Music Formats: What's hip and what's not?

[Golucid]

There's lots of discussion as to what audio mediums are here to stay and what is now perhaps past. We have a googol [not google] of formats, to name a few:

78, 45/7", 12", EP, LP, 8-Track, Cassette, CD, SACD, MP3, AAC, WAV, RA/RAM, RM, Midi, OGG, DSC, ALAC, FLAC, APE, AIFF, WMA, AIFF, ALAC, DAT, DSD/DFF/DSF, DXD

So, what's here to stay? Or perhaps, what is temporarily to fade and perhaps come back. We thought vinyl had died but apparently, it has made a come back, yes? Or, maybe it never did die.

The current argument is that CD is fading fast, or is it? Will it vanish or evolve into what has become that Vinyl Niche market and someday make a comeback as our vinyl friends have?

[radio times]

cd won't fade too soon as it is perfectly acceptable to non audio's esp with rock and jazz, and with Daps that can upscale 320 kbps to acceptable sq standards -hello sony A17- from 'em. Also many folks still have a cd player in their stack system and 20 plus years of having them, so will download and keep 'em. Lp's with the correct surrounds will still be at reference level for some time to come, but when the generation that insists on physicality - lp's and cd's- dies off, the future will be entirely digital, especially when AK 240 sq becomes available at ipod prices.

[djwhog]

I enjoy a good flac file if the remaster was done well, but my order is:

Sacd 1 st
180g+ 2 nd
Flac 96k+ 3 rd

Ps there are shm cd shm sacd and top dog did disc and 1/2 dozen various HD type and similar to sacd disc that are very good. When I can find it 8 out 10 times I still pick sacd, but I may not be the main stream, nor the normal.


Lastly if there was a k03 and up classed blu- Ray the 5.1 and 96 to 192 k blu- Ray and DVD audio disc would be in the sacd and or better class

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[Yamaki]

I'm not sure about what's "hip" so for me I go with what sounds best to my ear. I have a choice of straight FM, HD FM, CD, CD rips to FLAC and some SACD.

I haven't delved too far into DSD. Now that I have a JRiver/JRemote solution in place which feeds my D100 via USB from the server, I am going to dig into what can be done there with DSD per some info I got from Ron C.

PCM/FLAC 24/96 sounds best to me on my main system and makes up the bulk of my listening. Of course, most of my CD rips are 16/44.1 unless it's a HDCD, then I get 24/44.1. I have a fair bit of 24/96 and 24/192 as well.

I do mess with Redbook CD and the occasional SACD but it's pretty rare.

I say go with what sounds best to your ears in your system.

I am hoping that FLAC and DSD survive the future. I hate starting over...