Why CD players will never be dead

hi steve:

i suggested that a test be constructed between a cd player of my choice versus a digital front end of your choice. i did not
suggest comparing transports.

i would conjecture that your design philosophy diverges from my audio preferences.

you may recall that i visited your room several times when you exhibited at the st. tropez.

"When I look at the shelves of CDs it allows me to browse in a different way than any computer graphics can give me. I'm the sort of listener that seldom knows what I want to hear until I browse.”

That’s very understandable Irv. Why not just leave your CDs displayed as they are; then you can browse any way you want.

I'll wait for on demand streaming downloads to mature into a viable option. No way, never in my lifetime will I rip 1000's of cds onto a hard drive. Till then I will continue to enjoy rotating cd players of different sonic merits. Modifying each to my satisfaction.

Mr. Tennis - The problem with comparing my USB DAC with your CD player is that everything is different, the interface and the DAC. My DAC even has a volume control, so it would replace your preamp. It's not fair really. It will make your CD player sound like a boombox. This is an award-winning front-end that got best of show from TAS for the last 2 years at RMAF.

A more fair comparison to see how computer audio compares to optical disc would be to compare your CD player as a transport to my USB converter as a transport, both driving the same good DAC with the same S/PDIF cable.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Reb - Here is what I think of on-line streaming music: It will probably be a rent as you go basis, just like streaming movies. It will also be limited in bandwith by using compressed lossy formats, so the quality will suffer. I dont want to pay each time I listen to a music track, particularly if it's not master tape quality.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio