Hard Drive/Computer Audio at the SHOW and CES

There was some stuff there, I don't recall the various models but suffice to say there wasn't an abundance of gear oriented towards computer storage and playback. Lots and lots of turntables though!

I spent my time at the Venetian and T.H.E. Show, I didn't bother with the LVCC where the consumer stuff is kept. You're interested in convenience, there's plenty of consumer-grade products to pick from that cater to that side of the market, Apple's webpage features some examples that compliment the iPod. Theta announced a gadget, and B&W have released the Zeppelin to cater to the 'pod crowd. This is the "industry" you value, that's fine with me.

The people on this site are interested in sound quality first and foremost, compromised source material is of little interest to us. And there's nothing lame about the sound of a well set up analog rig, but there's plenty lame about consumer digital. I suppose that's a different part of the "industry", I'm thankful it's still alive and kicking.

Swampwalker,

I don't have a problem with any media, and I use it all so I'm not an "elitist". I do think you ought to match the media to the appropriate gear, the gent mentioned iTunes and I just don't see how that plays well into a high end system. I have yet to hear any digital system match analogue, which implies the digital content is best used for either convenience or budgetary reasons. This is a site for audiophiles and music lovers, I don't see how preferring a more musical format would be considered out of the ordinary. Hey, I work in electronics (semiconductors) so you won't find anyone more interested in advancing the state of the art. That being said I'm not interested in going backwards, I love music.

I have compared lossy and "lossless" compression to WAV files, and I can hear a difference (but I'm picky, no doubt). I ripped all of my CD's to external hard drives as WAV files and use them on my iPod when I travel, it was VERY time consuming (this was a year ago, haven't added the other 100 CD's I bought since). My biggest concern is the time it takes to rip all your music and make sure there's no errors, and hard drives do fail so what do you do? Have a back up set of drives ready in the event of failure?

I did wander into a room at T.H.E. show where there was earnest discussion going on with a media server company and some zealous enthusiasts ($7k digital music system), but I didn't stay as there was no music playing at the time and I didn't get around to going back to listen. There's also Kaliedascape (sp?) for those who like such things, seems like a good solution for the most part.