Sparky, I've got a pretty good starting idea of what you're hearing: my first exposure to the good stuff was Goldmund Reference -> SP11 -> D-250 -> tweaked Infinity RSIIb's
Frank
Frank
Sparky, I've got a pretty good starting idea of what you're hearing: my first exposure to the good stuff was Goldmund Reference -> SP11 -> D-250 -> tweaked Infinity RSIIb's
Frank
This is a surprisingly close vote, with all digital/mostly digital maintaining a slight edge. I suspect that if the same question were asked 5 years from now that this small divide would be much larger.
I think an interesting side-question would be the length of time one has been an audiophile and the degree to which they listen to different media. In other words, recent converts might find obtaining CDs a lot easier than LPs (though more and more are in print).
I think the vast majority of us here became audiophiles even before the advent of CD, which is why the current poll stats seem surprising to me. Although some may not be willing to admit it, I suspect that the increase in moving towards digital has a lot to do with convenience, and not just the improved quality over the standard Redbook CD from way back when.
I knew CDs were in trouble 2 years ago when I went to buy a CD and realized that CDs have all but disappeared from stores. If you want something outside of the current top ten albums on the charts, you will probably have to order it over the net.
And you are right, CD players will disappear from cars very soon. Technology has killed off the CD. They just aren’t necessary anymore.
Maybe if the tapetechnologie (tapeproject) could be made more convenient and be revived there would be a big audiophilemarket , vinyl is much more hassle and takes a lot of commitment /time to get right.
A start/ stopbutton is what most want
Car manufacturers have a huge motivation there. The laser has poor reliability in high temperatures which unfortunately a car gets subjected to all the time. Imagine how hot it gets inside of a car in a hot day -- way above even many industrial applications. Some manufacturers actually route some of the air conditioner there to keep the darn thing cool so that it doesn't fail during warranty period. Likewise the mechanical aspects of CD transport is highly subject to damage from all the vibrations.The in-dash CD player is going the way of the dinosaur, taking the audio CD with it.
Practicality, easier access, newer technologies on high res audio; are all contributing factors.
Turntables are the coolest to manually operate, and they are also the most complex ones to setup properly. And even then ...
Digital high res audio from downloading is where we are at now. For the masses that is.
(...)
Bob,
Are you joking? Any turntable is easier to setup than properly setting a music server. See our debates on music servers. And at less we had good protractors and scales - 99% or the rimes if we followed established rules we would have immediate success, even without tweaks.
Did you try to compare the number of existing true HiRez recordings available with the number of vinyl recordings that you can easily get?
I agree with you on the masses using MP3 and pirated recordings.
Keith, I think America is different from quite a lot of the rest of the world: in Australia and Britain CD sales in the stores are still very strong ...Strange, I must be living in a backwater then. We have two classical music specialists in town, as well as numerous other independent music stores. They all seem to be doing OK.
Steve Williams Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator | Ron Resnick Site Co-Owner | Administrator | Julian (The Fixer) Website Build | Marketing Managersing |