Personally, I believe software is of much greater importance than hardware. There is a parallel here that hearkens back to the invasion of the compact disc. There was a period where many end users were hesitant to get on board with the new medium, and happily stockpiled vinyl until such time as the sources dried up, especially regarding newer releases. At that point, users had to decide whether adopting the new format was preferable to scratching around for material on vinyl. Many posters here and indeed, many of my audio freak acquaintances, have two dedicated machines available to them: the turntable and the compact disc player.
Once one of the contending formats rises the top, there will most likely be a considerable period of overlap where rebook versions are still available, but this period will certainly be finite. Additionally, the 'new' format, whatever it will be, will likely exclude a large catalog of existing material. Hence, in order to acquire all the material we will want to listen to, an additional front end component will be necessary to play it.
I tend to view the emerging technology as a potential additional component, not one that would replace any of my current equipment. Maybe my purist nature prevents me from believing a multi-format player won’t be a performance/integration compromise. After all, it has taken more than 20 years to reach CD's current level of 'state of the art!' Thus, my philosophy: I want the best available playback I can achieve NOW. Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow? I don't want to wait for the next big thing to reveal itself and risk missing out on material that may not be available 'later.' This means precisely that I want and have a reference Redbook player that I plan to have around for a very long time. At such time as a 'new' format hinders my ability to obtain the music I desire within my current playback capabilities, I will research the component needed to play that material and buy it. Therefore, I see no reason to be bothered with my equipment options until that time arrives.
Once one of the contending formats rises the top, there will most likely be a considerable period of overlap where rebook versions are still available, but this period will certainly be finite. Additionally, the 'new' format, whatever it will be, will likely exclude a large catalog of existing material. Hence, in order to acquire all the material we will want to listen to, an additional front end component will be necessary to play it.
I tend to view the emerging technology as a potential additional component, not one that would replace any of my current equipment. Maybe my purist nature prevents me from believing a multi-format player won’t be a performance/integration compromise. After all, it has taken more than 20 years to reach CD's current level of 'state of the art!' Thus, my philosophy: I want the best available playback I can achieve NOW. Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow? I don't want to wait for the next big thing to reveal itself and risk missing out on material that may not be available 'later.' This means precisely that I want and have a reference Redbook player that I plan to have around for a very long time. At such time as a 'new' format hinders my ability to obtain the music I desire within my current playback capabilities, I will research the component needed to play that material and buy it. Therefore, I see no reason to be bothered with my equipment options until that time arrives.