Cds trying to think of a reason.

[SPEC2man]

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.

After reading through the posts, I would like to clarify - my post seemed a little absolute and I didn't mean to indicate CD's were somehow superior in every case. In my particular situation, I have 5-6 large tubes of CD's stored up in the attic. I decided about 3 years ago I was going to park my CD's and go all lossless. I bought an Apple mac mini, a nice USB to S/PDIF converter and piped the stream into my DAC. I lived with it for a while while I considered the demise of my entire CD collection. Then I fired up my CD player one night and enjoyed spinning a few discs I had held back. I have been building an LP collection for about 10-12 years now and I have them all in racks - alphabetized, divided and sorted. My thought now is to take the entire wall the LPs are stored on and build out a really nice shelving system. It would give me enough room to bring the CDs back and store them in a similar fashion. Maybe part for nostalgia but maybe as I get older, my desire to chase formats and the "digital bottomless pit" seems less and less appealing. I can see a point where I have a collection and I can just pull from it. Don't need an Internet connection, PC, Mac or tablet. Just flip on a CDP and go for it. It's a possibility - more likely I will have all the formats at my disposal but I already own the CDs so no monthly charge.

Conversely, if I was just getting into collecting and had but a few CDs would I go charging down the collection path? Probably not. I happen to have the space, time and desire to deal with 3000 little plastic discs not to mention the LPs. There is a part of me that wants to free myself from the pain of an acquired music collection ... library work, care, preparation, storage, space - I get it. I can really see both sides but for me personally, the desire to collect and display CRAP is just too great. The quality of streamed content certainly isn't going to decrease and I can see a day when most if not all streamed content will be the quality standard. I'm only 10-15 years away from living on a retirement income and it's possible the $10/20 a month for streaming might be better spent elsewhere. I'm keeping the CDs ...

 

[SPEC2man]

In terms of the lossless collection ... I have it and it's backed up six ways from Sunday. Again, there is library work to keep the ID3 tags up to par and get rid of duplicates. For some reason, I was able to take the simple process of ripping 3000-4000 CD's and mess it all up. I started with MP3 320kbps (2001), then FLAC (2003) with no album art ... finally ripped it with more modern software that supported the tagging. It shows how; as technology advances, what seemed to be an exact copy turned out to be less than desirable. It's not likely to ever happen again ... too much work. But for some reason, the lossless collection is my least favorite format at this point. I think it has been the most work ...

 

[elcoholic]

Here’s a reason that just occurred to me while posting in another thread.

View attachment 1184676
CD rip of a local blues guy’s CD I bought at a club show in early 90’s on Beovox M70’s. Good stuff. I love these off the radar gems one picks up along the way. Without the physical media one would not accumulate these mile markers along their utterly singular path through life. What will the streamers do when they reach the age of reflection?

 

[Wildcat]

But for some reason, the lossless collection is my least favorite format at this point.

It's my favorite digital format here--I can finally pack the CDs, DVD-As and SACDs away and get my room space back. I can play anything I want and skip all over the place, and create playlists, and do a lot more than shuffling discs in and out of a player. Thing is, I have done this now for a few years and it's become second nature to me. The ripping has long been done. That was the biggest hurdle for me.

 

[twiiii]

If you have old CD players I can see why you find streaming superior. And I will admit some early CD are rather gross. But then selections I have streamed can be second or 3rd class, also. Its fortunate we have a choice today, Can you imagine when the only choice was the lp? Sure we could chose different labels and we all had our favorite to like and hate. I had a friend who kept all his 78 records because the quality of the performance was superior was superior to many lp recordings. Angel and DG were always very disappointing as CD's, still are. Some LP's were just horrible as were some RCA and Columbia discs. Sheffield LP's were amazingly superior and their CD's a poor second. Original Masters, Telarc could be superior and the next performance horrid. Streaming is still the same. The more things change the more they stay the same it seems. You just can't depend on any single format to be the ultimate answer. I learned that the hard way many years ago.

 

[elcoholic]

If you have old CD players I can see why you find streaming superior. And I will admit some early CD are rather gross. But then selections I have streamed can be second or 3rd class, also. Its fortunate we have a choice today, Can you imagine when the only choice was the lp? Sure we could chose different labels and we all had our favorite to like and hate. I had a friend who kept all his 78 records because the quality of the performance was superior was superior to many lp recordings. Angel and DG were always very disappointing as CD's, still are. Some LP's were just horrible as were some RCA and Columbia discs. Sheffield LP's were amazingly superior and their CD's a poor second. Original Masters, Telarc could be superior and the next performance horrid. Streaming is still the same. The more things change the more they stay the same it seems. You just can't depend on any single format to be the ultimate answer. I learned that the hard way many years ago.

Actually there was always an alternative to LP - tape. Pre-recorded RTR was available a year after the microgroove LP from 1949 until well into 8track and cassette. Granted more expensive and a smaller catalog, but a choice none the less.

 

[Nautiker]

'Cause I like them... Only reason I need... And I like playing my own selection of them in the various players in the house, or in my cars - all of which still have both CD & cassette players... ;-)

 

[audioman00]

Those damn plastic disc's just plain sound good. I tried to fool myself but to no avail.

 

[E-Stat]

Streaming is still the same.

Don't know about you but I find lossless (44/16) content from Tidal or (192/24) content from Qobuz in a different category from lossy lo rez providers - Apple, Deezer, Pandora, Spotify, etc.

 

[hnash53]

Stream away... and the audio quality is NOT "awful."

 

[twiiii]

Though a 1/4 trk stereo recorder could record and play back with great fidelity. MY Revoxs and Ampex 4460 did. Pre recorded tapes duplicated at either 60 or 120 ips on cheap tape were really a compromise. I will admit there was no rumble and the bass seemed superior, but the asperity noise and tape his were very annoying. If we had had V-15 V MRin the early 60's and quiet TT's and pre-amp sections there would have been any demand for R2R. I will admit when comes to classical music with its quiet sustained passages and very detailed delicate passages can only be enjoyed via the digital formats with hi-rez. Less than 1% of my LP collection is classical, where as about 50% of my CD , SACD, DVD-A , and music on my computer. is classical. All of my Brass wind collections re digital excluding only one Telarc LP that's not available on CD.

 

[Midwest Ear]

We have two systems, one is based entirely on streaming mainly TIDAL and Pandora which fills our needs for both listening and background. Number two is out at the summer home which is more of a three season place, no internet so streaming is out and the system gets fed from CD and LP of which I have to say CD is getting the most play. If we had the choice, streaming is all that we would be using but no such option at this time.

 

[RTally]

The only value a CD has for me is as a carrier of music into my house. The first thing I do with a CD is clean it. The second is put it in my Mac and rip it to FLAC. The CD is then tossed in a box for storage. The FLAC files are stored on two music servers. I also convert the FLAC to hi-res MP3 for putting on a USB stick that is stuck in my car.

This makes accessing my music much more convenient than using the CD and I have access to high quality music. For the few times that I discover a bad rip, I still have the original CD to re-rip the files.

 

[OnTheBlitz]

The only value a CD has for me is as a carrier of music into my house. The first thing I do with a CD is clean it. The second is put it in my Mac and rip it to FLAC. The CD is then tossed in a box for storage. The FLAC files are stored on two music servers. I also convert the FLAC to hi-res MP3 for putting on a USB stick that is stuck in my car.

This makes accessing my music much more convenient than using the CD and I have access to high quality music. For the few times that I discover a bad rip, I still have the original CD to re-rip the files.

You hit the nail on the head. I still buy CD's I want and rip to FLAC. Multiple backups in the house and off site in a server farm *I detest the term CLOUD*. I still spin my CD's periodically because my CD players are awesome and it is fun.

 

[awillia6]

The only value a CD has for me is as a carrier of music into my house. The first thing I do with a CD is clean it. The second is put it in my Mac and rip it to FLAC. The CD is then tossed in a box for storage. The FLAC files are stored on two music servers. I also convert the FLAC to hi-res MP3 for putting on a USB stick that is stuck in my car. This makes accessing my music much more convenient than using the CD and I have access to high quality music. For the few times that I discover a bad rip, I still have the original CD to re-rip the files.

Right on. Same process for me except I rip to iTunes ALAC so I can push/pull to Apple Express and/or Apple TV units around the house as well as maintain/update several SSD iPods for my cars (most cars have great digital iPod interfaces with integrated menuing/search/random play, etc.).

 

[Alobar]

Yes I tend to forget, flac files played from a drive are technically not CDs . They have become synominus for me , as CDs are never actually played at my house, just extracted and converted.

But the op seemed to be comparing CDs to streaming, or as I took it, owning v renting. I gues i just assumed that anyway.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

After reading through the posts, I would like to clarify - my post seemed a little absolute and I didn't mean to indicate CD's were somehow superior in every case. In my particular situation, I have 5-6 large tubes of CD's stored up in the attic. I decided about 3 years ago I was going to park my CD's and go all lossless. I bought an Apple mac mini, a nice USB to S/PDIF converter and piped the stream into my DAC. I lived with it for a while while I considered the demise of my entire CD collection. Then I fired up my CD player one night and enjoyed spinning a few discs I had held back. I have been building an LP collection for about 10-12 years now and I have them all in racks - alphabetized, divided and sorted. My thought now is to take the entire wall the LPs are stored on and build out a really nice shelving system. It would give me enough room to bring the CDs back and store them in a similar fashion. Maybe part for nostalgia but maybe as I get older, my desire to chase formats and the "digital bottomless pit" seems less and less appealing. I can see a point where I have a collection and I can just pull from it. Don't need an Internet connection, PC, Mac or tablet. Just flip on a CDP and go for it. It's a possibility - more likely I will have all the formats at my disposal but I already own the CDs so no monthly charge.

Conversely, if I was just getting into collecting and had but a few CDs would I go charging down the collection path? Probably not. I happen to have the space, time and desire to deal with 3000 little plastic discs not to mention the LPs. There is a part of me that wants to free myself from the pain of an acquired music collection ... library work, care, preparation, storage, space - I get it. I can really see both sides but for me personally, the desire to collect and display CRAP is just too great. The quality of streamed content certainly isn't going to decrease and I can see a day when most if not all streamed content will be the quality standard. I'm only 10-15 years away from living on a retirement income and it's possible the $10/20 a month for streaming might be better spent elsewhere. I'm keeping the CDs ...

I pay for music I own, and can play where I want, when I want. No pay for streaming or rented music. Also, I want the specific version of an album or a track I want, not what necessarily is current available.

 

[Fletch]

I love CDs and have thousands to prove it. The ONLY reason I listen to streaming music is that my wife won't let me put a system in our kitchen so....Pandora and a bluetooth speaker is all i got. I like pandora for the new music I get to listen to. Radio doesn't do that. Hate radio.

Spinning some SRV right now

 

[Drumolator]

Several years ago, I tried Pandora for a few months. I was way into jazz back then, but Pandora had very little I wanted to listen to. There is no computer connected in our living room (but can be in about 2 minutes), our spare bedroom, nor our kitchen. We play music in all of those rooms, so CD's are the best way to do it. Peace and goodwill.

 

[+48V]

Several years ago, I tried Pandora for a few months. I was way into jazz back then, but Pandora had very little I wanted to listen to. There is no computer connected in our living room (but can be in about 2 minutes), our spare bedroom, nor our kitchen. We play music in all of those rooms, so CD's are the best way to do it. Peace and goodwill.

Assuming you're still into Jazz, here's a Jazz feed that may appeal to you.

Audiophile Stream Network - Jazz
masterpieces from classics to modern-320k MP3