Are Disc Players Dead?

Question: How do ones and zeros on a cd sound better than ones and zeros on a hard drive? As I said on a thread I started a while ago, I think people who haven't embraced the server/dac method don't want to spend the time transferring their collection or are scared of computers. Before you guys attack me on this, take a look at other threads regarding this topic and you'll see a lot of people list the same reasons.

When will the audio folks start discussing about "cloud" music? Servers are such old technology now. Talk to twenty-something interns and it's all about "cloud". Guys, you are so old...and so am I :-)

I agree, using servers and hard drives is so like 2010.

Where did my cloud go?

Clouds may be the way to go but I hope they put enough silver iodine in them to keep them around. I can just imagine everything being on a cloud and then, poof! Where did it go? This is all in jest but I remember someone 'loosing' the entire 18th century in the original "Rollerball" movie. Everything was on a giant server and everyone had access to it but someone felt it best to forget the Enlightenment.

Cloud is useless when your internet connection goes down. And yes it happens.

Vinyl will always be around because to some, it represents the ultimate in sonic quality. It is a major pain to use, and very expensive these days to outfit with hardware (TT, RIAA phono preamp, and the LPs themselves). It has fallen down the priority scale because of the convenience factor of digitally based media.

I'm stuck at the CD stage myself, prefering CD discs to thumb drives or WiFi connections. I still like to be able to pull a jewel case and view the cover art, and still look at the concept of an "album" as a related sequence of sonic experiences. Not a digitally selected set of random top 40's hits. I have Direct TV music channels for that kind of listening, and I don't do it on my high end audio system.

Plus the direct digital route is fraught with other problems. Just go to the computeraudiophile site and read about sonic quality losses from digital files being sent from common PCs or Macs. Apparently lossless digital isn't as perfect as many would lead us to believe. Plus, ever have your computer go down when playing a sound file via USB? The resulting screech will tear your ears off.