It depends.

I still like/enjoy buying CDs (Amazon mostly). I know it's not like a vinyl record but the artwork, taking the time to go through the lyrics (if there are any), who did what etc.

But then it's into the computer and into GoogleMusic.

As much as I'd like to have, say, THE BEATLES reissue box set, well, I'm sure it's wonderful to look at, and I am a Beatles fan, but I went with just the download. If I ever see it used...

Ongoing/new solo artists/bands I follow, I buy the CD(s) with glee.

And it's always good to have a hard copy, right.

I have CDs from the late 80s that sound as good as they sounded then. My CDs last. I've never listened to an old CD and thought, "Hmmm. Something is wrong with this." Ones I create on the computer seem to be more fragile, especially in my car, where they start screwing up on the later cuts, or the slightest scratch.

Saying that I hate that CDs, and DVDs, had the bottom cut out from underneath them before the next technology was underway. You can downstream movies, but they all have the bonus material? Very few of my hundreds of music DVDs are available to downstream. And if they are, you can't just jump from cut to cut, and again, no bonus materials. In other words they screwed the consumer. Now very little music concerts are coming out on DVD. (The Stones are the rare exception).

I loved making CD compilations. New sounds mixed with classic sounds. My friends loved them. Now I don't bother when I hop in their car and they don't even come with CD players now. Not everybody wants to downstream.

Nope,
vinylkid. started collecting in 72 and neverlost touch. bought cds in the 90s
(remastered, bonus tracks, outtakes) and the more i bought, the more i lost interest.hank williams complete .47 cds please. once opened,put on the shelf. looks good, like tulips.
today, i prefer scratchy fifties monos of luke the drifter.
with that my whole way of hearing had changed, my hifi in the basement, where the records are, thorens,
marantz, koss.could be bought 1978.
my daughter got spotify, nice for her, but not for me, i am a boring old fart.like the fiddle in country honk.

<I've never listened to an old CD and thought, "Hmmm. Something is wrong with this>

Mind you, it will happen. Happened to several of my cds. First signs: Weird sounds, hickups and beeping noises.

CD, Vinyl or Streaming? This is also the topic of this podcast

[soundcloud.com]

(german speaking only)

Quote
DandelionPowderman


Mind you, it will happen. Happened to several of my cds. First signs: Weird sounds, hickups and beeping noises.

Correct. But it strongly depends on the CD (manufacturer) and the way you treated and stored the CD.

Just for the record, the most problematic manufacturers are:
- PDO UK during 1989-1991. The CDs produced there are effected by so called 'bronzing'. Manufacturers defect associated with wrong protective lacquer. The reflective layer start to oxidize. Hot Rocks, More Hot Rocks and all CD singles of The Rolling Stones made in the UK by PDO are possibly affected. Some are unplayable by now.
- Nimbus UK from the start till early 1989. Bad protective lacquer that did not dry properly. Everything sticks to the cover - dust, fingers, booklets. Sure, by now the lacquer dried (but still can be removed if one will try to wash the CD). Keith's Talk Is Cheap (at least a part of the pressing) was affected.
- JVC Japan in ~1986-1989. Something was wrong with technology. Nobody really knows for sure. The discs looks shiny and perfectly OK (no bronzing) but at some point develop tons of bleeps and later stop playing. The Rolling Stones CDs from London - Polydor K.K. P33L and early P25L series are possibly affected. But for this factory it is rather random. For example, I have two almost identical CDs Hot Rocks 1 [P33L 25011]. One plays perfectly OK, the other skips. The difference is in the sampler. The one from 21 skips, the other from 22 is OK. On the other hand, there were multiple reports for Let It Bleed [P33L 25002] - this one is problematic for sure. This looks like manufacturers bug but one can not rule out treatment and storage. Japanese hot weather and high humidity, you know.
- West German Polygram in 1984 - 1986 and early PDO in 1987. These can carry tons of pinholes. As long as pinholes did not produce errors over a certain limit the quality control let them leave the building. Usually, those are playable but can cause headache if one will try to rip them. But a few of The Rolling Stones London CDs (those allegedly mastered by MFSL) are not OK.

For sure any CD could be killed by scratches on the label side (the easiest way to damage the reflective layer), overheat (i.e. in the car at the parking lot or in the attic) and arc (sectoral) scratches (radial hairlines are OK). So the CDs that were played in the car are the first to be considered problematic. The second are those played in old CD-ROMs.

But if there was no overheat, no scratches on the label, reasonable treatment to the play side - you are perfectly OK even with those CDs that were produced in 1982.

2,500 CDs boxed 10 years ago and it’s been Vinyl buys only since then, was both before.

The person who invented streaming whether it be music or e-books should tried for crimes against humanity.

And the people who bought into it are not much better.

Was there ever a more ridiculous notion than paying good money for nothing that you can actually hold in your hand? You can't even get the pennies or cents back that you do these days for CDs, records, tapes and books.

Downloads are absolute shite and of no consequence. A whole generation has been mugged off and more fool them.

So yes, in answer to your question I still listen to CDs. And when I get round to hooking up my record deck I will haul my 2000 vinyl albums out of storage and play them too. (Just don't tell my wife of my plans!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-01-21 12:05 by Silver Dagger.

I still buy a few CDs but mostly stream my music now. I've started converting all my bootleg FLACs to MP3 so I can listen to them via a USB stick in the car during my commute.

I only use cd's and got about 70 vinyls but currently no player so for me it's all cd's. I would NEVER dream of going digital, I need the physical stuff so I can smell it, enjoy the artwork etc etc. Bring on the Super Deluxe Box sets! Ya can't have too many anyway.

After I switched to high-res audio files and a good player I started enjoying listening to music again. My ears don't tired anymore so quickly and overall I find it quite a pleasant listening experience and very convenient.

Great question. My band (Fendahlene) has just completed our new album. We were originally just going to release on vinyl and spotify - but on reflection we decided to press CDs as well, for a number of reasons, ie:

- CDs are cheaper and people coming to gigs are probasbly more likely to buy a CD rather thn vinyl (if only for cost reasons);

- CDs are much cheaper to manufacture (especially these days);

- CDs sound better than streaming and I think its important to have a (relatively) cost-effective product that people without turntables can buy;

- A lot of people still have CD players ( whereas not everyone hass a turntable). Also many cars still have CD players....

So CDs aren't dead yet - so I convinced the band that we ned to press CDS as well as vinyl.

In temrs of my own experience - I stopped listeing to my CDs for a while and started buying only vinyl. My theory was that I would listen to vinyl on my hi fi, but would also listen to streaming on my Sonos system and in the car.

However, I recently put on a CD and it sounded fantastic (ie was Warpaint by the Black Crowes)....and so I have got back into listening to CDs again. As far as new releases are concerned- I was only buying vinyl but CDs are so much cheaper.....

Quote
Papo
After I switched to high-res audio files and a good player I started enjoying listening to music again. My ears don't tired anymore so quickly and overall I find it quite a pleasant listening experience and very convenient.

Yes, MP3s can be fatiguing.

Streaming is good for casual listening of various old and new songs that I would probably not buy (or buy when they are released). Owning a CD or 24 bit recording is better for an album I want to have forever.

I've stuck with vinyl ...and its minor resurgence in recent years has been nice to see.

I love CDs - eg my Urban Jungle bootleg or Welcome to New York. And I love vinyl - eg my Brussels 73 vinyl or all TSP. In the car it's only CD. At home I often stream - eg when I cook.

Love CDs...just bought 2 yesterday...

Now is the time to buy them. It is very similar to the situation with vinyl in the early 1990s when it was devalued and there was a glut of good titles in great condition to be had for cheap. Many cd titles are no longer being manufactured and are now out of print, or only available as crappy manufactured on demand cd-r replicas. As good authentic cd copies become scarcer, prices will, and already have started to rise for them. My store sells a lot of cds still. They usually don't fetch the prices of the vinyl we sell, but they do sell. If a cd has quality, both in it's production and condition, it will remain viable.

I still buy CD's and listen to them. Very few though, mostly only for the stuff I really want to own. I went through a small phase of buying albums digitally and burning CD's of the most important stuff, but I now regret doing that. Luckily I didn't buy many albums that way and have since bought physical copies of most of them. I don't really like burning CD's any more. I would just rather own the commercially released CD.

Similar with books. I like that e-books are cheaper and you can get them right away, but I would still prefer to own a print copy. Some books are only available as e-books. Really I think the only time reading on a device is arguably a superior experience is for comics. I enjoy the "panel by panel" reading option.

I download from iTunes and transfer the music to my two iPod Classics. More up-to-date than CD’s, but an antiquated concept for many these days.

I use YouTube for all music listening unless a particular band/artist puts something out I am excited about buying, for example: a new Rolling Stones LP. Even then I will still use YouTube to listen to it most of the time, but at least then I supported the band.

my own opinion on CDs malfunctioning with age is that many or most were affected by environmental conditions, like being kept in a car in the sun on hot days. Even "bronzed" cds I have from back in the 80s still seem to play perfectly, but I treat them like records: don't leave them out in the sun or anything. Pretty much any car listening to them is to CD-R copies I have made specifically to abuse, and even those haven't crapped out to any major degree.

My audio equipment is mostly vintage...I have three complete systems set up around the pad. Mcintosh 240 tube amplifiers, Hafler solid state amplifier, Altec pro Bass amp, Yamaha natural sound amplifier, nakamichi and dynaco preamplifiers, ESS and Mcintosh electronic crossovers, Dual turntable, 2 Technics 1200 turntables, Yamaha digital mixing boards, Altec Voice of the Theatre speakers with ESS Heil AirMotionTransformer tweeters augmenting the horns and subwoofers abound, some Yamaha full range speakers, set of 15" woofers in scoop cabinets with more ESS AMT tweeters (I was an R&D tech for ESS back in the 70s). One cd changer but it also has usb port for playing mp3s for convenience. One Blu-ray player in the house that I wonder why I even bought the dumb thing (answer: XTC's Drums and Wires Blu-ray only expanded release).

Ultimately aside from minor acoustic nuances, its not really the medium that matters, its the music. For awhile CDs were being mastered way too hot and way too compressed and that drove me back to vinyl before I realized in most cases today they use the same masters to master vinyl as they do CDs except in audiophile cases. I think that is changing today and many companies do mix and master their vinyl different than they do their CDs but the "loudness was" still rages in the CD arena.

jb



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-01-22 01:33 by jbwelda.

Quote
jbwelda
.. its not really the medium that matters, its the music. For awhile CDs were being mastered way too hot and way too compressed and that drove me back to vinyl before I realized in most cases today they use the same masters to master vinyl as they do CDs except in audiophile cases. I think that is changing today and many companies do mix and master their vinyl different than they do their CDs but the "loudness was" still rages in the CD arena.

jb

Overly compressed mastering has been the biggest issue with all formats for a number of years now.

CDs can sound better than many folks give them credit for...but it all depends on the skills and decision making of the mastering engineers .

Quote
Spud

Quote
jbwelda
.. its not really the medium that matters, its the music. For awhile CDs were being mastered way too hot and way too compressed and that drove me back to vinyl before I realized in most cases today they use the same masters to master vinyl as they do CDs except in audiophile cases. I think that is changing today and many companies do mix and master their vinyl different than they do their CDs but the "loudness was" still rages in the CD arena.

jb

Overly compressed mastering has been the biggest issue with all formats for a number of years now.

CDs can sound better than many folks give them credit for...but it all depends on the skills and decision making of the mastering engineers .

I bought a few CDs of the newly remastered Led Zeppelin catalog just to compare them to the first generation of CDs that I already owned. The older one actually sounded better...very strange. Generally I prefer vinyl, the sound is warmer and more natural, if it´s a good pressing.

Quote
Spud

CDs can sound better than many folks give them credit for...but it all depends on the skills and decision making of the mastering engineers .

Yep - it depends on how the Recording was done and how the Mastering was done. I've heard CDs which sounding almost as good as SACDs or HiRes-Files.

Quote
Javadave
Now is the time to buy them. It is very similar to the situation with vinyl in the early 1990s when it was devalued and there was a glut of good titles in great condition to be had for cheap. Many cd titles are no longer being manufactured and are now out of print, or only available as crappy manufactured on demand cd-r replicas. As good authentic cd copies become scarcer, prices will, and already have started to rise for them. My store sells a lot of cds still. They usually don't fetch the prices of the vinyl we sell, but they do sell. If a cd has quality, both in it's production and condition, it will remain viable.

This is what it comes down to. Grab those CDs for cheap now.

Though was never fan of CD for reasons of sound quality , the thing I've always almost hated most about them is those horrible "Jewel cases" they come in .

The few that come in what are essentially mini cardboard album sleeves give off a much friendlier vibe to this old Luddite.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-01-22 14:56 by Spud.

Quote
john lomax
Great question. My band (Fendahlene) has just completed our new album. We were originally just going to release on vinyl and spotify - but on reflection we decided to press CDs as well, for a number of reasons, ie:

- CDs are cheaper and people coming to gigs are probasbly more likely to buy a CD rather thn vinyl (if only for cost reasons);

- CDs are much cheaper to manufacture (especially these days);

- CDs sound better than streaming and I think its important to have a (relatively) cost-effective product that people without turntables can buy;

- A lot of people still have CD players ( whereas not everyone hass a turntable). Also many cars still have CD players....

So CDs aren't dead yet - so I convinced the band that we ned to press CDS as well as vinyl.

In temrs of my own experience - I stopped listeing to my CDs for a while and started buying only vinyl. My theory was that I would listen to vinyl on my hi fi, but would also listen to streaming on my Sonos system and in the car.

However, I recently put on a CD and it sounded fantastic (ie was Warpaint by the Black Crowes)....and so I have got back into listening to CDs again. As far as new releases are concerned- I was only buying vinyl but CDs are so much cheaper.....

Didn’t know this was your band. I have loved Glebe Point Road for a long time. Great tune!! Heard it streaming over an intercom when in the dunny at a restaurant. Asked Siri “what is this song?” and it pointed me in the right direction. Wow... that’s you? What do you play? Are you the singer? Wonderful song..

Rod

Spud, well said about the jewel cases. I'm not a fan either. Lately with digi-paks and LP replicas combined with good mastering I'm loving CDs. Unfortunately they can never match the LP artwork because of size difference.

Silver Dagger wrote "The person who invented streaming whether it be music or e-books should tried for crimes against humanity.

And the people who bought into it are not much better.

Was there ever a more ridiculous notion than paying good money for nothing that you can actually hold in your hand? You can't even get the pennies or cents back that you do these days for CDs, records, tapes and books.

Downloads are absolute shite and of no consequence. A whole generation has been mugged off and more fool them.

So yes, in answer to your question I still listen to CDs. And when I get round to hooking up my record deck I will haul my 2000 vinyl albums out of storage and play them too. (Just don't tell my wife of my plans!)"

Amen! I agree 110%