Should Sound Quality of Computer Audio be improved

No assalt rifles, Devilboy; but, you are still "Going To Have To Pry my CDs From My Dead Hands"! Really, I kid; but has it seriously come to this? You are kidding, right?
"Solar Flares Aside"? Have you forgotten how extremely suseptible those FRAGILE magnetic Hard Drives are to large magnets? First thing to fry will be the Hard Drives during a severe enough Solar Flare. Power Grid will go after all of the Computers controlling it go blank! CDs being affected, I don't see it. CD Player fried, Power fried, these things can be replaced. Music Files stored on your Hard Drive...will...be...a...little...harder to replace. My Stump can tell me when the last severe Solar Storm was, just look at the rings. Radiation retards growth. Sorry,
my Stump tells me just how rediculously F-R-A-G-I-L-E those so-called "CONVENIENT" magnetic particle based Music Files really are. It is the Cassette Tape all over again. Let them sit around long enough, and the magnetic flux just bleeds right off of them. This is Physics, Math, Science, Entropy, and Experience- not crazy rants. Fragmentation is real, Music Files are "CONVENIENTLY" disposable Music Trash. Sort of like the disposable lighter, and the disposable cassette. So long as you have a steady supply of replacements- no problem. You lose that your screwed. Same Magnetic Flux wipes Hard Drive, will certainly wipe your Back-up Hard Drive. Whoaaa- two Hard Drives at once, how CONVENIENT! Don't you guys ever watch BURN NOTICE? Micheal sneeks into a hotel room, and wipes the entire memory off of a Laptop just by swiping it with a powerful magnet. How about the Computer Geek from THE CORE? F.B.I. is knocking at his door, he is trying to destroy evidence. He wipes the memory of multiple Computers by swiping them with a powerful Magnet. You guys sold this "convenient" LEMON to the American Public as a place to store their valuable Music??? I have a Stump you can hide under. Hate to be you if American Public ever finds out first hand. You two will have ALOT to talk about (Along With Microsoft). I will just be on my way. I will be busy looking at the pretty sky. I don't think that you will enjoy it as much. There has just got to be a special place in Hell for those who steal someone else's Music/ Music Format- you think? You will be so busy shaking hands with so many friends there, you won't have time to worry about it. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of Guys!

Petty......Really, what are you trying to convince all of us to do??? You know we are all happy in our computer worlds. Why can't you just listen to your umpteen formats happily and let us listen through our computers without feeling the need to bash computer audio and for that matter, all of us that listen through a computer. I just don't understand what you are trying to accomplish. Please write all of your rants to companies that can do something about it. We have all heard what you have to say, you've heard our how much we agree. Take it somewhere to make a difference and please stop bashing here, where we can't help you. Tim

Timlub- I don't know how many times that I have said it! Save the Silver Disk Format along with the Downloads. Ten thousand CDs being out-of-print, and no longer available.
Can you say "Last Nail In The Coffin"? Write to the Companies who are doing this? Forcing us to buy the Downloads by eliminating the CDs? Buying disposable "Convenient" Music Files, as if buying anything disposable isn't a Manufacturer Profit motivating exercise? Why don't they offer a Music File replacement guarantee if anything should happen to your Music Files? Is it because, like Thieves, they know where the money is? You would trust them with your Bank Account Number, along with your valuable Music? My OPINION is to keep CD (MLP, XRCD, DXD...etc) around so as to provide Consumer LEVERAGE on Sound Quality from all of these Downloadable "THIEF-DOMS". You want to throw away any leverage I might have, put all of my eggs in one basket of a single downloadable Audio Format, without any alternative, force me to take risk with my valuable Music, hold my breath for more high resolution download selection, and accept the elimination of any high resolution alternative from Silver Disk? You want me to bet the Farm on a few beans of "Soon To Be Released" Sound Quality? I say that I need some insurance. You say "Give it up, and bite the bullet". Is this what YOU are trying to accomplish? I am bashing Computer Audio, and you are bashing me for doing so. You don't know the difference? Take another look at that long list above. What is "CONVENIENT" about any of it? I see the Consumer being thrown under a bus of a profit motivated single Audio Format. Z-E-R-O L-E-V-E-R-A-G-E for the Consumer in Sound Quality. Manufacturer's can just mop up with ever lower Sound Quality for cheaper Downloads at an ever increasing price- boom "$$$PROFITS$$$"! Step down from being an Audiophile? No Sir, we don't agree at all! You are trying to help Manufacturer's do this? You are not helping me at all by throwing me under a bus. Yes, I am NOT afraid to stand up to you TO MAKE a difference. I am not stopping you from listening to Computer Audio. Wish that I could say the same towards me, and Silver Disks. You show me the necessity for doing this, and not once have you addressed it. Changing Formats exclusively, is a big move. How about explaining the necessity for it this time, if Sound Quality isn't the necessity? Profit? Certainly NOT the Consumers Profit! Format Competition, not convenience, is the Mother of Consumer benefit in quality. My bread is buttered on the side of Sound Quality, not sacrificing it for Manufacturer Profit/Convenience. How about you? Ahhhh...Nuts! Don't waste your time answering that! You are trying to dictate to me how I should be allowed to listen to my Music, no matter how well you try to sweeten it. WRONG on so many levels!!! I know it, and you know it- enough of the B.S.!

I do not notice any shortage of CDs to buy. You might have to look in places other than traditional store outlets, like Amazon.com, to find them though. Current situtation may be better than ever, assuming buying from Internet sources is not taboo. I can easily buy almost any CD I want at a touch of a button today. USed to be I had to travel all over creation for hard to find titles and success was not a guarantee.

What Mapman says is true. Stores used to supply with all manner of CDs. Some even had listening facilities. Then, POOF! it all went away, didn't it?

Appearances are deceiving but Amazon and sites that are dedicated to niche tastes are out there and very easy to access. Admittedly it was nice to peruse the rows of CDs and put on some headphones to listen. Doing it by PC isn't as convenient because you could see more at a glance the old way, taking it all in. You could roam around, continent to continent, genre to genre in an analog fashion. Continuous, varying intake is what we're wired to do.

Maybe some of us (is that you know who?) actually resent the loss of this activity, the natural task, the way it was. I know I do but I won't throw my hands up in the air and decry the situation. I've had my moment of grief when Borders shut down their rows of CDs and headphones. I'm over it.

Just more due diligence is needed to seek out what you want. That's all.

All the best,
Nonoise