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Re: Is there an end in sight for expensive CD players?

You also need to keep in mind that a certain portion of the appeal of any piece of high priced equipment is exclusivity - a five syllable word for snobbery. There is also the visual design, or eye appeal, aspect to consider.

A CD player is simply extracting digital data. Once extracted, whether from a CD, drive, USB stick or whatever, the processing from digital to analog from that point forward is the same for all of them and quality depends on how good the DAC and the subsequent analog stages are.

Many people are coming to the conclusion that a computer based data server is a better method of sending digital data to a DAC. It certainly is far superior method of giving fast and convenient access to a broad music collection. That said, CDs will remain a convenient way of distributing lossless digital files.

I actually sold my CD player in favor of storing all my music on a PC in FLAC and play it through my Squeezebox/DAC combo. (I do leave the DVD player hooked up to the DAC in case I need to audition a CD before it is ripped, but if it is a "keeper" it goes on the server.)

Ultimately I think that will put some pressure on the makers of higher priced CDP's, but that money will just funnel toward fancier dedicated digital music server equipment. Gotta stay ahead of the Jones' you know.


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  • Re: Is there an end in sight for expensive CD players? - mls-stl 09:23:37 03/16/07 (0)


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