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It is the beginning of the end for the CD. One of Britain's oldest hi-fi firms today announced it is to stop making compact disc players because of a lack of demand.
Linn, which has a royal warrant, said consumers are downloading music online and not buying new players.
"We launched a range of streaming music players alongside our CD players, and we found consumers were overwhelmingly buying streaming solutions," said Linn's chief Ivor Tiefenbrun, whos father in 1972 designed a turntable which cut audio feedback. "People aren't buying new CD players - they either download music, or rip the CD and store it away."
Linn will focus on products that can play downloaded music, said Mr Tiefenbrun. "The success of the iPod means people are used to downloading. We believe people will use streaming products to use those files on their hi-fi without having to plug in an iPod. We already offer downloadable files at far higher quality than CD, and we expect other online stores to follow suit next year."
Tom Dunmore of gadget magazine Stuff said: "I think we will see a lot of other people following suit, although people will probably keep CD players in their computers to rip music."
Reader views (6)
So what he means is that they won't listen to CDs on HIS CD players, rather than that they won't listen to CDs. They may be quite happily listening to a CD in their car or on their PC right this very minute . . .
- Roz, France
Why bother making dedicated CD players when any DVD or BluRay player will do the same job.
- Graham, Reading, England
This is the same Ivor Teifenbraun who once said all CD's were rubbish and CD players couldn't reproduce music, only the Linn Sondek turntable was capable and they would never manufacture anything else? he also used to say that having a telephone in the same room as your Hi Fi would damage the sound!!!!!
Linn's turntable was only sold through shops who were so far up themselves they had to drink their tea through a straw. Their products were OK but vastly overpriced, the brand was built on snobbishness and a corrupt Hi Fi press.
Anyone around Hi Fi in the 70's and 80's will tell you this, unless you are still one of the Luddites.
- Kerry, Purley
Linn are simply too high end to get the turnover necessary to produce CD players is more likely. It's like sounding the death knell on cars because Masserati sales are on the decline.
- Squiz, Islington
That's all very well for those with superfast broadband, but because of the inadequacies of my BT landline I rarely achieve more than 400kps, despite paying for 2meg. At that speed streaming is impossible, as is using i-player and a whole host of other applications.
So in the rush to embrace the new, spare a thought for those of us who still require to buy our music in CD form (and by the way I live in a London suburb inside the M25, not the Faroe Islands).
- Brian, London
I'm still using a turntable. If I buy music, it is always on vinyl. 3000+ vinyl at home. Only ever purchased around 50 cds & never really liked the sound of them. No iPod, as the sound is harsh & excessivley compressed. Vinyl sampled at higher rate than cd & played back via walkman capable of playing high sample rate PCM (wav) files. Do not need to use iTunes either, which is a result.
- Dom, London
