Buy a hi-end CD player/transport now?

The "blurb" in Stereophile was a small review in Sam Tellig's February column if you want to check it out. Sean
>

Ncarv and Sean give good advice. But I think that regular ol' CDs are going to be THE dominent music format for years to come. Cheers. Craig

I took the plunge and purchased a Cary 303/200 player with some of the same concerns that you seem to have. I listened to a few Sony SACD players and, IMHO, they did not come near the sonics of the Cary on standard red book CD's. There are many companies, Meridian, Krell, Accuphase, and Levinson come to mind, that are producing amazing CD players that compete in the Cary price range.

What I know is that I have over 1,000 CD's and expect to purchase and burn many more because of my love for music and the components that make it happen. Despite our obsession with the hardware and software involved in the music delivery process the majority of people could care less and go with what they know. If I am correct it was only recently that CD sales surpassed prerecorded tape sales in the United States. It will take quite a while before another medium becomes popular. I would place my bet on DVD because I know many more regular consumers that own a DVD player already and the DVD-A medium has that base of potential clientle that do not need to purchase additional hardware to use the product.

I am not sure I follow Drewfidelity's comment. Do all DVD players play DVD-A?
Rob

From my experiences and some good friends experiences SACD and DVDa doesn't have much to offer on a high end set up over redbook cd's so who cares??? If SACD catching on means that people will dump there collection on the used marker I will jump on the savings and enjoy my regular CD's. YMMV.
Tim