November 2024

Audiophile Opinions
There's always someone ready and willing to take the contrarian view.
Editorial By Alan Sircom

  To get at least three completely different opinions on something, ask two audiophiles. In every aspect of audio performance, there's always someone ready and willing to take the contrarian view, and argue it at length. We've had audio enthusiasts fight over the superiority of tubes over solid-state, LP versus CD, CD versus SACD, horns versus panels versus conventional box loudspeakers, and so on. There are those for whom the last 60 years of audio have become progressively worse, and there are those who think we are living in an ever-improving Golden Age of audio.

Although they seldom get physically violent, these fights can be longwinded and fractious. Our sister title The Absolute Sound had two people arguing on a forum thread for several years with no conclusion in sight by the time the forum itself was switched off! That's dedication, mixed with few pinches of insanity.

Arguably the most productive of these pitched battles is the 'what's next' discussion in digital audio. Interestingly, it's rarely about 'what's next' and more about 'whatever happened to...'. With the rise of downloaded and then streamed music, most people moved away from physical digital formats. The arguments over what should I do to replace CD helped start the vinyl revival and the tape revival long before many people had put away their CDs. Even saying 'put away their CDs' invites angst, as some still think music streaming is just a fad and the future of digital was, is, and always will be CD-shaped.

I had one such conversation recently. They were angry that there were so few new affordable CD players and assumed this was some grand conspiracy to either drive the cost of players up, or to force people into streaming. The fact that disc replay is fast disappearing from cars, home cinema systems, computers, and games consoles was irrelevant. The fact these formats also form the bulk of manufacture of laser eyes, disc drive swing arms and the rest was also irrelevant. CD was being held back from its rightful place by a conspiracy. Even the LP was in on the action, as the vinyl market was artificially boosted to undermine CD sales.

I admire their resolve, but can we really stick our heads in the sand for much longer? Magneto-optical discs are becoming a thing of the past in many other branches of consumer electronics, and as they fade into history, so that first public example of the format – Compact Disc – will too fade away. Audiophiles are an ingenuous lot, but there remain some parts of a M-O disc replay system that you can't fabricate except at scale.

If you are still collecting CDs today, maybe it's time to think about that last, best player... before it's too late. CD's time is not up yet, but the clock is ticking.

Alan Sircom, Editor hi-fi+

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