Hi-Rez Highway

Posted by fitzcaraldo215 on June 13, 2008 at 18:53:39

In Reply to: RE: (strong)REVIEW: Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD Player(/strong) posted by Ric Schultz on June 13, 2008 at 15:49:05

Well, time will tell whether this machine and its creator company survive. I would not touch it with a 10-foot pole. I no longer believe after 50-years as an audiophile that we are going to get significantly closer to bringing musical reality into our listening space in the 2-channel world. I know there are still plenty of 2 channel devotees, but the numbers are in serious decline as are the salons, magazines, music sellers, etc. that cater to them. 2 -channel high end is a tiny niche in the consumer electronics industry, and the niche for $15,000 2-channel CD/SACD gear or the other high-priced stuff you mentioned is really, really small.

I think that the high end decline is largely because the industry has overpriced itself. They cannot get any economies of scale in production. The numbers are too small. That and competition from Ipods, home theater, etc. plus the obsolescence factor I mentioned previously do not paint a rosy picture for the future of industry as we know it.

Incidentally, I just read that Neil Young, a longtime, harsh critic of digital playback, has just decided to release 18 hrs. of his music for remastering onto 7.1 channel Blu-Ray, together with some incidental video content. He feels that 7.1 channel lossless sound "gets it right". This is only the beginning. And, I think the future of hi-res multichannel is very exciting.

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