Spinning CDs on my Esoteric K-01x is truly one of my greatest joys! I still love the ritual, even after doing it thousands of times.
I just did this 10 min ago:
- Flip through my collection, I love the tactile experience. Curated by me, each item in my collection purchased for a reason. A few duds, of course, but even those hold some meaning.
- Pick up my copy of pearl jam ten, (vaguely) remembering the wild party back in 1991 where it ended up in the pool and destroyed the booklet.
- Press the eject button on my CD player. The chrome slot cover moves out of the way and the tray comes out. Quickly at first, then slowing near the end of it's travel. It's mesmerizing to watch, the attention to detail is just insane.
- The tray is solid machined aluminum. Pop the CD on the tray and close it. It closes with the same cool variable-speed motion, and makes a supremely satisfying "SNICK" noise as the transport securely clamps onto the CD.
- Listen to the transport spin up and read the CD. The 3 phase drive is much quieter than my old K-03, but you can still hear it. The display updates: 11 tracks total, 53 minutes and 24 seconds of pure awesomeness. I haven't listened to this CD in years!
- Sit back in my chair, press play on my remote. Listen to the intro build on track 1. Hell yeah, this is what it's all about after long shitty week at work!
As track 1 is finishing up, I can already hear in my mind the transition to track 2. This is an album. I always listen to it as such. No random playlasts for this dude. The order of the songs, and their numbers stuck in my mind. I can anticipate each song as the music flows. After all these years, I still remember that track 9 is my favorite, even if I can't remember the name of it.
For me, this is just how this music was meant to be listened to. I have a server, and every CD I own is ripped onto it. I have high-rez downloads, SACD rips from my oppo, and even a few needle drops recorded on a friends Tascam. Running Roon, with my Tidal subscription, I can access just about anything from the comfort of my chair via my surface tablet touchscreen. Yet, after I finish typing this, and after the CD finishes, I will still get up out of my chair and pop in the new Bob Moses CD I received from Amazon last week.
I'm silver disc addict!
I have a high-end server I built myself. It sits in a really nice aluminum case from Atech Fabrication. The CPU is cooled via heat pipes, and it's filled with SSDs. There are no fans or spinning / moving parts. It is powered with a separate linear power supply. I spent countless hours carefully ripping my CDs to a single .wav file with a cuesheet to delineate the track boundaries. I spent ages on Hydrogen Audio back in the day learning how to setup EAC to ensure a bit-perfect rip. I have scanned each of my CD covers in high-resolution and perfectly cropped each one. I have compared the meta-data to the actual CD booklet for every single disc to ensure it is completely accurate. After going crazy with napster in it's heyday, I have long since replaced every .mp3 worth owning with a purchased CD (and then deleted all of my .mp3 content entirely). With the advent of Roon, which I absolutely love, I have written a utility that splits my CD images into separate tracks and transcodes to FLAC for consumption in Roon. Roon has made much of my efforts managing my meta-data obsolete, and has brought back some of the magic of exploring CD booklets. It's great if I'm feeling especially lazy -- but for me it still isn't quite as satisfying as spinning a disc.
And streaming is truly an amazing experience. My Tidal membership gives me access to a mind-boogling library of music. But, while it's great for exploring new music, I still prefer to buy physical media and build my collection vs renting. My kids think i'm nuts, they can't imaging ever wanting to own music. Their style of music consumption just doesn't resonate with me. They hear a catchy tune on the radio, stream the crap out of it for a while, then never return to it. I still have a huge respect for the Album as an art form, and I love to collect them in their physical form. I sometimes get overwhelmed by the shear quantity of music available to stream, often preferring the comfort of my "limited" collection of 3000 or so CDs. I do like streaming as a vehicle for discovering new music. being able to instantly "try before you buy" virtually any recorded work is an invaluable capability.
Damn, I love my CDs!
