6th.replicant:Yes.
IMHO, the AV sector is too preoccupied with 3D and wifi and consequently ignoring pure picture quality (PQ).
Just because the option is there you don't have to use it, ignore the 3D, ignore the wifi, the "standard" functions are still there.
For example, no TV manufacturer has matched the all-round abilities of Pioneer's Kuros and the PQ of (2D) BDPs seems to have stagnated
Strange I don't recall any reviews along those lines, but you have to ask exactly how much better any new players can actually get.
The hi-fi world also seems preoccupied with wifi/streaming, internet radio and downloads (DLs) but not really offering any major advances on the humble old CD's sound quality (SQ).
Err, have you seen the sales figures for CD players? Why would anyone attempt to squeeze the last fraction of a percents performance from a 20 year old mature technology when, effectively, no-one is buying it anymore? It's only a couple of steps from a manufacturer trumpeting the sound quality of their new 8-track cassette player. If the manufacturers aren't developing CD any more it's only because they're following the market (and FYI, you are not the market, it's them, out there, that are the market and the big names are listening to them now), which has demonstrated it isn't really interested in CD players any more.
OK, so there're 24bit/96-192KHz DLs, but their availability is relatively limited, nor cheap - £20/?24/$32 for a 24bit/192KHz DL, anyone? - and IME there seems to be far too much tweaking/re-setting involved when playing hi-res DLs. All of which presents hours of fun for tech-enthusiasts and AV/hi-fi scribes but for the 'average punter' it's a hell of a faff.
It's no more or less of a faff than running a turntable and not many of us here complain about that. I have to do far more with my vinyl setup to listen to an album than I do with my streaming setup (which consists of picking up the remote and pressing play, basically).
(And I'm damn sure I'm not alone in wishing I had a tenner for every time my wifi/network/router drops out.)
This is not an question of being too complicated, it's the fact that the public decided that they prefered downloads long before the hi-fi industry realised which way things were going. If things appear too complicated it's simply because nobody's really figured out how to do this properly and they're all playing catch up (unlike CD which had a defined standard from the moment of release, computer based music has no such standard, so everyone is trying to pull together multiple formats in whatever way they think is best, imagine if CD wasn't standardised, with the data format and even the disc size left to the individual manufacturer, it would have been just as messy as CBM is now). Currently this new media format doesn't even have a standard name, downloading, streaming, computer based music, of course it's a mess, give it ten years though and you'll probably find people just have a player plugged into their amps that they use like any other source.
I've several friends who are passionate about music, appreciate decent SQ from their hi-fi - and are also aware of the CD's limitations re SQ. However, their eyes glaze over at the merest mention of streaming, DACs, hi-res DLs, NAS etc. And I know a fair few people who've contemplated a Uniti-type system but rapidly lose interest when they learn about the initial setup, need for firmware updates and general 'maintenance'. For many, life's too short for such 'demanding' gear - they just want plug -'n'-play, not to come home from working all day with a computer and then have to engage with a similar device to simply listen to their music.
Well they'll have to wait then, or carry on buying CDs until things get simpler, which they will.
In short, the digital music world is becoming more complex, without offering any tangible advances in SQ.
And IME there's a surprising number of non-techy music lovers who are asking why uncompressed Blu-ray audio-only discs are not being adopted as the hassle-free replacement for the Red Book CD.
No, there's actually a vanishingly small number of people asking for that, it's just most of them happen to be asking here and on other forums, the "general public" (remember them, they're the ones that keep the hardware makers in business and you aren't a member of that group, you're an audiophile, you're different and you're a minority) don't care, the general public aren't even asking for CD quality downloads because they can't tell the difference, the general public wouldn't have cared if CDs were compressed, as long as they were easier to handle than vinyl records (remember how popular cassettes were and most people weren't playing them on Nakamichi Dragons but the public didn't care).
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