Hi Folks,
It's a sober reminder of the every changing times in this industry.
One minute you are the 800 pound Gorilla and the next you are extinct !
james
One has to be blind not see the writing on the audio industry wall boldly proclaiming... "STREAMING IS THE FUTURE." The audio source 800 lb gorilla is "streaming."
Whether streaming is better or worse from an audio quality perspective is irrelevant, it is where the consumer is being directed, or is directing, for at least the next five years. It is what it is.
Prudent businesses will allocate resources as OPPO has done, by walking away from CD and DVD player manufacturing.
No matter how small, there will always be a market for physical media playing hardware; be it cylinder record, vinyl LP, tape, cassette, CD, DVD, etc. Do manufacturers chase after a bigger share of a shrinking market or do they adapt to their core customer demands? In this instance, consumers will seek high quality audio sourced from the most common high quality supplier which is now certain streaming services.
Consumers are streaming to their handheld devices and look for continuity to their home-based systems. As streams are demanded, audio equipment manufacturers must be quick and adept in capturing those streams with their hardware at the risk of eroding their customer base.
Audio equipment manufacturers who postpone tying into as many streaming sources as they can as soon as possible will soon be left in the dust. Case in point... Bryston's BDP's only tie into TIDAL while other high bit rate streaming services such as Deezer HiFi are only being considered as perhaps someday.
The OPPO decision should be a wake-up call to audio equipment manufacturers, especially Bryston, to transition as quickly as possible with the implementation of greater streaming capabilities in their hardware together with an intuitive, stable and attractive user interface.
Why spend considerable efforts in marketing, manufacturing and delivering transports and turntables when you can direct resources (i.e., hire a couple of programmers) to create industry leading proprietary software for your BDP hardware line to address the needs of an increasing base of potential customers.
Let's not let the 800 lb gorilla make Bryston extinct (or, at least, not until my last Bryston warranty expires in 2028).
Sincerely,
A big Bryston fan (but obviously frustrated BDP-1 and BDP-3 owner)