I need a bit of distraction from real life at the moment, so I figured time for a new thread (actually I may start a few others soon)....

So let me start with my thoughts on the future of HiFi:

I think the folks at Chord Electronics are possibly the most forward thinking persons in HiFi at the moment. The Chordette and a few of Chord's more expensive DACs have a feature that I truly believe will be the future of HiFi – Bluetooth (or some kind of wireless tech)... These DACs are able to access the files directly from your bluetooth enabled cellphone or portable device... Now while I think Chord is crazy to have released such tech years (maybe even a decade) before I can see it being really practical for most persons, I do think it is the logical next step in Music Sever audio... Forget iPod docks with digital outputs, music streamers, HDD music servers, etc... Imagine walking around with your entire music library on a 2TB cellphone/tablet and being able to use wireless to send that info to your home stereo or your friend's stereo (when you visit) and still have that device as the controller for your system... Right now many affordable Music Server options are rather convoluted as you need a storage device, a streamer and a remote... Imagine having your iPhone/Android/iPad/whatever as all 3...

I don't really foresee any other radical change in HiFi... CD will continue to fade out and eventually die, Vinyl will likely still remain a niche market, SS vs Tube is unlikely to be 'resolved', cable debates will continue, planar fans will remain planar fans and box fans will remain box fans... Audio Note will still be a religion (LOL – sorry I could resist a cheap shot at RGA – I'm just kidding though)... The only thing that might gain some traction is Class D amplification – because of the new tech in the NAD M2, which might revolutionize Class D (MIGHT being the operative word)... Oh and expect on-line sales both direct from manufacturers and from used/new dealers to continue to grow...

Any other thoughts? Agree? Disagree?