Why no Classe source components anymore?

[Antonkk]

I'm about to make a jump from all Electrocompaniet system to all Classe system and what did I learn this morning? That Classe discontinued all their sources thus I will not be able to enjoy a monobrand system. I hate this - in my book all systems must look similair and frankly I was about to buy a special rounded Solidsteel stand for my Delta system. Why did Classe dropped their CD and DVD players (I guess they didn't even make a Blu-Ray player, right?) And what do you guys use?

[slauten]

I own a CDP-502 which is a combination of a CDP-202 for CD's and CDP-300 for DVD. I think Classe moved away from source components mainly because the technology was changing faster than they could develop product to compete. Specially with Blu-Ray. In addition the iPod/iPad provides as good an input as reference CD players when used with a CP-800 via USB. I bought my Classe equipment last year and got some awesome deals on Close Out products.from Classe dealers. If you wanted Classe source products to match the Delta series there's some good deals to be had. I bought a high end Marantz universal player to cover Blu-ray and SACD. IMHO-Classe saw the hand writing on the wall relating to the future trend on analog vs. digital music and put their eggs in the trend towards digital...and kept XLR inputs for legacy source products too. That just my 2cents on where Classe's focus is. If they deliver the anticipated upgrades to the CP-800 they are very much in the game.

See Ya,
Steve

[Glen B]

Simaudio's Moon Evolution series components bear a striking resemblance to Classé IMHO, with rounded faceplate contours, and have the performance to boot. If you must have a source with similar look to Classé, they might be worth consideration. See here (faceplate color comes in all-silver and silver/black): Moon Andromeda

[RebelMan]

Straight from Classe...

Is Classe designing a Blu-ray player or another type of next generation source?

No. We take pride in building products that offer both high quality and value. It is tempting to offer high-end products in some of the latest categories. We know we could deliver on our promise of quality, but are less certain of the value proposition. The honest answer is that there is not much to be done to a basic Blu-ray player or hard drive storage system to improve its performance to the point that would justify a 10x or 20x price premium.

There are certain places where high-end designers can apply innovative technologies and more expensive parts to deliver justifiably higher performance. For the most part, these are areas where data are processed, converted to analog and amplified. In other words, high-end designers can add real value in the preamp/processor and power amplifier categories and that is where our product development efforts are currently focused.

[impala454]

That's great to see a company make a statement like that. Very professional of them.

[Thumper]

I guess products like the new Oppo bdp-103 and bdp-105 make fine additions to any Classé system. This has been posted elsewhere on HTGuide but I thought I would include it here as the question has been asked on what to use as a source component with Classé gear.

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/transports/high-definition-dvd-players-hd-dvd-blu-ray/oppo-bdp-103-105-pre

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/transports/high-definition-dvd-players-hd-dvd-blu-ray/oppo-blu-ray-q-a

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-103/

I looks like they will have the ability to stream from locally attached USB drives, network attached (NAS) drives and some internet services. The 105 adds an asynchronous USB dac to the mix. This has put off my bdp-9x purchase for awhile

[Lex]

I would say they ar e being realistic in tougher than normal economic times. While they didn't say it directly, be assured, it's a return on investment factor as well, just not enough people would spring for that investment for a source. Most people are not really into a whole unified system. Most people's system evolves over time, upgrades occur, and things change. I would say in the end, it's investment vs sales numbers for them that made this decision. They have to charge such a high price on it, it prices many customers out of the market today.

[bigburner]

Business Rule #1: It's better to be good at a small number of things than average at a large number of things.

Business Rule #2: If your competitors can do something better than you'll ever be able to do then do something else.

Nigel.

[Lex]

I would say those are good rules Nigel. Agreed.

[philw101]

I also heard the cost to purchase a licence for developing such products was also rising, to develop bluray players would set a company over a million dollars....extortionate!