Why are people still buying CD players?

[AllanMarcus]

I don't understand cd players anymore. Do peole,e still listen to CDs? Hasn't everyone ripped all their CDs to lossless and play them throught media players or AirPlay?

I just read a review I'd a $3500 CD player! Why would anyone buy that? Even on the high end would people be using a nas or a media server?

 

[JohnnieB]

I do for a few reasons.
1: I'm not as computer savvy as I'd like to be. I'm working on being better educated.
2: If you've ever had a hard drive crash and lost your music collection, you have felt my pain.
3: I like to have a hard copy, with a full size jewel case and the original artwork.
4: I like to be able to interact with my system in a physical way. Not just hitting the power button on the remote. Different music, recorded differently, requires small adjustments at times. This adds to my enjoyment of my system. Would vinyl copied to a hard drive have the same nuance? I say no. You lose some of the art of the hobby.

I guess I'm just a little old school.

 

[sgtjim]

Inconvenient way of listening to my favorite music. Of course it does "remind" me of the old days with albums and turntables. For most listening I just use Pandora, not fine quality but plenty of music I either don't own, forgot I own or have never heard.

 

[selden]

As JohnnieB pointed out, digital copies are ephemeral, whether their storage medium is in your possession or in the cloud. This can be inconsequential if you're just using it as muzak, but painful when your favorites become inaccessible. Theft and natural disasters can cause physical objects to be lost, but they happen far less often than electronics failures.

Also, ripping a large CD and/or video collection takes time that can be more enjoyably spent doing other things.

Of course, doing one does not preclude doing the other, too.

 

[tyhjaarpa]

I myself like to have physical CD on my shelf and when ever I feel like listening it I will find it and put it on my player, it is a part of listening session. I don't have separate CD player and I have no plans to buy one, I just use my blu-ray player for this task. Actually I don't even have connection between my computer and receiver and not planning to connect them either even though I have all my CD's on flac on my computer as I use them for portable listening.

 

[TLS Guy]

I think there are lots of reasons.

Some people don't like screens in their system.

Some people like and have a lot of legacy systems.

Properly organizing a large collection is difficult and time consuming.

On the whole it is easier to grab a CD and play it.

My hard drives have a lot of material already on them of non CD source.

It would take years for me to rip and organize my CD collection.

I don't commit my LP collection to digital on the whole either.

I also have a feeling that for some computers are associated with work and they just don't want to go home and relax and fiddle with another for their music.

There are probably many reasons I haven't though of, for using a CD player.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I don't use CD players or BD players anymore. For music, I stream lossless files from my iPad to my Denon. For videos, I use my HTPC/XBMC. I could also play my music on my HTPC/XBMC. So no need for any CD players or BD players for me.

 

[AllanMarcus]

I do for a few reasons.
1: I'm not as computer savvy as I'd like to be. I'm working on being better educated.
2: If you've ever had a hard drive crash and lost your music collection, you have felt my pain.
3: I like to have a hard copy, with a full size jewel case and the original artwork.
4: I like to be able to interact with my system in a physical way. Not just hitting the power button on the remote. Different music, recorded differently, requires small adjustments at times. This adds to my enjoyment of my system. Would vinyl copied to a hard drive have the same nuance? I say no. You lose some of the art of the hobby.

I guess I'm just a little old school.

Sure, I completely understand vinyl, but playing a CD from a player or from a comouter is not different. It's the DAC that matters. Nothing to stop you from twiddling the settings after that.

As for hard drive crashes, I feel way more comfortable with my music on a server and backed up to the cloud with crashplan. I have RAID on the server to protect against a hard drive crash, and off site to protect against a house fire or robbery.

I'm just saying if you are the type of person the spends $3500-$10000 on a CD player, I just don't get why you would spend half that on a server and media player. Just saying.

That said, I've saw some really expensive (and over priced) media server products at RMAF a few weeks ago.

 

[JohnnieB]

Well the numbers don't lie. Votes are currently 7/1 in favor of.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with having lossless files stored for playback. Would I spend $3500 for just a CD player? No. I use my Blu-Ray as well. Tho at some point the Oppo 103 will be in my system. Everyone enjoys things differently. I don't buy Starbucks because I think it's too expensive for a cup of coffee. If that's what squeaks someone else ducky, so be it.

 

[AllanMarcus]

I tried to squeeze a duck once and it bit me!

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

This:

Also, ripping a large CD and/or video collection takes time that can be more enjoyably spent doing other things.

Also, I do most of my music listening in the car. It’s far easier to grab a few CDs on the way out the door than fiddling with a media player and their endless menus, not to mention far safer. I do have over 1000 songs on my phone that I never had CDs for, and with all the trouble and button-pushing it takes to get it hooked up and playing through my car stereo, it’s amazing I haven’t had a crash.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[j_garcia]

I can ask the same question: WHY do people feel the need to rip their CDs and listen digitally? It doesn't make any difference how you listen, that's the answer. I have a large collection and I don't feel like ripping hundreds of CDs.

I don't have a CD player in my car. I bluetooth to the HU with my phone to listen; takes seconds and sounds fine.

 

[markw]

Why do you assume that everyone here insists on a megabuck CD player? That's a pretty foolish assumption to make, unless you're just looking to make a straw man argument.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I think I will sell my entire collection of CD on eBay.

 

[selden]

In most cases, an inexpensive Blu-ray player could be used instead of a dedicated CD player. Of course, there are the warm-fuzzies gained by using a top-of-the-line model of anything.

 

[j_garcia]

A quality player does make a difference IMHO. $3500? Maybe not that much In my second setup I listen on a cheap BD player and I've got no complaints about the sound. Of course my Oppo sounds better, but I still don't feel the need to upgrade the second system to achieve that. I still enjoy my music and that's what matters.

 

[darien87]

Emotiva's high end CD player is only $400. Who the hell's selling a CD player for $3,500?!?!?!

 

[AllanMarcus]

I wasn't assuming anything. I was just wondering. I guess it comes down to convenience. I got rid of all my CDs about 10 years ago. They are all ripped to ALAC in iTunes. I have an iPod I keep in the car, essentially permanently connected to my car. I bring it in to sync every month or two to add new music. I use Airplay to my Yamaha receiver to listen, but I also have a media streamer running XBMC connected if I want "bit perfect" higher rez stuff, which I rarely do. It's clear I'm not a high end audiophile

That said, at RMAF I say a number of media streamers and servers. The sales pitches to me were very simplistic; like explaining how using a car could get you to the store faster then a horse drawn carriage. I guess I was an early adopter and I didn't know it.

As for "WHY do people feel the need to rip their CDs and listen digitally", well listening to a CD directly IS listening digitally. There is no difference if the file is read from the CD player or is read from a hard drive; same bits. The DAC is what converts it from Digital to Analog. The DAC is where it's at! The convenience of never having to change CDs, never having to clean them, never having to worry about scratching them, never having to worry about them get lost, stolen, warped, or even of having to hear my wife complain how about how much space they take up, was anough for me to rip them. Ripping is actually pretty easy. I simple took a stack of CDs and put them next to my computer. Ripping software like XLD or iTunes can ripping automatically when a CD is inserted, then spit it our when done. I just did it in the background until all the stacks were done. A couple of weeks of work and then done.

But mostly I just don't understand the need for really really high end CD players. If one has that much money, it seems ripping and serving them up would be much better way to spend the money.

 

[AllanMarcus]

yes, a quality play makes a difference, but it's the DAC and some other post CD read circuitry that makes the difference. In fact I think you can use an Oppo as streamer now.

Yamaha CD-S3000: $6k (also an SACD player)
Marantz Reference Series SA-11S3 $4k (also an SACD player)

lots more fun ones here:
http://www.stereophile.com/category/cd-playertransport-reviews

That said, physical media is soooo last century

 

[AllanMarcus]

oh, from John Atkinson:

http://www.stereophile.com/content/nad-masters-series-m50-digital-music-player-amp-m52-digital-music-vault

"Physical discs are so 20th century," I wrote back in 2006, when I began experimenting with using, in my high-end rig, a computer as a legitimate source of music.



That NAD "music vault concept seems to be gaining some traction from those not wanting to figure out all the computer stuff.