While I am one who really enjoys nicely reproduced audio, whether audio only or HT, I’ve never been an early adopter of any piece of equipment. Even if the first manufacturers out of the gate have managed to iron out all the wrinkles, it usually at least a year or two for the feature set to fill in. Sometimes it also takes about the same amount of time for a given technology to really proliferate such that real price competition sets in. By the time the two years, and maybe longer, passes, one will also know whether the world of supply and demand has swung into full acceptance and whether the touted technology is going to be a boom or a bust. The only foray I’ve half-regretted is SACD and DVD-A – I’ve enjoyed half the discs I purchased but these formats have never become mainstream even though I thought it would eventually happen.

I’ve avoided HDTV so far because much of the display technology, from a pro’s point of view, has a fair amount of drawbacks, varying by display method. Many early HDTV adopters have only analog inputs to their HD displays, early plasma adopters who watch certain channels got some form of screen burn-in, ...

HDMI is likely to be different as far as it’s eventual widespread adoption. From the consumer point of view it promises not just to be better (Joe consumer would need a lot of marketing to be convinced to spend just for a ‘better’ he might only hardly notice) but easier to interconnect (perhaps fewer cables eventually). Of course manufacturers have sold the content folks on the idea that the included HDCP offers them real protection. So what’s not to like? Content people like the ‘HDCP promise’, mass consumers like ‘easier’, and manufacturers like having something new to sell.

The 950, and then the 990, have got the audio covered so far. Once the HD display and HDMI/HDCP technologies are a bit more mature, I’ll be there too.