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Dealer needs input, next wave of gear?

This may strike some as awkward, but some dealers are people too. We are just trying to read the "tea leaves" like regular audiophiles and make decisions on what products and lines to handle. Rather than listen to the industry pitch I would really appreciate your insights.

We are a client driven custom system designer/installer using only the high end products. For a number of years the question of what to do with large CD collections comes up. While we all accept their are no "high - end" multi-disc solutions we are still confronted with the questions as many of the clients engage us after they have already obtained collections of 200, 300, 400, or 1000 CDs. Previously we have cobbled together soltuions involving daisy cahining some Denon 5000/5001 together or similar such gear. While this may have been "best you could do with current technology" solution it feels as though we are on the horizon of another solution.

In the last year or so we took on a project to begin building "audio servers" - meaing a high end pc/server, dead-silent cooling, and massive hard drive/storage array, high end audio processing card; in order to fill the need for managing larger CD collections. I would grade our "success" as modest at best.

Now we are beginning to see "audio hard drive" components address the market with something more than a passing oddity approach. We are currently engaged in field testing one such unit. (inappropriate to name brand here). Of these type of products this one actually seems viable as a high end solution to this dilemma of ours.

Framing my question to you: Does it make sense to offer real audiophiles a single component sized horizontal piece that holds hundreds of CD titles with all the expected editing features and high end digital output stream (to go to your outboard processor) and have a separate high end SACD/DVD-A transport for the cutting edge audio performance, thereby preserving our CD collections effectively while auditioning the new formats being produced?

All opinions welcome! :-) Please be kind to a dealer of limited mind. And a Pledge to honor no soliciting to anyone who is so moved to comment on this idea. Thank you for your time, Paul
sdrconsultant
mfkeleher
146 posts
 
I need a format which will work in my car as well as at home. I'm wont move to a new medium until it is available in both locations at once.

My biggest single investment in audio is my CD collection, and I'm not likely to rebuy a significant portion of that.

DSL isn't available here and many other locations, so downloads of software will have to be over normal phone connection, and throughput is an issue.

I remain pissed that the cost of production for the new delivery formats is going down, while the cost of product is rising. Why should I have to pay twice the price of a tape, for a copy protected dvd with built in useability restrictions? The software providers have to change their approach to maximize acceptance of any new medium.

I wont be investing in any narrowly implemented propietary technology.

I've been hearing processor upgradability promises for years, yet I haven't seen much of it. Without a more universal set of interface standards, allowing upgrades within a box by other than the primary manufacturer, I wont believe the promises.

In short, I'm fairly pleased with the sound currently available. It's a mature technology, and we are benefiting from nearly two decades of evolutionary improvement. I'm not prepared to leave it behind without being convinced that it is for a truly universal new standard, supported by software producers, software sellers, and hardware manufacturers.

But that's just my opinion.
lugnut
1,190 posts
 
Living in the Boise, Idaho area which is close to Sun Valley, I can assure you that sales of the Linn CD 12 and the whole house home entertainment system is brisk in that ridiculously wealthy market area. Audiophiles either love or hate Linn but they have done a stellar job of designing exactly the type of system you describe.
emster
75 posts
 
I too would agree that there is a real market for this type of product. Not everyone needs all the flexibility possible, but would really value a linn type product at a less stratospheric price point.
kana813
956 posts
 
How hard is for an audiophile to get up and change a disc or arrange a storage rack to hold your CD collection?

As Lugnut points out, hard drive systems appeal to whole
house built-in crowd who want high quality backround music.

If you're interested in that business, hook up with a contractor that builds upscale homes and go for it.
budrew
467 posts
 
I wouldn't want a single component that is both a disc player and a hard drive, but I'm a fan of the idea of storing music on hard drives simply for pure convenience. For example, in my home office I'm setting up an iBook as a music server. I can access plenty of CDs (ripped as full-length AIFFs, not MP3s) in seconds. But I would like to be able to run it through a processor, an Electrocompaniet DAC for example. For high fidelity I'll always play the CD or SACD, but when I want convenience the music server is king. You can ask if there's a market for it, but in my imagination it's a guaranteed part of the future of audio. CDs are just digital data stored on discs; why not store them on hard drives which have the benefits of immediate access to hundreds or thousands of redbook files or DSD files.
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