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How much longer will CDs be made?

I "need" to justify spending $5000-$7000 for an outstanding CD player that will work well with my Spectral/MIT system.
My wife would prefer I buy a new flat panel HI DEF TV and Blu-Ray for movies and have money left over.
She says the SonyXA9000ES I use is perfectly fine for music.
She feels downloading HD music is imminent and figures I won't listen to my CDs when I hear the increased quality of Hi Def music downloads. She's comparing the improvement to Blu Ray movies over DVDs.
Personally, with the DVD-A & SACD demise (which I find sad)
and the exponential growth of lo-fi players I no longer know what to think.
Will CDs continue to be made for at least the next 5 years?
All comments welcome.
psacanli
shazam
205 posts
 
I think people will always want the physical, tangible object to hold. There's something about putting on a disk of your favorite artist (digital or vinyl) and flipping through the booklet or lyrics. It helps create that emotional bond with music so many of us love.

Will that format continue to be a round object that spins and streams music? Maybe, maybe not. But if I had $5,000 to $7,000 to spend on a source, I'd definitely spend it on more than a CD player that I would want to replace in two or three years.
thymanst
35 posts
 
The only CD's I 've played the last two years were into my mac mini to rip them to lossless files - I'd be surprised if I used a CD player to listen to music again... I've got my mac mini hooked up thru a 42" plasma and with Itunes I can play whatever I want instantly and random shuffle music if I dont feel like choosing -
bongofury
1,160 posts
 
I favor your wife. The big box retailers are devoting less and less space for them--a sure sign of death. Many are turning shelve space to DVD and computer games.

I would fully explore DAC and downloadable music or look at integrated computer gaming environments like the Sony Playstation 1 or 3 where Sony is investing hundreds of millions in technology R & D (computer gaming will hit 35 billion in sales). For $40, you get an audiophile grade CD player with PS1 and a great Blu Ray player with SP3.
vegasears
1,173 posts
 
Vinyl, up until around 1960 was High Fedility Mono format, not stereo. Stereo Vinyl recordings became popular during the 60's and there heyday lasted until the late 80's. Maybe 20 years may be a magic number.
dbjain
34 posts
 
I was a CD listener until I re-heard vinyl on my sound system. I have not listened to a CD since. The definition, clarity, details, accuracy on a decent pressing sounds better to my ears than any CD player can reproduce.

On top of that, I was talking to an audio equipment technician who said that in his experiments, a ripped CD in wav format played through a dac will sound better than through a CD with a transport because the hard drive as a transport has fewer vibrations.
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