Is computer audio a bust?

Naturally the 'manufacturers', or those who upgrade them, must go to what's new. Just like they mainly jumped to CD (perfect sound forever) in the early 80's --although any of us with an ear, or decent system, heard the s*****t sound CD replay gave then. That's when I bought my Goldmund; knowing it was already an antique--but my ears have thanked me ever since. Somehow I just cant put low res ahead of CD; after working all these years to get my CD sound to "acceptable". Does anyone remember the sound of the reel to reels? Remember the density? Mmm.

How can 'computer audio' be a bust? The audio world has barely scratched the surface of what is possible with digital recording, much less storage and reproduction from computers. Upsampling dacs are in their infancy. Is it not true that the ALPHA DAC surpassed everything up to its creation (dramatically according to experienced serious reviewers) and in basically no time has been superceded- at least twice?? Why won't the same happen with computer audio? I think we're not at a 'bust' but instead a "breakout" period... (And I hope so.) Listening to dedicated classical stations, on line without advertisements, has me seriously considering an OPPO 105D that can upsample all. (I do have another post asking if the original ALPHA DAC would improve the sound from an OPPO 105D and am disappointed with the lack of response)

Db, I didn't mean to infer reel to reels were perfect; just that, in a high end system, a well recorded tape-on a properly functioning machine- "blew away" the sound from a perfectly cleaned and treated new record- on a very high end record player/cartridge combination-for the fullness/density of sound. The tapes seemed, to my ears, to simply have more information than the record provided. With the cost and exclusivity/rarity of pre-recorded tapes I remember feeling disappointed I couldn't have all my records sound as good as tapes.

Agear I did not intend to be confrontational or flip. I had considered your question as serious--and then thought of pimply faced teens who make faces or frown for family pictures; who go through that faze (phase) (are they out of phase at that time?) and move on to eventual maturity. I am hopeful the best is yet to come from computer audio-as I have yet to even bother with compressed audio in any form. So yes; I too bark at today's average computer quality but take encouragement from the AUDIOENGINEER contributing on the positive side from a seriously knowledgeable vantage point. Again I ask "would adding an original Alpha Dac make a worthwhile improvement to an Oppo 105D?" (And what would be the ideal interface?)

Thanks Steve.