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Topic ClosedFinal demise of CD players?
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Darious View Drop Down
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Points: 246 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 20 2014 at 11:55
Originally posted by Catcher10 Catcher10 wrote:

What do you mean by "High Fidelity Pure Audio discs"? I assume you are referring to SACD and DVD-A, which essentially can hold the same type of resolution like 24/96, whereas a standard CD can only hold 16/44. Both SACD and DVD-A can accommodate 5.1 surround sound for those that want that type of music listening experience. SACD can also hold the standard redbook layer so a traditional CD player can play them, hybrid SACD's have two layers.
Hi José. Yeah, those "high fidelity pure audio discs" are actually blu ray discs, but audio only, with no particular visual content. Very much similar to DVD-As, to be honest.
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Catcher10 View Drop Down
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Points: 17845 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 20 2014 at 10:48
Darious
What do you mean by "High Fidelity Pure Audio discs"? I assume you are referring to SACD and DVD-A, which essentially can hold the same type of resolution like 24/96, whereas a standard CD can only hold 16/44. Both SACD and DVD-A can accommodate 5.1 surround sound for those that want that type of music listening experience. SACD can also hold the standard redbook layer so a traditional CD player can play them, hybrid SACD's have two layers.
 
I don't have a SACD capable player, main reason is the lack of a catalog of music that I listen to, same goes for the hi-rez files like 24/96 or 24/192 downloads, most of these catalogs are very heavy to Jazz, Pop and Classical music....the only progressive rock I see is Yes, Pink Floyd and maybe Rush just a couple albums of each, hardly a catalog, plus they are very expensive for a non-physical purchase. I did buy Yes CTTE as 24/96 couple yrs ago and really found nothing too exciting about it. I also bought a Diana Krall at 24/192 and that is pretty special, but reading on many music forums these hi-rez downloads are hit and miss, as somebody still has to make that transfer to their servers and well...things can happen that seem to degrade the quality, assuming it was there in the first place.
 
The demise of the CD player? I struggle with that as turntables never went away and I don't think CD players will go away either, they are inexpensive to produce and the margin return is pretty high I understand.
There actually is a segment of very high-end CDP that is enjoying a robust business right now, people with extra cash to spend will always upgrade. An Oppo BRP are some of the most popular players and sell very, very well, since they are able to play any disc configuration and the reproduction is very high end return for your money.
 
In general I agree that the whole downloading/streaming process should continue to grow, will it bury the physical CD, I don't think so, CDs are so cheap to make and press and distribute and again the high rate of margin return will keep it around well passed your and my lifetime probably.
 
Good topic.
 
 
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SteveG View Drop Down
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Points: 20604 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 20 2014 at 09:16
There will always be an upscale market for Cd players (transports and DACs) as long as people are willing to $hell out the money. Remember, high end turntables never went away during the CD craze.
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Dean View Drop Down
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 20 2014 at 05:13
Interesting take on the subject Darious. It is a brave man who would make predictions on hardware format since quality has never been a deciding factor in any format-war. Personally I do not believe that the price of standalone CD players will change, there will simply be fewer models to choose from as the market contracts - the transition from LP to CD did not result in a drop in price of quality turntables. 

Blu-ray is a Sony proprietary format, its market position is the result of two significant factors that they learnt from Betamax, Audio Minidisc and DAT: 

1, to ensure success of a new format you needed to control the media recorded onto it, to this end they undertook a rapid series of expansion and acquisition into that industry in the 1980s to become the largest music company in the world and the largest picture/movie/film entertainment company in the world. 

2, to ensure early adoption of a new format you need to flood the market with hardware capable of playing it. To this end they incorporated blu-ray into their best selling product, the Playstation, and sold that hardware for considerably less than it cost them to manufacture, the major contributory factor of that price vs cost disparity was the cost of manufacturing the blu-ray transport. Blu-ray transports and blue laser diodes are still more expensive to produce than DVD or CD transports and red-laser diodes.

Unfortunately the PS3 did not dominate the market, meeting strong competition from the WII and XBox so the transition from DVD to Blu-ray has not been as predicted or expected. Eight years after the launch of Blu-ray DVD is still outselling Blu-ray by something like 4 to 1 - and like CD, that market is contracting while streaming formats continue to grow.
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Darious View Drop Down
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Points: 246 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 20 2014 at 04:20
I am expecting that prices for some even great CD players will start falling down any time soon. Suppose you have a decent "dacamp" (an amplifier with a DAC built-in). You go and pick one of them "What Hi-Fi 5-star product of the year", namely less than £100 Sony blu ray player with a FLAC capable USB. You link this blu ray player with your dacamp by the mean of the digital coaxial cable. Stick your USB full of FLACs in, and you can start enjoying, more and more often better than CD quality, music. There's no need for levelling the device as nothing spins inside of your USB. Unless you wish to use your blu ray player for CD playback, which would not be entirely nonsensical idea, actually. What am I trying to say is that highly regarded, inexpensive blu ray players, with their power supplies located outside the box, with built-in FLAC capable USBs, digital coaxial/optical outputs and lack of displays and other outputs are not only a threat to standalone CD players but before all, I would dare to claim, a better option for music playback at all. CD Baby offers now FLACs on titles like Skye by Monarch Trails or even the rarities like L'enigma Della Vita by Logos. You pay less than for CDs and you start enjoying your buys immediately and in a quality that starts to better that of CD. As an additional bonus of using blu ray players instead of CD players, you are able to playback one of them High Fidelity Pure Audio discs, which not only often better SACDs and others in quality, but also significantly in price tag. Selling England by the Pound on blu ray audio disc is only £11 something off Amazon. Now check the prices on SACD for this title and prepare yourself for the shock! CD, SACD and DVD audio are now on their death beds. Long live blu ray audio and high resolution files! The Hi-Fi future does looks bright.

Edited by Darious - October 20 2014 at 04:53
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