New decade, end of the CD?

[/QUOTE]

Just a bunch of lies and misinformation IMO. Either you have never listened to a properly ripped and encoded MP3, or you're just too credulous and believe everything the audiophile camp is saying (and most of that is motivated by justifying the enormous amounts of money they put into their gear).
[/QUOTE] Yeah. I agree completely.

^ rip a song in mp3 (high bitrate, properly ripped and encoded) and flac ... then give the two files to a friend and ask him to burn them to an audio CD, just labelling them A and B. I bet you won't be able to tell A from B.

 ^ hear hear, physicality should not disappear, if people wanna be able to simply download or stream that's great, but don't rob those of us who like to see, touch, smell and taste our music

well at least if I get a bluray player I can still enjoy me old DVDs

For what it's worth, my local Costco seems to no longer carry CD's at all.  Now they never had a great selection, but they did have the usual country and pop best-sellers, and were usually reliable about-catering to us old farts (new Dylan albums, new Rush albums, etc.).  Anyway, what used to be the DVD section is now the Blue Ray section, and what used to be the CD section is now the DVD section. 

The download culture will ruin the age of physical music.  It is already moving remarkably fast, and soon, all but digital media will be obsolete.  It will be a sad say when one must stare at a glowing screen to hear the new progressive rock album by "..."  I'm just glad to see that there still remains faithful businesses and artists devoted to the superior physical media.

Rottenhat wrote: they've never heard it.

Just a bunch of lies and misinformation IMO. Either you have never listened to a properly ripped and encoded MP3, or you're just too credulous and believe everything the audiophile camp is saying (and most of that is motivated by justifying the enormous amounts of money they put into their gear).
[/QUOTE] Yeah. I agree completely. [/QUOTE]
If I rip for immediate burning I do flac...if I rip for storing on an iPod i rip mp3 VBR at 320.  I can still hear a difference... though it doesn't destroy the entire enjoyment.  It does in fact very much show its head when the album is an old record...say...an old Jazz album with a lot of white noise and soft brushes on the snare.  Then it becomes an obvious challenge...or in old Orchestral recordings.

In any case...if you're going to listen albums with a lot of studio work in them compressed to perfection, then it probably doesn't matter for you.  I personally have Anglagard's - Epilog on vinyl along with Return to Forever - Romantic Warrior because of their minimal studio production.  On the other side...I'd never buy an album such as Flower Kings on vinyl...CD is fine, and ripped mp3's still sound fine.

The only bad part I see would be some of the classic older bands fading from existence because the download sites wouldn't pick them up.

and what of classical and jazz listeners?  A significant piece of the market made up of people who may not be into the download thing..they'll want their CDs, and they'll complain if they start disappearing

on the other side, a friend who runs one of the better-known Prog sites says this was the first year he started getting more downloads than CDs from the labels that send him stuff (which he wasn't happy about)

yeah but CD's died technologically speaking at least 5 years ago ( Even though I am a personal fan of the media)

Edited by Chris S - June 19 2010 at 22:30