Will digital amps make analog amps obsolete?

I was in in a high end stereo store yesterday to look at the Merician 861 processor. He had the thing hooked up to a pair of DSP8000 speakers. the digital feed goes directly to each speaker. Each speaker has a built-in digital amp, designed just for that speaker. Sounded great. It did not sound $40,000.00 better, though.....

I'm with Clueless - analog is history. I'll probably be selling my current system and all of my vinyl at a garage sale this summer...

Jetkitty,where are you located ? I'm interested with all your vinyls.

Drat! And just when I was starting to enjoy my tube system. :^)

Didn't they ask the same question when transistors first came out? "Will transistors make tube amps obsolete?" Here it is 40 years later, and tubes still rule. So, I guess I wouldn't hold my breath on digital amps taking the market by storm. After all, we're still waiting for them to make good on their first digital promise, "Perfect sound forever". Hasn't happened yet, after 20 years. So I'm even less likely to expect much from their second digital promise.

They will win a lot of fans. I've been running both push-pull and SET's for the last 6 years. They were both great sounding and great fun. They were also expensive,hot, and somewhat tweaky. My PS Audio, HCA 2 does a great job driving my maggies with out the above mentioned hassles. It doesn't have the old downsides I remember of SS - etched treble and electronic haze that I used to hear even with the best SS amps of 6-7 years ago. There will always be great tube amps and tube amp lovers, but there are more than a few tube guys out there who are giving digital amps a try.