Quad cog rot

[Filterlab]

They will one day, this all happened in the early 80s with CD, and there's been one or two CD players sold since then. Computer based audio is the future, most have already accepted it, now the audiophiles have to come round.

[Mike Reed]

Well, I'm baffled!. Claims are being made for computers as 'the future of hifi' (or words to that effect).

I suppose one will need speakers (or cans).
I suppose one will need good amplification.
I suppose some form of pre-amp will be required.
How will one play one's L.P. / CD collection? (Or obtain radio broadcasts; or listen to decent TV sound; or ditto with videos or w.h.y?)

How does one cope with control when the computer is in a different room, on a different floor?

Having still not come to terms with CD presentation/sound quality vis a vis vinyl, I really cannot conceive the idea that the computer will ever be a replacement for an audio set-up. Ancillary to, maybe. Replacement? NEVER

[Filterlab]

I suppose one will need speakers (or cans).

Yes, but one needs those whatever the source is.

I suppose one will need good amplification.

Yes, but one needs those whatever the source is.

I suppose some form of pre-amp will be required.

Yes, but one needs those whatever the source is.

How will one play one's L.P. / CD collection? (Or obtain radio broadcasts; or listen to decent TV sound; or ditto with videos or w.h.y?)

LP: Use a turntable. CD: Import the disc to a computer. Radio: Use a tuner. TV: Use a TV. Video, that died ten years ago so DVD: Use a DVD player.

How does one cope with control when the computer is in a different room, on a different floor?

Move it, they are portable.

Having still not come to terms with CD presentation/sound quality vis a vis vinyl, I really cannot conceive the idea that the computer will ever be a replacement for an audio set-up. Ancillary to, maybe. Replacement? NEVER

Never said replacement, said "future". You may wish to listen to a proper lossless set-up before eschewing it though, it's VERY different to a CD player despite the source being an imported CD. You're right, it is another source, but one that firmly destroys CD and equals vinyl albeit in a different way.

[shane]

now the audiophiles have to come round.

Why?

[Filterlab]

Why?

Eh? To stop the format being needlessly bashed by those who are unwilling to try it. Whether they choose to use it or not is neither here nor there, however it cannot be ignored. The same happened with CDs and they were accepted as an audiophile format, so why not computer?

Nobody is forcing audiophiles to choose, but nobody is forcing them to ignore it either.

[shane]

CD was accepted because of massive marketing by one of the world's biggest and most powerful industries, not because it was better. Plenty of people are now happy to accept that trendy old vinyl is better in many ways than CD, but they wouldn't have dreamed of saying so in the eighties when the received wisdom was that vinyl was a dead duck. Here we are now saying that the whole lot will be replaced by computers, but it's no more true now than it was then.

My Squeezebox is a natty little gizmo and sounds a bit better than my old Arcam CD, but it's hardly groundbreaking, and my wife won't use it because she can't be bothered to wade through the menu structure searching a datatbase of 10,000 songs just to find James Blunt, so it doesn't get the vote from the non-audiofile, and I still think my vinyl sounds better.

[Filterlab]

...Here we are now saying that the whole lot will be replaced by computers, but it's no more true now than it was then...

But nobody is saying that, what is being said is that computer based audio is a legitimate audiophile source if it's done properly. Vinyl will never be replaced (and I agree it sounds wonderful!) but CDs as a playback format may be replaced, but as a data carrier CDs are required to import to a computer.

I don't think there will ever be a definitive audio source that caters for everyone, but there is another serious contender now, one that's likely to topple CD and live alongside vinyl.

I agree with you on the Squeezebox, interesting but hardly audiophile.

[Ashley James]

I'm sure the whole lot will be replaced by computers and self contained hi fi systems likes ours and fairly quickly too. It's happening now.

If you buy a Macbook and plug your LP12 straight into the mike input, having first downloaded Audio Companion, you can apply the RIAA curve, record the music, logging each track separately, you can reduce clicks, pops and surface noise and then store it in iTunes where the tracks can be labelled, you can evenadd the album artwork and play everything from a handset in either iTunes with Cover Flow or Front Row. Your precious record suffers no further wear and you could even sell it if you aren't sentimental.

And you have 10,000 radio stations, online record stores that will play 30 second samples, you can soon rent movies and buy TV programs and you can stream to up to five rooms and control remotely with an iPod Touch.

People are already doing it at an accelerating rate.

Ashley

[shane]

Yes, computer audio is a legitimate source, and potentially a very good one, but it's just another source for the audiophile to choose from; that doesn't make it "the future". For the audiophile, the future will be a choice from vinyl, computer audio, FM, DAB (if they ever get it right) or a mixture of any or all, which is pretty much what we have now anyway.
For the mass market, the under 30s don't tend to sit down and listen to music, having become used to spending half their lives with headphones plugged into their MP3 players and the other half in front of the telly or games console, so the future for them is going to be a dock on their home cinema system. I go into a lot of homes in my job, and I see lots of flat-screen tellys with cheap crappy dolby 5.1 systems scattered around the room, and occasionally an old stack system gathering dust in the corner. For the mass market, audio sytems of any sort, computer based or otherwise, are a thing of the past.
I can't quite see who product like the ADM9 is aimed at. They're too expensive for most people who don't care about sound, but too inflexible to cater for the many and varied tastes of the audiophile market.

[Mike Reed]

I've never had so many questions answered so affirmatively, Rob.

I was beginning to get the impression that computer audio was the be all and end all from sundry postings by one Ashley. Nice to know it's only an alternative source!

Move the computer to the listening room? Flies in the face of all received hifi wisdom, despite separate mains supply. The office is the place, surely!

'Sound quality equal to vinyl but different?' A very Orwellian statement, if I may say so. My CDP is different. And equal? I think not. Just different, but not as satisfying.

Interesting comment by a subsequent poster about his wife wading through menus etc. trying to find specific music. I thought CD spines were bad enough!