Thread: The return of the CD?

The return of the CD? — Audiophilia

I still buy CDs, and rip them on my computer right away. A fair number of people are still interested in purchasing dedicated CD players.

I continue to buy CDs occasionally. I immediately rip them and play the music via my digital music server/streamer DAC - Esoteric N01-XD. I have not gotten rid of the 1500 or so CDs (learned my lesson from getting rid of all my vinyl in 1998). However, I will seldom play a CD/SACD.

I have just about all of my CDs stored in an environmentally controlled storage. It’s so easy to use my iPad or iPhone to play music through the Esoteric digital player. I would admit that playing the CD vs the digital file can sound a little better. But, it’s a bit of a hassle.

Ironically, I don’t mind playing my vinyl (yes, purchased a lot of it over the last 6 years).

I haven’t bought a CD in a few years, but do buy a couple of new albums every week from HDTracks. One day I have to figure out how to get CD album art associated with the Lumin file player so that it displays when the CD is playing.

Still love buying and playing CD’s .......!



Regards

LOL. cd's are DEAD. Streaming is god now, whether you like it or not.

Vinyl will be around for a while yet for two reasons - it's hip with a small % of young folks and it still is the ultimate pre recorded format for sound quality if done correctly.

with the rumor of the Fed raising interest rates next year I suspect CD's will get a breath of fresh air ..........

I no longer have a CD player connected to my set-up and even the last two I had (Meridian 808v6 and dCS Rossini) were never used as players. I think I purchased two discs each of the last two years to add to my digital storage. Streaming is just to good to worry about any potential gains with spinning a disc. Also, I love not adding clutter.

It never left in my opinion. People are still buying CD's. I order one or two every couple of weeks from Acoustic Sounds.

It never left, nor did LPs or SACDs.

I hate soundbytes like "return of vinyl" or "return of CD, SACD, etc..." or "Is CD or SACD dead...." as the implications are they were gone or dead.

Originally Posted by XV-1

LOL. cd's are DEAD. Streaming is god now, whether you like it or not.

Vinyl will be around for a while yet for two reasons - it's hip with a small % of young folks and it still is the ultimate pre recorded format for sound quality if done correctly.

"Dead"....don't think so,...look at the worldwide market for new CDs, SACDs, SHM formats of both, Bluspec2's etc....

Streaming is "not God",...sorry. It's just another way to experience music, no more or no less.

Beware ye that worships false gods and idols <LOL>!!!

Originally Posted by SCAudiophile

"Dead"....don't think so,...look at the worldwide market for new CDs, SACDs, SHM formats of both, Bluspec2's etc....

Streaming is "not God",...sorry. It's just another way to experience music, no more or no less.

Beware ye that worships false gods and idols <LOL>!!!

Yes look at the market for CD's. Don't be fooled by CD releases.

This shows that all physical music sales are being replaced by streaming services. That includes downloaded music.

I use ROON -> HQPlayer and stream Qobuz and Tidal, it's an amazing time to be alive and have millions of high quality songs at your fingertips. And if your setup is optimized it sounds as good as locally stored songs and / or discs. And on occasion there are boutique CDs / SACDs not available via streaming that I may purchase and rip.

Originally Posted by XV-1

LOL. cd's are DEAD. Streaming is god now, whether you like it or not.

Looking at the last two dozen or so CDs I purchased, I'd estimate only about 20% of them are available on the top streaming services. And I have no idea how long those are going to stay available.

Originally Posted by still-one

This shows that all physical music sales are being replaced by streaming services. That includes downloaded music.

Thanks for the post and the counterexamples on this.

I'm sure back in the day there were plenty of conversations just like this with data points, etc when it was about CD supposedly killing vinyl.

Personally I don't think the formats are dead anymore than vinyl is dead so I'll just leave it at that.

I just received a new Jays Audio CDT2 MK III yesterday via FedEx so I don't think they're dead.

Originally Posted by Jack

I just received a new Jays Audio CDT2 MK III yesterday via FedEx so I don't think they're dead.

A friend from Greenwood has one and it's performance is excellent!

I stream almost exclusively, find a lot of new music that way and play my CD ripsthat way. I may have purchased 2 CD's over the past few years, Vinegar Joe wasn't on Tidal and they removed a Charlie Haden title I really liked.

I do have a transport for back up and kept my CD's, something won't let me depart with them, mabe it's not having total faith in hard drives or that streaming services may not exist at some point.

The data should speak for itself but I can't imagine what would drive CD sales back up. One thing that hurts album sales in general is the quality of music, it's rare to find an album these days that I want to play all the wa through, I should specify in "popular" ormainstream music, there have been several albums I'd added to favorites I can play through. Most mainstream may have a couple singles at best and if it was a good album no one puts CD's in cars anymore, in fact, when I was shopping car audio many units don't even include a CDP anymore.

So far so good. Appears to be built like and tank and heavy. Sounds great via AES into the Aqua. Won't be able to try the I2S until it's in the system with the Holo May KTE.

I have gotten two CD's recently... one was given to me by the artist herself and the other came in an album that arrived yesterday. I ripped both and put them on my server.

I recently unhooked my CD/SACD player since I have not listened to a disk in it in over two years. I can plug it in anywhere to do what it does (rip SACD's through my WiFi network) so there in no reason to take up space in my rack any more .

Looks like a cool new toy Jack! Congratz. It doesn't have any analog outputs at all... no built in DAC?

Originally Posted by stereogeek

Earlier this year I bought a new cd player. For some reason I enjoy handling the cd's and like reading the liner notes.

What type of microscope do you use to read the liner notes of a CD?

What's a CD?

Someone else said, "it's a great time to be alive" with the ability to easily, immediately access 10s of millions of songs for less $ than we spent on LPs and CDs years ago. You can pretend the old formats are still alive in the sense they're thriving but I think the data shows that's not true, they're only alive more and more as part of a niche market.

The only CD I've bought in the past 5+ years was for my 80 y/o mother, who doesn't believe in streaming because it "slows her computer down with all those files!" (even when the music isn't playing) and still has a landline "because it's more reliable" (but doesn't want to hear me explain that "landline" is piggybacking on her internet connection).

Feel free to love your vinyl or your CDs nothing wrong with that, but personally, my 1000+ CDs are in binders sitting on a shelf somewhere, untouched for many a year. I will not move homes again and cart those with me, so off to Goodwill they go at some point. I get that some folks believe that if it's not in their hands - because they don't own and physically possess it - the music could somehow evaporate and become inaccessible. Strikes me as pretty - no, extremely - unlikely.

To boot, think of all the landfill avoided and unneeded plastics manufacturing. Digital music quality is there, the accessibility and portability are there, the diversity is there. Digital is amazing, streaming is amazing.

Originally Posted by jmusica

What's a CD?

Someone else said, "it's a great time to be alive" with the ability to easily, immediately access 10s of millions of songs for less $ than we spent on LPs and CDs years ago. You can pretend the old formats are still alive in the sense they're thriving but I think the data shows that's not true, they're only alive more and more as part of a niche market.

The only CD I've bought in the past 5+ years was for my 80 y/o mother, who doesn't believe in streaming because it "slows her computer down with all those files!" (even when the music isn't playing) and still has a landline "because it's more reliable" (but doesn't want to hear me explain that "landline" is piggybacking on her internet connection).

Feel free to love your vinyl or your CDs nothing wrong with that, but personally, my 1000+ CDs are in binders sitting on a shelf somewhere, untouched for many a year. I will not move homes again and cart those with me, so off to Goodwill they go at some point. I get that some folks believe that if it's not in their hands - because they don't own and physically possess it - the music could somehow evaporate and become inaccessible. Strikes me as pretty - no, extremely - unlikely.

To boot, think of all the landfill avoided and unneeded plastics manufacturing. Digital music quality is there, the accessibility and portability are there, the diversity is there. Digital is amazing, streaming is amazing.

'J', I like your mother !!

To each their own of course...

I am not into streaming for a few reasons, and of course some are not really issues, mainly my perceptions.

* I do prefer owning my music, weather it is in vinyl, or the files downloaded, etc.
* I prefer the sound quality of high resolution digital (and much higher resolution DSD) then streamed files
* I prefer the sound of vinyl versus streamed files in any form
* I prefer having the artwork and linear notes, especially with vinyl
* I prefer the much much much greater support that the artist gets through purchased media versus streaming
* I have a hard enough time as it is deciding what to listen to now, streaming seems more for music exploration and discovery in my view
* Internet connections do indeed go down and with more scamming, hackers, thugs, etc. out there the more it will affect online connections
* No online connection no music
* Much harder and more inconsistent to take music with you, owning the digital files and easily copying them to your portable works really well

I am sure there are others, but this is what comes to mind.

Agree that digital copies, particularly DSD, usually sound better than streamed. Services like Qobuz are closing that gap, and eventually will. The limitations are no longer really technical (sufficient bandwidth from server to endpoint, the right hardware).

Digital - vs CD or vinyl - definitely more portable, less cumbersome or fragile (can't scratch a digital file). I have 20k+ hi-res songs - along with all my photography raw files - sitting on a SSD drive smaller than my wallet. And we can stream in our cars, on our phones or tablets, etc, with nothing to carry, break or get lost/stolen.

For portability streaming wins, with "owned" digital copies being second. Both having the added value they can be used in our hi-end home systems too. Exploration is a huge bonus imo but I've certainly had those overwhelming moments where "I just can't with this!" and end up walking away to do something else. On the other hand I can sit for hours checking out others' lists of hi-res streamed audio.

Unable to speak to SQ of vinyl vs digital as I can't afford the kind of system where vinyl would surpass DSD or hi-res.

But bottom line, I simply don't see CD or vinyl ever making a significant comeback. As long as people have a passion for them, I'm sure they'll continue being around though. I guess I've always had a tendency to embrace the future, even when it's been less thoughtful to do so and just for the fun/new-ness of it.

I think I need a job with Lumin or Aurender or something!

In today's virtual world damn near anything is doable. As a life long railroader and railfan I can sit in front of my computer watching VRF (virtual rail fan) on YouTube from over a dozen different locations throughout north America yet I still prefer to be trackside to watch trains. I agree that physical media will be just a niche market going forward and that's ok by me, for if I never buy another CD or Lp I've got 1000's to keep my ears happy !

I still buy CDs regularly. Especially as a Classical music listener I find that CD is the best delivery medium as hi-rez downloads are still only a tiny fraction of what is available on CD.

But I don't listen to CDs, only to the ripped files stored on my NAS.

You Should Listen to CDs | WIRED

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

I have gotten two CD's recently... one was given to me by the artist herself and the other came in an album that arrived yesterday. I ripped both and put them on my server.

I recently unhooked my CD/SACD player since I have not listened to a disk in it in over two years. I can plug it in anywhere to do what it does (rip SACD's through my WiFi network) so there in no reason to take up space in my rack any more

Looks like a cool new toy Jack! Congratz. It doesn't have any analog outputs at all... no built in DAC?

How are you ripping SACDs via Wi-Fi?

Originally Posted by asindc

how are you ripping sacds via wi-fi?

oppo 105