I'd like to know what people think as to when, or if, standalone digital music hard drives will rival CD transports as a preferred component for playing music. And how will they sound? Portables can now be had for about $300 with line out and 40 GBs of storage -- enough for about 70 complete CDs at uncompressed file sizes. Combine that with the spread of TiVo-like devices, and the incredible low prices on external hard drives -- it just seems logical that there will soon be a step up from the portable digital music player to a component-style player, one that rips CD-sized files (not talking compressed files here), has a nice interface, ample storage at 120 GB or higher, a 7200+ RPM hard drive, and all the necessary DACs and lines out for at least analog stereo, if not SACD and DVD/DVD-A. Do these devices already exist? I suppose a TiVo is like this?
With 120 GB you could get 200 CDs on one machine -- a mega-changer without disks, and most likely at a significantly lower cost -- a cost closer to a portable, external hard drive of the same size, which goes for $100-200 today. With the right software -- which costs very little -- the machine could play DVD, hi rez -- any format.
Can such a machine deliever high-quality audio? And can it do it without heating up like my laptop (on which I'm listening to music through powered bookshelf speakers as I write)? On the face of it, it would seem that money put toward the right DACs and a few other key pieces would be able to create a killer app here. I mean, if they can already make a 40 GB portable, then a 120 - 200 GB standalone seems doable. Will expensive CD, DVD and Universal players soon be obsolete?
Birdman
