[Tim]

On Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:17:30 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

It would appear that this is just one more nail in the coffin for
high-end audio as well.

It's "high end" if you use high end DAC's (Benchmark, Lavry, etc.), or
at least a high end soundcard (Lynx, Emu 1616m, ESI Juli@, etc.) It's
not "high end" if you use a $15 soundcard or built-in chip with 70dB
dynamic range. And its high end if it feeds a "high end" speaker
system or headphones.

It's high end if you use 24/96 sources and transmission. Or at least
WAV or AIFF. It's not high end if you use MP3, obviously, or any
lossy compressed format.

I now feed SACD into my digital preamp, EQ and crossover with a 24/96
ADC. That way, FWIW, I'm preserving the greater midrange dynamic
range and frequency response. But most often, I just listed to the
hybrid PCM layer, when available, because it's much more convenient.
Haven't checked if I can feed 24bit PCM from DVD-Audio (or 2496 DVD-
Videos like those from Classic Records) from any of my players. That
would beat using the ADC.

*Right now I use a PC to play DVDs, Bluray
DVDs, CDs, and DVR. *I also have about 2,500 CDs that I paid a kid to
rip using EAC to a couple of 750GB hard drives. *The covers were
scanned and the files were encoded using a lossless format. *They were
then burned to double sided dvds and stored in slim jewel cases. *On
avg I was able to get about 30 CDs on one disc so with the slim jewel
cases about 60 CDs now take up the space of 1 CD.

It's high end if you use EAC or take other measures for exact copying.

What kind of lossless format gives you 30-1 (or even 15-1?)
compression?

Monkey's Audio at "Insane" compression level. It really depends on
the type of music. The majority of my collection (70%) is classical
which compresses better especially piano music and other chamber
music.