The CD player is dead.......


I am still waiting for someone to explain why a cd player is superior to storing music on a hard drive and going to a dac. Probably because you all know it's not.

Every cd player has a dac. I'll repeat that. Every cd player has a dac. So if you can store the ones and zeros on a hard drive and use error correction JUST ONCE and then go to a high end dac, isn't that better than relying on a cd player's "on the fly" jitter correction every time you play a song? Not to mention the convenience of having hundreds of albums at your fingertips via an itouch remote.

If cd player sales drop, then will cd sales drop as well, making less music available to rip to a hard drive?
Maybe, but there's the internet to give us all the selection we've been missing. Has anyone been in a Barnes and Noble or Borders lately? The music section has shown shrinkage worse than George Costanza! This is an obvious sign of things to come.....

People still embracing cd players are the "comb over" equivalent of bald men. They're trying to hold on to something that isn't there and they know will ultimately vanish one day.

I say sell your cd players and embrace the future of things to come. Don't do the digital "comb over".
devilboy
((I will Avoid discussing the 'problems (possible) problems:))
Then, the issues are: ease of use: Computer, (once set up): Fantastic, sorting, checking out stuff, endless stream of music instant change of selection.. WOW. great.
For CD, with a five disc changer, decent, put them in and plays for about five to six hours. can change while another is playing, putting away pretty easy.
For LP: every fifteen to twenty five minutes have to change sides, BUT on positive note, more immediate, I can decide on next choice 'in the moment' Putting Lps away is most difficult of three. Lp provides the most actual interaction with the product. The large sleeve, notes, tactile feel, cleaning... (ANY of the computer uses for checking out info on computer is available to anyone anyway, if you have a computer, computer as music server is not neccessary for this.)
For purchasing music: Most folks have a big supply of LPs, or CDs and the options of buying or putting the other formats into the computer.
A BIG positive for computer is for new music buyers. More so than folks with large (huge) LP or Cd collections.
I would probably never spend the time to PUT all the music I own in other formats into a computer. If I bought into a computer system, it would become a third alternative way to play music. I might put in favorites, but not the 6,000 LPs, or the 3,000 CDs. I would probably go for a computer based add on 'if' hi rez downloads became a good choice for new music. (I would avoid old music in a hi rez format due to faking the hi rez to make a new sale of the same old low rez pretending to be hi rez. (like the Blu Ray movies with just DVD resolution)
The one thing that comes up in my mind is the format of interaction:The computer is all keyboard and screen. The Cd, or Lp has a tactile component.
Anyway, I was not just against computer based music server. i just worry about failures (which HAVE been a problem in my past just for software, let alone thousands of music items... i would just DIE if I had even $5,000. worth of music i lost for some reason..
(I currently have about $30,000. worth of ((used prices)) music in physical formats.)
One thing seems to be forgotten - my CDs can travel wih me in the car, to friend's house, etc. I'll be damned if I'm going to tote my HDs all over the place...

-RW-
Maybe this is the way I should have asked the question:

If you had no digital source of any kind and had X amount of dollars to spend, what would you buy: a cd player or a computer/dac?

Going by your responses, I guess most of you will still buy a cd player.

I posted this on "Digital" on purpose. I knew that if I posted it on "PC Audio", then most people would agree with me and that way I wouldn't learn anything. I'm trying to get a different perspective on the subject, so thank you all for your input.