iPods to oust CD players?

Apple's iPods and Mac systems playback music with better sound quality than hi-fi CD systems, according to AVI's Ashley James. James cautions that Apple products are nowhere near perfect, but notes that "there are some CD players from prominent manufacturers that are miles worse. They're so bad that from the moment they're on -- if you came into this room with one of these CD players I'm telling you about -- you'd know there was something wrong with it. You wouldn't know what it was, but you'd just say 'that's bloody terrible'." The difference in quality and convenience is apparently causing CD players to lose market share, according to James. Further issues affecting sales of CD players include failed copy protection schemes, as well as the tendency for CD player mechanisms to fail.

The AVI mogul plugged an iPod nano into the most expensive hi-fi systems, describing the music as "slightly hard" but certainly bearable at normal listening levels. James also points to "hi-fi people" who criticize computer equipment as well as MP3 music sources, saying those individuals are not being very discerning.

"A lot of the problems are that the equipment they are evaluating is not good enough to play the music properly. So as reviewers they are making a lot of mistakes. That's the problem with subjective reviewing."

James also speculated that hi-fi CD player sales will continue to drop until nobody is purchasing the devices at all.

"We've seen player sales drop and most people we talk to have said the same thing. There are a number of reasons; the first is that CD player mechanisms are nothing like as reliable as a hard disk mechanism, unless you use a top loader which nobody wants because you can put it into an equipment tray. But I wouldn't be surprised if people end up just buying music from the internet and playing it on their Macs and PCs."

by MacNN Staff