CD players, on their way out?

It's more than a little ironic; Linn Products, based in Glasgow, Scotland, burst onto the audiophile scene in the early 1970s with its LP-12 turntable. The LP-12 has never gone out of production and earlier this year it received a bunch of performance-enhancing upgrades.

When the CD was introduced in the early 1980s, Linn was a massive digital basher. The company spearheaded an anti-CD movement in the audiophile community. It wasn't just Linn; a sizable percentage of audiophiles worldwide didn't buy CD players through most of the 1980s.

A Linn DS hi-fi system

(Credit: Linn Products)

Linn introduced CD players at the close of that decade, while it continued to make turntables, electronics, and speakers. Now, they're calling it quits.

Quoting from Linn's Web site, here's the straight scoop, "At Linn we have always been wholly committed to making systems that push the boundaries and deliver the highest possible audio performance. When we launched our first digital stream player, the flagship Klimax DS, we did so only once we had proven comprehensively that it outperformed the iconic Sondek CD12, our former reference digital source, in every way."

Linn's LP-12 turntable, introduced in 1972, is still in production.

(Credit: Linn Products)

The press release continues, "This development saw Linn DS far exceed what was possible with traditional CD playing technology, both in terms of its audio performance and the convenience. Linn DS is now firmly established as the future of music and the only way to get the very best from your CD collection and enjoy downloads of the highest possible quality."

Linn may be out of the CD player business, but it has a full line of 24-bit/192 kHz sampling Digital Stream players.

More irony, Linn's record label will continue to release music on CD and SACD as well as LP and high-resolution downloads.

[feverboy777]

I don't think we'll see the trend of manufactures ending production of CD player just the opposite I see universal CD/DVD players in the future with Blu-ray audio capabilities after all Linn still as you wrote makes turntables.

[rochmndx]

Maybe I'm just one of those young punks, but I really don't see a great need for standalone CD players anymore, especially the audiophile variety. It just doesn't make sense to spend $$$ on some standalone CD player when you can get bit-for-bit, database verified accurate rips, tagged and compressed into FLAC, all with a PC and Exact Audio Copy (free) or dbpoweramp (30 day trial). Ever wanted to decode those HDCDs? With dbpoweramp and the (free) HDCD plugin, anyone can decode and rip the full 44.1/24 resolution. No need for a special CD player. Got DVD Audio discs? They can be ripped, too. (SACD owners are out of luck, though). Have any pesky scratched CDs? With EAC, it will try to read each bad sector 82 times if necessary. Show me a standalone CD player that can do that!<br /><br />Throw these rips onto a computer or standalone music server, and you have your entire digital collection at your fingertips. You can now focus your budget on what really matters - the digital-to-analog converter.

[Vesicant]

True in principle, but the problem is managing your collection after it's been ripped. For classical music, anyway, there's just no good software out there. It's still easier to walk up to my CD-depth bookcases and find the exact CD I want. And now that I think about it, how many high-quality DA converters plug into a PC expansion slot? Whether you have a CD player or a DA, it's still a separate external box. So what's the point of avoiding CD players as such?

[rochmndx]

There are some good soundcards out there. Many computers have S/PIDF outputs built right in, making external DAC connection a snap. <br /><br />A program, such as Songbird or iTunes that features a cover browse mode will probably solve your problem - just browse visually. You could also sort by composers. I guess it'd just take some getting used to.<br /><br />What's the point? For one, no wear and tear on the discs. Not to mention all the advantages of music library software - suffle mode, playlists, super fast browsing through one's collection. Not to mention the ability to store a collection in a centralized collection and access it from all kinds of devices - computers, media extenders, etc... Not to mention the ability to easily rip into a compressed format for an MP3 player or other portable device.

[research1st]

Everything you say is true. But it only holds true for those who want to and enjoy managing their music library from/on a PC. <br />I spend on average 50 hours a week at the keyboard as an IT contractor/consultant/programmer. After a 10 hour day "on the computer", the last thing I really want to do is use a computer for what should be a leasure activity. <br />I do not want to spend more time at the computer just to listen to music. That includes time to rip/download/manage/backup/play etc. etc. I have over 2,000 CD's in the collection and a few hundred vinyl albums. There is nothing that would make me want to "computerize" that collection. Same goes for going forward. I will still be making my music purchases on "hard media". <br />I've been working with and playing on computers for the last 30 years. After awhile you get tired of hardware and software incompatibilites, tired of software upgrades, learning new software... you get the point. It's much less annoying and time consuming to pull a CD off the shelf and pop it into the player. No boot up time, program launch, song search, etc. etc... Just a viewpoint from an "old timer".....

[StBittersweet]

In the current economy how can Linn or any other hi-end manufacturer continue to push $3,500+ CD players to consumers? I acknowledge that these audiophile players are superior to the mass market rubbish, but they certainly don't cost that much to make and turn a reasonable profit.

[soundman45]

I really don't see the death of the compact disc anytime soon. I see manufacturers like Linn and other audiophile companies abandoning it, yes. Linn's core market is analog and turntable based. For them to try to sell a significant volume of high end CD players to audiophiles who probably listen to vinyl anyway just doesn't make good business sense. There are electronic companies that make cheap DAC's and players that sound good enough to the average consumer. They are the ones who will probably keep supporting the format. As long as there are people who own stand alone audio/video, cd/dvd setups I think there will still a market out ther for the compact disc.