Linn Abandons CD Players

Mofi,

I'm with you on this one. I am not necessarily against new technology per se, but this very issue really struck me just today. My wife and I are out of town visiting her family this week for Thanksgiving and we are going to do our Christmas "gift exhange" this week while we see them. We went shopping today and were looking for Bob Seeger's new CD for her brother when we stopped at a Best Buy. The "music" section was literally 1/6th its former size and most of that was downlaod iPod stuff. What few CDs they had (no new Seeger CD) were clearly older Top 40 stuff.

Sadly, in my lifeftime, I will have have witnessed the almost complete extinction of the physical medium of music (other than the niche and used markets). I couldn't help but feel like I lost an old friend.

While new technology does produce some incredible stuff, I can't help but feel like computers and the Net are reducing human physical interaction so much that it won't be long before you will simply have an "app" on your iPhone for an "orgasm" and you'll never have to leave your house or interact with another human for anything.

Now where's my remote?

CD packaging was a disaster for the consumer from the beginning and has only gotten slightly better over the years. Too small, hard to remove seals when new, jewel boxes crack and break, etc. I will not miss CD packaging for the most part. 33 1/3 vinyl is the medium that got the packaging most right.

Whatever physical mediums survive or come about, I hope they decide to just package them in larger 331/3 like album covers for those willing to pay a premium for packaging. That is my hope.

The problem for vendors like Linn regarding players is that it is becoming almost impossible to justify the expense of high end CD players when music ripped to a hard drive and played back via server, controller, and DAC provides all the sonic benefits that most anybody could require.

When a company that has produced a CD player that mattered in the last two to three years decides to give up CD players then that will be news. Linn hasn't had anything that was worthing caring about CD wise since the CD12 10 years ago. This is simply an announcement that confirms what we already knew, Linn can no longer produce a reference CD player.

to all of the skeptics: do yourself a favor and audition a HD-based system. you can keep your CDs (and fondle them all you like), but those same CDs, when properly downloaded to a HD (using software that pulls all the digits off without any errors), will sound better played through a good USB DAC (and the hi-rez recordings you'll be able to play will sound WAY better). HD systems have the best of both worlds: extreme convenience and great sound - and it won't take audiophiles very long to figure this out.

I agree I would rather have a tangeble product in my hands. I am sure downloads will be better in resolution, but then you run a risk of hard drive failure. I guess that you can have a back up, but I would rather go to my shelf and pick out an LP or CD and play it. As far as Linn abandoning the CD players, my thought is that Ivor is pushing his new DAC and digital storage product. My local dealer has told me that Ivor is adament that this is the future and it sounds as if he has bet the farm on this new product. As stubborn as Ivor is, I would assume that he once again is trying to guide the market rather than satisfy it. I am sure some CD players will be rare, but I doubt they will ever go away. Didn't we hear about 30 yrs ago that the LP was dead? Seems like it has a stronger heartbeat now than it did then. I guess that maybe the 8 track is dead and the VHS and Cassette is on artificial resparation, but they are slow to die. And I am getting slower to adapt as I get older. Maybe because I already have vinyl and cd's and just don't want to change. But....