The Long Overdue Death of Retail Compact Disc

[Mikado463]

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.

LOL Sally, perhaps your Victrola needs a new needle !!

 

[Sal1950]

LOL Sally, perhaps your Victrola needs a new needle !!

I use cactus, they doen't gouge out the vinyl like diamond or steel does.

 

[lovinthehd]

I use cactus, they doen't gouge out the vinyl like diamond or steel does.

Cool, and you can shape it conical or elliptical on demand, altho it's somewhat a thorny procedure.

 

[Mikado463]

I use cactus, they doen't gouge out the vinyl like diamond or steel does.

Excellent, I love it !!

 

[Bucknekked]

I use cactus, they doen't gouge out the vinyl like diamond or steel does.

Sal
Excuse me for a moment, I need to go and shave. I like a clean shave before I sit down with the vinyl or any current entertainment technology and have a listen.

I have some new additions to my shaving technology. Here they are. I'm sure most of you have them too by now. I nice new straight and then some single blade stuff. I'm sure you all shave this way but since I love this stuff (its part of my shaving hobby) I thought I'd share my newest technology. I do have some German Boker straights (not pictured). They are kinda like monoblocks. You have to want them.

 

[gzubeck]

I consider cd's as a safe digital back-up system. If your music device breaks or your laptop gets stolen etc. you always have your back-up cd's. Downloading music from the internet takes your power and and rights away from ownership. I would place close to zero value in this. They'll get $.05 cents per song rather than a dollar if I have to download this all over again.

 

[panteragstk]

...damn you guys are old...

I was born around the same time as the author of the article and I can say my experience was pretty much the same.

I started with vinyl though...then 8 track and cassette. CDs were the holy grail of audio for me. I never had a nice vinyl system though. My family has always been into audio. I've got my grandparent's records and I'm trying to get my mom's and aunt's but they're difficult and won't part with them even though they don't listen to them. Someday...

I still need to refinish my old console record player...

I will say that I haven't purchased a CD in well over a decade. I've compared my collection of rips (I had a thousand or so CDs that got stolen, thank God for backups) to my favorite streaming service and can't tell a difference for the most part. I don't exactly have a high end system though so more revealing speakers would probably change that.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

...damn you guys are old...

What's "old"?

Eisenhower was president when I was born, should I head for the old folks home?

 

[panteragstk]

What's "old"?

Eisenhower was president when I was born, should I head for the old folks home?

Age is a state of mind...

 

[mnnc]

I hate parting ways. I love the cd format. To me it is ultimate format for those who like the artwork, liner notes, etc and the reduced size and durability. Since it's inception nothing else has excited me as much in the a/v world. I mean that.

I remember reading about the cd and following it's development and then came my monthly issue of Stereo Review with the now famous cover picturing a cd as ornament on the Christmas tree...it was an exciting time.

Purchased first player and a handful of discs before they were released back home in the states. I got the jump on cd while in Germany when I was in high school. I worked for minimum wage which was about $3 hr or so at the NCO club and eventually had saved enough to purchase a Sony cdp-501es. It was a beautiful beast. Men at work, Bowie, Nazareth, Police, and others...I forget...had a new realism. I will continue to build on my collection. There may be hi-rez better sounding formats and methods but to me it just seems so impersonal. Damn, I'm getting old.

 

[eljr]

it is ultimate format for those who like the artwork
.

It is? I thought the LP was.

 

[3db]

I suspect we will be talking about the demise of CDs for as long as we talked about the demise of the thing they replaced...LPs...which are now making a comeback!
I can't say that I still buy LPs, but I will definitely take a CD over the "digital download" any day...because it's mine, it will survive an EMP, and DRM can't suddenly "take it away".
We could have a similar discussion about video/movies.

Thats the exact reason why I buy CD, LP, DVD, and BluRay.

 

[3db]

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.

Do you still have your CDs? If so re rip them. Personally, I can't tell rhe difference between a 320Mps rip and its CD counterpart so I can continue ripping my CDs to 320 Mps.

 

[3db]

My last two CDs were purchased at the Salvation army.

 

[Irvrobinson]

Do you still have your CDs? If so re rip them. Personally, I can't tell rhe difference between a 320Mps rip and its CD counterpart so I can continue ripping my CDs to 320 Mps.

Sometimes I think I can hear a difference with 320Kbps (Google) with string sections in orchestras. For pop and rock I can't tell a difference at 256Kbps (Amazon) either. (Uh, note the K...)

 

[3db]

Will the CD totally disappear or will it go like vinyl and become a niche product?

 

[Mikado463]

It is? I thought the LP was.

you are correct, it was the Lp .................

 

[Ponzio]

So what do I do with this?

 

[Irvrobinson]

View attachment 23675
So what do I do with this?

Make the rest of us envy you?

 

[Ponzio]

Make the rest of us envy you?

not quite. like all of us old heads I had/have a sizable LP collection that I mostly had to replace with cd's. now I'm in the process of ripping or replacing those cd's, mostly purchased in the late 80's & 90's with remastered versions. Grrrrrrrrrr. I guess it could of been worse, i could have taken up golf as a hobby.