Looming on the not-too-distant horizon are BLU-RAY (Sony) and/or HD DVD (Toshiba) players for both HD movies and music. Toshiba hasn't worked on their audio codec yet, while Sony has completed theirs. And Sony's audio codec looks very impressive, plus they have just signed on Universal Music (different than Universal Movie, which oddly enough has backed HD with Toshiba). Between Sony and Universal you have 50% of the music business.
Things are looking badly at this time for Toshiba and its HD format. Lately most of the good news in both partnerships with movie studio's and music providers has swung toward Sony's BLU-RAY technology.
Among its audio codecs, Blu-ray has LPCM at 192 kHz/24 bit/6 ch, which exceeds the DVD-Audio spec.
But I doubt Blu-Ray will be compatible with anyone's disc library--so hold on to your dvd players or feel free to buy a new one. You will likely be using both if you choose to go Blu_Ray.
I doubt the Blu-Ray will even play Sony's own SACD, as it is a different technology. Of course, the point may be moot, as both SACD and DVD-A haven't been successful at market penetration. Even LP's outsell them--which is saying something in this digital age.
Hopefully Sony will be far more aggressive in marketting and offering new Blu-Ray audio from both it's own extensive music library and from Universal Music's big library.
But I think I'll be slow out of the starting gate on this one. Once bitten, twice shy on SACD and DVD-A.
Of course, I imagine the vast majority of people who opt for Blu-Ray will be doing so for the High Def movie playback. I would expect those that are mainly interested in music will wait a considerable time to see if Blu-Ray is supported with many new audio releases and many re-issues that have been re-engineered, rather than just "plopped" down on new polycarbonate. We will see if music has become the poor stepchild in this equation. I sense that is quite possible, regardless what the major players say.