The CD player is dead.......

Knownothing: Yes, my hard drive going to my dac sounds better than my $6,000 cdp ever did. No, I don't care about having physical media in my hand and yes, it's all on the shelf if I need to read somethng. No, I don't worry about hard drive crashing.

Fafafion: What issues EXACTLY are unresolved? What problems EXACTLY, Fafafion, are not solved yet?

I feel like a broken hard drive when I ask, once again, how is a cd player superior to a hard drive based audio system?

why not use both? i prefer to back up my music on hard drives and cd.s for extra confidence. and i like to make cds for varied listening in my car. do i have to carry a laptop to hear music in my car? i know i can use an ipod but there are times when a cd is just going to work. i still have hair thanks

Ok, you say "sell your cd player and embrace the future". Who do we sell it too, wouldn't those people who would purchase the used cd player be morons as well for buying a cd player? I will forward a copy of this thread to a friend who's computer crashed and he can't get his music, or much else. Here is the biggest reason why a CD player is better than a computer and a dac for me. Because I am listening to a cd right now and to get my computer hooked up to a dac etc. I would have to buy a bunch of new equipment to do what I already do. So in my house the CD player is superior, cuz I have one.

I would expect hard drives to sound better than a cd player, but haven't gotten around to making the move yet. I would still buy CDs and record them on to the HD, though. I like to have the backup. I wonder about copyright issues when you have to move to a new machine. I've heard of people having problems when they get anew iPod, or change from an iPod to something non-apple. I didn't catch the details but I know I've heard people venting about this. Maybe they just didn't know what they were doing. Could someone chime in and fill me on on the real story about this? I'd like to know.

This is an issue that obviously brings some emotion to the table.

The reality is the vast majority of CDs had their music contents transferred from a hard drive. Perhaps some old ones were transferred directly from an analog source through a ADC without a stopover on a hard drive, but I imagine those are few and far between.

If there is any significant difference between a CD and hard drive based playback system, it is a matter of implementation as opposed to any theoretical advantage one way or the other, IMO.

Consumer CD players have been on the market longer and sold in far greater numbers than hard drive based systems so have the advantage of being more familiar to users and more settled as a consumer product.

Some years back I did some serious comparison between a HD and CD based system and satisfied myself I would be losing nothing in making a switch. I would also be gaining great versatility in terms of accessing my fairly large music collection. Now, neither my main or second system have a CD player and I don't miss it at all. Only my computer audio work station still has CD, tape deck and turntable capability and that is primarily used to get material onto my hard drive.

As for HD crashes, yes that can happen. However, backup is far easier for a hard drive than any other format. CDs can rot and scratch, LPs can warp, get moldy and are easily damaged. Backups for those are not nearly as fast and convenient. (I actually keep two HD backups with one off premises.)

The nice thing about this hobby is people can pursue it in whatever fashion makes them happy. I've found what works for me and have no urge to go back.