<font color='#000000'>Check out
this thread on standalone players and convergence on the Axiom forum. It doesn't yeild any answers, but as several of us pondered a similar but different question, we did some research and found some interesting examples of products that are out there already.
The long and short -- in my totally quasi-informed, speculative opinion -- is that within 12-18 months, we will see prices coming down and features going up on digital hard drive components (not receivers) that can be integrated nicely into the the standard audio-phile/hi-fi/mid-fi home theater and music setup, while allowing for high-bandwidth connections integrating to PCs or the Internet for those who want these kinds of things. This kind of unit -- similar to the Yamaha CD-player with hard drive that exists now and some DVD Recorders that are already out (see that Axiom thread for more detail) -- will have a CD/DVD/Universal format disk player that records to the biggest hard drives the market allows by then (160GB + with 500 and higher not too far off). You will be able to burn a full-sized copy of any current DVD, CD, DVD-A or SACD onto your massive hard drive, and while it may never be practical to archive too many movies (since their file size will grow eventually with HDDVD or whatever - Moore's Law), it will be practical and affordable to use the hard drive to archive 100-200 or maybe even 500 music CDs -- and we're talking full-sized, full quality CD files, not ripped and compressed .wmas or .mp3s. The unit will play all formats, since this is just a matter of codecs, and it will have heat sinks and other mechanical innovations that already exist (some being used in iPod-like portables) to allow for noiseless hard drive operation, satisfying at least mid-fi needs (and thus consumers) if not hi-fi audiophiles. (THey'll get the $2000 version that essentially does the same thing.) The unit will essentially be a super-duper Universal CD/DVD/DVD-A/SACD player with massive and perhaps upgradeable hard drives and the potential for linking to the Internet to download more movie and music files.
Some PC-lovers will not want to go the component route outlined above. They will set their digital systems up on their PCs via home networks, instead of choosing the component path (the component setup is known as a multimedia server), but I believe a component/server approach will win the day, since the component paradigm has held steady for higher quality audio since the advent of stereo. It's familiar. You don't need the "server" term attached -- it's a universal "player." And it's a good way to upgrade. Most of the customers for this thing already have stereos or HTs anyway. Computer geeks will be more inclined to go with networked PCs, but hey, my dad (who drops a butt-load of cash on HT) can't use his iPod, so how is he going to network a PC?
I don't believe that receivers will become hard drives -- there are just too many functions going on in receivers already, and adding this will be a bit much. On the low end of the market, you'll surely see some all-in-one boxes with receivers, tuners and hard drives built in along with the uni-players, but these will no doubt have the same quality standards as today's all--in-one players -- meaning they will be bad spending moves marketed toward ignorant consumers who spend too much money on things they ultimately throwaway (do you detect some bias?).
This is just my .02. Personally, I can't wait for all this to happen. I'm even holding off on getting a new universal player because I think the convergence here is going to be swift, pushed ahead by the PC firms. Expect good hard drive-based uni players to be here sooner than we think, and at reasonable prices of say $300 or less.
Meanwhile, I wouldn't hesitate to get a new receiver, because the digitial convergence marketing engine will end up serving your receiver but threatening your CD player, CD changer, and standalone disk players. They will become the dinosaurs, not the receivers.
Birdman</font>
