I'm not overly suprized by this anouncement. Linn's streaming player is seriously good and quite frankly, I'm stunned at the lack of availability for CD's these days. As already mentioned, unless you want the very latest mainstream drivel or have access to a really good muisc store, chances are slim to none that you'll find what you want in your neighborhood. Case in point, I used to enjoy browzing the music section at my local Barnes and Noble or Borders when I was there picking up books or magazines. Both of them had very decent Jazz and Classical sections. Just this week I was in Borders and I couldn't believe that the music area that used to occupy an entire corner of the store was now down to literally a single short asile and an end cap for the Beatles remasters (I did pick up the Beatles Mono's for only $239.00!). But otherwise, what a load of crap!
Having lived with my Sonos system for 9 months or so now I still am enamored with it, HOWEVER, I recently lost one of the drives in my NAS, so with it I lost the ability to stream my music without a computer on. I have to plug in my backup hard drive while I wait for a replacement for the NAS, and then I need to see how redundant RAID really is. I won't be out too much music, but I hadn't backed up for 3-4 months, so I may have to re-rip 30-40 discs. I'm happy listening to lossless files through the Sonos feeding my Dodson Audio DAC, but since the Sonos has been down for awhile I've been spending more time listening to my Esoteric player. As good as the streaming audio can be, the Esoteric does indeed still give it a real run for the money especially in the area of soundstaging, and on SACD it can't compare. I've really been enjoying the Esoteric a lot lately. And, not wanting to start any of the format war threads, I still find my vinyl rig gives me even more connection, but at the cost of time. If I've got the time to really just sit and listen I seem to always gravitate to my LP's, and they still give me the most goosebumps.
The thing I miss most about the Sonos right now is the utter convenience. When I'm working I can just set it to randomly play everything in my collection and have unlimited music for as long as I want.
I think I'll always be a multi-format listener, and I think I'll appreciate my dedicated local music stores all the more for both LP's and CD's when I have the chance to go support them. Someday I'll probably get into the Hi-Rez download scene as it continues to evolve too. Bottom line, I just plain love good music regardless of format.
Post Script - I've really, really been trying to avoid some audio porn sites like The Tape Project and J-Corder lately because I've recently developed an abiding interest (fetish?) in Reel-to-Reel tape decks. I think that a Technics RS-1520 would set me right. Must resist the temptation. How's THAT for an "obsolete" technology?
