Editor's note: Here's an excerpt from the online addition of Alabama's the Gadsen Times. Essentially; its the whys or why-nots of upgrading your home electronics..
High-End Audio
.....Compared with the rapid changes in television, home audio appears sedate. Even some music fanatics can argue for keeping an old stereo. 
That is not because technology has not progressed, but because most of the recorded music has not. According to a 2004 market survey by the research firm IDC, CD's and FM radio - two sources of stereo music - are the preferred formats for most American consumers. Their popularity dwarfs that of the two high-definition sound formats - Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio discs - which provide up to six channels of surround sound, versus the two (right and left) channels for stereo sources. No one denies that SACD and DVD-A offer better quality. Along with providing additional audio channels that spread music around the listener, they use better encoding technologies and pack more data to produce higher detail. But according to Susan Kevorkian of IDC, the improvement may not be distinctive enough to pull in many converts - especially compared with the perceived benefit of upgrading from records and tapes to CD's in the past.
Partly because of a lack of consumer interest, record companies are not releasing a great deal of 
content in the high-definition formats. Only about 4,200 titles are available in the SACD and DVD-A formats. It is hard to estimate the total number of CD titles, but the online retailer CD Universe (www .cduniverse.com) provides a rough indication of the magnitude. It carries 250,000 titles, a spokesman said.
Stephen Clay, who runs the online marketplace audiogon.com, suggests upgrading by pairing a newer CD player with an existing stereo, because he says he believes CD players have improved significantly in quality over the years. He cautions against purchasing all the equipment required for the SACD or DVD-A formats, which he expects not to survive - a view disputed by many analysts.
For many people, changes in video technology provide the compelling reason to upgrade audio 
equipment. Most new DVD movies have surround-sound tracks in at least the 5.1 format (five speakers and a subwoofer to handle low, rumbling tones). Some newer DVD's support the 6.1 format. "There is nothing wrong with surround sound for movies, and it can be quite enjoyable," said Bill Robertson, owner of Uptown Audio, a store in Roanoke, Va. "However, most people who also want to use the same system for music find that there are compromises."
