Quote Originally Posted by pixelthis
Saaw something in S&V mag that was quite startling, really.
Alpines new car stereo, a 450$ item, that was amazing not for what it had, but what it lacked.
Like most electronics these days it was "ipod" ready, with a screen for showing metadata,
a port, etc, but there was something it didnt have.
A CD PLAYER!
Alpine must be making a killing on these with a huge margin without a CD transport. And people will buy them for that insane price. CD quality audio is marginal in the year 2007 and with the advancement in CE technology, we are still stuck with it because of copyright protection concerns from the content providers.

But, you know what, us audiophiles are in the minority and we are the last ones to be considered when providing downloadable music or video. And, it seems, now when making car stereos!!!

Alpine has found a great way to make larger margins and I guess in this day and age where quantity is more important than quallity, they are taking advantage.