Vote

with only two channels

This is what I'll be looking for in my next audio player: 5-disc changer (I'm really lazy), HDCD-compatible, auto upsampling of 16- and 20-bit discs to 24/192, multiple digital filtering options, DVD-Audio/Video playback. P.S.: Forget SACD. It was an interesting transitional format, but that's it.

Really, I want multichannel and better sound quality. The problem is that most multichannel demos I've heard placed the listener in the group, not in the concert hall.

Must be playable on all existing CD players

I also want better sound

Better sound quality and back-compatibility with CD are the cornerstones of future audio format developments.

CDs are ancient technology. Time for a better audio format!

This is the only thing what matters !

Right now I am listening to a secondary system in my office; the Beethoven middle quartets. Sounds pretty good for a system of discarded compontentsfrom my main system but real no way. The main system is closer until I hear my next concert. My son listens to a boom box "Recording are for content not real music"

kill pirates

A more physically robust encoding system would be a very interesting feature for me. Of course, being a Stereophile reader, I am interested in better sound and such details as playing time and features, but I am still waiting for a media that is truly as tough as they once claimed CDs to be. Remember when they said, "Sure, you can pick these things up with your fingers, even if you have a bit of the PBJ sandwich left on them. Absolutely, you can just leave these things hanging around in the dust—hey, there's no groove to get dirty." And remember those jokers who would play Frisbee with them? I do. After getting into those little silver discs for a year or so, it turned out that they had to be treated with a fairly kind hand and kept clean to function properly. I was indignant! After being told that you could use them for recreational tools between plays, and take care of them no better than you would a pet rock, I wanted those very qualities! So let me, nay, us, have them. It seems easy enough in these days of high-tech polymers and such for them to go ahead and give us that bulletproof disc they always used to speak of . . .

Get on with it! I'm aging too fast to wait another ten years for format wars and copyright fears.

I want the most realistic sonic experience, nothing artificial!

Better sound quality. But if the price of admission doesn't go down, especially software, forget it. I'm already looking for an upsampling DA converter to mine the last drops from my CD collection, and if the music industry tries to jack up the prices on new formats (too late for SACD; wait and see where DVD-A goes), then that's where I'll stop.

I can't believe many Stereophile readers would put anything other than better sound quality at the top of their list. Having said that, I like the idea of a medium that can carry movies and data as well as music. The convenience of having just one box connected to the music system/TV AND being able to play everything back on my PC if I wish, is very attractive.

This format the sound is much better, because has more transparency and clarity sound

LOWER PRICES FOR SOFTWARE!!

Enough with all these MP3s ...

Keep the multichannel gimmick and improve the sound.

As a spectator to many live events, there is still nothing like the real thing. All the hardware and/or software can do is make the recorded version sound more like the master tape. It is still impossible to make stuff coming out of I don't care how many channels or speakers sound live, but maybe one of these years a totally different method of recording and reproducing will come about and then we can finally say in truth, sounds real. I am not holding my breath or buying every new technological marvel that comes down the pike.

Spatial reproduction is the aspect that is lacking most in modern "hi-fi" musical reproduction. More than two channels is necessary to even have a hope of high fidelity.

Isn't the answer obvious?