
Many of us grew up with the idea of the component audio system. A receiver (or a separate preamplifier and amplifier), tuner (radio), record player, tape deck, and later on a CD player. If you were into more fancy stuff, you had a DAT or MiniDisc deck as well. While some of us cling on to this mindset like there's no tomorrow, the real world seems to favour a different method of consuming music. According to Erica Ogg (what's in a name), the component audio system is
on its way out - thanks to the iPod and the commoditisation of music.
Member since:
2005-07-06
When everyone had 56k connections, but wanted to steal music, MP3 provided the perfect medium - people got the music they wanted, that sounded OK at the volume they wanted to play it on their PC.

Nowadays, broadband is everywhere and storage is cheap. It's a shame the online stores only sell MP3s (albeit at reasonable qualities) rather than FLAC - audiophiles would return in droves if you could buy the odd tune here and there in FLAC (I know I might consider it).
At least CDs are cheaper nowadays