PC-Audio vs. High-end CD Player-GAME OVER

Game over? not hardly -- but, the game has definitely broadened and will continue to do so.

If anything, vinyl popularity has increased -- perhaps due more to us dinosaurs or those with collector mentalities, but when done right, analog rules! Perhaps it's just a niche market but a very sizeable one.

CDs aren't going to just disappear either. Hell, they've had a bigger footprint than the 33 1/3 LPs ever had. No, they'll continue as well but certainly and ultimately relegated to a niche market as well.

The real question is what will be the primary means for distributing music in 5 years? 10 years?

Comparing CD to Vinyl is not an accurate analogy by any means. All of you are forgetting tape. 8 Track, DAT etc...Where is it now?

The only thing missing now is a credible place for people to download DRM free Losslessly encoded files online somewhere. Then we can really have this debate. I am sure the record companies will hold on to that power for dear life as long as they can. But eventually, it will change, and CDs will be about as popular as tape is today.

I am not saying it will all be hard drive based..Where it is stored is anyones guess. Could be HDD, could be SSD, could eventually be holographic storage. But one thing is for sure, it will most likely move towards a computer/server based set up for most. The reason being, is there is NO difference in sound quality when the files are lossless and the DAC is designed well. Like all of Gordon's DACs.

Until you've listened to one, you can't say a word about it. I have owned MANY high end CD players, and can say with confidence there is NO sonic reason to miss the CD sound, or deal with the inconvenience anymore.

Until you've listened to one, you can't say a word about it. I have owned MANY high end CD players, and can say with confidence there is NO sonic reason to miss the CD sound

I am actually DYING to A-B one! And BTW, what MANY high end CD players mean? Can you please list them?

, or deal with the inconvenience anymore

That is more like it! Many thought they wouldn't deal with the inconvenience anymore and sold all of their vinyl for CDs. Now they regret it.

What can I say; this entire PC-based audio rave is, once again, not based on audio quality but on convenience. It is unbelievable! Do you really think that maximum can be obtained from a Noiseball Audio? Not in my book! But it seem that the importance on audio quality is very low here!

Regards,
Alex

Pop Pop fizz fizz oh what a relief it is.......

So exactly what are you planning is the great benefit of this new set up of yours? Compared to listening to good old CD's?