Carbon fiber is the new craze in bicycle frame material and many of the components for a number of reasons, however there are still a lot of nice titanium bike as well as aluminum and steel. I ride a Litespeed Tuscany and the reason I do is not because of cost but I preferred the ride of it over the carbon bikes I rode.

If you are looking for a new bike then ride as many as you can of different mfg and materials. There all good and you'll get different rides from different materials ans tube shapes.

Litespeed, Airborne, Lemond, Merlin, Serotta, Habanero and many others still make quality Ti frames and even though many will argue the point I as well as many others think titanium has a very unique ride. Some will say it is the shape of the tubes, however I have friends on ti bikes with just round tubes and they say the same thing.

I am sure you'll get much feedback on this though.