Linn Abandons CD Players

"None of this is ideal. Buying a physical disc is a lot more convenient."

I agree. There is a lot of data to move around even with redbook CD format if you have a large collection, as many here do. Higher res sources are even worse.

Storage is cheaper than ever and network bandwidths continue to increase, however, I do not see the time to soon where physical storage media like CD/optical discs will become completely obsolete.

Given all this though, I am already highly skeptical of the value of high end CD players these days and I think the trend will be towards fewer and fewer of these. Of course, there will always be some high end, very expensive, boutique item CD players bandied around to those who still care. Just fewer and fewer down the road even in comparison to today.

The Redbook CD will be around for a long time to come. Obviously new formats such as digital downloading will carve their proper place in the market. Quality of downloaded music is improving as is the education by the public to its use. That said to many consumers both casual and audio orientated fans still have a desire for physical media and will not abandon said physical choices. Redbook CD after storming to huge success by the 90's will obviously see its market share dwindle. But it will hold a place in the market arena. The Vinyl LP was said to be dead some 10 years ago and today it has re-carved a popular and desirable place in the music market place. No it will never regain the sales numbers it had in the late 70's and early 80's but the LP record enjoys its new found place among music fans.

Digital downloading though convenient and now can be had for better audio quality has its warts too. Small library of choices as compared to the CD and the older analogue record and even cassette tape libraries create and sold over the years. It also has the worry of being lost or corrupted via a hard drive or flash drive failure. This will cause great troubles to those who only use it as their medium. What owning a physical medium offers to the user is the ability to keep control over the storage and safety of content as well as the ability to upload onto a server based system if they wish and even an ability to readily without much hassle back up copies they own be these CD,LP or even the audio cassette.

So no the physical medium we know as the CD will not be fading away anytime soon, but will have to accept its market share place to be reduced as other choices offer themselves to the consumer.

BTW, if you want a spare copy of downloaded audio files, you can always burn them to recordable CDs on most any computer so you have that as a spare (also convenient for playing in the car).

They say that Music Servers sound better than Redbook CD. What they don't tell you is that you have a 50/50% chance of screwing up the sound, especially with downloading and system compatability issues. Music Servers and Music Files remind me of the old proverbial "Putting all of your eggs in one basket" proverb! You better not drop that basket! Once the Music files are gone, you are not going to get them back! If the original Hard Drive is falible, so is its backup! The most reliable back-up is a nice, hard optical disk or LP!

I'm all for downloads instead of physical digital discs. Haven't had a transport for over a year. But that is because I rip CDs and play back from hard disk. What scares me is what a poster descibed above about going into Best Buy and seeing 1/6th the number of CDs. Downloads are OK if at CD resolution (16/44.1) or greater, but most are not offered at this resolution. If the major labels move to downloads only, but offer only mp3 quality, then audiophiles are screwed. Niche web sites like 2L.no, our old CDs, vinyl, and tape will be our only sources for at-least-CD-resolution recordings. So, keep the CD around until all downloads are offered at at least 16/44.1.