December 26, 2006 7:20 AM PST
CD player would make Dr. Evil proud
(Credit:
Yanko Design)
If CD players like this had been designed earlier, the pending extinction of the disc might have been put off for years.
The "Square CD" player from Yanko Design is as much a work of art as it is a piece of technology, similar to the "Cuboglass" TV. (Both are designed in Italy, of course.) In each case, the appliance is meant to be displayed as part of the decor even when turned off.
Unlike most products created with this concept in mind, however, the Square CD looks even better turned on. That's because the Corian surface (as in kitchen countertops) transforms into a glowing touch screen that looks like something right out of Dr. Evil's underground lair. And if it's good enough for an arch villain, it's certainly good enough for us.
As much as I [i]like and prefer[/i] CDs over digital downloads, the advancements in technology that have brought the downfall of compact discs go well beyond a pretty interface. CD media clearly doesn't last forever, despite the early claims by its advocates in the early 1980s; audio files can potentially be stored forever, given a certain level of care and maintaining...the materials that comprise CD media will continue to degrade and the content burned on the usual aluminum core will fade to oblivion given nothing more than the passing of time, let alone subjecting the discs to the typical laser usage and transport wear (not to mention accidental bumps and abuse). CDs and their requisite players, though revolutionary in packaging and size in their time, are now bulky and cumbersome in this day and age of 1" and 1.8" hard drives and gigabites of NAND flash memory. Even in home-only use situations, their usual equipment form-factor is typically bulky and requires a large footprint. There are some [i]truly[/i] great-sounding CD players available, but as a lifestyle force the CD player--even in a pretty form as this one is from Yanko--still has the liability of the size factor of the media itself.
Yanko's own website claims the old Miesian adage of 'form follows function'. Well with CDs, the functional necessities of operating that media type leads to a 'state-of-the art- form that was deeply rooted [i]at least[/i] 10 years ago. Companies like Bang & Olufsen were already producing 'pretty' and 'kewl' CD players back then that were arguably just as cool as this Square CD device (wait...a 'square' player for a circular-shaped medium...yeah...I [i]get[/i] this form-follows-function BS...er, I mean [i]mantra[/i]).
The venerable CD is on life-support and fading fast given how its infrastructure (Tower Records is the poster-child--so far) in collapsing into itself; devices like the Square CD merely attempt to prolong an inevitable demise.
Twenty-five years has been a good, long life. Once the world settles on a singular, universal DRM, CD and their players will go the way of the vinyl LPs phonograph turntable, becoming little more than a niche market. It's time to recognize the inevitability that the world is moving on.
Show me a lossless format with high quality affordable players on par with today's CD and SACD players, and then maybe I'll consider the death of the CD an eventual possibility.
find a price. How much is it?
- by shooshie93 December 19, 2008 1:04 PM PST
- how much is it and where can i get 1?
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