CDs are dying, go digital players, SD card players list

cowboyab

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Wav/APE/Flac are popular, CDs are dying, hundreds of USB devices in the market for digital music files. SD card music players are a very dedicated kind for music only, thus can be a good replacement for your old CD player. I would like to create a list for SD card HiFi music player, if you know any, please add here:

- Resonessence Labs Invicta DAC INVICTA | Resonessence
- Fostex HP A8
- QA660 DSD/Wave/APE/Flac/ 24/192 transport SHEN ZHEN QLS ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD. (HIFI Audio sector)
- QA350 Wave 16/44.1 only, with headphone amp
 
TVs? My brother's TV, a Panasonic TX50S21b, will play media off an SD card and I think mine will (will check later, too lazy to look now).
 
Wav/APE/Flac are popular, CDs are dying, hundreds of USB devices in the market for digital music files. SD card music players are a very dedicated kind for music only, thus can be a good replacement for your old CD player. I would like to create a list for SD card HiFi music player, if you know any, please add here:

- Resonessence Labs Invicta DAC INVICTA | Resonessence
- Fostex HP A8
- QA660 DSD/Wave/APE/Flac/ 24/192 transport SHEN ZHEN QLS ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD. (HIFI Audio sector)
- QA350 Wave 16/44.1 only, with headphone amp

Skytec SPL500 Watt PA Amplifier DJ USB SD MP3 - White at best price!

:cool:
 
I've been hearing this for years and years.....and I suspect it will still be years and years before CD's do finally die.
 
I've been hearing this for years and years.....and I suspect it will still be years and years before CD's do finally die.

So you haven't noticed the demise of the High Street CD retailers? Sony have already closed 3 out of the 4 CD pressing plants in the US. CDs will not die completely, they will go the way of vinyl - into a niche collectors market. The main issue will be keeping CD players working to play them. Not as easy as restoring a mechanical record deck because of the lack of parts for the drive and optical mechanisms.
 
I don't doubt they are on the way out....but I don't think it will be this year or next or even the following.
 
Just seen the price of some of those listed bits of kit! :laugh:

I think I'll hold ship until the prices come down to more sensible levels - which they will.
 
The thing about all of these is that no matter which of them you use,the quality is determined by the source used for the audio.

i.e.if you insert an SD card filled with low bit-rate MP3's,that's what you get back.

Yes,you can get 24bit downloads,but they aren't exactly mainstream as yet,and that takes you back to CD quality audio......
 
Yes,you can get 24bit downloads,but they aren't exactly mainstream as yet,and that takes you back to CD quality audio......

Which I why I don't think we'll be ditching our CDs quite yet....but the writing is certainly on the wall for em !
 
Which I why I don't think we'll be ditching our CDs quite yet....but the writing is certainly on the wall for em !

Exactly....and is also what everyone was saying about vinyl in the 80s.

It may well be that CD becomes a niche item as vinyl has done to a large extent,but that market is still thriving.
 
i think it's a crying shame how the market is going most of these downloadable formats are a compromise in quality as already said the high resolution downloads are certainly not mainstream and there is a very limited choice of whats out there
iv'e no doubt that cd will become a niche market but not for some years yet
 
And most high res downloads are not really hi-res originals, just upsampled from the original recording which was never hi-res in the first place. So you are really paying for a lot of zeroes.
 
And most high res downloads are not really hi-res originals, just upsampled from the original recording which was never hi-res in the first place. So you are really paying for a lot of zeroes.

It's very limited but one of the useful things that HiFiNews does each month is to review a number of these and say which are genuine 24bit issues and which arent.
 
It's very limited but one of the useful things that HiFiNews does each month is to review a number of these and say which are genuine 24bit issues and which arent.

Another reason why I'm a bit hesitant about going to streaming, but to be honest if you rip your CD's uncompressed, then I don't think there will be much in it qaulity wise....and I like the idea of kicking back with the iPad and selecting tracks on the fly and just tapping play.....

As it is, I normally have a pile of CDs beside me, and they never go back in the same place when the wife tidies up.....
 
alexs2 said:
Exactly....and is also what everyone was saying about vinyl in the 80s.

It may well be that CD becomes a niche item as vinyl has done to a large extent,but that market is still thriving.

But will there ever be a niche for CDs in the same way?

Vinyl has been growing over the past few years because of nostalgia for the format, and the fact that with a top end set up it is the only way to get a lot of recordings in less compressed quality than 16/44.1.

I can't see that CD will generate the same level of nostalgia and it can't do uncompressed audio anyway, so the niche will be small.

What we need is good availability of genuine 24 bit files as that is the only real way forward (and that coming from a vinyl fan!)
 
.....

As it is, I normally have a pile of CDs beside me, and they never go back in the same place when the wife tidies up.....

Yes.....mine adopts the random packing method.


But will there ever be a niche for CDs in the same way?

Vinyl has been growing over the past few years because of nostalgia for the format, and the fact that with a top end set up it is the only way to get a lot of recordings in less compressed quality than 16/44.1.

I can't see that CD will generate the same level of nostalgia and it can't do uncompressed audio anyway, so the niche will be small.

What we need is good availability of genuine 24 bit files as that is the only real way forward (and that coming from a vinyl fan!)

I don't know...the market for nostalgia amongst hifi fans is amazing,with people still buying cassettes,and open reel still being bought and sold,especially in the high end.

CD doesn't have that sort of appeal maybe,but for sure,a wide range of titles available in genuine 24bit form would be great,assuming the replay end is capable of 24bit resolution(and that includes the amp and speakers etc)
 
I can't see that CD will generate the same level of nostalgia and it can't do uncompressed audio anyway


Compact Discs are very much more capable of recording uncompressed audio than are vinyl LPs.

There is no genuine requirement for 24 bit files or sampling rates higher than 44.1 kHz. It is simply a marketing ploy.


Alan
 
Another reason why I'm a bit hesitant about going to streaming, but to be honest if you rip your CD's uncompressed, then I don't think there will be much in it qaulity wise....and I like the idea of kicking back with the iPad and selecting tracks on the fly and just tapping play.....

You can rip your Cds compressed - just make sure it is lossless compression like Flac or Alac - they then take up about 60% of the original size.
 
I don't know...the market for nostalgia amongst hifi fans is amazing,with people still buying cassettes,and open reel still being bought and sold,especially in the high end.

I have heard a lot about the interest in cassettes at the moment. I can't understand that as I never liked them back in the pre-CD days even though I used them all the time as they were the only available portable format.

CD doesn't have that sort of appeal maybe,but for sure,a wide range of titles available in genuine 24bit form would be great,assuming the replay end is capable of 24bit resolution(and that includes the amp and speakers etc)

I definitely think that would be the way forward. To be honest I am happy enough with my CD collection ripped to ALAC, but I have had good results with the few SACDs and 24 bit files that I have used.
 
There is no genuine requirement for 24 bit files or sampling rates higher than 44.1 kHz. It is simply a marketing ploy.


Alan

:thumbsup: This strange escalating numbers war for files that have the ability to hold information that instruments cannot produce, microphones cannot record and the human ear cannot hear. There are now 32bit/384kHz DACs - what is that all about :facepalm:
 
Compact Discs are very much more capable of recording uncompressed audio than are vinyl LPs.

I am sure you are right, but in my collection I have quite a few vinyl records that just sound better than the same album on CD and none that I can think of that sound significantly better on CD than they do on vinyl. A lot seem to sound about the same, and I will opt for an ALAC rip of the CD over vinyl due to lack of surface noise and hassle.

I am sure there are CDs that sound better than the same album on vinyl as well.

There is no genuine requirement for 24 bit files or sampling rates higher than 44.1 kHz. It is simply a marketing ploy.

Alan

True, and even true 16/44.1 is a luxury for most people now given that they are compressing their CD rips down to 128k MP3 to get the copy to about 10% of the size that was on the original CD, or worse still buying the files like that in the first place!

I do like the 24/96 recordings that I have heard, but I have never directly compared them to the same recordings on CD, so it might just be that they are particularly good recordings to start with.
 
I do like the 24/96 recordings that I have heard, but I have never directly compared them to the same recordings on CD, so it might just be that they are particularly good recordings to start with.

Mostly they sound better because they are taken from the original master and would have sounded better even at 16/44 without the compression applied to most mixes that end up on CDs. Upsampling them to 24/96 or above only adds packing outside of the audible range of humans.
 
I have heard a lot about the interest in cassettes at the moment. I can't understand that as I never liked them back in the pre-CD days even though I used them all the time as they were the only available portable format.



I definitely think that would be the way forward. To be honest I am happy enough with my CD collection ripped to ALAC, but I have had good results with the few SACDs and 24 bit files that I have used.

Nostalgia is fascinating isn't it...

I can see why for some people reel-to-reel may hold some interest,but that's aimed now at the very high-end market,using what were once studio quality decks and in some cases almost master quality tapes.....at a price.
 
larkone said:
Mostly they sound better because they are taken from the original master and would have sounded better even at 16/44 without the compression applied to most mixes that end up on CDs. Upsampling them to 24/96 or above only adds packing outside of the audible range of humans.

That's what I can never understand - why does the original master get altered so much for CD when it doesn't for vinyl or the 24 bit formats?
 

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