2. digital
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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
sebrof's avatar
sebrof
837 posts
 
"Look, I'm not out to "bash" anyone for doing whatever makes them happy. I simply wanted to know what makes one stick with a cdp considering all of the benefits of a hd/dac."
"I WAS SIMPLY ASKING SOMEONE TO EXPLAIN THE BENEFITS OF A CDP.....FOR THE TENTH TIME."
"Apparently Oakleys' computer has some sort of Pratt and Whitney aircraft propeller as a fan. You've got to be kidding me. I'm standing directly in front of my Mac as music is playing (with preamp muted), and I can BARLEY hear anything."

I love it when an OP writes "I just want to know, for someone to explain it to me" and then when someone gives their answer the OP posts "WRONG!!" Cracks me up every time.
Post removed 
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,432 posts
 
"I remember when tube gear was dead, deader than dead, by the 1970's. And vinyl was "dead" after the first (then awful) CDP's came out in the early '80's.

I still have most of my LP's now, & a tube pre-amp......I'm also REALLY happy"

nec·ro·phil·i·a (nkr-fl-) also nec·rophi·lism (n-krf-lzm, n-)

1. Obsessive fascination with death
mlsstl
1,440 posts
 
Tvad wrote:
Consider that you buy a music file, and your storage drive crashes. Consider that your back-up also crashes...

Consider also that Apple maintains control of downloaded music files....

With CDs, once you've purchased the disc, you own it forever, and given proper care and storage...
Lots of red herrings in this.

First, if hard drives are that flawed, then the world as we know it is in imminent danger. Every major institution in the world - banks, governments, hospitals, insurers, manufacturers and so on - store the vast bulk of their critical information on computers. And they count on backups to preserve that info.

And, Apple does not maintain control of your downloads. The current downloads have no DRM and Apple has no way to remove them from your computer or backup drive. Perhaps you are confusing this with the Kindle ebook story from last year.

In my particular case, purchased downloads are less than one-quarter of 1% of the collection on my server.

What happens when you lose CDs due to CD rot? What happens when your collection is stolen? What happens when it is damaged in a house fire or windstorm?

You'll have to buy replacements, assuming they are still available on the market. You don't even have the option of looking to a backup. And, if all backups for a HD user fail, he's now in the same boat you are. He gets to go buy new material.

Nothing is risk free, but hard drives are so cheap that multiple backups are a great option and can certainly give you favorable odds.

I certainly have no problem with anyone who wishes to keep their music collection CD or LP based instead of on a music server. However, I think we could do without the "Chicken Little" horror stories.
aplhifi
515 posts
 
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.

Sure! It is because a CD player is an "application specific" digital audio reproduction unit. The computer is not…..

Probably because you all know it's not.

I am sure audiophiles were as determined as you are when CD format was introduced (not to mention Hi-Rez formats such as SACD), supposedly being "much better than vinyl". To date, and to my knowledge, SOTA vinyl rig and some Pro analog machines are still extremely hard to beat with digital.

Hey, technological progress is great, especially when it offers a great convenience, but when the absolute best audio reproduction quality is required, the story is totally different. :-)

IMHO, as always!

Best wishes,

Alex Peychev
www.aplhifi.com
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