Are you into using CD players or do you use other formats, and why?

M

Mark of Cenla

Full Audioholic
I mostly listen to CD's, and I have systems that are not connected to any computer. So CD's are the way to go for me. I play them in CD players, DVD players, and Blu-ray players. Peace and goodwill.
 
C

crp762

Audiophyte
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
I listen to vinyl, CD and CD ripped to MP3 (for convinience sake) . I like all formats but vinyl provides a more direct link to the music because of the ritual involved in playing/maintaining it and I can read most album covers on vinyl. I can read CD liner notes anymore without a magnifying glass. :p
 
Robert94

Robert94

Audioholic Intern
I listen to vinyl, CD and CD ripped to MP3 (for convinience sake) . I like all formats but vinyl provides a more direct link to the music because of the ritual involved in playing/maintaining it and I can read most album covers on vinyl. I can read CD liner notes anymore without a magnifying glass. :p
I was flicking through my dads old vinyl collection the other day and I think there's a romance about the album artwork and how much effort went in to making the artwork and making a record stand out when vinyl was around, whereas now with downloads and CD's there seems to be less emphasis on it. That being said I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I bought a CD 'Wand - Golem' and the artwork progressed from the outer cover, to the insert containing the CD, and finally to the reverse of the cover.
 
GO-NAD!

GO-NAD!

Audioholic Spartan
Although I still buy CD's, I rip them all to FLAC files, save them on my network drive and play them through Sonos. My two Sony 300-disc CD changers were getting cranky and not always cooperating. They don't make anything like those anymore and I don't have space in my living room for almost 600 CD cases.

I also listen to radio (CBC 2) a lot, as well.
 
M

markw

Audioholic Overlord
Having near 800 CD's, it looks like I'm married to CD as my primary medium, and my media of choice.

I also have several hundred records, starting from the mid 60's up to some newer ones, mostly picked up at rummage sales and the like. These rarely get played anymore, particularly if I have that album on CD.

But, most, not all, of my CD's wind up in my computer and, from there, into my portable devices.
 
rsharp

rsharp

Audioholic
As with many others, I have ripped my CDs (not a huge collection; about 100). I also have the remainder in the various iTunes formats over the years (most recent being the higher quality versions as they've become available).

My CDs are all in storage. I can play my digital files on our iPods, computer, phones (and via Bluetooth, the car system). Also stream over from the computer to AppleTV for playback on the HT system. In my case, the flexibiliy of the digital files and the convenience win over having ultimate quality.

Now then, for the vast majority of movies, I'm in the opposite camp. There I insist on Blu-ray as streamed versions cannot compete.
 
KenM10759

KenM10759

Audioholic Samurai
I ripped all my CD's to a USB hard drive, using Windows Media Player so I'd get the artwork downloaded while it copied. Once that was done I got a Bluesound Vault and copied all 110GB of files over to it. I've since ripped a dozen or so more new CD's I've bought direct with the Vault.

It's just heaven now to pick up the tablet, turn on the receiver and select songs or (my preference) entire albums with the app on my tablet and press the GO button. Absolutely silent operation (the Vault itself), no getting up unless I need a refill of the bourbon or single malt scotch.
 
Johnny2Bad

Johnny2Bad

Audioholic Chief
I prefer a 16/44.1 format file (CD, AIFF, WAV, FLAC, ALAC, etc). I do have a universal disk player (CD, DVD-A, SACD) for playing Hi-Rez format disks although I don't own many, but it's nice to know you can play any disc that might come into the house if necessary.

My portable player is an Apple iPod Classic 160 GB which stores 16/44.1 files in Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) format. I prefer iTunes' file organization features, although I don't use iTunes itself to playback audio (see below).

I don't normally store or play lossy compressed formats. I have a pair of Ultimate Ears in-ear "headphones" that sound awesome with the iPod, but for the most part I use the iPod through speakers in the car.

With a new CD, like many people, I rip it to an external 1 TB Hard Disk for the first play, and rarely is there a second play of the CD itself. Files are converted, if necessary, to ALAC with XLD, an open-source MacOS application essentially identical in feature and function to the WindowsOS's Exact Audio Copy (EAC).

I used to use Max but it hasn't been supported for a few years now. It's an excellent choice if you have an older MacOS computer, including a PowerPC unit, though.

Mostly I upsample with a hardware DAC to 24/96 for playback. If I'm at home playback will be via Audivirana Plus sofware; in the car it's the iPod via a TEAC UD-H01 I've installed with a DIY 9VDC regulated power supply substituting for the supplied 120V->9VDC Switchmode Wall Wart.

A few notes:
AIFF is short for Audio Interchange File Format. Although it's often incorrectly referred to as Apple Interchange File Format, it's actually a cross platform format and the default on pretty much every computer OS in existence prior to about 1990, and stores Pulse Code Modulated (PCM) digital audio data.

Microsoft introduced the WAV format for use on WindowsOS systems beginning with Windows3; it stores Pulse Code Modulated (PCM) digital audio data.

The difference between WAV and AIFF in terms of audio data is zero; they store the exact same PCM files, but there are differences in the accompanying data that describes the format to an audio application. MS has a habit of changing file format data just enough to make files proprietary, and WAV is a perfect example. Sound Quality-wise WAV and AIFF are interchangeable.

FLAC and other lossless audio compression formats like ALAC (which is an Apple-developed format, but has been released as Open Source without any royalty requirements) work the same way that other data compression formats like zip work.

Both have become popular in the last decade or so. There are a number of other lossless audio compression formats but since those two are actively developed and free to use, they are good options.

If absolute minimal file size is important, Monkey's Audio ( .ape ) might be considered, but it's worth mentioning that FLAC and ALAC have improved their compression performance with recent updates so that the files are now only about 5% larger than APE files.

Some wonder how you can compress an audio file without loss of data. A (very) crude explanation is you remove redundancies. For example if the digital data is represented in binary format as:
01100000

You could instead describe the file as:

One 0, two 1's, and five 0's

... and then re-write the data in a way that uses less than the original number of bits and bytes to describe that data.

For playback you reverse the process and thusly the original audio data is available without throwing any data away, to achieve a smaller stored audio file.
 
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S

Sachb

Full Audioholic
I use CD players as well as Flac, MP3s too. The songs which i feel are worth keeping , i burn them to a CD and listen to them in my car.
For Home i Prefer Flac but since Flac is limited in content i usually opt for 320 kbps MP3 . I play those MP3s from my NAS (Network Attached Storage) which is connected to my Asus Router.

My Sony Blu- Ray plays anything u throw at it , Including FLACs , MP3 etc , But no support for certain video format like 4K.

And trust me you won't be able to perceive the difference between a 320 Kbps vs 1 mbps or lower FLAC.

Anything above 1Mbps is noticeable tho against 320 Kbps mp3.
 
slovell

slovell

Junior Audioholic
I enjoy the CD format and I also enjoy the vinyl format, different results from different mediums. Personally, with vinyl, I still enjoy the ritual of playing LPs and the black art of turntable setup. My CD player is a tubed Jolida JD100 and my TT is a VPI Scout.
 
Shadow_Ferret

Shadow_Ferret

Audioholic Chief
For critical listening, vinyl.

The only thing I use CDs for is to burn to mp3 so I can have background music for walking or other activities. I don't own a dedicated CD player and get all my CDs from the library.
 
D

Dreko

Enthusiast
All my cd are in a lossles format in itunes. Before doing that I listen between cd and the lossles format for any different in sound. At the end I choose to get all my cd to I tunes lossles.
 
Hi Ho

Hi Ho

Audioholic Samurai
My main music device is my iPhone. I always have it with me. I can listen in the car, come in the house, and hit AirPlay and it will start playing on my Yamaha AVR. CD's? I haven't played a physical disk in years. My car has a CD player... I think...

I mainly use Apple Music but I also have my own CD collection ripped in lossless form. Honestly the quality I get from Apple Music sounds the same as the ripped CD. AirPlay provides lossless streaming to any AirPlay capable device and it works great. Having Apple Music in my car is like having an iPod with 30 million songs that I can access at any time by asking Siri. I love technology.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
CD is the way I usually buy music, altho some downloads, some on DVD/Bluray. I play CDs occasionally but mostly for use in vehicles (and I use discs I burn and keep the originals put away); in the house have used dvd/bluray players to play them ever since my last cd changer crapped out. Mostly now I access my CDs stored in FLAC on the computer over my network to various systems in the house via Bluray players or avrs via DLNA streaming and an android app. I also use usb memory sticks in various devices, particularly in one vehicle that has a usb slot.

Still have my LP collection and tt (same one since the 80s) but rarely use them and haven't bought vinyl in many years (except for a "free" Van Morrison 180g record I got from Wolfgang's Vault). While I have a fair bit of stuff on LP I don't have on CD or downloaded, the ritual of playing an LP doesn't do much for me but then I've had vinyl since I was a kid and was a convert to the cd a long time ago. I've seen the album art before and don't appreciate any additional noise in a recording and I have to be available to flip the record every 15-20 mins and manually search for another....whereas I have much easier ways to do all that with superior quality now with digital formats.
 
Dan Madden

Dan Madden

Audioholic
My portable listening is done via my phone via Spotify and some personal MP3 files I've downloaded. For critical listening on my main system, CD via my stand alone CD player is still my main medium of choice. Like a person stated above, I want no TV or computer on when I listen so I pop the CD I want to listen to and sit back and enjoy.

I like to go to my CD rack and choose the disc I want.....open it and place it into my player old school.

My TV is on only when I'm spinning a DVD or BD concert.
 
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