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CDs were such a fad. Glad to see that Linn is sticking to better technology like turntables!

Nov 23, 09 - 01:01 pm Comment from: John

Interesting.... I had no idea CD players were even sold anymore!

LOL

@ Sarasota. My '70s vintage LP12 still runs today. Sounds awesome.

But Bill Gates predicted that DVD and CD will be the future for Movies and Music distribution..... LOL, It's really funny to see that everything Bill Gates predicts always results exactly the positive.

Apple stop using "floppy drives" years before PC's because they knew that will be obsolete very soon. They stop using the CD/DVD drive in the MacBook Air because again, no much people use the CD or DVD (in a Mac, you don't need to reinstall the all OS and programs every 3 or 6 months).
They never adopt the Bluray because is will become obsolete before it get popular.

Nov 23, 09 - 01:14 pm Comment from: Cubert

"A future headline: "More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: The CD player is dead""

And "iTunes Store's play button" ← "Steve Jobs' foresight"

Nov 23, 09 - 01:20 pm Comment from: iPhoner

Haven't used, or bought, a single CD since the day I got my first iPhone over 2 years ago. I did buy over 800 iTunes tracks though. I looked at it like I've bought a lot of songs numerous times; Record, 8 track, cassette, CD - now I'll never, ever have to buy them again. Justified it for me.

Wow. I'm older than 8 track. My kids laugh when I tell them about it. What? You push a button to skip to the middle of the next song?

Bbbbbbut what about blu-ray? I thought it was supposed be be the future and so cutting edge–perhaps just another fad?

Nov 23, 09 - 01:38 pm Comment from: Yours Smugly

It's stupid to think the CD will die. CDs were supposed to kill the LP format. And what happened? LPs aren't dead, and CDs will keep on living like them.

Until most online music stores start selling music in LOSSLESS format (or better... 96/24 anyone?), I will happily continue to buy my CDs, thank you.

And even *that* is assuming everyone in the world has and will continue to have internet access (not so much). Ergo, at least at this point, it would be a big mistake for any company to completely abandon physical media. It's not going away until its functionality can be completely and reliably replaced.

Gil - @ Sarasota. My '70s vintage LP12 still runs today. Sounds awesome.

My NAD 533 plays well, but it dies need a new stylus.

Yours Smugly - It's stupid to think the CD will die. CDs were supposed to kill the LP format. And what happened? LPs aren't dead, and CDs will keep on living like them.

Probably not as SACDs and DVDs have better sound in the same physical format.

Nov 23, 09 - 01:57 pm Comment from: ecrabb

I still buy CDs. I can buy a CD from Amazon for little more than an album from iTunes, save the CD for archiving, and rip to the format du jour.

The only tracks I've purchased from iTunes are the occasional single or a special recording unavailable elsewhere.

The only way I'll quit buying CDs is if either A) They become unavailable, or B) The studios/producers start selling a superior product for download (as opposed to the inferior product available now).

With no physical format in the picture, we could start getting studio-quality 96khz/24-bit audio files for playback on audiophile equipment. Of course, since most people have crap equipment to listen to music on, there's no demand for anything but the crap audio files we get now.

@NeoVoyager
"Until most online music stores start selling music in LOSSLESS format (or better... 96/24 anyone?), I will happily continue to buy my CDs, thank you."

Couldn't agree more, having worked with audio files from 44.1/24 all the way up to 96/24, I think the average consumer has no idea what they're missing.

I want to see all you digital streaming fanboys show the rest of us how to re-sell a movie you purchased online. I'll wait here while you show us....

thanks, I'll stick to my physical, and resellable, media.

Apple sounds this death knell,not these asswipes.

Nov 23, 09 - 02:22 pm Comment from: iPhoner

@ i love bluray

I understand that people consume media in different ways but personally I've never purchased a single DVD in my life. Unlike music, I never have the desire to watch a movie more than once. When you already know whats going to happen whats the point? I will occasionally re-watch a favorite movie that shows up on HBO but I'd never pay for it again. When I rent a movie through iTunes or Blockbuster, I have no need to re-sell that movie as I didn't pay $20 (or whatever they sell for) to get the movie in the first place.

Rent - - view - - delete.

and LINN is a tiny company that influences nothing. They sell to dweebs with more money than auditory acuity.

@ NeoVoyager,

"Until most online music stores start selling music in LOSSLESS format (or better... "

Lossless, by definition, means that there is nothing lost from the original.

Better than lossless must mean that the artist came along and added another track to the original recording that improved the tune.

iPhoner,

Do you listen to music only once? "You know what's going to happen."

Nov 23, 09 - 02:45 pm Comment from: iPhoner

@Hint Hammer

In my post I stated, "Unlike music", .... I never have the desire to watch a movie more than once." (See the "unlike music" part?)

My nephew has a DVD collection of over 300 titles. At about $20 per title - thats $6000 worth of DVD's that my sister says, "He never watches them, he just seems to like collecting them."

@ Al:

OK. You got me. Good one.

However, I think most understood my meaning: ripping a CD in "lossless" is not the best sound one can get, since in most cases the recording has already been compromised the instant it was pressed to CD. If we're going to be unshackled from the CD, we may as well get BETTER than the limited 44.1K format can offer.

Nov 23, 09 - 03:00 pm Comment from: macslut

@Yours Smugly

"It's stupid to think the CD will die. CDs were supposed to kill the LP format. And what happened? LPs aren't dead, and CDs will keep on living like them."

It's a different definition of the word "dead". LPs are certainly a dead format by the definition that you can't buy them in the top music stores, most titles aren't released in LP format, the average stereo system doesn't have a turn-table, and the average person doesn't buy one in a given year or even listen to one, etc...

Sure, LP has a cult following and there's a niche market for it, but the overall numbers are trivial compared to other formats.

CDs are going to die the same way. Sure there may long be a contingent of people who want a physical format, but the day is coming (soon) when the top stores won't carry them, the sales will be trivial, etc...

Again, it's not pure death like 8-Track, because unlike 8-Track, CDs and LPs were a successful format that lasted many years, and there are unique characteristics that make CDs and LPs desirable for a subset of consumers. Additionally, CDs are upward compatible into DVD and Blu-ray players which will be around much longer as video will take longer to transition.

I have 1000 CDs. I guess I should sell them now while the going is good.

Nov 23, 09 - 03:10 pm Comment from: Zune Tang®

I'm not worried. Microsoft and an unnamed partner are collaborating on the next great physical media for audio delivery. The first players will be desktop models with portable versions available in a year or two.

A persistent rumor is the players will sync directly to future generations of Zune, xBox as well as Surface devices for a truly integrated experience. Innovative DRM authentication is handled through a new type of cable and port. Cupertino, start your copiers.

Your potential. Our passion.™

Nov 23, 09 - 03:16 pm Comment from: Mr. Reeee

I have dual Linn amps... bi-amp, bi-wire, baby!... They make very nice gear, although, I'm slowly upgrading all my electronics to Naim.

CD players aren't going away anytime soon and as others have mentioned, physical disks aren't going away anytime soon, either. If you value better sound (or video) quality, there's simply no non-physical alternative at this point.

I'd love to see a new audio format with less compression than CDs. Too bad DVD-Audio never really got off the ground, but SACD is a reasonable step, I suppose.

For those who say they can't hear the difference between a lossless track and 256 AAC (or even 128 and 256), you've either never heard a decent hi-fi or been to a concert where you're listening to the actual instruments being played and not hearing instruments being played through a giant PA system. There's a HUGE difference!

If you're satisfied with lo-fi or mid-fi gear and sound quality are welcome to it.

I have one song I got from the iTunes Store.

Linn is simply admitting that they can't make enough money on single-format players. Watch them continue to make multi-format disc players.

MDN take is 100% wrong. Not an audiophile, are you?

An audiophile may stream a hi-fidelity source file, but not compressed audio files. Most likely that will be AIFF, FLAC, or maybe Apple Lossless. As old as the AIFF (CD red book specification) is, it remains vastly superior in audio quality to the iTunes store compressed files or files from any other MP3 / MP4 distributor. That is undisputed fact.

The only audio formats commonly available today that offer higher fidelity than a CD are:
1) live performance
2) Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD)
3) DVD-Audio (DVD-A, which is NOT compatible with most DVD players)
4) the very first play of a vinyl record on a perfectly tuned turntable - after the first play, it's all downhill from there.


Perhaps you didn't realize that audiophiles are not interested in convenience of portability and small file sizes? True audiophiles don't download compressed music no matter how easy and cheap it is. They will support the CD and other true hi-fi standards for many years to come. Continued sales of Vinyl, SACD, and DVD-A (though a tiny proportion of overall music sales) prove this. These sales also prove how few audiophiles there really are in the world. There are, however, a lot of people with tons of money to blow on expensive electronics.

As Mr Reeee says, LINN "make very nice gear"

High-end hi-fi (and that would include Naim) were always going to come to this impasse with the CD, because there's a ceiling on how much you can get off one of those disks.

I love my CD collection ~ the advantage is: compact; instant track access; no audible scratches and ticks and pops, such as you get with the superior-sounding LP.

But as turntable-maker Townsend himself said way back, the sampling rate of the CD was way too low. Transient sounds like percussion are passable, but sustained notes played on, say, a violin ~ well, they're not really very convincing, not if you really listen. But you tell yourself, those are violins ~ because they sound a lot like violins.

Anyway, LINN are actually offering their own download service. Check it out here:
http://www.linnrecords.com/linn-downloads.aspx

@S

try http://store.acousticsounds.com/c/35/Cartridges

Nov 23, 09 - 03:55 pm Comment from: NCIceman

Bah, I still like buying something physical. And the fidelity of a cd is good enough for me.

Nov 23, 09 - 04:19 pm Comment from: GregoriusM

"FIDELITY" doesn't sell anywhere near the songs they used to.

Nov 23, 09 - 04:56 pm Comment from: YoYo

It's just too bad that when you bounce the mix from ProTools to 44.1k CD master, it seems like half of the sound quality disappears.

Nov 23, 09 - 05:46 pm Comment from: Predrag

As a musician, I can completely relate to what NeoVoyager, Mike and others are saying. No current audio format (with the exception of the failed SACD or DVD-A) can reproduce music in adequate fidelity. However, today, this is irrelevant.

The biggest music retailer in the US today is iTunes, by a comfortable margin. In other words, iTunes sells more compressed downloads than Wal-Mart, or Target, or even Amazon sell uncompressed CDs. And I am one of their customers as well.

There are very very rare occasions when I would want to sit down in a proper listening room, turn on good quality gear, put on a well-engineered CD into a high-end CD player and listen. Last time this happened, Soviet Union was still run by Gorbachev.

There are people who enjoy listening to music in as pristine conditions as possible as a hobby. These are the ones wishing for 96kHz/24bit uncompressed audio piped through tube pre-amps and monster cables. The rest of the world finds 256kbps AAC perfectly fine for their daily music consumption. Heck, it is still significantly better than FM radio, which used to be the predominant medium for music consumption of the masses.

It is already clear that the CD is on the downward spiral. So, how long will it take for CD to reach the same level of deathness as the LP? Perhaps a few more years (3-4) for the developed world, a bit more for the developing world.

As for the Blu-ray, it still has a reasonably shiny future (same as DVD had at the end of last century). Pushing 4MB over internet is trivial, even over a 256kbps ADSL line (already available in most of developing world); doing the same with 8GB is another matter altogether. DVD and Blu-ray will live strong long after CD had died the way LP (or audio cassette, or MiniDisc) had.

Just a thought here.... the cd bought commercially is a pressed disk. Meaning its manufactured that way, not burned.

This means it should last for 10-50 years if handled well. So, while I like buying iTunes for convienence I like buying cds for the back up side. Amazon has cheap resellers for all kinds of cds , sometimes for little more than shipping and handling.

Just a thought. PSl Linn was described as a niche player in the market. Those drop out all the time.

en

Nov 24, 09 - 01:44 pm Comment from: SamTana

Definition of audiophile: someone more interested in listening to the recording than listening to the music.

Nov 24, 09 - 03:02 pm Comment from: ecrabb

@SamTana,

No, an audiophile is someone who knows that an accurate recording is crucial to hearing the music the way the musician(s) played it and they way they intended it to be heard.

With that out of the way, since you took the liberty of attempting to define me, I'll now do the same:

Definition of SamTana: Someone obviously content to listen to the music, even if it doesn't really sound like the music. See also, "Tin ears", "Ignorance is bliss", and "bigoted."

Nov 25, 09 - 11:15 am Comment from: SamTana

Wow. Struck a nerve there, didn't I?

I've never yet heard someone who claims to be an audiophile talk about the music, just about the quality of the recording and how much money they've spent on kit to reproduce it, and how much better their system is than yours.

As for "how the musician played it" - most musicians are happy to just get their music played at all. They really don't care whether it's on a $200,000 system or on a transister radio.