adorshki said:I don't think it'll be dead for a while, because there's a lot of audiophiles out there like me who still prize the quality they're getting from their traditional systems. My Sony CD player has a magnificent pre-amp and I've actually heard a couple of CD's now that can actually outclass 99% of my vinyl, and I'm one of those vinyl purists!. I haven't heard anything to compare from a hard drive storage system yet, or maybe the real culprit is the sound card, you know what I'm saying. But I'm a tech dinosaur so there very well could be stuff out there I'm just not aware of. I know when my buddy plugs his Ipod into my system it's "pretty darn good" but still not quite as good as the vinyl or CD when comparing the same material. In that case I attribute it to the mp3 file format.
Hey, I still have 1000+ LPs, and a nearly forty year old Thorens turntable (and yeah, my wife thinks I'm nuts, but what does she know? She likes Air Supply!). I still love all my old records, and play them a lot. Most of them I prefer to the CD reissues of the same titles. I also like the format of the LP, and the nice big artwork you get. Can't say that about CDs, that's for sure. And that is why most anything that has been released in the "CD age" I'd rather have as a digital file. I also prefer the m4a mode of compression to the mp3. I generally rip as 256kbs m4a, and to my 51 year old ears (that have been to a lot of rock concerts), they sound pretty much indistinguishable from the non-lossy source, even on my pretty high end stereo. In my experience 128kbs mp3 files sound acceptable on a boom box, but that's bout it.
adorshki said:I think it's just the fact that so much CD distribution is internet driven that's diminishing its retail presence. Tower on line is an example. Their flagship store used to be just a couple of miles from my house. I'd love to be able to browse the covers before I buy but there's not enough people like me to support the retail overhead.
I think the whole business model of selling music has changed, and the music industry just refuses to accept it. They can't understand why young people won't buy an album that has two or three good songs on it, with the rest of it being filler. Kids these days don't buy music like that, nor do they want CDs at all, and for better or worse they're the future. The RIAA better get with the program, or fade away just like newspapers are doing these days.
Sadly, people like us are a dying breed :shock: