CD Manufacturing Technology - Current State of the Art or Dead-end?

SimplySound

SimplySound

Kent Engineering & Fondry
I found this series of articles to be interesting as a look at the 'state of the art' in CD manufacturing technology. Some say with streaming, that CD's are dead or will die eventually. I guess, but the Japanese are still bangin' em out!

But why?

First up: Sony Blu-Spec CD2

trackingangle.com

Blu-spec CD2: Any Difference?

An exploration into Sony Japan's Blu-spec CD2 format
trackingangle.com trackingangle.com
 
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soundboy said:

CDs still hold sway in streaming era in Japan​

asianews.network

CDs still hold sway in streaming era in Japan

CDs, records and other physical formats accounted for about 70 per cent of music revenue in Japan for 2021, having more than doubled compared to that of digital formats.
asianews.network asianews.network
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Holy carp! has it really been 40 years since the first CD was released?

Man, I'm getting old and don't even know it.....
 
Wow....

"Over the years, Tower Records Japan Inc. has changed the layout of its shop floors to fit the times."

Tower Records, THAT does make me feel old! ;)
 
I guess I'm scratching my head real hard on this one! Why do we still have physical media? Why do people still buy SACD's & 'HD' Redbooks?

I've just completed a long journey trying to wrap my brain around the K2 Recording process (XRCD) and how that relates to SACD's. And I've come out the other side realizing that the whole K2 Process was built to control the manufacturing of a physical media (CD). That when played back on a 'laser player' would be able to restore the signal as closely as possible to the original digital master during the playback.

That was the 90's and its now 2024! So why not just distribute the original master file as a 'file'?

Ok, granted, many companies do just that! But there are still people getting media in their mailboxes or buying it in a store! Why? And companies are still making CD players! Why?

Is there something I'm missing?
 
They said the same thing with vinyl............and look where we are now.

Part of the issue with on-line streaming and downloads, which people are coming to realise, is that you never have anything tangible or tactile from it.
You never have the pleasure of holding an album (or CD for that matter), looking after it and admiring the artwork on it, or displaying YOUR music collection.

Also, Audiokarma would be a much smaller place.
 
trainbuftony said:
Not everyone has fast internet available or affordable. If you don't have the web, no streaming for you.
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Powertech said:
Part of the issue with on-line streaming and downloads, which people are coming to realise, is that you never have anything tangible or tactile from it.
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I guess I get you guys, I mean, you don't have to 'stream' from a cloud per say. I maintain my collection on my server right next to my system.

But the audiophile in me says that the process of stamping it onto a plastic disk introduces many sonic compromises, why do people accept that as if it is important? Why not just play the file?

OK, you don't have the booklet inside! :dunno:
 
In my case, I don't own a DAC, a computer or a server, and my internet is slow because I live in the boonies. I'm a physical media guy, not because I claim it sounds better, but because it sounds good enough to me, and I can build out systems from scratch, to play it on with basic hand tools. It's really basic and can sound really good, and I don't see the need for extra layers of technology which I cannot service nor repair in my garage.
It's all good, I'm digital curious.
 
trainbuftony said:
In my case, I don't own a DAC, a computer or a server, and my internet is slow because I live in the boonies. I'm a physical media guy, not because I claim it sounds better, but because it sounds good enough to me...
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That I get... not that I totally understand the rational, but I get it! :thumbsup:
 
I have the budget and ability (and the equipment if I were so inclined to build it) to go "all digital", but I like having physical media. Can be vinyl, cassette or CD. I also have lots of digital media.

But for the most part, I like having something "physical" I can buy and touch.

Call it a placebo effect or call me a fossil, but it just makes me "feel" like I actually bought something with my money. Although, I haven't bought that type of media "nw" in a decade of more. It's all stuff I have bought when young or have picked up used.

I do the same thing with movies: go ta large dvd collection even though we have several streaming services. I just enjoy going through all the titles, physically picking one out and watching it. the way streaming video is going thee days, they're soon all going to have adverts on them like cable does , assuming you don't pay extra. I despire commercials....

Everyone is free do go whichever way they wish though. I have pretty much all the formats in my "library".

Well, I don't have RTR. Never was popular around these parts and shipping stuff in gets prohibitively expensive. Machines and/or tape. There's also a couple guys who scour the entire province (seems like hourly) and suck up anything that's RTR so no one has even a chance at anything that has any useful life left in it. I was actually one of those guy's houses once. In the basement were walls and walls of RTR machines and reels and only two were connected to a system. Just didn't make any sense to me at all....meh, "machine hoarders" I guess.

Meh, nothing I can't get on RTR from other media anyways so i don't feel like I'm missing anything. I wouldn't mind having one, but that would be more about "the look" than anything else....


Oh wait, wait: I don't have 8 track media either!

LOL!
 
tourmax said:
Oh wait, wait: I don't have 8 track media either!
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:rflmao:Yeah! Glad we moved beyond THAT!

And I get vinyl... totally! It's just in the Digital domain, why the extra element of a physical medium in this day an age? OK, I accept where Trainbuftony is coming from!

But case in point, I just downloaded the Prayer for Andrew (Hill) release by Ron Horton on Newvelle Records. It's mastered at 96Khz/24bit, which is about as much 'def' as is really needed, and it sounds amazing. I have a pretty good feeling that if that 'file' was transferred to plastic and distributed, it wouldn't sound near as good.

And here's the kicker... it cost $10! Not the $30 that would probably be required to capture the costs of transferring it to plastic! I just think that we as audiophiles need to rethink all of this!
 
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SimplySound said:
:rflmao:Yeah! Glad we moved beyond THAT!

And I get vinyl... totally! It's just in the Digital domain, why the extra element of a physical medium in this day an age? OK, I accept where Trainbuftony is coming from!

But case in point, I just downloaded the Prayer for Andrew (Hill) release by Ron Horton on Newvelle Records. It's mastered at 96Khz/24bit, which is about as much 'def' as is really needed, and it sounds amazing. I have a pretty good feeling that if that 'file' was transferred to plastic and distributed, it wouldn't sound near as good.

And here's the kicker... it cost $10! Not the $30 that would probably be required to capture the costs of transferring it to plastic! I just think that we as audiophiles need to rethink all of this!
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Perhaps that's where I branch off from the "audio herd" and don't really care about the media itself: I'm certainly not an "audiophile", no tin the least. My wrecked hearing (30 years around screaming helicopter transmissions and screaming jet engines) demands I not care about absolute quality, because i won't hear it anyways.

So if I have something on a media besides digital, I just accept whatever noises it induces and enjoy whatever music is playing.

Thats just me personally though, I have no idea why the industry does what it does. Other than chasing the almighty buck....;)

I would guess they woudl prefer everyone move to digital because it probably increases the profit margins for them. IE: no machines needed to make the physical media, drastically reduced costs in distributing the music itself, etc.

That the audio quality is superior (reproduction wise) I would guess is not the primary focus, at least not when it comes to the distributors....
 
tourmax said:
That the audio quality is superior (reproduction wise) I would guess is not the primary focus, at least not when it comes to the distributors....
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I agree, that's probably totally it! They make more on that $30 piece of plastic (with inferior sonics) than the $10 download of the original master!

But that's my point, those of us who do value true fidelity I would think would want to start calling out the BS! All I know is this; I have determined in my own mind that the best quality reproduction of a digital source you are probably going to get is a 96Khz/24Bit master file downloaded direct from a label. So I will not spend $$$ on anything other than that, unless it's in a bargin bin somewhere.

My position and I'm sticking to it! :thumbsup:
 
SimplySound said:
I agree, that's probably totally it! They make more on that $30 piece of plastic (with inferior sonics) than the $10 download of the original master!
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I think that might be the other way around. They probably make more on that 10 dollar download than the 30 dollar media.

You have to produce and record the master either way.

But digital download involves (I believe) no more cost that putting it up on a webstore and collecting the money. Pretty close to "direct to customer" in my basic understanding of it.

With physical media they have to procure the media, run the machines to transfer it from the master to the media, package it and then ship the media to the retail level stores where it has to sit until it is eventually purchased. That's a lot of extra steps and a lot of extra hands. As we all know, the more hands that touch something, the more it costs and the lower the profit margins as everyone needs a "cut".

I'm guessing the margins on all that were are lot closer to cost than a digital download. Just guessing though, I have no proof either way. seems logical though.

Although, the (mostly) unseen effect is that digital distribution does cut out all those local music stores that used to make a living selling music to the masses and the equipment necessary to reproduce it....ah well, "time and tides wait for no man".

;)
 
Although digital streaming's sound quality with my current system has surpassed that of my cd player and turntable, I still love having the option of using those physical media sources. The more options I have, the better.
 
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