I'm just about to have to get rid of my antique hi-fi because it's just too big. Would it be stupid to spend money on another CD player when it could be going (presumably) towards an iPod plus lovely speakers? I want something small and good quality. I'm not bothered about music on the move. Suzannah Deane
There presumably will be a time when all music and movies will be downloaded in digitised form, but it's not within the likely lifetime of any disk-based MP3 player you can buy today. Hard drives and batteries have much shorter lifespans than good hi-fi equipment, which lasts for decades.
At the moment, digital music is not the route to a simple life. If you buy and download tracks, you have to pay high prices for copy-protected music that is less than CD quality. It involves operating a PC with an internet connection, downloading and copying tracks to the MP3 player, and probably backing them up to CD or DVD. If you create your own non-protected files, this involves extra work "ripping" CDs. This is OK for people who listen to music on their PCs and portable players, but not a good starting point for home hi-fi.
You will also have an extra problem, because you like classical music and ballet. Although more than a million songs are now legally available online, classical music is generally not well represented.
I think, therefore, you would be better off with what the audio world calls a "micro system". There are lots of models available, but hi-fi quality seems to start with the Denon D-M33. I'd suggest the D-M35 DAB, which includes a CD player and digital as well as AM and FM radio, and comes with small SC-M73 speakers. If CDs do become obsolete, you can plug an MP3 player in the back, and still get better sound than you would from the little speakers designed for MP3 players.
