The Long Overdue Death of Retail Compact Disc

D

Dazz Wryght

Audiophyte
I made the mistake of ripping all my CDs to MP3/AACs. The compression is usually somewhere between 192kbps to 320kbps. I wish I had done uncompressed rips. I'm currently re-curating all my remaining disc to WAVE files then converting the WAVEs to FLAC/ALACs for mobile playback.

Any albums I can't restore to their uncompressed glory I will repurchase. Hard Drive space cheap enough to leave the music as the sound engineer intended. I only wish some of the more popular online music store offered FLAC/ALAC purchases, such as iTunes.

BTW: My 2016 Mazda 6 has a CD player, but it's so well hidden in the dash you wouldn't know it's there.
 
R

Reyfox

Audiophyte
Yes, sales are down in the US, but what about the rest of the world? While it might be down, is it to the same degree as in the States? I still don't stream music to my old, but decent music sytem because of the cost of equipment. I would love to place everything on a music streamer, but the price... I still buy CD's here in Europe, where technology is a step behind in the States in some areas.

I too miss the days of going to Tower Records in NY to just look and browse. I picked up some gems that way, and met some great people. You can't do that streaming music.
 
Gerry Nason

Gerry Nason

Audiophyte
I own over 5,000 audio CDs having invested myself heavily in the technology after the fall of vinyl. I had a collection of over 3,500 LPs previously, so the recording industry got a big lift by changing formats. I imagine many others share this same story. I feared they would do it to me again when talk sprang up about the possibility of changing over to a mini-disc.

I still purchase CDs and will continue to do so. The main reason that I do so was because I found too many songs of value that I might have missed out on if I had not heard the entire album. Imagine buying Elton John's Madman Across the Water and missing out on less popular tunes like Indian Sunset, Holiday Inn, Razor Face and the title track. Today's youth would download Tiny Dancer and Levon and miss out on the rest. My iPod is full of B-songs that I love.

Downloading tunes provides immediate gratification and saves the time of ripping tunes from a disc, but it is merely a strategy by the recording companies to resell the same catalogs yet another time. Tomorrow's music consumer is sure to miss out on a lot of great music by downloading only the hits. It's a shame that so many artists great efforts will be reduced to only what get's airplay and makes the Top 40.
 

TechHDS

Audioholic General
I only stream music if it's free I refuse to pay for anything I can't own. I do use the Net radio which I do like a lot but that still cost cause you have to pay for internet. It is nice streaming music from all over the world. Much better than what's being played over the FM here in the USA. I was listening to stations from the Netherlands, adult alternative stations nice it is. The so called Top 40 today sucks man.
 
little wing

little wing

Audioholic General
I don't think the death of CD is long over due at all. I still buy CDs. My Oppo 105 lets me fully enjoy them. Of course I do rip them as a WAV file for streaming convenience. Is all downloaded music available in an uncompressed format? I don't think so... just my 0.02.
 
eljr

eljr

Audioholic General
I don't think the death of CD is long over due at all. I still buy CDs. My Oppo 105 lets me fully enjoy them. Of course I do rip them as a WAV file for streaming convenience. Is all downloaded music available in an uncompressed format? I don't think so... just my 0.02.
I agree with you but it is way easier to stream an album than to play a CD on the 105.
 
little wing

little wing

Audioholic General
I agree with you but it is way easier to stream an album than to play a CD on the 105.
Yes, I agree with that. You are absolutely right. I know it sounds crazy, but part of the experience is opening the CD, reading the story behind the music, and putting it in the machine for a first listen :). I know it's nuts... but there is something more tangible about a CD than a download, for me anyways..
 
eljr

eljr

Audioholic General
Yes, I agree with that. You are absolutely right. I know it sounds crazy, but part of the experience is opening the CD, reading the story behind the music, and putting it in the machine for a first listen :). I know it's nuts... but there is something more tangible about a CD than a download, for me anyways..
Not crazy at all. It is the ritual that is largely responsible for the refusal of vinyl to go away.

The album art, the care, the frequent changing or flipping leads to an involvement that is more than just the sound and builds a bond.
 
S

Sal1950

Audioholic Intern
"Did I Like The CD?"
Well heck yes, are you kidding? I LOVED THE CD! You didn't have to identify your age as it would have been easily guessed from your thoughts. LOL
I grew up on 45s, singles we bought and treasured like you did your first CDs, only in later years did the LP become the predominately purchased media.
But in short when the CD came along and I could finally afford a player and discs, I was dancing in the streets. Combine the vastly superior sound quality, lack of fragility, with the convenience factors, the CD was a revolution that rapidly took over the industry.
The saddest part of the end this story has been the fact the the public at large has lost interest in High Fidelity and high quality music reproduction. Except for a couple struggling download options like Tidal or HDTracks, all the other sources used by the vast majority of the public today come in much lower resolutions and sound quality than the CD. And don't even mention vinyl, it's not even in the running with CD for quality. Soon the hipster fad for it will wear off when they get tired of getting up to turn the record all the while listening to the snap, crackle, and pops.
RIP CD, you were and are a great friend.
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
I own over 5,000 audio CDs having invested myself heavily in the technology after the fall of vinyl. I had a collection of over 3,500 LPs previously, so the recording industry got a big lift by changing formats. I imagine many others share this same story. I feared they would do it to me again when talk sprang up about the possibility of changing over to a mini-disc.

I still purchase CDs and will continue to do so. The main reason that I do so was because I found too many songs of value that I might have missed out on if I had not heard the entire album. Imagine buying Elton John's Madman Across the Water and missing out on less popular tunes like Indian Sunset, Holiday Inn, Razor Face and the title track. Today's youth would download Tiny Dancer and Levon and miss out on the rest. My iPod is full of B-songs that I love.

Downloading tunes provides immediate gratification and saves the time of ripping tunes from a disc, but it is merely a strategy by the recording companies to resell the same catalogs yet another time. Tomorrow's music consumer is sure to miss out on a lot of great music by downloading only the hits. It's a shame that so many artists great efforts will be reduced to only what get's airplay and makes the Top 40.
Countless times, I have purchased an album just for 1 or 2 tracks. Then, found that there were hidden gems on that album that I like much better than the tracks that got me to make the purchase.
 
S

Sal1950

Audioholic Intern
How can you think our hobby is slipping away? :confused:
Yes but we are only a very tiny and shrinking minority.
There was a time when the first thing the young people got for their first apartment was a good HiFi.
How many of your current friends today have a stereo receiver and speakers in the living room, let alone a big AV rig like ours. We're dinosaurs that just refuse to die.
 
W

William Sommerwerck

Enthusiast
The great thing about CDs is that you own them. They're yours to play and play again (as Reprise put it). I don't know how many sets of Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, and Haydn symphonies I have. I have three sets of the Bach cantatas (of varying quality), and at least two sets of Haydn's keyboard sonatas. This music is mostly good stuff all the way through, not just one or two big hits per side. And I have a lot of difficult and avant-garde music I can play repeatedly to get familiar with.

How much of the music you transferred to CD is going to be of interest to you "when you're 64"?
 
B

Barry Mitchell

Audiophyte
All things come to pass.
However we still purchase CD's to add to our large collection.
On the horizon we are going to move our rather extensive vinyl collection to CD so we can enjoy the old LP's and keep the LP's as a 'library'.
In the rush to profit from new technology, the CD music industry produced some horrific garbage not worth listening to.
The same happened with DVD's as the industry pushed lousy transfers out the door.
Think by now they would wake up ?
 
mistergsf

mistergsf

Junior Audioholic
And don't even mention vinyl, it's not even in the running with CD for quality. Soon the hipster fad for it will wear off when they get tired of getting up to turn the record all the while listening to the snap, crackle, and pops.
RIP CD, you were and are a great friend.
Please don't call playing records a "hipster fad". And please, tell us more of why vinyl is inferior to CD. That's your claim, right?
 
Mikado463

Mikado463

Audioholic Spartan
Please don't call playing records a "hipster fad". And please, tell us more of why vinyl is inferior to CD. That's your claim, right?
LOL, I think poor Sal is just an old sap with a grudge ...........
 
mistergsf

mistergsf

Junior Audioholic
LOL, I think poor Sal is just an old sap with a grudge ...........
I have to admit I took his comment personally. I'm a young 56 years old. I never gave away my vinyl. I saved it all. I even have my "vintage" audio components which are also very popular and collectable again. If hipsters are discovering vinyl and joining the comeback, well, good for them.

I'm a tech nerd but that doesn't mean I can't go into my man cave and drop the needle occasionally. It's an experience that I'll never tire of. And for the record (pun intended), I don't mind getting up from my lounge chair and flipping the record. I can refill my glass of wine or whiskey while I'm up.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I have to admit I took his comment personally. I'm a young 56 years old. I never gave away my vinyl. I saved it all. I even have my "vintage" audio components which are also very popular and collectable again. If hipsters are discovering vinyl and joining the comeback, well, good for them.

I'm a tech nerd but that doesn't mean I can't go into my man cave and drop the needle occasionally. It's an experience that I'll never tire of. And for the record (pun intended), I don't mind getting up from my lounge chair and flipping the record. I can refill my glass of wine or whiskey while I'm up.
Yeah but you're not typical age of what is referred to now as a hipster...and hipsters have been great for the old audio gear market and vinyl, thats for sure.

As to refills while up to flip the record, one of the few things that makes that activity tolerable :)
 
Mikado463

Mikado463

Audioholic Spartan
I have to admit I took his comment personally. I'm a young 56 years old. I never gave away my vinyl. I saved it all. I even have my "vintage" audio components which are also very popular and collectable again. If hipsters are discovering vinyl and joining the comeback, well, good for them.

I'm a tech nerd but that doesn't mean I can't go into my man cave and drop the needle occasionally. It's an experience that I'll never tire of. And for the record (pun intended), I don't mind getting up from my lounge chair and flipping the record. I can refill my glass of wine or whiskey while I'm up.
1) and you're old enough to know better, never take anything personally on the internet for Gods sakes.

2) I'm not a tech nerd (9 years older than you) and I too have most of my Lp's from when I started in the sixties and still get great joy from my vinyl

3) Just got up from listening to Patrica Barber's 'Modern Cool' , refresh my 'Redbreast 12', and type this...... all is good !
 
S

Sal1950

Audioholic Intern
Please don't call playing records a "hipster fad". And please, tell us more of why vinyl is inferior to CD. That's your claim, right?
Distortion, S/N, Channel Separation, etc, etc, etc. The numbers speak for themselves, there isn't a single category where vinyl excels, it's an archaic tech. The details aren't worth the space repeating here, look them up if your interested. If you enjoy listening to vinyls various distortions, that's great but let's stay in the real world when we discuss High Fidelity on the various medias.
 
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