There are some that are better than others. I would stay away from Cambridge Audio DacMagic 2 (from personal experience). The important thing in DACs are the chipsets.
Why are CDs the current hot topic?
- Thread starter H2oman7.62mm
- Start date
-
- Tags
- cds
M70AB2
Well-Known Member
On a retail level, some CD prices are becoming exorbitant.
My son’s 14th birthday was this past Saturday and among other things, he asked for a particular single CD with an online price of $30.
My wife told him that we would all go to McKay’s and see if we can’t find it there.
Sure enough, McKay’s had a sealed copy for $4.95.
Mind you, this was a Glenn Miller CD. I don’t understand what is driving the prices up to this degree in this and similar cases.
My son’s 14th birthday was this past Saturday and among other things, he asked for a particular single CD with an online price of $30.
My wife told him that we would all go to McKay’s and see if we can’t find it there.
Sure enough, McKay’s had a sealed copy for $4.95.
Mind you, this was a Glenn Miller CD. I don’t understand what is driving the prices up to this degree in this and similar cases.
Oasis8
Well-Known Member
Wow, $30 for a Glen Miller CD, that's crazy.
Of course not, the format hasn’t changed in any way.
Shaped dithering for better dynamic range has always been possible, but how to check if it was applied in the production of a CD.. I have no idea. (Tips more than welcome.)
A well recorded and produced piece of music that’s mastered properly for CD distribution will sound good regardless of when it was produced. And it will bring out greatness in sound reproduction qualities if your system allows it.
In that sense hunting down well produced CD’s from yesteryear is well worth the fun if that’s your kind of thing.
P.s. And there is SACD of course.
Some more:
CD dynamic range: 90 dB - 120 dB (with shaped dither).
frequency range: 20 Hz—20 kHz.
SACD Dynamic range: 105 dB.
frequency range: 20 Hz— 50 kHz.
Human hearing dynamic range: 120 dB. frequency range: 20 Hz—20 kHz (young person), 20 Hz—8–15 kHz (middle-aged adult).
Source; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Audio_CD
Last edited:
M70AB2
Well-Known Member
All in all, it was a good day. My son also found an affordable Like New “Aja” CD that is the best mastering according to the Steve Hoffman forum.
Considered against the going prices for used vinyl, which tends to be a real crap shoot regarding quality, low prices drive him toward CDs regardless of his affection for vinyl.
Considered against the going prices for used vinyl, which tends to be a real crap shoot regarding quality, low prices drive him toward CDs regardless of his affection for vinyl.
E2
Addicted Member
I wish I kept all the vinyl copies I thrifted over the years. I sold them all for about $10 each over the years. They are bringing much more now. That was a common record......
H2oman7.62mm
Super Member
I doubt that my ears could ever detect a difference when listening to my inexpensive DAC or some high dollar DAC, so I am going to enjoy the music and hope the gear blurs into the background scenery.
H2oman7.62mm
Super Member
There is a working CD Jukebox for sale down the road from me, it holds 100 CDs and they are asking $600... I kind of wish I had the space for it.
RunOutGroove
Addicted Member
As long as you're happy with what you hearing, I would never try to convince you or anyone else that they need anything else. The whole upgrading gear thing is really for those of us who are prone to thinking "I wonder if I could hear more in this music?" and then trying to answer that question. If you're not asking yourself those kinds of questions then you're wise for not bothering to upgrade gear...
Last edited:
H2oman7.62mm
Super Member
"I wonder if less is really more."
Hi did not see anyone answer your question. It’s the noise floor on the medium which can be higher than the hiss from the source. Tape hiss has a different spectrum and level depending on tape speed and other factors. A vinyl record surface noise ( a diamond scrapping a vinyl groove) drowns out the source tape noise.
Compression can be the result of the recording/mixing process to purposely limit dynamic range in order to best fit the medium. In some cases it’s for effects. the recording medium such as tape which has a tape saturation phenomena.
Modern digital recordings have a hard limit at full scale thus no comparable compression mechanism similar to tape. Compression is not part of a A/D process so any compression is done prior. There is also no compression as part of a D/A process either.
Signal processing like Dolby uses companding ( compression/expanding) as a means to reduce recording medium noise such as on tapes.
Check out the new Alice Cooper limited edition Revox tape machine since you say you like tape machines.
Last edited:
I never stopped buying them completely. Why?
Album art
Lyrics sometimes
Greater dynamic range than vinyl or cassette
They got really cheap for a long time
And certainly nostalgia too
Also, not everything is available streaming, or vinyl, or any given media. I have some music that wasn’t hard to find when I was younger but now it’s not always on streaming services or even available used readily.
Album art
Lyrics sometimes
Greater dynamic range than vinyl or cassette
They got really cheap for a long time
And certainly nostalgia too
Also, not everything is available streaming, or vinyl, or any given media. I have some music that wasn’t hard to find when I was younger but now it’s not always on streaming services or even available used readily.
Indeed, that's one thing that irks me about streaming. For instance, a couple of weeks ago I wanted to listen to a song that I used to love in the late Nineties. "Hooked on a Feeling", by Vonda Shepard, from the Ally McBeal soundtrack album.
I searched for it in Apple Music, and sure enough, it's not there. There's just a tiny bit of the album.
Only four songs out of fourteen are available.
So I said, "FU Apple", dug out my old CD and played that instead. Problem solved.
I love Apple Music, it's really useful in many ways, but it will never replace my LPs or CDs.
Mockduck
Member
The YouTube thing is real, my timeline has been flooded with the kinds of examples seen in this thread. There's a category of YouTube content creator that wants to make a living off of it, or at least start seeing the money come in, and for those folks who take it "serious" they also tend to pay close attention to trends and videos that do good numbers, then make their own version of it in an attempt to get in on the game. YouTube itself makes these sorts of content recommendations based on algorithm, so you see floods of the same kind of videos being made. Some of these folks also sign up for app-style marketing help that does the recommendation work for them. Some just see what's on their front page and mimic it.
Overall, it's low to medium quality content, but it gets the views, so it works, and it works well. The topic of "are CDs popular again" is easy content, really, and seems to get watched, so it gets made.
I think we are seeing a slight increase in the price of CDs due to mild increased demand and maybe a decade of people throwing out their CDs, so while supply is still plenty big it is starting to be a bit less so as demand is on the (mild) rise.
Overall, it's low to medium quality content, but it gets the views, so it works, and it works well. The topic of "are CDs popular again" is easy content, really, and seems to get watched, so it gets made.
I think we are seeing a slight increase in the price of CDs due to mild increased demand and maybe a decade of people throwing out their CDs, so while supply is still plenty big it is starting to be a bit less so as demand is on the (mild) rise.
baked_potato
Active Member
Yes, and you forgot the crucial part where they make sensationalist titles/thumbnails like:
Don't spend a cent on CDs before doing THIS
or
CDs are coming back for ONE BIG REASON
Accompanied by a cringey open-mouthed shot of the YouTuber with his hands at the side of his face, Home Alone style.
Mockduck
Member
For sure, sadly I both abhore these thumbnails and absolutely know they work, which is why people do them.