Did you replace your original record collection with CD's

[Gigantic]

In the 80’s, I bought mostly vinyls and a few CDs. My parents sold all of my vinyls when I joined the army. In the 90’s, I mostly bought CDs, but a few bands, I bought both vinyls and compact discs. In the’00s, from 2000-2006, I digitized all of my CDs, about 5500 of them to 320mbs mp3s and sold all but 250 CDs, which got squirreled away in my fathers barn for the next 18 years. I’m now buying mostly vinyls, with perhaps 5% CD, SACD or DVD

 

[j!m]

 

[waffleboy]

I was QUICK to make the transition. I liked the sound of CD's and I liked that they weren't as fussy. I drove down to LA and bought a Sony CDP-101 (as I remember) and remembered to bring the AD or it would have been like $100 more.

Part of my thinking is I would never get as much for my records as I would right then. And I was right, at least for 40 years or so

CD's were EXPENSIVE then. ANd there were so few rock/pop CD's out there. There was so much press about what wasn't yet released, like the Beatles frinstance

Oddly, I still have all my cd's. Should probably do something about that, but I DO NOT play them. I don't even have a player

Digital and LP's now, but mostly digital.

 

[trainbuffton]

I bought a few cds as a young man, because that was the water we were all swimming in. You want to buy an album at a show, cd is the format. I've got a few cds from that era but I was collecting vinyl at 15 and I'm still committed to that format. I haven't invested in cds or a way to play them.
So a week or so ago, a neighbor bought a new fancy cd player to go with his Audio research stack and brought his old (very advanced extremely nice) cd play over here and gave it to me. It's all hooked up using the one extra input on my tube preamp and it sounds as good as it has any right to...
In a awful twist of fate, now I can't find my cds to play on it.

 

[Mart Mccall]

Started with LPs, didn't get a CD player until '97 out of necessity.

Started out replacing all my cassette tape copies (taped from friend's LPs) with the CD version and when that was done I gave the tape deck away.

Decided to quit with the vinyl and go 100 percent CD. Eventually bought all my favourite albums again on CD. Kept the vinyl. Occasionally give one away to friends who still collect it.

All new purchases are on CD, I don't use any other medium now.

 

[Jeff449]

Never got rid of my vinyl collection. I buy CDs and vinyl still. I'll buy a vinyl copy of a title I already have on CD if I want better SQ (on my rig at least). I'll buy a CD of a title I have on vinyl for convenience (or playing in the car). I'll also record a record onto CD for convenience. In all cases, I keep both forms of media. The only time I get rid of a record or CD is if I get a better mastering on the same medium. I will also ditch a cassette if I get the same title on vinyl or CD.

 

[tourmax]

I span all the formats: vinyl, 8-track, cassette, cd and then stuff like mp3, flac etc.

Never had a lot of 8 tracks, that was more my dad’s thing for the car.

I started with vinyl (and an ultra-cheap record player - I was preteen then).

When cassettes came out, I started re-buying the same music because thats what I liked, as well as adding new. No more buying vinyl once cassettes started. Cassettes were also for the automotive scene, which I was big into.

Then when CD’s came out I started re-buying music I had on vinyl and cassette as well as adding new stuff. No more vinyl or cassette purchases when cds came out.

When they went mp3/ipod/etc I kind of “rebelled“ and refused to rebuy stuff I still had in the three previous formats. It was just starting to feel like new formats were nothing more than constantly revolving cash cow for the music industry, and all of it was coming out of my pocket.

That was also the start of the “limewire” days…so, yeeeaaaahhhh…..theres that. I guess I wasn’t the only one tired of rebuying all my music and equipment every 5-odd years…..lol!

 

[j!m]

I resonate with your "path".

Mom and Dad had 8-tracks and LPs I used to listen to on the Bradford stereo system... nothing like the "ka-CHUNK" of changing tracks on the 8-track. I quickly abandoned the 8-track in favor of the cassette. Like you, I made copies of friend's LPs (and they did the same) onto cassette and also bought pre-recorded cassettes. It was cheaper than LPs at the time. I played around with open reel tape a bit as well.

Then the CD came out, and I migrated to a CD-centric system. Still have the LPs I bought (record store was selling off a dump from the local radio station that went to CDs) and continue to add jazz (well, I prefer "Hard Bop") LPs that never made it to CD. But I do not buy "mainstream" LPs as the original CDs are a better buy and of course old CDs are of better quality as compared to newly "pressed" ones.

The other advantage to CDs is visual grading. An LP that "looks" good may, or may not, SOUND good. A good-looking CD is a good playing/sounding CD. Some scratches can be "buffed out" of a CD too, which doesn't work well on LPs....

 

[TwoCat]

It may sound crazy, but I've had luck with scratched CD's by applying a very thin layer of corn oil to the scratched surface. I only need ONE play to rip.

I compressed all my discs into high bandwidth MP3's or MP4's.
This was mostly for portability; use in home, cars, pc's portables, etc. but also for archival storage.
I still have many of the LP's and the discs (CD, DVD & BD) in storage.)
All my theaters, and vehicles have USB, SD, SSD capability. (except my DRZ-400)
Roughly 150Gb/4Tb worth.
Media, recording and playback technology over the last 60 years left me exhausted. RTR, LP, 8-track, cassette, DBX, CD, DVD, BD...
One of my gripes is 'how many times do I have to purchase Led Zeppelin II before I can have a SITE LICENSE?'

 

[j!m]

If the scratches are "clean" (not full of dirt) then a spray clear and subsequent buff-out often works well.

But in your case, I can see that working for a single play.

 

[Gigantic]

Back in the 80’s and early 90’s, I had good luck rescuing scratched CDs with “Future” floor polish, a product that you squirted on the floor, spread with a mop and it left a shiny surface behind when it dried. I havn’t seen it on the grocery store shelves in a few decades, though.

 

[j!m]

I remember the product but never used it for anything. I guess it's future was short...

 

[tourmax]

I can “rehab“ some pretty bad cd’s with a few processes.

for ”dirty”, I use a photographer's lens cleaning solution and a photographer's microfibre cloth.

If I find its badly scratched up and or doesn’t play/skips/stutters, there‘s a couple different ways I go.

first I’ll try Meguiers polish and a microfibre. If it looks good enough, I’ll give it a coat of meguiers “gold” carnauba and then buff. Only work the disc radially from the center out.

if it plays fine then I’m done.

if it doesn’t look good after the polish, I get more aggressive. I use meguiers compound and a microfibre. Again, working radially from center to edge. Then the polish, then the carnauba.

not many discs I haven’t been able to salvage with that process.

Meguiers is good stuff. I use it in the cars and one day I figured I’d give it a try on a scratched up disc and it worked great. Been using it ever since. I keep it around for the vehicles anyways.

about all I really check when buying used is to hold it up to the light and look for any light streaming through the foil layer. Thats unrecoverable damage so I just out that ine down and walk away.

I do the light trick with dvd’s and blurays too. I usually get at least ine person question what I’m doing in the thrift store and once I tell them why, they start holding theirs up to the light….lol!

 

[j!m]

Don't you know you have to coat the edges with a green sharpie?!?!?

 

[mjw21a]

No though for a time I replaced much of my CD collection with LP's..... Then when my daughter came along sold off all my record playback gear and media for pennies on the dollar.

 

[Late Boomer]

Was this thread created in the late 1980s?

I have never cared for vinyl. Had cassettes, then CDs, then MP3s and FLACs and whatever other file-based formats are there.

 

[j!m]

I wanted a DAT deck when they came out but never got one. Digital quality in a “cassette” tape? I was all about that until I got a CD recorder and stayed the course with CD.

That first Philips unit had to use “music” CDs but otherwise it was fine until it died. Replaced with a Tascam CD-RW402 that I still use today.

I also dabbled in MD for a short time in a portable.

I was still cassette centric in the late 80’s. My shift to all CD was a few years later, but I did have commercial CDs and a cool Pioneer player that played one while you could change another. 2-disc changer essentially I thought was pretty cool but rather cheap plastic…

 

[TwoCat]

All good points of reference.
I don't have a photo of it, but I seriously boogered up a brand new CD of REO Speedwagon's first album while attempting to rip it.
I accidently bumped the disc player while it was running, making the seek head impact the disc surface, leaving a grievous ring of mangled polycarbonate in the middle of the 4th track. If you have ever seen a 70's computer hard disk after a head/platter crash...you know what I mean. (think NCR model 656)
Amongst my self admonition, I grabbed a bottle of corn oil from wifey's kitchen and smeared a few drops on the disc then rinsed it in cold water (no soap used) after crude wipe/drying it, put it into the player (an internal LG bluray R/W meant for pc's I was using on a bench connected to a laptop) and it did a few re-tries but captured the bits intact to complete the MP3 track at 320Kbps.

The #1 reason for compacting all my music/videos into computer files, is the random access characteristics of this type media.
I really disliked being ball-n-chained to a turntable, reel to reel or whatever sequential playback device. With random access media, it can be rapidly previewed, selected, listed and played as customized to the user and, in many cases controlled remotely.
k

 

[j!m]

Oh, I understand random access well!

I have Pandora on my phone and have ripped a ton of CDs to my work computer set to random play. (Listening to Brad Mehldau Largo- Wave / Mother Nature right now)

If I change my mind I just skip to the next track...

 

[TwoCat]

Jim, I like your avatar. Reminds me of a day in booring French class when I took a splayed paperclip and jammed it into the outlet.