Cds trying to think of a reason.

CD's are not going to die anytime soon. Streaming media is convenient, however it is compressed "lossy" encoding format. On my system, there is no comparison between FLAC'S and streaming media. FLAC'S ripped from my CD's sound fuller, smoother, and more natural. However, I still enjoy both.
 
I'm running Tidal on the highest quality ... did an A/B test with The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers last night. I received the "Super Deluxe Box Set" as a gift. Hands down the CD blew Tidal out of the water. I have been playing more and more CDs lately - in fact, I am done buying LPs for the time being. CD media is a bargain ... Tidal is fine for daily driving when I'm feeling too lazy to get off my ass and change discs but Saturday night with a bottle of good wine - I'm keeping my CDs. In fact, I'm likely going to send my Oppo to Dan Wright for the full "Truth" mod. I'm considering an investment into SACD as well, I see more and more classics available. Give me a really well-recorded SACD or Redbook, modded Oppo 105 and a high high-end.

I literally have Terabytes of FLAC but again ... it's kinda like stale crackers when I am in the mood to do some serious listening. The sound quality is there - don't get me wrong, but I like the ritual struggle with the case ... artwork. As others bail out of the digital media ... I will be there to pickup the cheap discs.
 
CD's are not going to die anytime soon. Streaming media is convenient, however it is compressed "lossy" encoding format. On my system, there is no comparison between FLAC'S and streaming media. FLAC'S ripped from my CD's sound fuller, smoother, and more natural. However, I still enjoy both.

And when streaming sources move into CD+ resolutions in 6 months or a year? Consider your network storage as a subset of the larger streaming services storage. Get it now?
 
SPEC2man that is an interesting comparison. It seems that you did a test and the CD was better sounding than the stream. That makes sense and is a good reason to keep them. I saw many other good reasons also. I am going to keep both my players and all of my CDs as well. I have them so they do not cost much. It seems most think the CD with a good DAC or high-end CD player sounds better. I do like the stream as one person said to decide what albums to buy. Albums are not cheap and I like to buy the new ones. I have lots of used ones also but hard to beat a new one. I do have a good cleaning machine. At 20 bucks a month it saves me lots. I used to buy a few new albums a month now only ones I really want. I see folks on here have strong opinions on this subject. There is no right or wrong just what each person wants to do. Thanks for all the reasons to keep them or not that folks posted.
 
Cause they are cheaper and if you own a new CD player like the C-7030......the sound is awesome !!!!
 
Tidal IS LOSSY - sorry - MQA is a lossy compression.
You pick which one you want as both standard and “Master” versions are available for each release. You see a small “M” for the MQA version. Which can result in four versions of albums like Katy Perry’s “Witness” as there are explicit and cut flavors of each.

Then again, there’s actually a fifth version (the true 24 bit Master) which is what I use downloaded from HD Tracks. :)
 
I think this thread brings up more than just whether streaming is right, makes sense etc or not for everyone. I think it says more about how we listen to music than anything else. Some like the vast amount of available tracks, and often tout the 40 million tracks as the prime reason they stream. But for others like me , that number has much less meaning. How much time is there really to listen to all that? I for one only like to listen to music that is truly engaging in at least some way and when I find it I want to play it more than a few times. I don't like music that doesn't do anything for me but drown out something else. Background music that I am not listening to really is just noise, and I live in a very quiet place and enjoy that aspect probably as much as I do music. So when I am going to listen to something it is going to be something that I want to hear. Otherwise it is like a TV blaring 24/7 news somewhere..

But if having so much music is your thing, and you really like to be listening to something new constantly then streaming is definitely right for you. Makes sense and I have no judgement about that. We are all unique.

So it would be wonderful if everyone (including me) would just listen to music how they like and stop trying to convince others that that their way is wrong, that CD's are dead, vinyl is crap, or whatever and enjoy what source they like!

It's all good so Nuf said..
 
But if having so much music is your thing, and you really like to be listening to something new constantly then streaming is definitely right for you. Makes sense and I have no judgement about that. We are all unique.
:thumbsup::rockon:
and stop trying to convince others that that their way [CDs] is wrong,
With the exception of this comment...most all of your post above I completely agree with. :) But how or why you feel "prosecuted" and/or denigrated by enthusiastic pro-streamers opinion still escapes me. I see none of that attitude prothed by anyone...directly or indirectly.
:dunno:
 
:thumbsup::rockon:

With the exception of this comment...most all of your post above I completely agree with. :) But how or why you feel "prosecuted" and/or denigrated by enthusiastic pro-streamers opinion still escapes me. I see none of that attitude prothed by anyone...directly or indirectly.
:dunno:
I know you like to spar at times, so this is all I am going to say. It is like this. Imagine I were to start a thread saying I'm trying to think of a reason for liking streaming (but I just can't). It seems like such a thread would be pointless other than to start, if not a war, at least a skirmish. Now if I were genuinely interested in wanting to learn what I am missing by not streaming, that is another matter. The OP already knows he isn't missing anything by 100% streaming and has indicated as much. He has started other threads where he expresses his enthusiasm towards streaming over all other sources, and that's fine too. But to ask why CD's, that he is "trying to find a reason" and that they will be dead in 10 years etc, seems like he is taking a stab at something else, especially since it is pretty obvious that CD's have no value to him. I guess if the title of his thread truly meant he was looking for suggestions about his CD's and my knowing he really doesn't intend to actually play them I would recommend their use as coasters on the coffee table!
 
I know you like to spar at times,
"Spar", discuss, debate. Simply healthy mental exercise in my view. All I can say is I have no ill intent when it comes to asking questions, stating my opinion, or offering advice.
seems like he is taking a stab at something else,
There it is. "Seems" [to you] is the operative word. I try my best to be polite, clear, and temper free but I have no control over your perception. I (and others) that enthusiastically post in threads about streaming mean certainly not to cause you offense or embarrassment in your choices or preferences. You a pretty good fellar with a nice, yet at times, perplexing demeanor. Me too. :)

If I truly "go off" and plainly disparage your sensibilities....you and everyone else will know it. :biggrin:
 
I load them on my pc and put them in a drawer.

I have a cd player in the garage I use some when working out there.

5 years ago it was all cd players, not anymore.
 
I know you like to spar at times, so this is all I am going to say. It is like this. Imagine I were to start a thread saying I'm trying to think of a reason for liking streaming (but I just can't). It seems like such a thread would be pointless other than to start, if not a war, at least a skirmish. Now if I were genuinely interested in wanting to learn what I am missing by not streaming, that is another matter. The OP already knows he isn't missing anything by 100% streaming and has indicated as much. He has started other threads where he expresses his enthusiasm towards streaming over all other sources, and that's fine too. But to ask why CD's, that he is "trying to find a reason" and that they will be dead in 10 years etc, seems like he is taking a stab at something else, especially since it is pretty obvious that CD's have no value to him. I guess if the title of his thread truly meant he was looking for suggestions about his CD's and my knowing he really doesn't intend to actually play them I would recommend their use as coasters on the coffee table!
You got it .
 
May 2018 is the last month for Best Buy bricks and mortar stores to retail CDs (don't know about BB's online plans). I've been checking my local stores regularly to see when remaining inventory goes on (fire) sale. So far, no soap.
 
I'd hazard a guess that the differences people hear between CD/Spotify Premium/Tidal have more to do with the D/A topology in the respective playback devices than in the formats themselves. Academic blind studies have shown pretty convincingly that beyond a certain bitrate there are very, very few people who can distinguish between redbook and a properly encoded lossy file with sufficient bitrate. IMO-any listening tests claiming otherwise that aren't 100% blind are suspect.

To contradict myself with a caveat-I would like to know whether Spotify/Tidal are a. using the same masters as CD, and b. doing any kind of eq/volume adjustment/etc that can't be turned off. There may be a difference between a 320 kbps OGG that you rip yourself from CD and what you're getting from Spotify. I've been happy with the SQ from Spotify Premium using optical out of my CCA, but I haven't sat down and done any scientific testing of it's performance.

Beyond that, storage is cheap and FLAC doesn't throw any info out. We're already at a point where bandwidth wise lossless streaming in FLAC is easily accomplished for most people. If you can download a FLAC file and put it on a local music server, unless you have an attachment to physical media (which is fine, btw, it's one of the reasons I like vinyl) I don't really see a reason to use CDs for playback. I have my music library backed up to both Google and Dropbox, so it'd take an act of God to lose it, so arguments based on permanence are a bit weak. I'd say it's easier to prevent loss of digital files than it is physical media.

Cheers,
Nathan
 
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I like collecting CDs. There is so much information available. One reason I come here is to get music ideas. For instance a thread on Tom Jones so I looked him up on Allmusic and put a couple of his CDs on my wishlist. The same with Bonnie Raitt and Paul Butterfield week ago - now on order.
I would miss the collecting aspect with streaming.
 
There are sound quality differences between different versions of CD's, and I can buy the version I think sounds best.

I also like the gear.
 

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