just like an evolutionary process.. technology is moving from capturing data on the fly ( vinyl / tape / cd ) to only processing stored data ( hard disc / playlist etc... ) and in our obsession with high tech dacs / cables and what not.... somewhere in the digital chain... the joy is not getting captured in the data, amplified in the amp and transferred to the speaker ( if i could express it so ).
I don't understand your distinction. It is all data storage: even an LP is data storage. There is no on-the-fly difference, either at the recording
or the playback stages.
Computer audio on the other hand is only going to get better and more popular
Not only more popular, it is going to take over. I have no idea how long it will take (CDs will remain relevant to a lot of CD-playing people, long past the day on which the last one is sold) but it will take over as the main digital source, if it hasn't already, very soon.
For those who continue to hate the "PC", and for the hifi companies struggling to keep their component market, media players will replace the CD player. What's a media player? Don't tell anybody, but it is a computer pretending not to be a computer
I predict though, that, of course, the niche market for vinyl will continue, but there will
never be a "CD resurgence." There is no need for it. As a physical medium, despite its rainbow colours, it never won our
love like vinyl did: it was never an emotionally engaging
thing.
PC audio will get better?
There are different aspects to that...
One is that it has been just fine for ages: at
least ten years. Audiophile fuss will increase, but that is not the same as getting better.
In some ways, according to me, it's currently
worse. I had fewer problems with PC sound ten years ago than I do now.
The CD player reliably sounds the same every time I turn it on (or it would if it worked
). My PC does not. I can understand why someone, faced with situation, would prefer the CD player.
Audio is a low priority for the hardware and software developers of PCs. They (obviously
) do not care if DPC latency actually renders the motherboard useless for audio. They probably don't even test for it.
Audiophiles are now concentrating on PCs and trying to transfer stuff that might be appropriate to amplifiers to them. Some of the cable arguments that PC-audio has given rise to
should not even have been thought of: they are completely inappropriate to the technology. This is not an improvement, but will certainly continue, because sales and money will drive it. DACs will be on the market that cost ten times the price of anything that the sound went through in the recording studio, and that is not an improvement either.
But, one way or another, the computer is the future for playing audio. Leaving the CD Player
still relevant to those who prefer to play their CDs. Even if they can't buy any new ones.