![]() ![]() Perhaps not so surprising is that Sony is a major supporter of this effort. In January, at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, there was a series of panel discussions about efforts to coordinate the hi-def download business. For those listeners, Stereophile has been reporting on devices, such as USB DACs, that will support high-definition playback and our colleagues at cover the wider range of storage, servers, and streamers, in both hardware and software products. Since then, people have been ripping their own CDs into uncompressed LPCM formats like WAV and AIFF or lossless-compressed formats like FLAC and ALAC, and a few began buying uncompressed music files of higher resolutions. Still, I know of a number of audiophiles who were seduced by the convenience. Of course, the downloading of files to a computer meant that one could also play them at home through a regular stereo system, despite the fact that, at first, the files were always mercilessly compressed in order to accommodate the limited storage of the little 'Pods. It's now hard to find any place where there aren't people with wires hanging from their ears, and it's difficult to deny those listeners their convenience. The ubiquitous iPod and its fellow MP3 players kicked off the playing of music files and allowed listeners to carry around their music wherever they went. On the other hand, after the mainstream has determined where it's going (or thinks it's going), the high-end business must accept that, and try to optimize it for those of us who care deeply about getting the best sound. We have little leverage in determining where the technology is going, even though we undoubtedly know more about it than the average buyer. I've said it before and I'll say it again: High-end audio is the tail of the dog that is the consumer audio business. ![]()
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