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CD format war and resultant music players

Anybody cares to speculate what's the next audiophile music media going to be now that SACD and DVD-A don't seem to get anywhere?

Audiophile market is such a niche market that the general public don't have the ears to understand as to why we are so fussy. However I do suspect that this high-definition video war will actually reach a preferred choice. Everybody likes movies and TVs. The widescreen HDTV business does take off. Perhaps the music equipment people would piggy back onto whatever video media format that wins out. The SACDs and the DVD-As have more memory space to store music data than your regular CDs. So would these high-def video media storage.
svhoang
rar1's avatar
rar1
1,811 posts
 
SV:

"Perhaps it would only take 2 versus 5 years for the audio chip to fall into place."

But who would care? Yes, SACD was an improvement over Redbook CD, but not that major and not to the point that I was willing to own a duplicate music library. At the time that I purchased my SACD player five years ago (SONY SCD 555ES), I did so because I needed a new CD player ... otherwise I wouldn't have done it ... well, the good price helped also. To date, I have maybe 10 duplicate SACDs/CDs.

It would have to be one hell of an audio chip to get me to bite. The promise of additional video information is meaningless to me ... I prefer listening to my music, not watching it.

As I said previously, perfecting the hard drive interests me ... but because it would result in a hardware purchase, not a software one.

Regards, Rich
mitch2
4,212 posts
 
""Perhaps it would only take 2 versus 5 years for the audio chip to fall into place.""

"But who would care?"

Just a thought, or two. First point is the speed at which computer related technology advances, and second is a glimpse of the (not too distant) future where audio recordings could be downloaded onto a server or small storage devices of some type that are portable and connectable to home systems, boom boxes, I-pods, HT and automobile systems and the buyer is charged electronically at the time of purchase. I doubt we will be buying discs forever. In the meantime, I am not selling my CD/DVD player.
musicslug
430 posts
 
1. a well-engineered CD often sounds better than a SACD and there seem to be more and more well-engineered CDs. Barring some serious marketing (Beatles on SACD for example), I think the high-rez formats will go nowhere...
2. hard drive storage linked to good DACs seem to be the logical next step. And why not? Computers/chips keep getting better and cheaper while good CD/SACD players are still extremely expensive.
3. vinyl STILL sounds better than all the digital formats and is alive and well!
rwwear
2,887 posts
 
I haven't heard any CDs that sound better than their SACD counterparts. I have heard CDs that sound much better than their DVD Audio counterparts.
svhoang OP
31 posts
 
Well then, would somebody be willing to talk about where real audiophile equipment manufacturers are at with computerized music. I am not talking about mp3, ipod, or any mid-fi companies. I am talking about, if such exists, of people at the caliber of Levinson, Meridian, Linn type. I am the traditionalist into disc players, preamps and amps, thus am unfamiliar with exotically new technologies. It would help knowing about the technology and how far on the horizon might it be. Thanks.
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