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

Tvad wrote:

Consider that you buy a music file, and your storage drive crashes. Consider that your back-up also crashes...

Consider also that Apple maintains control of downloaded music files....

With CDs, once you've purchased the disc, you own it forever, and given proper care and storage...

Lots of red herrings in this.

First, if hard drives are that flawed, then the world as we know it is in imminent danger. Every major institution in the world - banks, governments, hospitals, insurers, manufacturers and so on - store the vast bulk of their critical information on computers. And they count on backups to preserve that info.

And, Apple does not maintain control of your downloads. The current downloads have no DRM and Apple has no way to remove them from your computer or backup drive. Perhaps you are confusing this with the Kindle ebook story from last year.

In my particular case, purchased downloads are less than one-quarter of 1% of the collection on my server.

What happens when you lose CDs due to CD rot? What happens when your collection is stolen? What happens when it is damaged in a house fire or windstorm?

You'll have to buy replacements, assuming they are still available on the market. You don't even have the option of looking to a backup. And, if all backups for a HD user fail, he's now in the same boat you are. He gets to go buy new material.

Nothing is risk free, but hard drives are so cheap that multiple backups are a great option and can certainly give you favorable odds.

I certainly have no problem with anyone who wishes to keep their music collection CD or LP based instead of on a music server. However, I think we could do without the "Chicken Little" horror stories.

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.

Sure! It is because a CD player is an "application specific" digital audio reproduction unit. The computer is not…..

Probably because you all know it's not.

I am sure audiophiles were as determined as you are when CD format was introduced (not to mention Hi-Rez formats such as SACD), supposedly being "much better than vinyl". To date, and to my knowledge, SOTA vinyl rig and some Pro analog machines are still extremely hard to beat with digital.

Hey, technological progress is great, especially when it offers a great convenience, but when the absolute best audio reproduction quality is required, the story is totally different. :-)

IMHO, as always!

Best wishes,

Alex Peychev
www.aplhifi.com

However, I think we could do without the "Chicken Little" horror stories.
Mlsstl (Reviews | Answers | This Thread)

I'll address this.

First, with the issue of hard drive crashes. They certainly do happen. I should have expanded this to also include other issues. I can tell you from personal experience that I have had an Apple MacBook Pro completely crash. Luckily, I backed it up before it crashed, but nevertheless some data was lost that was generated between the back-up and the crash. I had the same thing nearly happen a second time on a newer MacBook Pro within the past three months. It required the replacement of the motherboard. Guess what? Doing that makes the computer look like a completely new machine to the Apple iTunes Store. All the files and apps I had downloaded from the iTunes Store had to be repurchased if I still wanted them.

Second, if you're going to attack with the Chicken Little defense, then you ought not serve up a Chicken Little scenario of your own, specifically:

What happens when you lose CDs due to CD rot? What happens when your collection is stolen? What happens when it is damaged in a house fire or windstorm?

CD rot...every CD I have purchased, including some dating back to 1983, all play perfectly. I have never lost a CD due to CD rot.

Theft, house fires and windstorms all apply equally to downloaded files stored on equipment on one's home.

If I had the hair to comb over I'd still keep my CDP until the cost of the Qsonix comes down. As good as computer audio is, there's another post somewhere about just how bad they can sound and how a Hackintosh is the only way to go.
And once you've heard the Hack, you'll never go back....

The Qsonix supposedly has all the benefits of computer audio and none of the drawbacks but that $7000-$10000 buy in cost is out the question for me.
Computer audio is still growing and in its infancy and much too costly for most of us to take the plunge. What you have right now will be antiquated and in need of updating both software and hardware wise before you know it, if you are still chasing the dragon, which we all are. There is no 'end game' with computer audio, its just another step.

Add my age and comfort level and total lack of knowledge for all things computer based and that's my take.

Mlsstl - You're right. Nothing is 100% safe. I also know that backup Hard Disks tend not to fail when they are not powered. I have two backups - total of 3 1TB drives. Each costs $99 and is dead silent (no fan, heavy metal case). Somebody mentioned 5 hard disk crashes in 4 years. I had 4 PCs in last 23 years at work with no failure.

Quality of computer drive doesn't matter (many CDPs have standard Phillips CDM12 computer drive anyway). CDP has to read data in real time and cannot fail when sector is not readable. Tiniest scratch along the disk longer than 0.1" (4000 bits) makes disk unreadable. Because of that CD uses instead of regular Reed Solomon error correction code Cross Interleaved Reed Solomon that INTERPOLATES incorrect data. My computer program MAX rips CDs as data going hundreds of times to the same sector, if necessary, to get proper checksum. Once I get this on the hard drive quality never changes while CD is getting more scratches and interpolation. Is it (interpolation) audible - not to me. Amount of improvement is most likely not very significant (if any) but it is not worse than CDP.

Tvad wrote: "Theft, house fires and windstorms all apply equally to downloaded files stored on equipment on one's home."

Yes, but I keep one of backups at work. It would be pretty difficult to make copies of 2000 CDs and keep them at different location.