Revival of the CD…

[Spitfirejoe]

I do believe cds hold up better for long term collecting and love the xtra dynamic range and no background noise ! That said not all but somethings just sound better on lps ! I’m sure a lot of it is how the were transitioned to cd but I’ll always have a soft spot for lps !

I have run into a few (a dozen, perhaps?) CD's that are horribly mastered - sounding much worse than than the original LP's. I've heard that a few CD releases were simply recorded by playing the LP and burning that to the CD. There are some notorious examples of poorly recorded or badly mastered CD's.

 

[Redikilowatt]

I have run into a few (a dozen, perhaps?) CD's that are horribly mastered - sounding much worse than than the original LP's. I've heard that a few CD releases were simply recorded by playing the LP and burning that to the CD. There are some notorious examples of poorly recorded or badly mastered CD's.

This echoes my experience. However, sometimes the poorly made ones serve to salvage recordings where the masters have been lost or damaged.

 

[Drumolator]

That is good to know. My hope is that DVD and Blu-ray players will have displays on the front of the units to show the tracks and time. However, I am not holding my breath. I still have a few backups when my current disc players die. Peace and goodwill.

 

[Doug G.]

I miss Musicland. Whenever we went to the mall, That was my main reason for going along.

Also, I have a few hundred CDs and have never had one go bad.

Doug

 

[Gregoire]

I ripped all of my CD's a couple years back (backed up redundantly, of course) and sold them. Wish I'd done it a few years earlier when they still had some value. I'm not slamming anyone on the post, just commenting. Although I did keep many of my rarer ones, just because!

 

[Doghouse]

I play vinyl, cassettes,CDs and mp3s using one of two Rock-Ola jukebox wallboxes like my one in my avatar to select tracks on ipods to play through my vintage hi fi.

I really don't care if any form of music reproduction is considered "in or out." Or what anyone else uses, why should I?

 

[Dr. Ears]

SACD multi-channels are my favorite format.

 

[Taketheflame]

CDs are the best value in physical music right now.

I can't say I buy a lot of them, but I do buy some. There's a lot of music out there on CD that doesn't exist on streaming services (and may never make it to streaming), or LPs (or an LP version is very rare and costs $$$), and it's pretty hard to argue with a few bucks for a physical copy of something unique.

That said, I don't own a CD player. All of mine get ripped to FLAC and played through a DAC. Sometimes I'll make cassette recordings for fun though.

 

[onepixel]

I like LPs that come with CDs or downloads. CDs are fine when first pressing LPs are hard to find or insanely priced.

Can't remember what the last one was, but it wasn't available in LP or CD. Only as a digital download.

 

[BillyTheKid]

I have run into a few (a dozen, perhaps?) CD's that are horribly mastered - sounding much worse than than the original LP's. I've heard that a few CD releases were simply recorded by playing the LP and burning that to the CD. There are some notorious examples of poorly recorded or badly mastered CD's.

I've found that to be true, especially on many of the "greatest hits' style CD's, so I avoid buying those.
At $1 each it's hard to ignore CD's. My biggest problem is the time it take to sift thru them. Usually they're in a box on the ground, so I have to kneel to see them, and then I have to be sure to have my good glasses so i can read the tiny printing on the 'spine'. Lastly, if i do find a title i'm interested...often there's no CD in the case.
They sure make you work to spend your dollar.

 

[Capitol C]

https://news.yahoo.com/how-to-survive-the-inevitable-cd-revival-130013506.html

Also https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/b18f50...32fb15/are-cds-a-better-bet-now-that.html--no, wait, that's different.

I still buy CDs, too.

 

[MitsuMan]

I am still picking up any Target CD I can find, along with any that were produced in Japan or West Germany. The flat transfers, many times from the original masters, that were done prior to the first CD pressing plant getting up and running in the US still sound as close to the original LP's than do the later re-masters. The loudness wars ruined everything. Now that being said, there are some more current remasters that sound better than the original LP's, Steely Dan Aja comes to mind. I stream a lot using Tidal HiFi nowadays, as well as Sirius XM channels, but yesterday I fired up the old Kyocera CD player in my patio/outdoor system and damn if it still doesn't sound better than any of the streaming I do. Even my wife noticed and that is indisputable evidence right there.

 

[50nstillhifi]

I've found that to be true, especially on many of the "greatest hits' style CD's, so I avoid buying those.
At $1 each it's hard to ignore CD's. My biggest problem is the time it take to sift thru them. Usually they're in a box on the ground, so I have to kneel to see them, and then I have to be sure to have my good glasses so i can read the tiny printing on the 'spine'. Lastly, if i do find a title i'm interested...often there's no CD in the case.
They sure make you work to spend your dollar.

I have frequently run into this issue.. rather disappointing

 

[Late Boomer]

It is not the revival, it is the usual cycle of hype, rejecting for something new, then hyping it up again in an effort to cash in. AFAIK, the revival of physical media is not beneficial for labels. 10-15 years ago labels were afraid of streaming and clung to physical media. Now labels realized that it is much easier to be paid without producing physical product. I suppose, the only ones who push for physical media revival are artists and the owners of physical media production facilities. I suppose, artists get a little more off physical media sales than from streaming.

I think that abandoning CDs and throwing them away was stupid. It is equally stupid to start producing them now.

I just plain prefer physical music. I can touch it, it's mine!!

Put it on a thumb drive - it is yours. The same bits as on a CD.

 

[cpt_paranoia]

I've found that to be true, especially on many of the "greatest hits' style CD's, so I avoid buying those.

Some people report compilations and greatest hits albums are better mastered, avoiding the worst of the 'loudness wars'.

 

[avionic]

I guess I am also.

Ditto

 

[BillyTheKid]

Some people report compilations and greatest hits albums are better mastered, avoiding the worst of the 'loudness wars'.

Well now. That makes me wonder if I'm an innocent victim of the loudness wars.

 

[RunOutGroove]

It is not the revival, it is the usual cycle of hype, rejecting for something new, then hyping it up again in an effort to cash in. AFAIK, the revival of physical media is not beneficial for labels. 10-15 years ago labels were afraid of streaming and clung to physical media. Now labels realized that it is much easier to be paid without producing physical product. I suppose, the only ones who push for physical media revival are artists and the owners of physical media production facilities. I suppose, artists get a little more off physical media sales than from streaming.

I think that abandoning CDs and throwing them away was stupid. It is equally stupid to start producing them now.

Put it on a thumb drive - it is yours. The same bits as on a CD.

I totally get that... and it's a fair argument, though from that perspective LPs are silly as well. If done right the sound of digital is fantastic and no physical media is necessary... and yet some of us just like the stuff. I for one, since I fist became fascinated by music as a kid, associate the graphics with the music, so that's important to me, I feel though that physical media with movies though is totally superfluous. I don't care about any of the graphics stuff as the whole media being audio contains the graphics as part of it. I watch the same moves over and over again rarely enough that I don't really need constant access to old titles anyway... not like with music where I'm revisiting the same stuff on a regular basis.

 

[cpt_paranoia]

That makes me wonder if I'm an innocent victim of the loudness wars.

"You see me now a veteran of a thousand Loudness Wars..."

 

[RemoWilliams]

Well, given what some Sellers appear to be asking whether Ebay, Discogs or Amazon as examples they can be rather expensive. Not always easy to find cheap MFSL or SACD for instance, then again, up here in Canada paying more due to shipping costs and the devalued dollar makes it all the worse. Still, I do keep on the lookout when out and about at various thrift stores and get what I can, such as GRP or Telarc and as I enjoy Jazz, instrumental and New Age they tend not to be very common locally.


Sometimes one finds a good deal via Discogs - have a few in the cart awaiting to be purchased at some point if someone else does not snag them. Of course I do listen to LPs as well and started getting back into cassettes recently as I had 30 or so I held on to so bought three cassette decks so far. They currently seem to be selling for the least amount so that is a bonus.


I guess I just seem be somewhat devoted to physical media, somewhere around 1000 albums, 500 Cds, 60 odd cassettes and more than enough DVDs and Blu rays, has to be 1,500 all together if not more. I use to buy as many Classic films from the 1940's through to the 1990's for the most part including from other regions, along with Criterion, Twilight Time, Kino , Olive Films and a host of others. It became somewhat expensive, now I listen to mostly music with the Home Theater on the back burner, even went the projector route with a large screen.


Other than space requirements and the pain of moving it all should that ever happen not likely to stop adding more.


In fact just added another turntable, which makes 5 and thinking of another nice cassette deck,never hurts to have multiple back ups!