[danielghofrani]

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well i for one refuse to buy crappy low quality downloads. if an artists want my money i want it on a CD

well why dont you purchase music from high resolution websites such as HDtracks ?!

 

[danielghofrani]

one thing to point out is CD's are limited to 16 Bit, 44.1 kHz..
why are still high end CD players and why do I hear that CD players sound awesome? they dont support todays high end resolution after all. 

 

[FallenAngel]

Sure, but CD's easily have enough fidelity and dynamic range to sound awesome - the loudness war simply compressed everything to all hell.  Also, "today's high end resolution" can be just as compressed and leave just as much shrunken dynamic range to be just as bad... simply at higher volume levels.

 

[shaggy]

I personally think that in the next ~15 years (hopefully even sooner) we will witness a dramatic increase in bandwidth and hdd space. This will open the market to mass distribution of high quality digital files and the ability to carry them around. I remember before I came to head-fi I used to always have with me a 16GB ipod nano and some crappy earbuds. Since I couldn't fit my entire music collection on such a small hdd, I constantly had to compensate between bitrates and deleting certain songs from albums that I didn't like as much as the others. Eventually I ditched all that, and now I almost exclusively listen to music at home, with every song in high quality (well, as high as available) at the touch of my fingertips. Hopefully sometime soon I can have 2tb in my palm, and some customs in my ears.   
 
For me, using cds and vinyl is simply inconvenient, and the selection is much better online than in any store. I'm also hoping that having digital media readily available will decrease prices because many manufacturing processes will be eliminated. This will also benefit the environment.
 
I notice many people hating on Monster, Bose, and iTunes on head-fi, but I personally don't have any beef with these companies, although they won't be seeing any of my money any time soon. When bandwidth and hdd space constraints become less of a concern, I can see high quality audio becoming very marketable. Imagine, Beats that sound like Ultrasone, and quick and painless downloading of a 24/96 file that you just purchased. Much better than using those obsolete cds, amirite?

 

[leeperry]

 

I personally think that in the next ~15 years (hopefully even sooner) we will witness a dramatic increase in bandwidth and hdd space. This will open the market to mass distribution of high quality digital files and the ability to carry them around.

You own a CD, you buy a physical object, you can rip it and sell it...and get half of your money back. Also, a CD won't be GONE once your HDD says goodbye. CD-DA is a great medium when properly mastered/dithered and decoded, don't shoot the messenger

 

[vrln]

As I´ve said previously, it´s never a better time to be into CD´s if you ask me. We can all thank Bittorrent and the mostly horrible top 40 charts for bringing down the prices... Just check Amazon, I wonder why anyone buys compressed digital files from iTunes etc when you can have the CD cheaper most of the time.
 
The digital file revolution is already here, but it didn´t go in the way audiophiles would have wanted (compressed overpriced files are the future). I doubt the average consumer would want FLAC files, doesn´t make a difference on iPods anyway. The winners are the CD buyers!

 

[sterling1]

Right now, HDTracks has appeal; but, SACD has stolen my heart.  It's  more attractive to me than computer audio, for a multitude of reasons. Thing is, we will all likely gradually embrace what's better from new stuff without having to abandon the technology we've  become comfortable with. Today's universal players seem to be a good idea. When outfitted with a usb input they can play just about everything, but vinyl, from any media source. Add a mulitchannel preamp/processor with network and wi-fi, and, I'd say, a music lover could be accomodated until the equipment itself could no longer be supported with repair parts.

 

[BluFalcon]

I still spend a lot of money on CDs.  Just yesterday I bought 4.  2 for myself and 2 as gifts. 

 

[gevorg]

CDs are not obsolete yet, but its just a matter of time since they're too cumbersome and fragile to deal with. Digital downloads have already taken over the mainstream music buyers and that what leads the market. CDs will be popular within HiFi/audiophile enthusiasts until it will be easy to download them in lossless format (HDtracks/etc are too niche and too small). I bet vinyl will outlive CDs in the long run, since you cannot make a perfect backup copy of a vinyl record.

 

[shaggy]

Quote:

 

I personally think that in the next ~15 years (hopefully even sooner) we will witness a dramatic increase in bandwidth and hdd space. This will open the market to mass distribution of high quality digital files and the ability to carry them around.

You own a CD, you buy a physical object, you can rip it and sell it...and get half of your money back. Also, a CD won't be GONE once your HDD says goodbye. CD-DA is a great medium when properly mastered/dithered and decoded, don't shoot the messenger

Well that's precisely same the system that most of us audiophools employ. However, I think that increased bandwith and hdd space should  eventually eliminate the inconvenient, physical aspect all together. Going completely digital will allow labels to drastically cut manufacturing costs and will decrease the negative impact on the environment. I think both of these points will be taken into serious consideration sometime soon.
 
It is indeed a sad day when your HDD says goodbye, but that's why you should always keep around a couple of backups. This strategy actually works quite well for a lot of things, including women.

 

 
Quote:

The digital file revolution is already here, but it didn´t go in the way audiophiles would have wanted (compressed overpriced files are the future). I doubt the average consumer would want FLAC files, doesn´t make a difference on iPods anyway. The winners are the CD buyers!

I don't see why everyone keeps preaching that "compressed overpriced files are the future". Once the need for actually having compressed audio becomes irrelevant, high rez downloads will become the new standard, and companies will most certainly exploit this in order to charge the average consumer the same type of rediculous prices for mainstream audio equipment that we headfiers spend.

 

[leeperry]

 

Going completely digital will allow labels to drastically cut manufacturing costs

Those lower costs never lower the prices...a crappy lossy album on itunes costs more than a brand new CD on amazon.
 
The nice thing about itunes is that you don't OWN the music you paid for, you own a licence...which you're not allowed to sell to someone else either. There is no deal possible w/ those ppl, they want it all.

 

[Redcarmoose]

With cloud file servers, one terabyte desktops drives, and a chance of USB sticks dropping in price the CD will be around for awhile! Heck they are still into tapes in some third world countries. The great thing about CDs are there size and ability to be stored away. There is also a security about them. We have all had friends who have their computers at the shop trying to recover those lost 3000 { bought}  downloaded songs! I now make eight CD "box set" DVD compilations so I have eight CDs of a band in my hand at once. So the music starts coming on as an alternate format on USBs or flash memory, and we have a choice? How many corrupted flash cards go down every year! Where do you play them. Most cars do not as of yet have USB or flash readers. The CD lifestyle is walking out to your car, ripping open the plastic wrap with your teeth,ripping open the plastic wrap with your teeth, getting he plastic wrap off one side with your teeth, rolling down the windows and playing that CD as you drink the beer between your legs! That's America!

 

[mibutenma]

If you really are a music fan I don't know why you would prefer some files in a yellow folder versus having the actual album,booklet,pictures etc...
And if you buy the album you can rip into whichever format/size/quality you want as well.
 
But personally I just like collecting,buying and owning albums pulling them off the self putting them into the cd player and enjoying them.

 

[shaggy]

Quote:

If you really are a music fan I don't know why you would prefer some files in a yellow folder versus having the actual album,booklet,pictures etc...
And if you buy the album you can rip into whichever format/size/quality you want as well.

Because I just want to listen to music, and not have extra crap lying around. You can also get the booklet and pictures as a pdf or image files too. 

 

[vrln]

Quote:

Q

The digital file revolution is already here, but it didn´t go in the way audiophiles would have wanted (compressed overpriced files are the future). I doubt the average consumer would want FLAC files, doesn´t make a difference on iPods anyway. The winners are the CD buyers!

I don't see why everyone keeps preaching that "compressed overpriced files are the future". Once the need for actually having compressed audio becomes irrelevant, high rez downloads will become the new standard, and companies will most certainly exploit this in order to charge the average consumer the same type of rediculous prices for mainstream audio equipment that we headfiers spend.

There is no real need for compressed audio anymore - just look at Netflix and others thriving with content that requires some major bandwith. Not to mention the huge harddrives every new PC has. Broadband penetration is already here, it´s just that high rez audio and the audiophile market in general is a niche one. There´s nothing pushing labels to record in "high definition" for the mainstream, quite the contrary in fact. Right now and in the future mainstream sound will need to be loud and compressed to ensure radio play and sound good on cheap Delta-Sigma DA chips in portable gear. Things are going to become even cheaper, there´s no way mainstream companies will be able to get the mass consumer market to buy anything "audiophile grade" with promises of high definition sound. To most people sound is just sound, it´s not that important where it comes from/how.
 
Trying to push high resolution audio with expensive gear to the mainstream is very far fetched in my opinion. Sure there will be high resolution audio stores in the future, and they will become more popular than they are right now - but their growth is nowhere near that of the mainstream digital future (iTunes, Zune and Amazon MP3). The statistics already show that high resolution audio lost, actually it was never even given the opportunity to fight (and won´t if you ask me)... But it´s a nice niche as is this entire Head-Fi community I don´t see there being a future any different of what we have now, except on a larger scale and even cheaper CD´s.