Digital Audio has made leaps and bounds in the last ten years!!
I know that 2-inch tape sounds great, and I know that good ol' mic pres and Pultecs, Fairchilds etc sound great too, but......digital audio is finally starting to hit it's stride, and I don't see any chance of it slowing down in the next while. Converters will get better, DSP will get better (think convolution reverb!!) and eventually the final playback medium will be whatever form the consumer wants it in (ie res/low res etc).
I also think that analog electronics have reached the point that electric guitars did in the late 80s. The classic designs have been proven and generally accepted by the industry and now the are a million variations on the few original themes.
I think the biggest challange that we face as a community is to try and improve the user end of the audio world. Never before have so many listend to so much on with so little. I'm thinking of all the crappy home/multi media/car/portable audio that is made these days. I love the 50 watt Maranze amplifier and full size 3 way speakers that I grew up with. It still sounds 100 time better than all of these new mini system pieces of junk. Heck it sounds 100 times better than most of the the so called "HiFi" garbage in peoples homes. I'm constanly bombarded with painfully terrible audio everywhere I go. People are missing out on so much. Lets hope that all of the massive $3000 plasma screens will soon be joined by $3000(minimum) home systems...
