[quote="BlueEyes, post: 753666"]I think the future is that the cd player is now finished, as you say bottleneck, but as with the tape deck a lot of people still have them and so will continue to service the majority. I see 3 camps. In the middle the cd player still servicing the majority of people but not necessarily audiophiles. On one side of the cd player I see the vinyl camp, from the past, with an increasingly move towards vintage gear and on the other side, the future which is the streaming brigade.[/QUOTE] The future pattern is already set for audiophiles. Vinyl will make a comback with audiophile records produced in small numbers at excessive prices. CD will die. Computer audio will take over from it - the software holders will will see an opportunity to sell the master quality downloads they already hold for silly prices. Which ever way quality music will never be cheap. The semi free downloads will go down in quality. In fact this could be the salvation of the industry as it will make the master file holders talk up quality as a selling feature, but we have to get this coming recession out the way first.