Will iPod's/MP3 players replace the CD?

Eventually? I just had that thought and it may not be a popular one but we could be headed that way. I mean, these things are coming on like gangbusters and the major record companies may just want to go with phasing out software altogether and go to total downloading. If they can come up with a way to do it with no loss of sound quality, ie. CD quality, I think it might not be such a bad idea. As for the liner notes, cover art, etc., that could be downloadable as well.

 

It could happen in the next ten years or so with the improvements in capacity of devices such as the Ipod imho.

 

I highly doubt it. Few artists and record companies are willing to encode an entire album for commercial release in only a compressed format. I'm also guessing that most artists are still unknowledgable about these compressed formats in every way except that they are commonly illegally traded over the internet.

I may get some sort of tiny player in the future, but I would lok damn silly wearing full-sized Sony headphones just to get better sound.

 

With memory advancing the way it is compression might be a non-issue not so far down the road. Heck we may even see high resolution capability in these type of devices sooner than you might think. Yep....it's goin' in that direction....the days of huge massive machines spinnin' discs are numbered...like it or not.

I can see it now.....my 70 lb SCD-1 replaced by a higher resolution 7 gram player...HELP!!!

 

It won't be any device like the iPod pushing today's CD players into the landfill. It will the device we're all using right now: the personal computer. You can see it now in the latest computers from Dell, HP and others and the integration of Windows Media Center. The all in one(a phrase which draws gasps from any audiophile) network computing home entertainment server is here and it's only a matter of time before the manufactures catch on with the concept. I remember 10 years ago when Gateway actually had A/V receiver that was part computer(complete with hard drive, memory and a detuned version of Windows 95).

 

MP3s are only a temporary fad. In the future, as broadban communication gets more prevalent, and computer storage gets cheaper and more compact, everybody will go to using wave files or other uncompressed files to store and transfer music.

 

If someone can put over an ipod a full quality mozart or debussy playing at same quality I can have at home now at human costs, let's ipod's go...
but tannoys must invent some dual concentric a little smaller without loss of quality...
not so easy, but in future who knows?
Remember best quality recordings were done by RCA and Mercury in '50 and best mics are vintage Neumann... are we going forward or backward?

 

I agree! MP3s are going to be a flash in the pan.

 

Gotta stop looking at it from an audiophile perspective for a moment: Compressed file formats and players are among the only real things that have brought many people back to music. Let's face it. People like their music on-the-go, and these players make that happen. The sound quality is just fine for most people, especially considering the playback setups the average person has anymore, boomboxes, mini bookshelf systekms, computers, the mp3 capability on their DVD players in their HT rigs...

Havingsaid that, the CD isn't going anywhere. People hold that to the the utmost standard in sound reproduction. Don't forget, we're not talking from an audiophoile's viewpoint, so hi-rez and (what some consider to be hi-rez) vinyl, doesn't count. It doesn't matter with the average consumer. You have a whole bunch of people out there who have never even seen a real turntable!

 

Players that use flash memory are already here. And, to take the topic away for just a moment, they have 20GB hard drives that will fit in your shirt pocket for under $200 US. Combine that with the fact that there are hand-help computers and notebooks everywhere. Imagine the day when many people have portable full computers the size of a Gameboy DS holding all of their CDs in uncompressed form.

It's a very mobile, crowded world with decreasing space that comes at a higher cost. Still, I don't think CDs are going away, especially with DVD here. No one is giving up their DVDs, and the DVD business is bigger than the CD business, from what I can discern. The only way CD will go away is if the DVD also goes away into something smaller.

 

Problem I'm runnin' into Grant is: Look as I might and I been lookin' very very hard...for the life of me I just can't find a decent headstrap for my Klipschorns......real bummer ain't it!

 

MP3s, yes. What about a lossless format? Talked with someone in the biz today who is convinced online digital distribution will be dominant in 5-10 years.

 

The world continues to become miniaturized...

 

Within 2 years there will be a lossless compression encoder that will equal MP3 file sizes with NO destruction to the original Wave. That will be the catalyst for record companies to offer downloading on a huge scale...and possibly end CD manufacture.

 

I have to disagree, the more likely scenario will be that as bandwidth increases for the home user, lossless formats such as flac will begin to be the standard. It is pretty much impossible to convert a wav much smaller then flac already does. Look at winzip or winrar for comparison (not the same, but similair principle)...they have been around for years, yet do you see their compression getting much better? No, there are limits. And furthermore, what do you consider a typical mp3 file size? Something encoded at 128kb/s may for a 3 minute song is around 3mb, but encoded at 320kb/s (constant for both) it is around 8mb...a flac file is about 21mb. So will it get down to 3mb or 8? There is a huge difference when you are talking about 1000s of songs, each is about double in size of the other. To get a song down to 3mb and be able to convert back to the original wav is a little far-fetched. Maybe you were being sarcastic (it's late )

 

While I think it's true that mp3s in and of themselves won't be around forever, online music distribution is here to stay.

 

I don't see it, especially when many people still don't even own any sort of computer, have no computer skills, and aren't interested, and they are under 30! I know tons of them. The record companies win't leave them in the dust, and they won't change their business model, particularly one that brings them so much revenue. They put millions into copy protection schemes for CDs. They don't plan to abanodon them. They are also terrible at legit file-selling programs on the net, and they resist it when they can.

 

I don't think that iPods and compressed music players will replace cds. The iPods will replace the cd player.

 

I use my full size Sony (and occasionally my Grado SR 80's) every day at work with my ipod.

I'd say I look more handsome than silly with said headphones on.

 

I don't think cd's are going anywhere for several years but I do think that PC media centers and portables are going to grow huge over the next 5 years. The price of storage keeps coming down all the time and with faster connections becoming available to most people that only fuels the fire. I think that within 10 years cable connections will be mostly gone and replaced by much faster fiber-optic connections. With such fast connections transferring lossless or uncompressed files won't take hardly any time at all.

 

I look at Amoeba and see the future: A multidimentional record/cd store. A supermusic store.
Anyone of those people could be on the computer downloading the music they are waiting in line to buy.
And why?
They like the atmosphere. They like cds.
I think a lot of people find sitting at their computer and downloading a whole album is a pain in the ***.

 

5 years later, CD will become audiophile item just like LP does these days.

 

As portable listening device, damn yeah.

CD's still have life in them but the portable cd player is certainly being replaced by IPODS and MP3 players. When I see someone at the gym trying to work out while carrying a now bulky cd player, I feel bad for them.

MP3 players are the way to go for portability. What a great invention (if we don't get into sonic quality which for portables ain't bad).

 

Even if they don't hear the differences, average people know that MP3 are not as good as the source, and they prefer lossless if they can choose.

Lossless compression will be the future. The quality will remain the same as CD quality, and the mastering will make the difference, as usual. I don't see any progress in sound quality since the public does not demand that. But availability will improve. At one point, you will be able to download all MFSL CDs and DCC CDs legally online, with no data loss. Legal downloads will surpass CD sales soon.