I was just told, while shopping for a new CD player for my wife's '07 Toyota Corolla, that in early 2011 CDs will no longer be produced, and players will soon not be made anymore either. If CD players (both auto & home) will no longer be made in the coming years then how are we to use our ever expanding music collections? I was told that downloads to iPods will be the ONLY source of music in the coming years. Compressed MP-3 files will be the norm. That makes no sense to me at all! I asked what will be the new format, because I have switched formats twice already, (from cassette to DAT to CDR) and was told that there will be NO MORE FORMATS for home recordings. Only computer downloads. I was told that movies would be the same way in five years and that the new Blu Ray format will also be obsolete. I asked about portable hard drives and was told that they will not work with the new car audio systems. I guess I am looking at the end of my high end car system.
CDs will be produced for years to come. If not for the US market, for foreign markets... Just because we've gone to iPods doesn't mean that CD Tech won't be around elsewhere. You'll be able to find CDs for a long while...
However, I do see the "norm" becoming HHD based "media", rather than physical media.
I have always been a stereo freak and used my tape recorders (both cassette and DAT) as my primary source for collecting and trading music. I always figured that once I got my DATs archived to CDR there would be another format change and I'd have to start all over with yet another format, but I am shocked beyond belief at the idea that there will be no further formats for home recording. I collect audio-only CDRs of live music, and don't do the FLAC thing because they won't play on my high-end car system and that is the primary place that I listen to music.
All of here are stereo-freaks too. Most of us however have gone to some kind of computer based playback. You can find a ton of USB driven PC>Stereo devices, as well as soundcards with SPDIF and/or TOSLINK outputs... A few of us use DVD Audio through a DVD Player... I would still use CDRs, but my Stereo got hit by lightning several months ago... Now its the dreaded iPod at work for most of my listening...
As for CDR Audio vs. FLAC. I'll have to be honest in my opinion - you were short-sighted in doing CDR Audio rather than FLAC. You could always burn your own CDR Audios form FLAC, but you could always keep the FLACs on the shelf for later use - like now... I started out CDR Audio, but when I realized I could lose CDRs and not have a way to get them replaced, it became a necessity to go SHN/FLAC... I have about a 1000 Data CDRs with SHN/FLACs in my Archive... I'll probably never touch them, but they are there...
That being said, it has become VERY easy to get SHN/FLACs through BitTorrent... You could probably replace your entire collection in a couple of months...
I guess I just don't understand why people are so wrapped up in this MP-3 thing. I think they sound like crap, but it seems that a lot of people can't hear the difference. Have we gotten to the point where quantity rules supreme over sound QUALITY???
Quantity rules... I have a 1tb HHD at work with enough MP3s on it to play non-stop for over 3 months, without repeating a single track. Considering its a loud work environment (computer lab) and I'm costatnly being interupted, Quality isn't as important as having access the "that" song "right now".
It makes me want to buy three or four nice CD players and maybe a DVD player or two and stick them in the closet for the coming years. What are we going do, as live music collectors? Will my music collection that I have spent so many years working on be unusable?
I would invest your money in external hardrives and a way to go from your PC to your Stereo. I've been looking at 24bit USB DACs lately, but I also have a Squeezebox that i've never used... If I were you, I would look on CraigList and buy a stripped down Desktop PC, get an MAudio Audiophile 2496 and a video card that does HDMI. Run the video to your HDTV, and the MAudio to your Stereo. As you need, turn on the TV and switch to the PC HDMI input, then use your PC like your music player through the Stereo. You could use a player like Foobar to access external HHDs and have multitudes of 24/96 FLACs available for use through your stereo...
Terry