See article on iPodNN here:
http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/07/03/09/ip...ust.cd.players/

The article this news blurb refers to comes from an audio engineer, AVI's Ashley James. He makes some interesting points. The iPodNN article refers to the original article from AVI's web site:
http://www.avihifi.co.uk/

"James also speculated that hi-fi CD player sales will continue to drop until nobody is purchasing the devices at all."

Comments?

Yes another writer's take on the above article (with his comments):
http://www.tech.co.uk/gadgets/portable-aud...icleid=83644576

That article has no actual information, just the assertion that the ipod sounds good.

Well.... Since SACD and DVD-A, which by the numbers alone, offer theoretically superior audio quality, I fail to see why hi-fi CD players should see sales going in any direction other than downwards. Presumably said next-gen formats would have the same mystical hi-fi capabilities as their CD brethren.

I question whether or not iPods' DAC quality is equal (or superior) to the DACs found in hifi CD players, or whether hi-fi CD players include features such as dithering or cross-feed. I don't know for certain but I assume neither are found on iPods, but can readily be implemented in a PC playback solution. AVI provides no data other than this vague paragraph:
"Most modern digital devices use converters that produce RF that can upset amplifiers and profoundly alter the way they sound. Surprisingly “measuring” Hi Fi reviewers have devoted decades to studying jitter and other bogus theories and not noticed this blindingly obvious artefact! AVI electronics are designed to be largely immune to spurious high frequency hash and therefore reveal just how good computer music can sound. This will not be the case with many High End products and may explain why magazine comments are at odds with ours and so many others’ experiences."

I do not think this is too reliable an article. There isn't much data on how the writer concluded this. DAPs will certainly grow in popularity as they are portable and offer good sound for what you pay. However, I feel that they are not going to replace CD players in the near future unless better quality DACs and attenuators are used in DAP construction. That will certainly push the prices of good DAPs (iPod or otherwise) up.

Just my 2 cents...

audiomars

I agree except I believe DAP's will (are) replace (replacing) portable CD players. As far as home audio is concerned, the iPod is certainly making an impact but I believe CDs play an important role. The portable market is being outed by DAPs as people (like me) would rather carry around their entire CD collection. As long as the compressed audio and output of the DAP sounds like "CD quality" to the user, then I think they are set.

I don't have any gripes about the sound quality of my iPod. Then again, I really have no need to conduct any audio tests using a CD player. I do question how the author of this article conducted their listening tests though.

I have met Ashley James, back when he worked for ATC. He is NOT an audio engineer, he's a salesman. And he's well known in the industry as someone with very polarised viewpoints. I am undecided as to whether he genuinely believes everything he says, or if it's just so much marketing hot air. One thing's for sure: most of what he says has an ulterior motive.

(Just to make sure nobody gets the wrong idea about my views on AVI: they do indeed make some wonderful gear, but they are not, as Ashley would have you believe, the only brand around that sounds any good).

It's a pity that the article on AVI's website doesn't mention any of the genuinely high-end computer based playback devices around (from the likes of Slim Devices and Sonos). Those sort of devices are the real future for high quality audio playback. The AVI article seems to talk only about Apple stuff, missing all the good work done by others, and that's a shame.

Where I live I can't find a simple home CD player let alone one designated as "hi-fi" as everything is DVD based where I've looked - so in that aspect I suppose his assumptions are panning out to be somewhat true.

In the early 80's it was easy to predict compact disc would become the major format. However, it took 20 years for music stores to remove all cassettes and LPs. CDs and CD players (or CD/DVD) will continue to be around for some time. Digital music is great, but downloading still leaves much to be desired, and many peeps still like to have something substantial in their hand for their money.

The reason there is no "real" information in these articles is because it is all just a sales pitch for AVI equipment. I'd love to see the responses to AVI's, "forget headphones" claim from the folks over at Head-fi or Headwize.

The thing that gets me is although technology has improved (iPod and other quality digital players) why are manufacturers still pawning off huge speakers? Henry Kloss, amongst other pioneers, have already proven that technology is up to making great sounding speakers in much smaller packages. [Humor] What size pockets would I need to tote around a pair or 3-way towers??