMETHING. That means the noisefloor is raised, that means why even bother paying money to get gear with a superquiet noisefloor if your computer is going to make a BARLEY noise that ruin all my good intentions.

Well, for us who like to only hear the music we paid to hear, well then an option exists that cost's $2,299 for a fanless silent unit. Before DAC.

My computer is a laptop, and I only use it for internet porn and engaging conversation with folks like yourself.

so what?

Ahhh. A nicer change of mood to this thread thanks to Oakleys. A much welcomed respite. You guys were getting so serious.

Wow,
I am tired from reading all this. I think I will pop in a CD and relax :)

" For these people (who download mp3s), clearly convenience trumps quality"

Not true. The quality of mp3s is often quite good for the types of music that most people listen to even on a good system. I would be challenged to distinguish mp3 from higher resolution formats with most of the pop/rock type songs that I do elect to download. For tehse, it makes me wonder why pay more and suffer greater inconvenience for no reason. They also happen to be most convenient and more usable overall.

Its not the best, but does represent a reasonable compromise between file size and absolute sound quality. There are a lot of benefits both in terms of cost and utility with smaller file sizes when suited.

I would not recommend mp3 for classical music in general but I cannot say that I have even tried it for that so I really have no experience to base a judgement on, though it would not surprise me to hear differences there.

Fact is I have a couple dozen mp3 files I have downloaded and listened to critically and despite the usual variations in recording quality found with any format, I cannot honestly say I have heard a deficiency that I can clearly associate with the format yet, though I know these exist technically. The question is can I hear them? Don't know the answer to that yet.....

Lloydc wrote:

I am puzzled by claims that data from a hard drive equals data read from a great cd transport. Data has to get onto that HD in the first place.

Huh?

Doesn't data have to "get onto the CD in the first place" also? If not, where does it come from?

Take a trip through a recording studio and with very, very few exceptions you will see all of the music played is being recorded to a hard drive. If hard drives are the fatal flaw, then CDs inherit that fault.

If you listen to a playback in a recording studio, they are going to stream it from a hard drive, not a CD. The CD, by itself, cannot make that recording any better than what was on the studio's hard drive.

I've heard stunning music from systems with open reel, turntables, CDs and hard drives as the source. Implementation is the key (and money doesn't guarantee the door is unlocked.)

I like CDs and still buy them. It's still a great way to add music to my server based system. Their overall sales volume is down from several years ago but CDs will still be around for quite a while.

Ultimately this whole subject is once again about personal preferences. It is inevitable that opinions will vary widely, but just don't forget the parents of the music on that CD almost certainly include a hard drive. ;-)