I started buying cd’s in the 80’s at the beginning. Although the medium improved since the start (and got worse too with the loudness wars), not one of them has deteriorated to this day. No rot, no skips.
Decades ago I was given a factory pressed CD by Engelbert H. It just unable to play on every CD players I could find. The disc was about a year old and shiny new. Upon careful checking, the playing side had turned golden yellowish. The result NO DISC was displayed. The worst are the CDR.
8:04 The cd in the image with rot was made in the U.K. by PDO, just like was mentioned in the Vice article. Had the problem affected any other pressing plants?
Of course CD's have a point. They offer the best sound quality of any physical medium and are the most versatile format. Streaming services regularly remove albums because of licensing issues especially if it's not a mainstream album. The CD is a great hard copy back up that can easily be ripped to a hard drive so you can listen on your phone/pc etc as well as playing from the disc. It's also a great way to support your favourite band/artist. I will always love CDs
Amen I love CDs 💿💿📀📀💿💿💽💽 better sound quality 😮u support the artist and u own The music. People that stream are soooo stupid and cheap and lazyyyyyy and rely everything on their cheap cell phones, when the internet goes out we’ll see how people will listen to music 😅
@@milldude19 I have. It's at very, VERY best an ultra niche audio format that costs excessively more than a CD format (whilst using the same materials and similar processes), and is so utterly dependent on the rest of the playback equipment that it's more likely you're tricking yourself into thinking it's better. FWIW, I have done ABX testing on it.. I can't tell the difference, so there's one less format I have to buy the White album on.
I've had CDs for 30 years and don't intend to stop buying them. I don't have perfect ears and the 16 bit sound from a CD sounds perfect to me. Unlike streaming services, once you buy a CD there's no further ongoing costs, you can listen to it as many times as you want. I still use an iPod, to which I rip my CDs so I can listen to them anywhere without having to carry the actual CDs with me, furthermore unlike streaming services an iPod doesn't require a data connection or any form of subscription. I have high quality sound systems in my home and in my cars, and playing a CD allows them to really show their true colours. You can take my CDs when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.
I've been collecting since it all began 40 years ago and I absolutely love my CD collection. I too have ripped quite a few to an iPod which I use in my car. As you have said they can take my CDs when they pry them from my cold dead hands!!!
Exactly, every time people cheer on the death of physical media I can’t help but wonder why they like being put into a permanent rental cycle by corporations, who want to leech off of them for the rest of their lives. It’s not exactly an unknown fact that the reason that all of these companies, both movie and music, want to do away with physical media is so they can keep charging people over and over for the same product. You better love physical media while it’s still here because it won’t always be…and that’s a shame.
Reasons for sticking to CDs… I have a large collection. They are free to play, unlike streaming. They will last indefinitely, only 1 has started to flake out of 5000. They provide better sound than streaming. Not all CDs are available to stream. I can play them with no WiFi. They can’t be withdrawn from a streaming service. They are cheaper than ever 2nd hand due to fools like you giving them to charity shops 😂 Also, you diss tape but many older CDs are mastered from analog master tapes, which has superb resolution. Are you an ENTP? That’s the vibe I’m getting.
Don't forget about booklets and artworks. _Meteora_ from Linkin Park, even if I don't listen to it anymore I still love to open the album and see the booklet with the lyrics on them and the art the band used. Even VGOSTs like _Neotokyo_ by Ed Harrison or _Nier:Automata_ by Keiichi Okabe / MONACA have such beautiful artworks on the CDs and on the booklets, one thing you can't have on Bandcamp or Spotify.
The first time I heard a CD back in the '80's it blew me away. No noise with detail and clarity I'd never heard in a recording before. Where it started to go wrong was when the "loudness wars" began. A CD with 90+dB of potential dynamic range is nowadays only using about the top 15dB - or less. Lifeless and distorted. Master them properly and they sound fantastic.
Very true. All my best sounding CDs are from the 90s, pre digital brickwall limiting. It's exhausting listening to many releases from the 00s and later. Your ears just get pummeled with a constant level and no dynamics.
The problem is perception of the public. When the Grateful Dead started issuing live shows in several CD series. People started complaining right away about how they were too soft. I ripped one and brought it into BIAS Peak (miss that app!) to look at it and sure enough, there were only a very few samples that approached full scale and the dynamic range of the original reel to reel tape was well maintained.
Yes, the loudness War was nonsense. I'm a huge Metal fan, and especially with that type of music you quickly get into the distortion range, even if you've only turned up your stereo/listening device about 40-50% of volume. It all started in 1996, when a major label decided that louder would be better. They found out that people like to listen to their music louder, so not much later it became a big trend, when tonnes of labels followed suit. The difference is totally noticeable when I listen to 1980s CDs and up to mid 1990s ones. Unfortunately, this dumb trend never really died out. Wish they'd go back to how things used to be; I mean people don't have such powerless equipment that they need everything brickwalled to hell. Why not let the customers decide how loud they want to turn up their equipment instead of cramming it down everyone's throats? With the loudness War there's also the problem if you've got powerful equipment then it's difficult to adjust the volume to where it's just right, meaning not to loud but also not too quiet. I've 2 JBL PARTYBOX 1000s and they go up to 120 decibels, so I can't even go beyond 50% of volume, cause I'm afraid that this will blow the speakers, and as I'm using an equalizer at high volume it would fry my excellent horn tweeters for sure!
I agree with your points, but every format has its downsides and in all, CD is for me still the best of the formats. I still buy CDs and I remember as a teenager in the 80s replacing my albums with the CD versions. Even back then, the depreciating sound quality of vinyl was always a bugbear for me (even after as little as 10 plays, my young ears could already hear the hihats and cymbals becoming 'tizzy') so I embraced CD fully, was happy to leave vinyl behind and my view hasn't changed!
I'm 74 and I was part of the 1960's counterculture (a freak, not a hippy) and aside from the cultural importance of the 60's music, vinyl records were the main source of entertainment at that time. I didn't have enough money back then to afford a good sound system for vinyl, so when CD's came out it was an opportunity for me to hear music clearer than I've ever been able to hear it. Today, I can finally afford a decent turntable, amp and speakers, so I've been collecting vinyl again. Subjective as it may be, I like the sound of vinyl, its not better or worse, just different than hearing music digitally. I still have quite a few CD's with a growing record collection and I listen to both. But there is a nostalgic aspect to vinyl, the process of playing a record, reading the liner notes and marveling at the jacket's artwork make the listening experience more immersive and it does remind me of my youth. I find the extra effort needed to play vinyl has its own, unique rewards.
I like CDs I have hundreds, but I disagree with you about vinyl albums if you take care of them and clean them, be sure to have a good needle or Cartridge (as some call it). Vinyl has a warmth and character CDs don't. even the occasional crackle from dust gives it character. I will continue to purchase vinyl and CDs. I love Music!
1. According to several newspaper articles te revival is already under way. 2. You can own a cd, you can’t own a stream. 3. The booklet contains pictures, information and lyrics. 4. The cd is tangible, you can hand it to someone, lend it. 5. You can display a cd (this is said to be one of the main reasons for its popularity among teenagers it can personalize a bedroom). 6. You don’t need to be online to listen to it. 7. Compared to legal hi-res media cd are often cheaper. 8. You can give a cd as a gift, the emotion that comes with giving or receiving music can be very nice and creates memories. Music isn’t only about logical facts.
muchagrande, I've been trying to tell this to people for the last 20 years. It seems really that the answer I mostly get is - it's just too difficult to find the CD, put it in the player and press a button. Yes I'm serious.
You can argue the same with vinyl, the difference is vinyl being much larger offers a gatefold sleeve and in many cases coloured pressings. It’s also harder to lose.
@@bretton_woods If you have a large collection, it is imperative that you organize their storage at least alphabetically and it is also helpful to keep genres in their own groups. Otherwise it is impossible to find anything quickly.
For me, streaming cannot replace the enjoyment of handling a CD or DVD or Bluray. I like physical media, I like looking at it, I like the act of getting it from the shelf and taking it out...I even like the act of having to occasionally clean them. What I like most however is standing in front of my collection and pondering what I want to watch or listen to. They said that e-books would kill paper books - the opposite has happened. E-books are declining and paper books are increasing. Long Live Physical media.
The reason for collecting and owning physical media can be many: The thrill of hunting down rare albums, the joy of displaying album art, having a real booklet with lyrics, the look of the disc etc. It’s a HOBBY - and not just a household object with purely practical implications… Like everything else in life, nothing is perfect 🧐
Yup, I certainly don't listen to open reel tape for convenience and sound quality, those things I can get from my NAS and a decent headphone DAC. But there's something about the ritual of cleaning, degaussing, adjusting a deck and then loading a 1960s stereo recording, pressing play and let those reels turn 🙂
I love cd's. For many reasons. Some are cold hard facts, some are personal preferences. Versus vinyl: - CD's are sturdy. Vinyl is very vulnerable. Vinyl wears down by usage alone. You can delay the inevitable by using very expensive top-end equipment (that the wife will inevitably find ugly), but it will wear down in the end. You have to be very careful with vinyl records because they are so fragile. I have never been particularly careful with my cd's. If they got dirty or dusty, I would just wipe them on my trousers. And even de oldest (early '90s) still play perfectly. I have seen cd rot on CD-R's, but never on properly manufactured audio cd's. Not even on low budget productions like debut albums of then-obscure bands. - I'm not an audiophile. CD's don't require super expensive equipment. A cd sounds perfectly well on just a half decent player and a half decent amplifier. - I don't care about The Ritual. For ritual I go to church, for music I pop in a cd. Of course this is purely personal. - jewel cases break easily, but they are cheap and easy to replace. I have a stack of empty jewel cases lying around for replacing broken ones. I do have boxes and digipacks, but I take out the cd's and put them in jewel cases. More practical and better for the cd. Paper sleeves scratch. versus streaming: - A cd is property, a stream is rented. If the streaming company ever decides to remove an album you like, it's gone. Nothing you can do about it (except paying for another service that might also take it down). If a streaming service ever decides to economize on data storage or clean up the data centre, and you happen to like something not mainstream, you're screwed. If you stop paying the subscription, you lose everything. - Streaming is expensive. The subscription does not look like a big ticket, but it recurs every month. CD's are cheap. For two months of spotify subscription, you can buy a cd that will be your property for the rest of your life. - Special edtitions and immersion boxes are not on spotify. If you want them, you will have to buy the cd or vinyl version. - Artists make a lot more money from selling physical media than from streaming. In the past artists were ripped off by record companies and dodgy managers, today they are being ripped off by streaming companies. I prefer filling the pockets of my favourite band over filling the pockets of the Google corporation. - CD's don't require an internet connection. CD's don't butcher brilliant albums (or even long songs) with adds. - I don't like the applications. You can listen albums on spotify, but the application is clearly aimed at separate songs. I am too lazy to make playlists. Not interested either. I prefer to listen to albums, start to finish, as intended. A skip button for the one song I really don't like is appreciated, but that's really all I need. And I think the spotify application is downright confusing and horrible to use. versus downloading: - Illegal downloading is illegal. It's theft. - Downloading triggers hoarding instincts. I have a friend with some crazy NAS system full of more music than he can ever hear in the rest of his life. I think that takes away the value of music. Having to buy something makes more concious and more selective. I think srreaming is ok for trying out something you don't know you will like yet. It's a bit like listening in the record store like we used to do back in the days. But for something lasting, I prefer a cd any day.
And also with downloading, full of DRM, pain in the ass. CDs, except for those few in the early 2000s that had that weird copy protection are dead easy to copy to a computer. Also they have resale value and used sell way cheaper than a download. Only problem really is that you have to store them
I gave up counting my CDs ages ago (once I had gone past 4000) then are the CD singles (maybe 2000 plus) and I'm still buying the little buggers but these days from the second hand shops. Ebay is still a great place to find new releases. I sometimes visit the dump because they often have CDs on the shelves for nothing, I've found a handful there that have been valued around the £30-40 just waiting to be given a new home.@@danielr5000-d1s
Pretty much my feelings too. I'm in the middle of ripping my CDs on a PC as FLACs (after years of inconsistent ripping and filing and too many "duplicates"). I've done a couple hundred CDs so far, but only had problems with one older CD. The goal is to organize them on the PC and then load them onto a Streamer/DAC/music manager I purchased and a couple of Sony DMPs that I have. I keep a supply of new jewel boxes on hand, but I would love to find a source of clear plastic blank DigiPaks (with the tray disk holder) that would allow us slip the book into a front sleeve and the printed back in another. This would probably require some tight engineering (as well as losing the spine printing) but hopefully the external height and width dimensions would be close to the jewel box. I'm not wild about going to the DVD size cases. I do stream Tidal, but the main reason is so that I can explore and make some informed CD purchase decisions, or just play some music in background.
You are really going the extra mile. I worked as a club DJ for most of my life so I binned most of my hard plastic covers (jewel box) because of weight. I put the CDs in a lined thin plastic sleeve together with the front cover. The back cover paperwork and spines to the CD I then placed in a plastic file box with a lid that lifts up revealing the paperwork in alphabetical order that can be found at any good stationers or ebay (I think). Don't know if this helps but its just a thought.@@Gallery90
Love my CDs, which are in a higher format than most streaming. You can store them for decades, and you can rip them to harddrives. You also get physical artwork and sometimes you get great liner notes. If you're concerned about space, that's your concern, but I'm happy to dedicate an entire wall of one of my rooms to my CDs!
The issue with streaming is you don’t own anything. All it takes is a license dispute and your favorite song or album (or maybe artist entirely) gets dropped. I love streaming for convenience and to be able to discover new music, but buying music will always have a place. Buying on CD gives you something physical with artwork and liner notes, which some prefer to .FLAC files.
Also what happens if they start pulling or censoring politically incorrect songs such as Brown Sugar, Not Now John, Turning Japanese, China Girl, Catholic Girls, Walk On The Wild Side, Jewish Princess, Birtha Butt Boogie, Bloat On, etc?
I am going to prove to your ears that lps make cds sound like garbage. Click the first link to listen to lp. Click second link to listen to garbage cd. ua-cam.com/video/BjHzw7SY4GY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/efJGDpCSrJY/v-deo.html
@@myronhelton4441 The first video has lots of pops and clicks audible over the start of the music and audible even after it has been recorded digitally and compressed in whichever audio format UA-cam uses. The second video is unavailable (not sure if it's a regional restriction or copyright strike or if the video was deleted), so I can't compare it. Certainly CD is capable of better sound, even if the particular CD in the video I can't see is a bad mix or master.
@@martineyles You listen to unnatural transistor digital jealous cheap fanatics too much. But most of them dont have enough sense that they listen to sixties analog recordings. Analog tubes has less wiring than digital transistors that hurts the sound, just like putting a bunch of wires on a vcr hurts the sound. Many dacs are going back to the older ladder dacd that sound less harsh digital.I just tested both working videos. Dolby noise reduction on cassette decks cuts out the pops & ruins the music. CDS do the same shi automatically. Tube amps do the same thing. Analog tube recordings do the same thing. Tube microphones do the same thing. A few rock groups on record with tubes using really expensive tape. I like 1971 analog tube recorded lps & cds the best. I can stand only listening to half my lps on cds. But I only listen to audiophile albums that are only 1% of the total albums. I hate all cds & lps after that date. Original lps sound the best with the pops, later lps the master tape gets wore with the sound not as good. Digital remaster tapes sound better than older tapes, but not as good as the real real old original albums. The master tapes wear with age. Some transistor amps are designed with better sounding distortion with a certain kind of circuit. I forgot the name of the circuit. I have lps that sound good, then they were digital remastered that sound terrible. I have digital cds that were remastered with analog tubes that improved the sound. Most people love tube guitar amps best. I like a tube volume control on a transistor amp for a stereo amp. This setup gets part of a tube sound. A pure tube amp runs hot & the tubes dont last as long.
I guess I'm just a Luddite, but I'm disgusted by the decline in all physical media and their replacement by digital "streams." When you stream music instead of buying it on physical media, you are cheating the artists out of revenue (they get only a fraction of the income they get from physical sales). You're also handing control of what you can listen to to the streaming service, which can give you the music or not depending on their own criteria (Big Brother enters your listening room). STREAMING IS EVIL.
Mark, streaming has a valued place in my music world. Great way to hear music before plunking down $$$ on Vinyl or CD. And I’d argue that it helps artist get more exposure as well.
Yes, streaming is evil. Not only do the streaming lords rip off the artists but it has questionable sound quality and is unreliable in terms of selection. You are renting music and the selection of rental titles can change at any time. What happens when there is a copyright issue or an artist has a problem with the service (ie-Neil Young, CSN, etc) and also what happens if they start pulling or censoring politically incorrect songs such as Walk On The Wild Side, Brown Sugar, Not Now John, Turning Japanese, China Girl, Catholic Girls, Jewish Princess, Birtha Butt Boogie, Bloat On, etc? A lot of radio stations won't go near those songs now.
I do not understand how it is that they still want to continue buying records instead of listening to streaming music, seriously, music is now free, and going against that is ridiculous, stop looking like crazy for a "good sound", just listen to music
I'm not a fan of streaming but pretty much every CD or record I've bought in the last few years has seen absolutely ZERO revenue head towards an artist. I buy them all second hand and dirt-cheap. In my defense though I spent God know how many thousands of pounds on new CD's back in the day from retail stores.
The CD is the greatest single thing that ever happened to recorded classical music. My favorite way to get new music is to purchase FLAC downloads from labels that offer this, burn CD-Rs, and label with Lightscribe. I always have the backup files if the disc goes bad for some reason. None ever have.
PS, on scratched CDs.... I once found an out-of-print CD in a thrift store. It was relatively rare, bought it for $1. At home I found it to be unplayable due to scratches. So I opened up Exact Audio Copy and let it read and work on recovering the files. Forty-five minutes later I had a perfect set of files I've been listening to for 15 years now. I just trashed the CD itself.
I used to label my home-made CDs with Lightscribe too (never used Labelflash). Now I've bought a Canon inkjet printer that does print in full color on the blank CDs with a white surface I buy on Amazon. The result is amazing. Everyone thinks they're real CDs until they turn them and see the back. ;) I tried an Epson inkjet printer before but the result was truly awful (black was grey, brr). I always ended up with ink on my fingers, ooh, shame on you Epson. But the quality of the Canon one impresses me still. It's truly one of a kind. I'm so glad I've found it.
There's definitely a point for CDs among album oriented people like myself. I enjoy entire albums the overwhelming majority of the time. It's extremely rare for me to skip a track. In addition, save for occasionally repeating a track, I generally play the album start to finish; though not always in one sitting. Plus, I enjoy cover art and liner notes. So, while a streaming site might have the cover art, they generally won't have the liner notes or lyrics. I definitely like to have lyrics because I'm the master of singing all of the wrong words to the songs I've loved for decades. I'll go back and read the lyrics and say, "Oh! That's what he's singing?"
During my informative years (early 1980's) I used to often buy an album for the single track I'd heard on the radio. Playing the album was a voyage of discovery. Keen not to damage the record through cueing up inevitably led to me starting to enjoy the whole album over time with the bonus of some "hidden gems". Ironically, when my favourite track came on it was sometimes a bit of an anti-climax.
I have CDs that are 35 years old and play just as perfectly today as the day they were new. And, a great recording on CD sounds good enough to me that I don't need anything better
I grew up with cassettes and vinyl around the house, then later bought 💿. The CD is still the ideal compromise between convenience and sound quality in physical media, IMO. I love vinyl, but if I love something enough, I also want a CD of it. If I can only have one, the CD is the way I prefer to go.
There is nothing objectively better and to say there is smells really bad to me. CDs are the best sound you can actually hear. Vinyl and tape are horrible mediums that wear out from being read by mechanical means whereas light is used to read CDs and that gives CDs a lifetime and more of enjoyment with less expense compared to always replacing the those antique formats that really are a cash grab for the music industry.
@@bobair2 CDs are not the best sounds you can hear. CD is low resolution audio. It does not include ultrasonic frequencies that are emitted by most musical instruments. These frequencies have been shown to have a positive effect on the human mind. The good news is you can add those frequencies back into low resolution digital audio to make it more satisfying to listen to. That's what I do. I wouldn't put up with listening to a CD if I couldn't add those missing frequencies back into the music.
@@dtz1000 Most vinyl pickup cartridges won't go far beyond 20khz anyway. CD4 quad sound used a 30KHZ carrier but only the best playback gear could handle it.
I love cds, have found very few problems with them, and have found many advantages. Streaming is convenient, but for qualify listening, cds win hands down...
Streaming isn't that convenient when what you are looking for has suddenly disappeared from the service because of some contractual issue or something... Unless you are streaming from your own personal cloud storage. CD, as with other physical media, whatever happens at the studios or the streaming servers, the music is yours.
Listen to which format you like. But perhaps don't mislead with incorrect comments. Digital is digital. The exact same file on a good system, will sound the same. Simple. No difference. Nada.
The biggest issue, for me, with non-physical digital storage is the lack of constancy with rspect to the software that is used to access it. I have spent years as a programmer (going back 50 years) and a major problem with software is user interface and the irresistible urge programmers (and marketing types) have to redesign it to “improve” it. The result is an ever-changing experience of simply wanting to find and listen to a particular bit of music. I have, recently, gotten a new turntable which I set up in my office and the sheer ease and satisfaction of just picking an LP off the shelf and simply listening without wading through menus has removed a barrier to enjoying the music I love. The same goes for my CD collection.
Take the CD. Rip it to FLAC. Then add the ultrasonic frequencies that are stripped out of all CDs but not vinyl, and you will then have something that's as good as, or maybe even better, than vinyl.
I'm 26 now, ever since i had money i valued getting a physical copy of music in the form of a cd. One simple fact, its yours! Stremaing services could lose the rights to your favourite artist and you can no longer listen to them. I don't think I'll get multiple copies of a cd, but as long as you put a copy on your ipod, phone etc. It'll last your life time on a shelf or in storage. Then there is the inner collector in me that loves the catalogue of cds i have from a particular artist.
I've been collecting CDs for over 20 years, have sifted through tens of thousands of discs at thrift stores and retail stores alike, and have yet to come across even a single case of disc rot. Claims of widespread disc rot are highly exaggerated. Also, digipak packaging should be considered a crime against CD collectors, I hate them on so many f*@king levels. Cover art has zero protection from the elements, inconsistent disc holding systems, some of which seem purposefully designed to damage the disc, and if the spindle should ever get damaged, well then you're S.O.L my friend. I plan to move all of my digipak albums to jewel cases at some point in the future. Jewel cases are perfectly fine when handled correctly, plus if any part of one breaks, it is both easily and cheaply replaceable. I'll be continuing to buy CDs until the day I die.
Thank you for your opinions, which clearly I do not share but I respect regardless. However, rot is definitely a real thing. I've suffered from it and people I know have suffered from it. Why you have not is either a statistical fluke or plain good luck. If it's luck, then I wish you more of it. DM
I’ve got over 5000 CDs. None have become unplayable. Only 1 had metal layer flake near edge but it still plays. I have duplicate album from charity shop, so not a significant problem. Oh and 24 bit digital doesn’t exist on a CD. You can use it in a mastering studio but no CD is 24 bit.
Lps make cds sound like garbage. Click the first link to listen to lp. Click second link to listen to garbage cd. ua-cam.com/video/BjHzw7SY4GY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/efJGDpCSrJY/v-deo.html
@@Coneman3 Some digital download services provide 24 bit FLAC though. However, there is a widely playable physical consumer format that can contain 24 bit 96KHz stereo PCM sound (or 6 channel 16 bit 48KHz sound) - DVD video. I have a few live DVDs that have PCM sound, but I'm not sure whether they take advantage of the higher bitrate options or just use 16/48 stereo. I believe there were a few audio only DVD videos made to take advantage of it being more widely playable than DVD audio, while still having many of the same audio advantages, but everything I have is a live recording or greatest hits collection with video. One great thing is that a lot of these have a CD and DVD in the same box. Being the same size disc makes this very convenient.
I have been collecting CDs since they first came out just a little over 40 years ago and have amassed about 600. That probably isn't a very big collection, but I certainly treasure each and every one of them. Plus the ones from when I first started out still sound as good today as they did 40 years ago. CD actually has taken somewhat of a resurgence as of late which I think is a good thing. I don't think they will ever become "obsolete". As long as people have discs and players the format will remain. Cheers to all my fellow CD collectors out there!!! 👍
@@DavidLazarus Except that DVD-A seems to be going nowhere. I don't know a single person who owns a DVD-A disk and worse for the format, most people will look at you with a blank expression if you mention DVD-A because they are completely unaware that the standard exists. Many people with a keen interest in hi-fi or professional audio are aware but they still don't own any disks. The truth is that the average buyer cannot hear the difference between 16-bit audio and 24-bit audio, so selling them a disk that costs a silly amount but to them sounds no different is never likely to result in significant sales numbers. Almost everybody can hear the massive difference in signal-to-noise between vinyl and CD so they did spend the money even back when CDs were still over-priced. CD and DVD-A? Blind listening tests have revealed that a _very_ small percentage of people can tell the difference. SACD is cheaper, offers the same sound quality advantages, supports the same surround-sound standards and there is already a fair amount of music available on SACD. It isn't overpowering CD either but it has far more chance of eventually doing so than DVD-A does.
I listen to LPs and CDs exclusively in my setup. If I didn't have over 1200 lps I would give up analog/ turntables at once. So much work to do.... Making sure your cartridge is always properly aligned, etc. Record cleaning is a pain in the ass even with a vacuum machine. Records take up so much space. And no matter how many times you clean them, brush them off, etc. you may still hear some surface noise or clicks and pops that come from static. I am happy with my humble $7000 system but I wish everything were as simple as cds. Screw streaming... 2 stable formats to listen to are enough- I won't spend any more money to build a streaming system, that may sound better than cd sometimes. Subscriptions to services add up as well. Money pit IMHO
When I went digital streaming, I lost the commitment to listen to albums in full. And all my track data was used as big data to personalise my experience. Sounds great, but all that really happened was a giant playlist. Last November I bought a HiFi again after many years and listening to albums fully on CD format has been a joy and given me a less disposable and more respectful appreciation for music. At a fraction of the size of keeping Vinyl. The CD will keep going on for that very reason and I truly believe you will see others switching back to that more analogue experience over time. I still have Streaming subscriptions, but for on the move purposes, or researching out new albums I may wish to buy.
What makes you think 24 Bits are better than 16 Bits on playback? Higher sample rates and greater bit deth are used in the recording process to give editing headroom. Strictly speaking there are dynamic range audible differences from 16 bit to 20bit or 24 bits. In practice this difference is trivial because you can't have the conditions to produce such a dynamic range in an audio system. You would need a completely silent room (no room noise), a dac/amp chain that's capable of producing more than 115db of dynamic range (note that I say produce and not just decode) and a music recording with such dynamic range which probably doesn't exist.
I would have expected a guy as pompous as you to appreciate the lossless sound that CDs provide, not to mention the ability to acquire unique versions of your favorite music which might not otherwise be available from a streaming service.
Other than titles not on streaming (which only accounts for some releases), many titles are on streaming, often in higher quality than CD. CD still has value but it makes sense why he might not prefer CDs.
Any format that supposes a physical media (preferably one piece per one album) is a great audio format. I walk around a digital media server for few years (making a NAS, a platform, a custom software), but finally gave up and purchased a good all-formats bluray player. Now I'm happy and continue with my DAC.
@@BrianSmith-vl7xu Perfection does imo simply not exist. That's like the speed of light. you can try to approach it and you can come very close to the speed of light, but you will never reach the speed of light even with an infinite amount of energy.
I used to work for my hometown's public library, and, in about 2009, we got a machine which literally buffs, cleans, and removes all scratches from CDs. It worked perfectly. I once bought a used copy of Elton John's (outstanding) 'Ice On Fire' CD, and it was terribly scratched; it skipped and paused. I took it to work and they put it in the machine. Took about 2 minutes to clean, tops. Came out, and Played Perfectly. As far as this gent saying, 'Scratches and fingerprints can cause your CD to skip!', it's like .... umm yeah, that's why you hold them by the edges and don't scratch them. I just ... smfh through most of this video. Thank goodness the commenters seem to have good sense.
The key thing I love about my CDs is that the format is OLD ENOUGH to be 'unaware' of on-line stuff, doesn't report to its masters, doesn't require 'sign ups' or 'activations'. It is self contained, uncompressed, with decent quality, and easy to 'rip' to be converted to any format I want, or just kept as PCM direct copy (drives are cheap these days!). In my own 'quest for audio improvements' I've been a SACD enthusiast as well - which, as the author said, was 'too good for my ears' and I could never really hear the difference, save for the multichannel versions. But one of the things that annoyed me about SACD was that I couldn't 'touch' its protected DSD content with anything I had at the time... Most of them are hybrid, though, so I could still rip the CD layer ;-) Long live CD!
The only value vinyl has in the modern age is that it re-introduces scarcity into music. You have to spend a lot of money, dedicate a lot of space, and spend a lot of time to play a vinyl record. CDs reduce the space and monetary investment but keeps some of the time investment, which is a much better balance. And obviously in terms of quality, CDs win hands down to vinyl, and they even win to streaming.
I never knew that CD's were out of date. To me they are still the format I love to listen to. I've purchased all the music I had when I was younger. I have some 50's era, the 60's, the 70's, and the 80's with a few from today. I have about a thousand and I will still purchase CD's so I hope they never go away! I can still remember the first CD I purchased, it was Creedence Clearwater Revival Greatest Hits. I LOVE MY COMPACT DISC'S!
And I got an MP3 player that I listen to when I'm taking a bath. All the songs are from my CD collection. I use Windows Media player to play my CD's on my computer
I'm 22 and I buy CDs as a way to pay the artist, and literally to "feel" what the artist wanted the listener to see, to "percieve" from the album. The artstyle, the lyrics, everything. Plus, you get better audio from CDs (that you're able to convert to .wav / .aiff, .flac / .alac, etc.) than from streaming.
I own my CDs and have zero concern about losing access to content. They don't require internet service to play them and comes with original artwork and liner notes. I also have the option of reselling them on the second hand market which can command some surprisingly hefty prices. Top THAT with streaming.
Also worth saying that I have around 500 LPs I was literally given and that, because it is a finite number, I will eventually listen to all of them, even the ones I don't know if I like yet. Would I have listened to Beethoven's 7th every day for a week until I decided I liked it had I not had a physical pressing of it in front of me? Would I have listened to Dai Francis several times and kept it on my favourites just to be certain what my worst album is? Would I have given Count Basie more than a track or two before realising I like it (but only in moderate quantities). No. Sometimes the things you like best are not the things you like on first hearing. I tried Spotify premium for a few months but, impressive a library as it was, I found all I really ended up doing was finding songs I already knew and liked and realised I might as well just listen to the records I already had.
@@johnbull5394 So true. Sometimes we're not in the right frame of mind when we listen to challenging, nontraditional or experimental material for the first time. Having that physical copy within arms reach gives you unlimited opportunities to reassess the artist's intentions.
It delivers for those of us who want the balance between physicality, relatively good robustness, compactness, good sound quality, a genuinely self-contained means of listening to our music, reliability, and no silly nonsense over ownership. Nothing else ticks all of those boxes.
You and I are about the same age. I remember wire recorders. Then 1/4" tape . My grandparents had large single sided records made of shellac. They were 78 rpm records. I worked in a record department of a large department store. I've had 8 tracks, cassettes, 45s, LPs, mini cassettes, reel to reel tapes, and CDs. On-line music is easy to access and record. I have 1000s of hours of music on hard drives, and i can get music over different servers. It's amazing how easy it is to find and play music these days. My hearing is limited to about 12,500 Hz max, so having equipment that can play to 20,000Hz is useless to me. I do like base drums and guitar 🎸. My stereo isn't the highest priced equipment, but it's enough for my needs and can play loud enough to upset the wife and neighbors. Keep up your excellent information on the stereo systems and new tech. Thanks. 🙏👍👌
NICAM is worth looking into in more detail! It was originally used for the distribution spine of national FM broadcast in the UK, it was absolutely amazing, distributing low latency, high quality PCM digital audio in perfect sync to every main transmitter in the country. 13 channels were carried in the stream, along with error correction, and this system was designed in the early 70s and in full operation by 1973! That's a decade before CD was available. In the 70s, 80s and 90s, anyone who was listening to a national BBC station in stereo was listening to digital audio without even knowing it. That is truly amazing when you consider that Stereo FM broadcasting itself had only begun about a decade earlier.
I was always very satisfied with NICAM back in the day. I kind of wish there was a way of hearing it now in case my memory is listening through a rose-tinted ear trumpet. But you're right, for its time it was amazing indeed. DM
I can't agree with you I'm sorry. I hate, I loathe Digipacks. I love the jewel case because if it's damaged, you can remplace it anywhere. These are sold everywhere, in every record store. But if your precious digipak is damaged, well there's nothing you can do about it and like vinyls sleeves (even though I appreciate the fact that they are huge, and very beautiful when they are glossy) when they're damaged, I don't see that as a reward, a proof that that record followed me everywhere, I see that as a deception and a very big problem. I like brand new things not things with signs of wear. That's just the way I am. So thank God for the jewel case, all you need to do, when broken, is buy another one, and your CD looks (again !) brand new ! Long live the CD and long live the jewel case. Death to the digipak.
I gave a 👍 but this is one of those times when I wish a half-way up was available. I really dislike digipaks (and other cardboard ones) but I don't absolutely hate, loathe them either. I think they do have their place but only for certain kinds of releases.
I have been buying CDs since the mid 1980s, and have bought about 3500 CDs since. So why in the world would I make myself dependent on some streaming service and pay to listen to music that I already own? That just makes no sense. Also, I'd never want to be dependent to any service for my music listening. The best thing is to own your music collection that way you can always listen to your favorite music any time you want to.
I got back into cassettes purely for the nostalgia factor. I record shuffled playlists off UA-cam Music onto blanks and then play them back on my Rotel RD-400. The warm glowing lights, the reels spinning round, the VU meters it all takes me right back to the 80s. The sound is better than I remember too.
Can't really tell the difference between a well recorded, type II dolby cassette and a CD unless I put my ear up against the speaker or turn up the volume to ridiculous levels honestly.
Enjoyed your video! All of my CDs are ripped to a FLAC file. I play the music from the server. The physical CD remains in its case and stored away. I am probably one of those dinosaurs that was roaming the earth back in the day :) I was so glad to see the CD replace vinyl in the 80s. Recently I started going back and buying much of the music I had listened to in the past.
I have over 2000 cds that play perfectly. My first cds from 1983 are still pristine too. If I get a defective one I return it for one that works. Handle your cds with care, store properly -and unlike vinyl they are virtually guaranteed to last a lifetime.
@@davej.meister5421 the avearage buyer has no idea how care for vinyl or cds. The rules are basic..handling storage temperature cleaning and dont loan anything out🤣
@@lionheartroar3104 You must have NEVER heard of Pete Pardo from Sea of Tranquility or Brendon Snyder, then. Avid cd collectors. BOTH have tens of thousands of cd's in their collection. And they take great care of them. John from Lair of the Alchemist is another avid album collector. He collects mostly vinyl. And he takes great care of his vinyl albums. Check out these guys...ALL three are American.
Until you get discs pressed by PDO UK, then you go and get your pristine disc out and it doesn't play. Look at it carefully and you'd be convinced a leprechaun has come at the dead of night and turned your music to gold 🤣
I know this is an old post, but I'd love to ask about your experience with CD players since 1983. How were they compared to the later ones you no doubt got in terms of reliability and sound quality? How long did those old players last?
I still have a CD collection because it is by far the best media ever conceived for the permanent storage of digital music. Even the cheapest CD player can play a CD. But I'd need a high quality turntable and related paraphernalia for vinyl, which is a physical medium much more prone to damage. It's also annoying to not be able to fit even the complete 9th symphony of Beethoven on vinyl without needing to flip the disc half way through. A CD player is for people who love music, and a record player is for people who love equipment. The CD revival is RIGHT on so many countless levels - There is NO substitute for a hard copy digital piece of music - meaning a CD. Nothing better, in my opinion. I prefer my music on physical media, just as I prefer my photography to exist in physical media such as good old fashioned FILM. I also get tired of arguments in favor of analogue sound, and against digital. You get shit with anything, as long as your creation method all along the way is also shit. The sound venue, the choice of microphone for the music of choice, and the proper placement of those microphones ALL matter very much indeed. You don't want your symphony orchestra recordings to sound as if they were created inside somebody's tiny basement.
"by far the best media ever conceived for the permanent storage of digital music.... [vinyl] is much more prone to damage"-- no, wrong on both counts. Please, try knowing the subject instead of grandstanding about 'digital' like it's a body part you're proud of. Records aren't "much more prone to damage", and they still play when the damage is minimal, whereas a lot of CDs stop working or sound bizarre when they have the same amount of damage. Why would CDs be better than digital tape that can hold higher-quality stuff? Why not SACD? Like the average person who doesn't know anything beyond the basics, you're ignoring the bulk of this subject based on 'convenience' and acting like it means 'CDs are the very best'. No, they aren't.
@@jamescarter3196 - With vinyl you have ticks, pops, surface noise, turntable rumble, and of course the grand possibility of scratching the vinyl with the stylus, or with anything else the vinyl comes in contact with. A compact disc can of course get damaged. But the difference is like comparing a child handling the disc, and an actual adult handling the disc. Nor can vinyl handle they same dynamic range as a compact disc. It's really just plain old science. But by far the most important thing is a very high quality recording to begin with, meaning the proper choice of microphones, the recording venue, getting the levels right, and so on. All other things being equal, digital recordings win. Furthermore, I don't need a $4,000 turntable. Even a cheap portable compact disc player extracts the data identically to a player costing ten times as much. Furthermore, any so-called CD rot or bronzing is unlikely to occur during anyone's life time, and the inferior manufacturers eventually get weeded out simply because no company selling CD's wants to go out of business. Final note: The most important electronic component is a kick ass set of speakers, most of which have gone the way of the passenger pigeon. How many of you have ever heard the greatest set of speakers ever made by Infinity back in the day? They cost $35,000 and you could practically hear any music conductor taking a breath. I happen to have a Jr. grade set of those best speakers, something like the 2nd or 3rd best speakers made by Infinity.
There's is simply no better medium for listening to music than the CD! Think about it, it never loses the tinniest amount of sound quality, regardless of how many times it is played; it is robust and compact (hence the name), its fairly easy to store and keep, and it can be digitally transferred using practically any computer, without the slightest loss in sound quality, and it can be easily carried around as well. To me owning my CD collection of 2000 CDs is part of life quality and gives me joy every time I look at my collection or better yet I play it. As long as CDs will be around I'll be buying them cause they are the greatest invention since the CD Player was introduced back in 1982.
Ive never really got into the whole streaming / mp3 thing. If I do hear of an artist that I like (it doesn't happen often) then I will endeavour to hunt out a CD of them, which are usually pretty cheap. For me (and I imagine many others) it's not a revival, it's about continuing to enjoy your collection on an easy to use, no frills, reliable format. My old separates system still works flawlessly after 30 years use. Do I really want to swap this out for some "internet enabled" device, specifically designed to be obsolesced after 5 years?
CD's FOREVER BAD. I am going to prove to your ears that lps make cds sound like garbage. Click the first link to listen to lp. Click second link to listen to garbage cd. ua-cam.com/video/BjHzw7SY4GY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/efJGDpCSrJY/v-deo.html
@ReaktorLeak Recording use the same software that loses 10% of the great sound, one format shouldnt lose more good sound than the other. I have tried 100 similar experiments that worked out the same as this. I dont see how one could see certain advantages a cd could have over an lp. Such ac clearness, tone, orbackground dynamics
@ReaktorLeak You are correct. But, I have done about 50 experiments the same way & the lp is better 90% of the time. Done the same experiments at many audiophiles homes with different equipment & om all, the lps sound better every time. But on youtube the albums sound only somewhat less good sound, similar to the home experiments. Only a few youtube experoments on a shabby files or equipment doesnt prove my point. I have copied 200 videos to prove my point, trouble is youtube removed the mp videos, so to help cd sales. I like cds as much as vinyl, but it dont sound as good sometimes. You say youtube cuts off the highs, that means the LPS actually sound better om the youtube videos. Because I have heard great dacs at audiophiles homes & I havent heard many cds that r better than LPS. Upsampled cds have better highs, but thinner bass. 1971 & before analog tube recorded cds & lps sound best. But I can only stand listening to half my lps on cds. Audiophile albums are 1% of total albums, so most lps & cds sound alike.
@ReaktorLeak I like cds very very much. My opinion. I have never heard any cds better than lps. But I only listen to audiophile albums. Starting in 1972 I can tell not as good sounding digital was added, not as much difference between cds & lps. I guess many of these are better. I have listed to thousands of albums, only 200 of them are audiophile & most of them are old albums. Only 100 of the 200 lps are worth listening to on cd, but the cds are really good. I enjoy many 1971 & before analog tube recorded on LPS & CDS. Later digital transistor recordings were done. I love CDS recorded in !971 & before. But after that I hate almost all LPs & cds that sound alike. Also mostly the original lps sound best. Digital transistors isnt as good as natural analog tubes. Upsampled cds has better highs, but it thins the bass, its a gimmick.
@ReaktorLeak I forgot that big download sight that sells musiv, but its upsampling up, also goes up in price. One can play around with the different sample rates & the higher sample rates has thinner bass. I think upsampling thins the sound to make the higher frequencies to make brighter seeming clearer when it isnt. Thats why some of the newer very expensive dacs has that old analog sounding sound, without upsampling. I am no expert on newer DACs & you are probably right, but its odd some expensive DACS dont want upsampling. I have 1 cd that has a little record hiss that I like, so I think an lp converted to CDS the digital way ruins something. I like 1971 & before analog tube recordings on cd & Lp. I hate most everything after 1971. Of 200 lps, I can stand only half of them on cd.
I'm happy for CD to stay low key. Let the Vinylheads pay $30 for an album. I'll be happy buying the same album for $5 on a format that sounds better to my ears. It's too bad Minidisc never caught on. It was storing up to a GB at the end of it's life, so presumably, we could have had CD quality in a neat little square disk.
amen to mindiscs, hands never touched the disc, could have made a custom Cd, as I like to do. Perfect for car etc.. The majority & kids that learn the new ways quicker, always go to the latest tech and don't think long term. Lemings off a cliff!
IMO cd's are still better than streaming. When I buy a CD i actually own it. I can play it, i can rip it, I can break it, I can read the little booklet, I can collect it, i can lend it, i can sell it... I am not dependent on whatever licensing deal is or is not in place at the moment, I don't have to deal with monthly subscriptions or having an internet connection when i want to listen.
Another vital (vital to me anyway) feature of CDs is that with the right software, you can assemble any tracks you want, in any order, to create your own CDs.
One great advantage that a good CD player/transport has over streaming is that streamed music invariably passes through a computer. Computers are electrically noisy AF. You can try to shield the audio components, and you can try to filter out the noise, but you never get it all. CD player/transports are built from the ground up as audio components. A CD player connected to a DAC via S/PDIF or TOSLINK delivers a cleaner signal that a computer can via USB. When I got back into CD with my Denon DCD-600NE, a modestly priced (by audiophile standards) player w/TOSLINK output connected to my DAC (Schiit Bifrost 2), I was startled by how much better it sounded than my Tidal CD-quality streams. Qobuz HiRes streams (at least 96 KHz, 24 bit) could just match it. Streaming is great for auditioning new releases. For background music, you can put on a playlist that will run all day. With something like Roon, it's good for multi-room playback, EQ is cheap and easy. But for best quality playback of music you love, CD is hard to beat.
I love CDs and here's another tip to preserving them, in addition to to that which you mentioned: never grasp the CD by the edges to pull it up off of the retainer. This will cause the disc to flex, and will eventually break he seal between the upper and lower layer. This will then allow air to get inside, eventually causing the aluminum disc inside, which contains the data, to oxidize and begin to fail. Instead, place your index finger on the retainer, like a spindle, turn the jewel case upside down, press up on the retainer, and this will release the gripping teeth, allowing the CD to fall onto your spindle/finger. Touching the top near your finger, give it a little push to secure it, and then place it into the player. Do this in reverse to secure it in the jewel box when you are done listening.
Recently I've become aware that one of the biggest problems with disc players is that the spindle becomes dirty or greasy and can't grip as well, because of hand-grease getting on the gripping area of the disc. I agree with most of what you're saying but I've been trying hard lately to be careful about how clean my hands are if I touch the disc center. Good machines aren't easily affected by this but there's a lot of bad ones out there. I think game-machine drives tend to have the most issues, but then again that contingent includes probably a lot more kids/people who keep their disc-changing hand in a bag of Cheetos much of the time.
CD has been the most noticeable audible improvement in my lifetime. I simply did not know they fell out of fashion so I kept buying them. When the hurricane knocked out internet for weeks, I was glad to have my records and CDs once the electric came back. I found out in short order that if I was to buy CDs online, I better keep a carton of new jewel cases around. I still use CD in the car and in a couple other setups in the house.
Lps make cds sound like garbage. Click the first link to listen to lp. Click second link to listen to garbage cd. ua-cam.com/video/BjHzw7SY4GY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/efJGDpCSrJY/v-deo.html
For me there's something FUN about playing records, cassettes and CDs and that's why I play them today and that's really all there is to it. I play music files too of course, but for some reason, I find these less fun than physical formats.
dear AM... how correct can you be :-). I remember being a teenager in the 80's fiddling around with LP's and tape decks. All the drama with vinyl just to get some music out of your speakers and the crap sound of the tape. And then..... holy moses; somewhere around '86 I was finally able to afford my first CD player (Akai CD-32) and how did that change my life :-) just can confirm every single word in your video. What a relief that day. Until the mid 2010's. Being mid-life aged by now and looking at the vinyl hype on the side line. I remembered to have some boxes of these damned vinyl records somewhere in the attic of my parents home. OK.. I went with it and ordered a mid range turntable, went to my parents house attic, dug out my old '80s LP's and oh my god ... what did I love that moment. Blowing off dust of these great pieces of art, re-living the perfect days of my youth in the '80s for just one moment. ok, grabbed two of the boxes with vinyl.... back home where this brand- spanking new turntable was just waiting to get some old skool vinyl. Grabbed my all time favourite Pink Floyd album out of the box, cleaned it as good as I could, put it on the turntable, my heartbeate by now around 170 or so, amplifier to phone, needle down ===========> AND what a deception ... cracks and pumps and whatever noise more and when finally the needle hit some sound it was just AWFUL. what a crap sound and all the hustle to just get some good music out of your speakers.
Thanks - really enjoyed the video. I started collecting physical media again (CD audio, Blue ray video and 4K video) a few months ago and it's been fun and a bit addictive. Another positive for CD's is that you can pick up lots of great music from charity shops for next to no money and, unlike vinyl, they are likely to be in near perfect (or at least perfectly playable) condition.
Music isn't always just about how it sounds, although that is a huge part of the deal. I got on a plane once with 2 flight cases of records. The scale at check in said 80lbs. The 14 crates of vinyl back home equate to well over 1000 lbs in total with a space requirement of about 1 1/2 ft X 4 ft X 15 ft. In contrast I have about 3 TB's of music, individual songs and mixes on a hard drive the size of your average sandwich. Including the backup drives we're talking about a loaf of bread. Plus the music is genuinely better. No pops, no background noise or parts to wear out costing hundreds of dollars. I'll take digital any day. I do still still buy vinyl and CD's though but only because I have to. Otherwise I'd buy digital files every time. I will however never stream music. I'd buy vinyl over streaming. I won't tolerate someone else having control over what I can access.
4000 cd collection since 1984 and counting. Get to put them onto usb and use them in car now. Problem is loudness war cds are junk and occasional bad mastering. But a well mastered 16 bit cd is really all you need. Another problem, many cds are out of print, oop. Another issue, many great blues, jazz, bluegrass, techno artists and other small label genre indie artists only released on cd for a decade or two, so that is the only way to get a physical copy of that music or streaming perhaps if available. Also, cd allows for bonus cuts, alt takes, etc. Finally, lossless dupe to an external hard drive kept in a safe deposit box pretty much insures you will have something to build off if you lose your physical collection someway.
Absolutely right. Streamimg services are not going to put a lot of 'obscure' blues and jazz online anytime soon (or ever). To say nothing of folk and specialist music, stuff released on independent labels and many historic classical recordings.
My collection is just a few hundred, limited by storage space (or lack of) in my flat. If I had the space though it could well head in the direction of your collection's size. A little jealousy on my part :)
Lps make cds sound like garbage. Click the first link to listen to lp. Click second link to listen to garbage cd. ua-cam.com/video/BjHzw7SY4GY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/efJGDpCSrJY/v-deo.html
To fanatics that believe in total superiority of vinyl/records. Not everyone is obsessed with sound quality. There are many other factors to consider in music listening and most would be happy with sound quality that is decent to good. Too often, record collectors that obsess over sound quality are constantly seeking the "best" sounding issue of the same 30 to 40 albums, severely restricting their music experience. I also know of audiophiles that are fanatical about sound quality but listen to the most robotic, soulless or corniest music ever made. In my case, I'd even accept 'garbage' sound quality since I listen to a lot of music from the 1910s to 1920s and I certainly cannot afford to buy those ancient 78s, shellacs (or whatever else you call them) to accumulate even 2% of what I have on CD.
I mainly collect blues. However, most are oop and extremely hard to find. There is the the option of purchasing mp3 or streaming, but for the genres of blues it’s limited. Better off purchasing mp3 or streaming because blues music is often overlooked and taken out of digital stores after a short time.
My problem with streaming music is , I want music that I will always own, not borrowed from a streaming service who can and do take it down at a moments notice. Add in that with vinyl and CD I want the experience of the cover art in all its glory , especially so with vinyl. Therefore streaming is for me simply a convenience and not what I listen to when I want proper HiFi with all that entails!
CDs were under huge scrutiny when they were new, and the engineers were very aware and did what they could to address these issues. It’s hard to imagine in 2023 what a revolution CDs were compared to the contemporary formats at the time they were introduced.
The biggest 'revolutionary' aspect of CDs is the ratio of convenience to sonic cleanliness, and they're great and all but comparing the best CDs to the best records and reel-to-reel, Cd doesn't really win, it's 'equivalent' at best. Reel-to-reel at 7.5 ips has yet to be beat for a widely-available consumer sound format. When records improved their technology, manufacturers focused on that and stopped making high-quality reel-to-reel tapes. Then CDs came along and manufacturers focused on making more money by overcharging for discs that cost less to produce and sounded so 'clean' that people were thrilled about that and didn't notice how many CDs lack depth and detail compared to records, because records take more effort for clarity but are capable of sounding better than a CD, for those of us who know what we're doing with the format and equipment.
@@jamescarter3196 who are you kidding? Really tape and vinyl are garbage and a step back in time,next a wind up gramophone will be considered as something special . CDs took off because they sounded great and I will only buy and no other format.
I would love to see a CD revival. I love certain music too much to be okay with being dependent on an internet connection as my only means of listening to it.
@@myronhelton4441 Well, I'm not laughing at your bad luck with mastering quality. With some albums there is little choice even after a couple of remasters.
@@ArturdeSousaRocha I just love it when I prove that digital is bs. HAHA! Click below link that says analog makes digital sound like bs. ua-cam.com/video/u2i86qEpC7A/v-deo.html
It's as good as lossless streaming (if not slightly better) and it's yours for as long as you want to keep it. Plus material seems to get removed from streaming services on a whim so you can't rely on it. If you like specialist stuff like jazz a lot of stuff is missing from streaming services even now and the metadata is often poor so you end up listening to a live version rather than a studio version et. Yes CDs are space consuming and a bit unwieldy but if you want a physical format they are the best in most cases and there is unlikely to be a better mass market physical format developed in the forseeable future. If you actually want to own music CDs are no more expensive than downoads so better value.
I have CD's that are close to 40 years old. Absolutely no problems playing them with excellent sound. Besides, the used CD market is plentiful and cheap.
You have a lot of great points. My issue with only streaming, you own nothing, and if the music you love is deemed unsuitable for a modern audience, like whats happening to movies. Streaming service can alter or completely remove it. If its been done to movies music would be no exception. I recommend buying physical and copying it to a HDD or SSD and play it back on a pc, tablet, or hifi mp3 player.
Personally, I haven't 'revived' the medium. Haven't stopped buying. Started buying vinyl in 1971 (7'' 'Get it On' by T.Rex on Fly Records). Stopped when my local Our Price Records cleared out all vinyl overnight - late '80s? CDs had arrived. I haven't stopped buying them since. After a relationship breakdown meant moving house, the vinyl stayed with my ex and the CDs came with me. Had one or two portable players, before getting proper CD hi-fi set up in mid '90s. So have been collecting CDs for the last 35 years or so. Weirdly, crazily, irrationally, I have been buying vinyl again. But only because, seems to me, good turntables and styluses are not as expensive as they were in the '70s. (Of course I have a bit more money too.) Have yet to be fully convinced by downloads and I simpy cannot get my head round streaming, except on something like Bandcamp - music for me is not a 'lifestyle' component. (Showing my lack of knowledge here maybe?) The hi-fi file players are still so expensive - it's a real faff to have to fire up a laptop to play downloads - though I do have the original sountrack on FLAC of 'Planet of the Apes' by Jerry Goldsmith, which seems impossible to get physically. Amazing music - sonically impressive through a second hand laptop and cheapo stand alone DAC...
I think the "disc rot" thing is not really a thing, at least not very common, and it's an "issue" that is blown WAY out of proportion as even being an actual "problem" with CDs at all, because I have almost 40K CDs that I've been collecting for about 40 years now, ever since I was a kid, and I've NEVER seen even ONE ever have that problem!... I DO take really good care of my stuff though, so IDK what causes that, but since I do take care of my stuff, ALL of my CDs still play and sound EXACTLY like they did the day I bought them. Plus now I have a LOT of really awesome music in literally almost every genre and even from all over the world, many out of print, many "collectors item" albums, rare, special edition or limited release albums, and of course just about ALL of the more popular stuff that everyone loved, spanning all the way from the 50's and 60's all the way up to many of the very latest release albums that just came out within the last few weeks. And MUCH of my music collection cannot even be found on ANY streaming service, so... My CD collection will continue to expand throughout my life as long as the medium is still available to buy anywhere, because continually discovering new (even if only "new" to YOU) artists and music is one of the things that helps keep you forever young! Besides, nowadays with everyone giving up all of their physical media in place of "digital downloads" or streaming services, you can find used CDs almost anywhere and everywhere, in my city they're always in abundance in dozens of thrift stores, pawn shops, garage sales, flea markets, etc., oftentimes for as cheap as $1 each, and occasionally even as cheap as 10/$1, so you really can't go wrong in trying out new to you music, because you can literally just LOOK at a disc and see instantly if it's still in good enough of condition to play properly, which about 99% of them still are, in my experience. And any brand NEW release albums that come out on CD are still reasonably priced too, especially if you buy them when they're on sale when they first come out, (usually around $10/album on new release week sale), unlike vinyl, which, because of its "Retro FAD" popularity rn, new releases on vinyl are always more, anywhere from $20-$100/album or sometimes even more, which is just ridiculous IMO!
@@markblanch2905 Apparently the "disc rot" thing was only for a limited time, and from only one CD factory in the UK, (which was using a defective manufacturing process), and it was later changed/fixed as soon as it was discovered to be a problem, but it really isn't even an issue at all in the USA or generally worldwide.
Disc rot is a very real phenomenon. It was mostly confined to classical lables, especially hyperion. In some cases chemicals in the booklet ink attacked inferior lacquer on the cd label side and allowed corrosion of the data layer. Many thousands of discs were affected. They may play quite well sometimes with only a few glitches but be virtually impossible to rip,
This was a very nice summary of all the relevant details... but I would like to add a few more details... First, on commercially produced CDs, the protective layer under the label is actually pretty thick, and does provide some degree of protection. However, on CD-R discs, it is a very thin layer of lacquer, and can be easily damaged, especially if you write on it using a ball point pen. And, on CD-R discs, you must never attempt to remove an adhesive label that has been applied as doing so will often destroy the disc. CD-R discs are also much more easily damaged by things like excessive exposure to heat and sunlight. (Also note that, recently, a few CDs that are sold commercially in small volume are actually produced on CD-R media rather than "pressed CD media".) Second, for restoring a scratched disc surface, products intended as "compounding polishes" or "plastic scratch removers" often work pretty well. Finally, when you play or RIP a CD on a computer, error concealment is almost never available. This means that, if a disc is not perfect, or cannot be "perfectly corrected" by error correction, it will usually fail to play through. Even better, many modern ripping programs offer an option to compare the ripped data to a database using checksums. This absolutely confirms that the data you've read from the disc is perfect - and HAS NOT HAD error concealment applied to it. And, considering my results, proves how RARELY "uncorrected errors" actually occur on discs that have been handled carefully. (Our of about 500 CDs I've ripped I've seen a total of two or three individual tracks with minor uncorrected data errors.)
I like cds myself. Its just something about putting a cd in your cd player and listening to a wonderful peace of music. Instead of picking up my cellphone and listening to music that way. No internet needed.. Luv it
I still like to keep a physical copy of my favorite music. CDs give this in a convenient size and reasonable cost. Yes I can store ten times more FLAC files on a hard drive or thumb drive but like vinyl you loose connection with the physical handling. I detest Jewell cases and make my own mini lp style cases for all my collection (2k +) I also have about 20k album in flac on 25 hard drive for archiving. I also warn people about light being bad for both CD and CDR. Thanks for sharing
@@stumad3069 I use a templet I made in MS Publisher and use 200g heavy weight glossy card stock to make them, I have room inside the sleeves to keep the original booklet is needed. I also use other store bought CD sleeves to hold original booklet an disc if I don't feel like making my own mini lp sleeve. I get artwork from many online sources and also scan in some myself from actual LPs
The problem with streaming is simply COMPRESSION the companies that sell their service have to pay for storage for their music so the more music you have the more storage you need. I have some ATC 19 an NAD 2 amp transparent cables and a great spinner. Plus I have found really good CD for 99 cents. I agree with the issues with CD cases. scratched records are a case of misuse I take excellent care of my albums even the used stuff
I have always had great interest in audio topics, and of course a massive CD library, alot of vinyl, and obsessively collected cassettes as a kid. I'll always continue collecting what I want to listen to on CD while it is still manufactured because while I'm totally down with the digital storage era, I rip my CDs in a higher bitrate and listen that way locally, as in no internet required, 100% available instantly whether I'm online or not. That combination is priceless to me.
I've gone back to CDs after many years of the MP3, which was cheaper and easier to obtain (mostly illegally through torrenting), but I've redeemed myself and spent the last 5 years grabbing CDs by the truckloads. It was the fabulous Beatles and Pink Floyd box sets I had gotten as gifts that rejuvenated my desire to collect CDs again. Likewise, my love expanded to building their own shelves and put them in the room as part of the decor of the room as a wall unit. I regret losing all of my CDs to MP3, I will never stream or download anything ever again. Not even movies on any site. And I'm a better human being for this turn.
I take a lot of pride in getting back to buying vinyl again,a bit harder when youre 55,trying to suss other music tastes but when i get my favoured records,i love to get them on my record deck see them spin round and play the music in fantastic clarity.
I think physical formats and their revivals have an element that gets overlooked: they provide a full-spectrum sensory experience. There's something about the excitement and intentionality of going to the record store to pick up a release you've been awaiting for a time, unwrapping the cellophane, thumbing through the booklet, placing the media in its player, and even giving it pride of place on a shelf: streaming loses something here. It also lends itself to active listening. By virtue of the effort it takes to choose a specific album and place it in a player, you're probably only going to do so when you mean to make the music your actual primary activity. Less to do with the characteristics of particular physical formats, and more to do with the physicality and tangible nature of physical media. I personally wouldn't mind seeing some kind of solid-state ROM device for the next physical format. Like a memory card, but read-only. They could give us 32-bit samples at a rate of 192kHz, multichannel, all the goodies. Sort of an SACD on steroids without being so prone to rot.
between cassettes, vinyl, and CDs: CDs have the best sound quality between those three physical mediums. As a musician I can only afford to make CD's for my releases when it comes to physical media, since vinyl and cassettes are overpriced for us, but at the same time nobody buys them. Also, CD's have less problems than cassettes and vinyl (as CD's don't have a tendency of being destroyed by the equipment that plays them, they only get wear and tear). All of the CD's I bought in the late 90s and early 2000s still look brand new (since they were stored to avoid wear and tear). I don't think CD's will come back like vinyl and cassettes though, its up to the hipster audiophiles to decide that though and not those of us using logic.
I have CDs that are 30yrs old and play VERY well and have also gotten some remastered CDs that are breathtaking. I started with vinly and reel to reel, then got a cassette tape machine and all of that tech is long gone. The sound quality I am getting now is at times stunning. It saddens me how much money I have spent on these techs. I have a decent sound system and am able to enjoy concert level recordings of very good quality sound. Some new remasters there is sound that was hidden on the original issues. I have at least 400 CDs and have only replaced the occasional one to get a remastered version. I actually have 2 CDs that have some kind of distortion in them and will replace them if I can. Thankfully one of the worst recorded albums I had was Emerson Lake and Palmer Brain Salad Surgery. I recently got a remastered version and it is superb sound quality. Love my CDs.
Some valid points. I'm sure casual music listeners won't be flocking back to CD's anytime soon due to the ease of streaming but for me as a musician, owning physical is a big thing. I like to collect CD's that I'm on. Mostly because I'm scared that some day the songs will disappear from streaming services and I'll never have the option of listening again. As an example, I recently had a project that I was really proud of now become unavailable because the artist has decided to go in a different direction. Outside of streaming, storing files on hard-drives are an option but their life spans are much shorter than CDs even without much use. Definitely agree on the Digipak though. They are so much better than jewel cases. Most of the independent artists I've worked with have got basic sleeves made or Digipak. Both of them are much better looking and less plastics so better for the environment. Win, win.
Musicians, especially those like you and I who know what 'studio sound' is really like, tend to be the most-concerned about sound quality, because we actually know what we're hearing a lot more often. I'm not interested in telling anybody what they 'should' be listening to, but I'm even-less amenable to people who are enthralled with the convenience of subpar-sounding digital music trying to pretend it's 'superior' to anything when it often sounds worse than a good cassette tape. A lot of people really don't know anything about 'depth', digital artifacts or loss of detail.
I've got ABBA - "The Visitors" and it has suffered zero degradation in 40 years - AccurateRip says zero errors. My 40 year old CD players aren't so happy, but couple of handfuls of capacitors and they're working again for another 40 years. I used iTunes Store in the past, but music started disappearing and Apple told me "to burn CDs as a backup" - LOL I'd rather buy the CD and rip it.
I will give into streaming when it comes with a booklet, and I can look through the collection I have bought! That is also good for the artists. I have no cd's that have succumbed to rot or anything like that, but it does worry me as long I do own them. Am currently buying my favorites on vinyl again. at least when it is cheap. cant do it for new prices. I must also admit that I do not take as much pleasure in putting on a cd like a vinyl and cassette, but when I put on a cd it does feel like a relief. Nothing to worry about sound wise. No belts to worry about, or static, crackling or anything. It just works.
Well said, NICAM was indeed great - will CDs ever be sold with Dolby ATMOS or will it be only in the realm of BluRay, maybe the capacity would reduce the quality - any views? - is there an ATMOS topic in AUdio Masterclass ? just found you today, good stuff !
CDs are so wonderful to collect and such an easier and cheaper option used compared to the $40-50 individual option for the lesser sound of a vinyl record, prone to far more wear than CDs. CDs never had a revival I feel. They were always there but people just ignored them until they couldn't afford vinyl anymore, haha
I recently built a hifi system and primarily went with a turntable and a separate streamer with a built in dac. All this was connected to an onkyo amp and q acoustics 3030i speakers. After getting into the build I kept thinking of getting a cd player so I finally bought a rotel CD11 tribute. Wow! All I can say is that cds to my ears sound far superior to both streaming and records. I'm seriously impressed. I can buy cds easily as they're available everywhere and very cheap here in the UK. I've had no problems with cd rot and the ones I bought in the 90s are working fine.
Yeah, to PDO UK made discs get rot. The last disc I found with rot (out of 7k discs) is Chris DeBurgh's - "Spark to a Flame" the surface of the disc is bronze and the glue between the top silver surface and the polycarbonate is filled with millions of microscopic gas bubbles. His voice sounded like he was smoking 500 a day 🤣
In my personal experience, I find that the climate of where you reside in plays a great role in the fate of the CD. I’ve lived in a very humid and warm country and a somewhat dry country with distinct four seasons. The CDs in hot and humid weather get disc rot a lot easier than in dryer places, where all my CDs are virtually perfect after 30 years.
I lived in Southern Spain for a decade and yes , the climate can affect CDs, especially copied CDs, which deteriorated much faster than in a temperate climate.
@@bonalba20 I have many CDs and can't recall any problems with factory pressed CDs. Although one or two have a bronze tinge they still play OK. CD-R's are another thing altogether, in order for your home player to create the CD (or DVD) a recordable disc is actually a layer of dye between the protective covers (this is why they look different to properly manufactured discs). This in, as you can imagine, inherently unstable and why you rarely see domestic disc recording machines any more. At best you could use CD-RW discs for 'time shifting' but I would recommend you download any archive material stored on CDR's to a hard disc or similar before it becomes inaccessible.
This guy lost me when he tried to make sleeve wear out to be a virtue. I love the fact that you can put a CD, booklet and tray card into a new jewel case and it looks like new. I hate digipaks because you can't do that.
Lps make cds sound like garbage. Click the first link to listen to lp. Click second link to listen to garbage cd. ua-cam.com/video/BjHzw7SY4GY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/efJGDpCSrJY/v-deo.html
If you want to physically keep a music collection, and to physically have the album art and presentation, cd is still the best option. Plus: 1 you will own, not rent your music 2 sound quality is as good as digital recordings can be (Nyquist theory) 3 they are cheap, easy available and easy to store
12:21 MUSIC OWNERSHIP, is the one-kill-all arguments in defense of CD. When the internet or your streaming service dies (or blocks you) your curated hires collection available remotely goes down with it. Other usecase : Doing inexpensive perfect digital backups at home and burning them back when the CD dies is a principle of music preservation. Try to do that on vinils. Also you can always upgrade the cover cases if needed & scan-reprint the booklet for preservation too. The physical medium is a good way to advertise the artist to your circle of friends, your child etc.. in a slightly more field proof way. Creating a physical backup virtually double the lifespan of the content you manage to preserve.
Want to comment on CD rot or bronzing? See the end of this video's description for more information before you do. DM
What rot. I have yet to see it. I will be long gone when and if the rot happens.
I started buying cd’s in the 80’s at the beginning. Although the medium improved since the start (and got worse too with the loudness wars), not one of them has deteriorated to this day. No rot, no skips.
Decades ago I was given a factory pressed CD by Engelbert H. It just unable to play on every CD players I could find. The disc was about a year old and shiny new. Upon careful checking, the playing side had turned golden yellowish. The result NO DISC was displayed. The worst are the CDR.
New to me. Mr. Hump disregarded an excessive heat warning from it's carrier or owner and somehow received a brutal sunburn.
8:04 The cd in the image with rot was made in the U.K. by PDO, just like was mentioned in the Vice article. Had the problem affected any other pressing plants?
Of course CD's have a point. They offer the best sound quality of any physical medium and are the most versatile format. Streaming services regularly remove albums because of licensing issues especially if it's not a mainstream album. The CD is a great hard copy back up that can easily be ripped to a hard drive so you can listen on your phone/pc etc as well as playing from the disc. It's also a great way to support your favourite band/artist.
I will always love CDs
dvd sacd but too few lps and brickvvälL€D -.-
even hdcd is way betä v v
Amen I love CDs 💿💿📀📀💿💿💽💽 better sound quality 😮u support the artist and u own The music. People that stream are soooo stupid and cheap and lazyyyyyy and rely everything on their cheap cell phones, when the internet goes out we’ll see how people will listen to music 😅
@@robertquant1122 Not to mention you won't get cool artwork, notes, posters, and anecdotes from digital media like you would with physical.
@@milldude19 I have. It's at very, VERY best an ultra niche audio format that costs excessively more than a CD format (whilst using the same materials and similar processes), and is so utterly dependent on the rest of the playback equipment that it's more likely you're tricking yourself into thinking it's better. FWIW, I have done ABX testing on it.. I can't tell the difference, so there's one less format I have to buy the White album on.
@@robertquant1122 smartphones are anything but cheap. Crap cameras but not cheap.
I've had CDs for 30 years and don't intend to stop buying them. I don't have perfect ears and the 16 bit sound from a CD sounds perfect to me. Unlike streaming services, once you buy a CD there's no further ongoing costs, you can listen to it as many times as you want. I still use an iPod, to which I rip my CDs so I can listen to them anywhere without having to carry the actual CDs with me, furthermore unlike streaming services an iPod doesn't require a data connection or any form of subscription. I have high quality sound systems in my home and in my cars, and playing a CD allows them to really show their true colours. You can take my CDs when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.
I've been collecting since it all began 40 years ago and I absolutely love my CD collection. I too have ripped quite a few to an iPod which I use in my car. As you have said they can take my CDs when they pry them from my cold dead hands!!!
Exactly, every time people cheer on the death of physical media I can’t help but wonder why they like being put into a permanent rental cycle by corporations, who want to leech off of them for the rest of their lives. It’s not exactly an unknown fact that the reason that all of these companies, both movie and music, want to do away with physical media is so they can keep charging people over and over for the same product.
You better love physical media while it’s still here because it won’t always be…and that’s a shame.
Agreed 100% with both of you. Been collecting CDs for 25 years here. They never went out of fashion with me.
Actually nobody has perfect ears, but there's plenty who believe they do!
I love you
Reasons for sticking to CDs…
I have a large collection.
They are free to play, unlike streaming.
They will last indefinitely, only 1 has started to flake out of 5000.
They provide better sound than streaming.
Not all CDs are available to stream.
I can play them with no WiFi.
They can’t be withdrawn from a streaming service.
They are cheaper than ever 2nd hand due to fools like you giving them to charity shops 😂
Also, you diss tape but many older CDs are mastered from analog master tapes, which has superb resolution.
Are you an ENTP? That’s the vibe I’m getting.
Reasons for sticking to CDs….
1) Because I want to. :)
Don't forget about booklets and artworks.
_Meteora_ from Linkin Park, even if I don't listen to it anymore I still love to open the album and see the booklet with the lyrics on them and the art the band used.
Even VGOSTs like _Neotokyo_ by Ed Harrison or _Nier:Automata_ by Keiichi Okabe / MONACA have such beautiful artworks on the CDs and on the booklets, one thing you can't have on Bandcamp or Spotify.
The DRM is a big tbing. I don't want to have to be held hostage and pay for a googolplex streaming services just so I can listen to what I want.
Who really wants to rely on big tech for their music? Buy cds and they will give you a lifetime of pleasure.
Wow. Must be a nice collection. I thought I had alot.
The first time I heard a CD back in the '80's it blew me away. No noise with detail and clarity I'd never heard in a recording before. Where it started to go wrong was when the "loudness wars" began. A CD with 90+dB of potential dynamic range is nowadays only using about the top 15dB - or less. Lifeless and distorted. Master them properly and they sound fantastic.
Very true. All my best sounding CDs are from the 90s, pre digital brickwall limiting. It's exhausting listening to many releases from the 00s and later. Your ears just get pummeled with a constant level and no dynamics.
You stole my thunder. My thoughts exactly!
The problem is perception of the public. When the Grateful Dead started issuing live shows in several CD series. People started complaining right away about how they were too soft. I ripped one and brought it into BIAS Peak (miss that app!) to look at it and sure enough, there were only a very few samples that approached full scale and the dynamic range of the original reel to reel tape was well maintained.
Yes, the loudness War was nonsense. I'm a huge Metal fan, and especially with that type of music you quickly get into the distortion range, even if you've only turned up your stereo/listening device about 40-50% of volume.
It all started in 1996, when a major label decided that louder would be better. They found out that people like to listen to their music louder, so not much later it became a big trend, when tonnes of labels followed suit.
The difference is totally noticeable when I listen to 1980s CDs and up to mid 1990s ones. Unfortunately, this dumb trend never really died out. Wish they'd go back to how things used to be; I mean people don't have such powerless equipment that they need everything brickwalled to hell. Why not let the customers decide how loud they want to turn up their equipment instead of cramming it down everyone's throats? With the loudness War there's also the problem if you've got powerful equipment then it's difficult to adjust the volume to where it's just right, meaning not to loud but also not too quiet.
I've 2 JBL PARTYBOX 1000s and they go up to 120 decibels, so I can't even go beyond 50% of volume, cause I'm afraid that this will blow the speakers, and as I'm using an equalizer at high volume it would fry my excellent horn tweeters for sure!
@@mansurkhan2764 Thanks for the warning 🙏
I agree with your points, but every format has its downsides and in all, CD is for me still the best of the formats. I still buy CDs and I remember as a teenager in the 80s replacing my albums with the CD versions. Even back then, the depreciating sound quality of vinyl was always a bugbear for me (even after as little as 10 plays, my young ears could already hear the hihats and cymbals becoming 'tizzy') so I embraced CD fully, was happy to leave vinyl behind and my view hasn't changed!
I'm 74 and I was part of the 1960's counterculture (a freak, not a hippy) and aside from the cultural importance of the 60's music, vinyl records were the main source of entertainment at that time. I didn't have enough money back then to afford a good sound system for vinyl, so when CD's came out it was an opportunity for me to hear music clearer than I've ever been able to hear it. Today, I can finally afford a decent turntable, amp and speakers, so I've been collecting vinyl again.
Subjective as it may be, I like the sound of vinyl, its not better or worse, just different than hearing music digitally. I still have quite a few CD's with a growing record collection and I listen to both. But there is a nostalgic aspect to vinyl, the process of playing a record, reading the liner notes and marveling at the jacket's artwork make the listening experience more immersive and it does remind me of my youth. I find the extra effort needed to play vinyl has its own, unique rewards.
I like CDs I have hundreds, but I disagree with you about vinyl albums if you take care of them and clean them, be sure to have a good needle or Cartridge (as some call it). Vinyl has a warmth and character CDs don't. even the occasional crackle from dust gives it character. I will continue to purchase vinyl and CDs. I love Music!
1. According to several newspaper articles te revival is already under way.
2. You can own a cd, you can’t own a stream.
3. The booklet contains pictures, information and lyrics.
4. The cd is tangible, you can hand it to someone, lend it.
5. You can display a cd (this is said to be one of the main reasons for its popularity among teenagers it can personalize a bedroom).
6. You don’t need to be online to listen to it.
7. Compared to legal hi-res media cd are often cheaper.
8. You can give a cd as a gift, the emotion that comes with giving or receiving music can be very nice and creates memories.
Music isn’t only about logical facts.
I have recently got some CDs for my dad to listen too. 6 and 7 were major factors.
muchagrande, I've been trying to tell this to people for the last 20 years. It seems really that the answer I mostly get is - it's just too difficult to find the CD, put it in the player and press a button. Yes I'm serious.
You can argue the same with vinyl, the difference is vinyl being much larger offers a gatefold sleeve and in many cases coloured pressings. It’s also harder to lose.
Yes I agree, I usually buy vinyl versions. It’s even more funl and often better/other mastering. But vinyl has become pretty expensive new and old.
@@bretton_woods
If you have a large collection, it is imperative that you organize their storage at least alphabetically and it is also helpful to keep genres in their own groups. Otherwise it is impossible to find anything quickly.
For me, streaming cannot replace the enjoyment of handling a CD or DVD or Bluray. I like physical media, I like looking at it, I like the act of getting it from the shelf and taking it out...I even like the act of having to occasionally clean them. What I like most however is standing in front of my collection and pondering what I want to watch or listen to. They said that e-books would kill paper books - the opposite has happened. E-books are declining and paper books are increasing. Long Live Physical media.
The reason for collecting and owning physical media can be many: The thrill of hunting down rare albums, the joy of displaying album art, having a real booklet with lyrics, the look of the disc etc. It’s a HOBBY - and not just a household object with purely practical implications… Like everything else in life, nothing is perfect 🧐
Amen
Yup, I certainly don't listen to open reel tape for convenience and sound quality, those things I can get from my NAS and a decent headphone DAC. But there's something about the ritual of cleaning, degaussing, adjusting a deck and then loading a 1960s stereo recording, pressing play and let those reels turn 🙂
I love cd's. For many reasons. Some are cold hard facts, some are personal preferences.
Versus vinyl:
- CD's are sturdy. Vinyl is very vulnerable. Vinyl wears down by usage alone. You can delay the inevitable by using very expensive top-end equipment (that the wife will inevitably find ugly), but it will wear down in the end. You have to be very careful with vinyl records because they are so fragile. I have never been particularly careful with my cd's. If they got dirty or dusty, I would just wipe them on my trousers. And even de oldest (early '90s) still play perfectly. I have seen cd rot on CD-R's, but never on properly manufactured audio cd's. Not even on low budget productions like debut albums of then-obscure bands.
- I'm not an audiophile. CD's don't require super expensive equipment. A cd sounds perfectly well on just a half decent player and a half decent amplifier.
- I don't care about The Ritual. For ritual I go to church, for music I pop in a cd. Of course this is purely personal.
- jewel cases break easily, but they are cheap and easy to replace. I have a stack of empty jewel cases lying around for replacing broken ones. I do have boxes and digipacks, but I take out the cd's and put them in jewel cases. More practical and better for the cd. Paper sleeves scratch.
versus streaming:
- A cd is property, a stream is rented. If the streaming company ever decides to remove an album you like, it's gone. Nothing you can do about it (except paying for another service that might also take it down). If a streaming service ever decides to economize on data storage or clean up the data centre, and you happen to like something not mainstream, you're screwed. If you stop paying the subscription, you lose everything.
- Streaming is expensive. The subscription does not look like a big ticket, but it recurs every month. CD's are cheap. For two months of spotify subscription, you can buy a cd that will be your property for the rest of your life.
- Special edtitions and immersion boxes are not on spotify. If you want them, you will have to buy the cd or vinyl version.
- Artists make a lot more money from selling physical media than from streaming. In the past artists were ripped off by record companies and dodgy managers, today they are being ripped off by streaming companies. I prefer filling the pockets of my favourite band over filling the pockets of the Google corporation.
- CD's don't require an internet connection. CD's don't butcher brilliant albums (or even long songs) with adds.
- I don't like the applications. You can listen albums on spotify, but the application is clearly aimed at separate songs. I am too lazy to make playlists. Not interested either. I prefer to listen to albums, start to finish, as intended. A skip button for the one song I really don't like is appreciated, but that's really all I need. And I think the spotify application is downright confusing and horrible to use.
versus downloading:
- Illegal downloading is illegal. It's theft.
- Downloading triggers hoarding instincts. I have a friend with some crazy NAS system full of more music than he can ever hear in the rest of his life. I think that takes away the value of music. Having to buy something makes more concious and more selective.
I think srreaming is ok for trying out something you don't know you will like yet. It's a bit like listening in the record store like we used to do back in the days. But for something lasting, I prefer a cd any day.
WOW! did you ever nail it, thank you.
And also with downloading, full of DRM, pain in the ass. CDs, except for those few in the early 2000s that had that weird copy protection are dead easy to copy to a computer. Also they have resale value and used sell way cheaper than a download. Only problem really is that you have to store them
I gave up counting my CDs ages ago (once I had gone past 4000) then are the CD singles (maybe 2000 plus) and I'm still buying the little buggers but these days from the second hand shops. Ebay is still a great place to find new releases. I sometimes visit the dump because they often have CDs on the shelves for nothing, I've found a handful there that have been valued around the £30-40 just waiting to be given a new home.@@danielr5000-d1s
Pretty much my feelings too.
I'm in the middle of ripping my CDs on a PC as FLACs (after years of inconsistent ripping and filing and too many "duplicates"). I've done a couple hundred CDs so far, but only had problems with one older CD. The goal is to organize them on the PC and then load them onto a Streamer/DAC/music manager I purchased and a couple of Sony DMPs that I have.
I keep a supply of new jewel boxes on hand, but I would love to find a source of clear plastic blank DigiPaks (with the tray disk holder) that would allow us slip the book into a front sleeve and the printed back in another. This would probably require some tight engineering (as well as losing the spine printing) but hopefully the external height and width dimensions would be close to the jewel box. I'm not wild about going to the DVD size cases.
I do stream Tidal, but the main reason is so that I can explore and make some informed CD purchase decisions, or just play some music in background.
You are really going the extra mile. I worked as a club DJ for most of my life so I binned most of my hard plastic covers (jewel box) because of weight. I put the CDs in a lined thin plastic sleeve together with the front cover. The back cover paperwork and spines to the CD I then placed in a plastic file box with a lid that lifts up revealing the paperwork in alphabetical order that can be found at any good stationers or ebay (I think). Don't know if this helps but its just a thought.@@Gallery90
Love my CDs, which are in a higher format than most streaming. You can store them for decades, and you can rip them to harddrives. You also get physical artwork and sometimes you get great liner notes.
If you're concerned about space, that's your concern, but I'm happy to dedicate an entire wall of one of my rooms to my CDs!
The issue with streaming is you don’t own anything. All it takes is a license dispute and your favorite song or album (or maybe artist entirely) gets dropped. I love streaming for convenience and to be able to discover new music, but buying music will always have a place. Buying on CD gives you something physical with artwork and liner notes, which some prefer to .FLAC files.
And you don't get a choice of what version of the song. They may only have the radio edit version, a bad remaster or even a re-recorded version.
and you can still rip your CDs to a music-library
Also what happens if they start pulling or censoring politically incorrect songs such as Brown Sugar, Not Now John, Turning Japanese, China Girl, Catholic Girls, Walk On The Wild Side, Jewish Princess, Birtha Butt Boogie, Bloat On, etc?
You don't need a streaming service to discover music. UA-cam covers likely more than any one streaming platform.
@@greenbow7888 UA-cam is a streaming platform.
I will only buy Compact Disc's. Love them.👍
I am going to prove to your ears that lps make cds sound like garbage. Click the first link to listen to lp. Click second link to listen to garbage cd. ua-cam.com/video/BjHzw7SY4GY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/efJGDpCSrJY/v-deo.html
@@myronhelton4441 The first video has lots of pops and clicks audible over the start of the music and audible even after it has been recorded digitally and compressed in whichever audio format UA-cam uses. The second video is unavailable (not sure if it's a regional restriction or copyright strike or if the video was deleted), so I can't compare it. Certainly CD is capable of better sound, even if the particular CD in the video I can't see is a bad mix or master.
@@martineyles You listen to unnatural transistor digital jealous cheap fanatics too much. But most of them dont have enough sense that they listen to sixties analog recordings. Analog tubes has less wiring than digital transistors that hurts the sound, just like putting a bunch of wires on a vcr hurts the sound. Many dacs are going back to the older ladder dacd that sound less harsh digital.I just tested both working videos. Dolby noise reduction on cassette decks cuts out the pops & ruins the music. CDS do the same shi automatically. Tube amps do the same thing. Analog tube recordings do the same thing. Tube microphones do the same thing. A few rock groups on record with tubes using really expensive tape. I like 1971 analog tube recorded lps & cds the best. I can stand only listening to half my lps on cds. But I only listen to audiophile albums that are only 1% of the total albums. I hate all cds & lps after that date. Original lps sound the best with the pops, later lps the master tape gets wore with the sound not as good. Digital remaster tapes sound better than older tapes, but not as good as the real real old original albums. The master tapes wear with age. Some transistor amps are designed with better sounding distortion with a certain kind of circuit. I forgot the name of the circuit. I have lps that sound good, then they were digital remastered that sound terrible. I have digital cds that were remastered with analog tubes that improved the sound. Most people love tube guitar amps best. I like a tube volume control on a transistor amp for a stereo amp. This setup gets part of a tube sound. A pure tube amp runs hot & the tubes dont last as long.
@@martineyles I didnt play a trick on the video. Even on my home systems the cd sounds even worse than the lp.
@@myronhelton4441 I suspect it's a region restriction if you can still watch the second video. I've seen it happen with videos before.
I guess I'm just a Luddite, but I'm disgusted by the decline in all physical media and their replacement by digital "streams." When you stream music instead of buying it on physical media, you are cheating the artists out of revenue (they get only a fraction of the income they get from physical sales). You're also handing control of what you can listen to to the streaming service, which can give you the music or not depending on their own criteria (Big Brother enters your listening room). STREAMING IS EVIL.
Spot on
Mark, streaming has a valued place in my music world. Great way to hear music before plunking down $$$ on Vinyl or CD. And I’d argue that it helps artist get more exposure as well.
Yes, streaming is evil. Not only do the streaming lords rip off the artists but it has questionable sound quality and is unreliable in terms of selection. You are renting music and the selection of rental titles can change at any time. What happens when there is a copyright issue or an artist has a problem with the service (ie-Neil Young, CSN, etc) and also what happens if they start pulling or censoring politically incorrect songs such as Walk On The Wild Side, Brown Sugar, Not Now John, Turning Japanese, China Girl, Catholic Girls, Jewish Princess, Birtha Butt Boogie, Bloat On, etc? A lot of radio stations won't go near those songs now.
I do not understand how it is that they still want to continue buying records instead of listening to streaming music, seriously, music is now free, and going against that is ridiculous, stop looking like crazy for a "good sound", just listen to music
I'm not a fan of streaming but pretty much every CD or record I've bought in the last few years has seen absolutely ZERO revenue head towards an artist. I buy them all second hand and dirt-cheap.
In my defense though I spent God know how many thousands of pounds on new CD's back in the day from retail stores.
The CD is the greatest single thing that ever happened to recorded classical music. My favorite way to get new music is to purchase FLAC downloads from labels that offer this, burn CD-Rs, and label with Lightscribe. I always have the backup files if the disc goes bad for some reason. None ever have.
PS, on scratched CDs.... I once found an out-of-print CD in a thrift store. It was relatively rare, bought it for $1. At home I found it to be unplayable due to scratches. So I opened up Exact Audio Copy and let it read and work on recovering the files. Forty-five minutes later I had a perfect set of files I've been listening to for 15 years now. I just trashed the CD itself.
FLAC downloads are the same as CDs in terms of their quality and a great buy as downloads.
I used to label my home-made CDs with Lightscribe too (never used Labelflash). Now I've bought a Canon inkjet printer that does print in full color on the blank CDs with a white surface I buy on Amazon. The result is amazing. Everyone thinks they're real CDs until they turn them and see the back. ;) I tried an Epson inkjet printer before but the result was truly awful (black was grey, brr). I always ended up with ink on my fingers, ooh, shame on you Epson. But the quality of the Canon one impresses me still. It's truly one of a kind. I'm so glad I've found it.
There's definitely a point for CDs among album oriented people like myself. I enjoy entire albums the overwhelming majority of the time. It's extremely rare for me to skip a track. In addition, save for occasionally repeating a track, I generally play the album start to finish; though not always in one sitting. Plus, I enjoy cover art and liner notes. So, while a streaming site might have the cover art, they generally won't have the liner notes or lyrics. I definitely like to have lyrics because I'm the master of singing all of the wrong words to the songs I've loved for decades. I'll go back and read the lyrics and say, "Oh! That's what he's singing?"
During my informative years (early 1980's) I used to often buy an album for the single track I'd heard on the radio. Playing the album was a voyage of discovery. Keen not to damage the record through cueing up inevitably led to me starting to enjoy the whole album over time with the bonus of some "hidden gems". Ironically, when my favourite track came on it was sometimes a bit of an anti-climax.
Sometimes the streaming services get the lyrics wrong as well
I have CDs that are 35 years old and play just as perfectly today as the day they were new. And, a great recording on CD sounds good enough to me that I don't need anything better
Ditto with me ... although technically 34 years (1989-2023) ... lol
I grew up with cassettes and vinyl around the house, then later bought 💿. The CD is still the ideal compromise between convenience and sound quality in physical media, IMO. I love vinyl, but if I love something enough, I also want a CD of it. If I can only have one, the CD is the way I prefer to go.
There is nothing objectively better and to say there is smells really bad to me. CDs are the best sound you can actually hear. Vinyl and tape are horrible mediums that wear out from being read by mechanical means whereas light is used to read CDs and that gives CDs a lifetime and more of enjoyment with less expense compared to always replacing the those antique formats that really are a cash grab for the music industry.
@@bobair2 CDs are not the best sounds you can hear. CD is low resolution audio. It does not include ultrasonic frequencies that are emitted by most musical instruments. These frequencies have been shown to have a positive effect on the human mind.
The good news is you can add those frequencies back into low resolution digital audio to make it more satisfying to listen to. That's what I do. I wouldn't put up with listening to a CD if I couldn't add those missing frequencies back into the music.
@@dtz1000
Most vinyl pickup cartridges won't go far beyond 20khz anyway. CD4 quad sound used a 30KHZ carrier but only the best playback gear could handle it.
The CD is still the best buy for archival recorded music.
I love cds, have found very few problems with them, and have found many advantages. Streaming is convenient, but for qualify listening, cds win hands down...
I hear you Robert Drennen and I agree with you. I have a bunch of CD's (1000) and I love the format and the sound. CD'S FOREVER! ;-)
@@paulmcwilliams1709 :-)
Streaming isn't that convenient when what you are looking for has suddenly disappeared from the service because of some contractual issue or something... Unless you are streaming from your own personal cloud storage.
CD, as with other physical media, whatever happens at the studios or the streaming servers, the music is yours.
Listen to which format you like. But perhaps don't mislead with incorrect comments. Digital is digital. The exact same file on a good system, will sound the same. Simple. No difference. Nada.
@@MattSB2588 Except that different systems sound different
The biggest issue, for me, with non-physical digital storage is the lack of constancy with rspect to the software that is used to access it. I have spent years as a programmer (going back 50 years) and a major problem with software is user interface and the irresistible urge programmers (and marketing types) have to redesign it to “improve” it. The result is an ever-changing experience of simply wanting to find and listen to a particular bit of music.
I have, recently, gotten a new turntable which I set up in my office and the sheer ease and satisfaction of just picking an LP off the shelf and simply listening without wading through menus has removed a barrier to enjoying the music I love. The same goes for my CD collection.
Just think... When in the future someone invents a turntable with menus, hi-fi historians will be able to trace the idea back to your comment 😄 DM
I am a vinyl guy, but couldn’t resist the INCREDIBLY low prices of CD’s nowadays
Take the CD. Rip it to FLAC. Then add the ultrasonic frequencies that are stripped out of all CDs but not vinyl, and you will then have something that's as good as, or maybe even better, than vinyl.
@Swen-bk3kz FLAC is lossless compression. So it's all good.
I'm 26 now, ever since i had money i valued getting a physical copy of music in the form of a cd. One simple fact, its yours! Stremaing services could lose the rights to your favourite artist and you can no longer listen to them. I don't think I'll get multiple copies of a cd, but as long as you put a copy on your ipod, phone etc. It'll last your life time on a shelf or in storage. Then there is the inner collector in me that loves the catalogue of cds i have from a particular artist.
I've been collecting CDs for over 20 years, have sifted through tens of thousands of discs at thrift stores and retail stores alike, and have yet to come across even a single case of disc rot. Claims of widespread disc rot are highly exaggerated. Also, digipak packaging should be considered a crime against CD collectors, I hate them on so many f*@king levels. Cover art has zero protection from the elements, inconsistent disc holding systems, some of which seem purposefully designed to damage the disc, and if the spindle should ever get damaged, well then you're S.O.L my friend. I plan to move all of my digipak albums to jewel cases at some point in the future. Jewel cases are perfectly fine when handled correctly, plus if any part of one breaks, it is both easily and cheaply replaceable. I'll be continuing to buy CDs until the day I die.
Thank you for your opinions, which clearly I do not share but I respect regardless. However, rot is definitely a real thing. I've suffered from it and people I know have suffered from it. Why you have not is either a statistical fluke or plain good luck. If it's luck, then I wish you more of it. DM
I’ve got over 5000 CDs. None have become unplayable. Only 1 had metal layer flake near edge but it still plays. I have duplicate album from charity shop, so not a significant problem.
Oh and 24 bit digital doesn’t exist on a CD. You can use it in a mastering studio but no CD is 24 bit.
And no streaming service is 24 bit either.
Lps make cds sound like garbage. Click the first link to listen to lp. Click second link to listen to garbage cd. ua-cam.com/video/BjHzw7SY4GY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/efJGDpCSrJY/v-deo.html
@@Coneman3 Some digital download services provide 24 bit FLAC though. However, there is a widely playable physical consumer format that can contain 24 bit 96KHz stereo PCM sound (or 6 channel 16 bit 48KHz sound) - DVD video. I have a few live DVDs that have PCM sound, but I'm not sure whether they take advantage of the higher bitrate options or just use 16/48 stereo. I believe there were a few audio only DVD videos made to take advantage of it being more widely playable than DVD audio, while still having many of the same audio advantages, but everything I have is a live recording or greatest hits collection with video. One great thing is that a lot of these have a CD and DVD in the same box. Being the same size disc makes this very convenient.
I have been collecting CDs since they first came out just a little over 40 years ago and have amassed about 600. That probably isn't a very big collection, but I certainly treasure each and every one of them. Plus the ones from when I first started out still sound as good today as they did 40 years ago. CD actually has taken somewhat of a resurgence as of late which I think is a good thing. I don't think they will ever become "obsolete". As long as people have discs and players the format will remain. Cheers to all my fellow CD collectors out there!!! 👍
I think the only way that CDs will become obsolete is when DVD-A becomes the norm.
The cover by plastic for cd's - are so flimsy - make me angry everytime they snap and gets broken
@@DavidLazarus Except that DVD-A seems to be going nowhere. I don't know a single person who owns a DVD-A disk and worse for the format, most people will look at you with a blank expression if you mention DVD-A because they are completely unaware that the standard exists. Many people with a keen interest in hi-fi or professional audio are aware but they still don't own any disks. The truth is that the average buyer cannot hear the difference between 16-bit audio and 24-bit audio, so selling them a disk that costs a silly amount but to them sounds no different is never likely to result in significant sales numbers. Almost everybody can hear the massive difference in signal-to-noise between vinyl and CD so they did spend the money even back when CDs were still over-priced. CD and DVD-A? Blind listening tests have revealed that a _very_ small percentage of people can tell the difference.
SACD is cheaper, offers the same sound quality advantages, supports the same surround-sound standards and there is already a fair amount of music available on SACD. It isn't overpowering CD either but it has far more chance of eventually doing so than DVD-A does.
@@FireAngelOfLondon - Last I read, SACD is not as good as DVD-A.
I listen to LPs and CDs exclusively in my setup. If I didn't have over 1200 lps I would give up analog/ turntables at once. So much work to do.... Making sure your cartridge is always properly aligned, etc. Record cleaning is a pain in the ass even with a vacuum machine. Records take up so much space. And no matter how many times you clean them, brush them off, etc. you may still hear some surface noise or clicks and pops that come from static. I am happy with my humble $7000 system but I wish everything were as simple as cds. Screw streaming... 2 stable formats to listen to are enough- I won't spend any more money to build a streaming system, that may sound better than cd sometimes. Subscriptions to services add up as well. Money pit IMHO
When I went digital streaming, I lost the commitment to listen to albums in full. And all my track data was used as big data to personalise my experience. Sounds great, but all that really happened was a giant playlist.
Last November I bought a HiFi again after many years and listening to albums fully on CD format has been a joy and given me a less disposable and more respectful appreciation for music. At a fraction of the size of keeping Vinyl. The CD will keep going on for that very reason and I truly believe you will see others switching back to that more analogue experience over time. I still have Streaming subscriptions, but for on the move purposes, or researching out new albums I may wish to buy.
Totally agree. After coming back to CDs I am discovering complete albums again, which I ignored in streaming as I only focused on the hit songs.
What makes you think 24 Bits are better than 16 Bits on playback?
Higher sample rates and greater bit deth are used in the recording process to give editing headroom.
Strictly speaking there are dynamic range audible differences from 16 bit to 20bit or 24 bits. In practice this difference is trivial because you can't have the conditions to produce such a dynamic range in an audio system. You would need a completely silent room (no room noise), a dac/amp chain that's capable of producing more than 115db of dynamic range (note that I say produce and not just decode) and a music recording with such dynamic range which probably doesn't exist.
Here's the reason for my CD revival... they cost 25¢ to $1.99 all over the place, and I can rip my own digital files from them.
Amen I sell CDs in 2023 I’m always going to suppport CDs 💿💿💿 streaming is garbage
Went to Goodwill and bought three CDs. Each CD was priced at $1.20. Pretty good value.
I would have expected a guy as pompous as you to appreciate the lossless sound that CDs provide, not to mention the ability to acquire unique versions of your favorite music which might not otherwise be available from a streaming service.
Let alone all the censored butchering of original recordings
The first half of your sentence (up to the comma), was superbly expressed and reflected my thoughts exactly.
Other than titles not on streaming (which only accounts for some releases), many titles are on streaming, often in higher quality than CD. CD still has value but it makes sense why he might not prefer CDs.
Nobody can hear any “loss”.
Have you seen Amazon HD? There was nothing wrong with MP3 at high bit rates but it’s very last decade now
The CD is a great audio format. It is generally accepted that nothing is perfect.
The CD is a great format-but the record industry has greatly damaged it through horrible mastering practices.
Any format that supposes a physical media (preferably one piece per one album) is a great audio format. I walk around a digital media server for few years (making a NAS, a platform, a custom software), but finally gave up and purchased a good all-formats bluray player. Now I'm happy and continue with my DAC.
@@kevinj.oconner788 horrible mastering also makes vinyl horrible
Music isn't about perfection. Even our ears arent perfect. Especially as we get older lol
@@BrianSmith-vl7xu Perfection does imo simply not exist. That's like the speed of light. you can try to approach it and you can come very close to the speed of light, but you will never reach the speed of light even with an infinite amount of energy.
I used to work for my hometown's public library, and, in about 2009, we got a machine which literally buffs, cleans, and removes all scratches from CDs. It worked perfectly. I once bought a used copy of Elton John's (outstanding) 'Ice On Fire' CD, and it was terribly scratched; it skipped and paused. I took it to work and they put it in the machine. Took about 2 minutes to clean, tops. Came out, and Played Perfectly. As far as this gent saying, 'Scratches and fingerprints can cause your CD to skip!', it's like .... umm yeah, that's why you hold them by the edges and don't scratch them. I just ... smfh through most of this video. Thank goodness the commenters seem to have good sense.
What is the name of the machine?
The key thing I love about my CDs is that the format is OLD ENOUGH to be 'unaware' of on-line stuff, doesn't report to its masters, doesn't require 'sign ups' or 'activations'. It is self contained, uncompressed, with decent quality, and easy to 'rip' to be converted to any format I want, or just kept as PCM direct copy (drives are cheap these days!).
In my own 'quest for audio improvements' I've been a SACD enthusiast as well - which, as the author said, was 'too good for my ears' and I could never really hear the difference, save for the multichannel versions. But one of the things that annoyed me about SACD was that I couldn't 'touch' its protected DSD content with anything I had at the time... Most of them are hybrid, though, so I could still rip the CD layer ;-) Long live CD!
The only value vinyl has in the modern age is that it re-introduces scarcity into music. You have to spend a lot of money, dedicate a lot of space, and spend a lot of time to play a vinyl record. CDs reduce the space and monetary investment but keeps some of the time investment, which is a much better balance. And obviously in terms of quality, CDs win hands down to vinyl, and they even win to streaming.
I never knew that CD's were out of date. To me they are still the format I love to listen to. I've purchased all the music I had when I was younger. I have some 50's era, the 60's, the 70's, and the 80's with a few from today. I have about a thousand and I will still purchase CD's so I hope they never go away! I can still remember the first CD I purchased, it was Creedence Clearwater Revival Greatest Hits. I LOVE MY COMPACT DISC'S!
And I got an MP3 player that I listen to when I'm taking a bath. All the songs are from my CD collection. I use Windows Media player to play my CD's on my computer
They are trying to make CD's seem old fashioned so that they can push their streaming crap and make yet more fucking money out of the public.
I'm 22 and I buy CDs as a way to pay the artist, and literally to "feel" what the artist wanted the listener to see, to "percieve" from the album. The artstyle, the lyrics, everything.
Plus, you get better audio from CDs (that you're able to convert to .wav / .aiff, .flac / .alac, etc.) than from streaming.
Happy :-)
@@Cosford869 Makes me wonder whether the streaming services paid off the car companies to get them to stop installing CD players! 🤣
I own my CDs and have zero concern about losing access to content. They don't require internet service to play them and comes with original artwork and liner notes. I also have the option of reselling them on the second hand market which can command some surprisingly hefty prices. Top THAT with streaming.
here here. same with DVDs. I don't subscribe to any services for anything.
Streaming's great for finding new stuff. Having a physical object is great for only paying once and more-or-less permanent access.
Also worth saying that I have around 500 LPs I was literally given and that, because it is a finite number, I will eventually listen to all of them, even the ones I don't know if I like yet. Would I have listened to Beethoven's 7th every day for a week until I decided I liked it had I not had a physical pressing of it in front of me? Would I have listened to Dai Francis several times and kept it on my favourites just to be certain what my worst album is? Would I have given Count Basie more than a track or two before realising I like it (but only in moderate quantities).
No. Sometimes the things you like best are not the things you like on first hearing. I tried Spotify premium for a few months but, impressive a library as it was, I found all I really ended up doing was finding songs I already knew and liked and realised I might as well just listen to the records I already had.
@@johnbull5394 So true. Sometimes we're not in the right frame of mind when we listen to challenging, nontraditional or experimental material for the first time. Having that physical copy within arms reach gives you unlimited opportunities to reassess the artist's intentions.
In theory, so does having access to a streamed copy but weirdly that isn't how it worked, for me anyway@@jbwuzhere6819
It delivers for those of us who want the balance between physicality, relatively good robustness, compactness, good sound quality, a genuinely self-contained means of listening to our music, reliability, and no silly nonsense over ownership. Nothing else ticks all of those boxes.
You and I are about the same age. I remember wire recorders. Then 1/4" tape .
My grandparents had large single sided records made of shellac.
They were 78 rpm records. I worked in a record department of a large department store.
I've had 8 tracks, cassettes, 45s, LPs, mini cassettes, reel to reel tapes, and CDs. On-line music is easy to access and record. I have 1000s of hours of music on hard drives, and i can get music over different servers.
It's amazing how easy it is to find and play music these days.
My hearing is limited to about 12,500 Hz max, so having equipment that can play to 20,000Hz is useless to me.
I do like base drums and guitar 🎸.
My stereo isn't the highest priced equipment, but it's enough for my needs and can play loud enough to upset the wife and neighbors.
Keep up your excellent information on the stereo systems and new tech. Thanks. 🙏👍👌
NICAM is worth looking into in more detail! It was originally used for the distribution spine of national FM broadcast in the UK, it was absolutely amazing, distributing low latency, high quality PCM digital audio in perfect sync to every main transmitter in the country. 13 channels were carried in the stream, along with error correction, and this system was designed in the early 70s and in full operation by 1973! That's a decade before CD was available. In the 70s, 80s and 90s, anyone who was listening to a national BBC station in stereo was listening to digital audio without even knowing it. That is truly amazing when you consider that Stereo FM broadcasting itself had only begun about a decade earlier.
I was always very satisfied with NICAM back in the day. I kind of wish there was a way of hearing it now in case my memory is listening through a rose-tinted ear trumpet. But you're right, for its time it was amazing indeed. DM
I can't agree with you I'm sorry. I hate, I loathe Digipacks. I love the jewel case because if it's damaged, you can remplace it anywhere. These are sold everywhere, in every record store. But if your precious digipak is damaged, well there's nothing you can do about it and like vinyls sleeves (even though I appreciate the fact that they are huge, and very beautiful when they are glossy) when they're damaged, I don't see that as a reward, a proof that that record followed me everywhere, I see that as a deception and a very big problem. I like brand new things not things with signs of wear. That's just the way I am. So thank God for the jewel case, all you need to do, when broken, is buy another one, and your CD looks (again !) brand new ! Long live the CD and long live the jewel case. Death to the digipak.
I gave a 👍 but this is one of those times when I wish a half-way up was available. I really dislike digipaks (and other cardboard ones) but I don't absolutely hate, loathe them either. I think they do have their place but only for certain kinds of releases.
CD sounds better than streaming in every audition I have had, including the good stuff.
I HATE STREAMING! CDs forever!
Streaming is garbage 🗑 🤮🤮🤢🤮🤮🤢🤮 they need to start taking out music out of cell phones that would make people go back to CDs 💿
I'm with you one-hundred-percent. I have no intention of being reliant, captured, by a streaming server.
But why goy??? Don’t you want to own nothing and be happy ?
Don’t you want to keep renting forever?
I don't hate streaming but I LOVE cds
I have been buying CDs since the mid 1980s, and have bought about 3500 CDs since. So why in the world would I make myself dependent on some streaming service and pay to listen to music that I already own? That just makes no sense. Also, I'd never want to be dependent to any service for my music listening. The best thing is to own your music collection that way you can always listen to your favorite music any time you want to.
I got back into cassettes purely for the nostalgia factor. I record shuffled playlists off UA-cam Music onto blanks and then play them back on my Rotel RD-400. The warm glowing lights, the reels spinning round, the VU meters it all takes me right back to the 80s. The sound is better than I remember too.
Can't really tell the difference between a well recorded, type II dolby cassette and a CD unless I put my ear up against the speaker or turn up the volume to ridiculous levels honestly.
Reading your comment listening to Wet Leg from recorded cassette
Enjoyed your video! All of my CDs are ripped to a FLAC file. I play the music from the server. The physical CD remains in its case and stored away. I am probably one of those dinosaurs that was roaming the earth back in the day :) I was so glad to see the CD replace vinyl in the 80s. Recently I started going back and buying much of the music I had listened to in the past.
I have over 2000 cds that play perfectly. My first cds from 1983 are still pristine too. If I get a defective one I return it for one that works. Handle your cds with care, store properly -and unlike vinyl they are virtually guaranteed to last a lifetime.
Vinyl lasts, too. I have vinyl records that are 50 years old, and they're still playing decently.
@@davej.meister5421 the avearage buyer has no idea how care for vinyl or cds. The rules are basic..handling storage temperature cleaning and dont loan anything out🤣
@@lionheartroar3104 You must have NEVER heard of Pete Pardo from Sea of Tranquility or Brendon Snyder, then. Avid cd collectors. BOTH have tens of thousands of cd's in their collection. And they take great care of them. John from Lair of the Alchemist is another avid album collector. He collects mostly vinyl. And he takes great care of his vinyl albums. Check out these guys...ALL three are American.
Until you get discs pressed by PDO UK, then you go and get your pristine disc out and it doesn't play. Look at it carefully and you'd be convinced a leprechaun has come at the dead of night and turned your music to gold 🤣
I know this is an old post, but I'd love to ask about your experience with CD players since 1983. How were they compared to the later ones you no doubt got in terms of reliability and sound quality? How long did those old players last?
I still have a CD collection because it is by far the best media ever conceived for the permanent storage of digital music.
Even the cheapest CD player can play a CD. But I'd need a high quality turntable and related paraphernalia for vinyl, which is a physical medium much more prone to damage.
It's also annoying to not be able to fit even the complete 9th symphony of Beethoven on vinyl without needing to flip the disc half way through.
A CD player is for people who love music, and a record player is for people who love equipment. The CD revival is RIGHT on so many countless levels -
There is NO substitute for a hard copy digital piece of music - meaning a CD.
Nothing better, in my opinion. I prefer my music on physical media, just as I prefer my photography to exist in physical media such as good old fashioned FILM.
I also get tired of arguments in favor of analogue sound, and against digital.
You get shit with anything, as long as your creation method all along the way is also shit. The sound venue, the choice of microphone for the music of choice, and the proper placement of those microphones ALL matter very much indeed. You don't want your symphony orchestra recordings to sound as if they were created inside somebody's tiny basement.
"by far the best media ever conceived for the permanent storage of digital music.... [vinyl] is much more prone to damage"-- no, wrong on both counts. Please, try knowing the subject instead of grandstanding about 'digital' like it's a body part you're proud of. Records aren't "much more prone to damage", and they still play when the damage is minimal, whereas a lot of CDs stop working or sound bizarre when they have the same amount of damage. Why would CDs be better than digital tape that can hold higher-quality stuff? Why not SACD? Like the average person who doesn't know anything beyond the basics, you're ignoring the bulk of this subject based on 'convenience' and acting like it means 'CDs are the very best'. No, they aren't.
@@jamescarter3196 - With vinyl you have ticks, pops, surface noise, turntable rumble, and of course the grand possibility of scratching the vinyl with the stylus, or with anything else the vinyl comes in contact with. A compact disc can of course get damaged. But the difference is like comparing a child handling the disc, and an actual adult handling the disc. Nor can vinyl handle they same dynamic range as a compact disc. It's really just plain old science.
But by far the most important thing is a very high quality recording to begin with, meaning the proper choice of microphones, the recording venue, getting the levels right, and so on. All other things being equal, digital recordings win.
Furthermore, I don't need a $4,000 turntable. Even a cheap portable compact disc player extracts the data identically to a player costing ten times as much.
Furthermore, any so-called CD rot or bronzing is unlikely to occur during anyone's life time, and the inferior manufacturers eventually get weeded out simply because no company selling CD's wants to go out of business.
Final note: The most important electronic component is a kick ass set of speakers, most of which have gone the way of the passenger pigeon.
How many of you have ever heard the greatest set of speakers ever made by Infinity back in the day? They cost $35,000 and you could practically hear any music conductor taking a breath. I happen to have a Jr. grade set of those best speakers, something like the 2nd or 3rd best speakers made by Infinity.
Long live CD 💿🎶🎵🎶
:-)
There's is simply no better medium for listening to music than the CD! Think about it, it never loses the tinniest amount of sound quality, regardless of how many times it is played; it is robust and compact (hence the name), its fairly easy to store and keep, and it can be digitally transferred using practically any computer, without the slightest loss in sound quality, and it can be easily carried around as well.
To me owning my CD collection of 2000 CDs is part of life quality and gives me joy every time I look at my collection or better yet I play it.
As long as CDs will be around I'll be buying them cause they are the greatest invention since the CD Player was introduced back in 1982.
Ive never really got into the whole streaming / mp3 thing. If I do hear of an artist that I like (it doesn't happen often) then I will endeavour to hunt out a CD of them, which are usually pretty cheap. For me (and I imagine many others) it's not a revival, it's about continuing to enjoy your collection on an easy to use, no frills, reliable format. My old separates system still works flawlessly after 30 years use. Do I really want to swap this out for some "internet enabled" device, specifically designed to be obsolesced after 5 years?
CD's FOREVER
CD's FOREVER BAD. I am going to prove to your ears that lps make cds sound like garbage. Click the first link to listen to lp. Click second link to listen to garbage cd. ua-cam.com/video/BjHzw7SY4GY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/efJGDpCSrJY/v-deo.html
@ReaktorLeak Recording use the same software that loses 10% of the great sound, one format shouldnt lose more good sound than the other. I have tried 100 similar experiments that worked out the same as this. I dont see how one could see certain advantages a cd could have over an lp. Such ac clearness, tone, orbackground dynamics
@ReaktorLeak You are correct. But, I have done about 50 experiments the same way & the lp is better 90% of the time. Done the same experiments at many audiophiles homes with different equipment & om all, the lps sound better every time. But on youtube the albums sound only somewhat less good sound, similar to the home experiments. Only a few youtube experoments on a shabby files or equipment doesnt prove my point. I have copied 200 videos to prove my point, trouble is youtube removed the mp videos, so to help cd sales. I like cds as much as vinyl, but it dont sound as good sometimes. You say youtube cuts off the highs, that means the LPS actually sound better om the youtube videos. Because I have heard great dacs at audiophiles homes & I havent heard many cds that r better than LPS. Upsampled cds have better highs, but thinner bass. 1971 & before analog tube recorded cds & lps sound best. But I can only stand listening to half my lps on cds. Audiophile albums are 1% of total albums, so most lps & cds sound alike.
@ReaktorLeak I like cds very very much. My opinion. I have never heard any cds better than lps. But I only listen to audiophile albums. Starting in 1972 I can tell not as good sounding digital was added, not as much difference between cds & lps. I guess many of these are better. I have listed to thousands of albums, only 200 of them are audiophile & most of them are old albums. Only 100 of the 200 lps are worth listening to on cd, but the cds are really good. I enjoy many 1971 & before analog tube recorded on LPS & CDS. Later digital transistor recordings were done. I love CDS recorded in !971 & before. But after that I hate almost all LPs & cds that sound alike. Also mostly the original lps sound best. Digital transistors isnt as good as natural analog tubes. Upsampled cds has better highs, but it thins the bass, its a gimmick.
@ReaktorLeak I forgot that big download sight that sells musiv, but its upsampling up, also goes up in price. One can play around with the different sample rates & the higher sample rates has thinner bass. I think upsampling thins the sound to make the higher frequencies to make brighter seeming clearer when it isnt. Thats why some of the newer very expensive dacs has that old analog sounding sound, without upsampling. I am no expert on newer DACs & you are probably right, but its odd some expensive DACS dont want upsampling. I have 1 cd that has a little record hiss that I like, so I think an lp converted to CDS the digital way ruins something. I like 1971 & before analog tube recordings on cd & Lp. I hate most everything after 1971. Of 200 lps, I can stand only half of them on cd.
I like CDs. The jewel case is the weak point, but that's a relatively minor problem; just buy a stack of blank cases and replace them as needed.
I'm happy for CD to stay low key. Let the Vinylheads pay $30 for an album. I'll be happy buying the same album for $5 on a format that sounds better to my ears. It's too bad Minidisc never caught on. It was storing up to a GB at the end of it's life, so presumably, we could have had CD quality in a neat little square disk.
I buy CDs cheap from charity shops. Oddly many are for sale on Amazon for quite high prices, which is puzzling.
@@Coneman3 yeah, the out of print stuff, or special edition or imports, they can get ridiculous
So,you're one of those people who don't want to pay for music? O_o)
No that’s the streaming people.
amen to mindiscs, hands never touched the disc, could have made a custom Cd, as I like to do. Perfect for car etc.. The majority & kids that learn the new ways quicker, always go to the latest tech and don't think long term. Lemings off a cliff!
IMO cd's are still better than streaming.
When I buy a CD i actually own it. I can play it, i can rip it, I can break it, I can read the little booklet, I can collect it, i can lend it, i can sell it... I am not dependent on whatever licensing deal is or is not in place at the moment, I don't have to deal with monthly subscriptions or having an internet connection when i want to listen.
Another vital (vital to me anyway) feature of CDs is that with the right software, you can assemble any tracks you want, in any order, to create your own CDs.
Long live physical media
Still way better than online music.
One great advantage that a good CD player/transport has over streaming is that streamed music invariably passes through a computer. Computers are electrically noisy AF. You can try to shield the audio components, and you can try to filter out the noise, but you never get it all.
CD player/transports are built from the ground up as audio components. A CD player connected to a DAC via S/PDIF or TOSLINK delivers a cleaner signal that a computer can via USB.
When I got back into CD with my Denon DCD-600NE, a modestly priced (by audiophile standards) player w/TOSLINK output connected to my DAC (Schiit Bifrost 2), I was startled by how much better it sounded than my Tidal CD-quality streams. Qobuz HiRes streams (at least 96 KHz, 24 bit) could just match it.
Streaming is great for auditioning new releases. For background music, you can put on a playlist that will run all day. With something like Roon, it's good for multi-room playback, EQ is cheap and easy. But for best quality playback of music you love, CD is hard to beat.
I love CDs and here's another tip to preserving them, in addition to to that which you mentioned: never grasp the CD by the edges to pull it up off of the retainer. This will cause the disc to flex, and will eventually break he seal between the upper and lower layer. This will then allow air to get inside, eventually causing the aluminum disc inside, which contains the data, to oxidize and begin to fail. Instead, place your index finger on the retainer, like a spindle, turn the jewel case upside down, press up on the retainer, and this will release the gripping teeth, allowing the CD to fall onto your spindle/finger. Touching the top near your finger, give it a little push to secure it, and then place it into the player. Do this in reverse to secure it in the jewel box when you are done listening.
Recently I've become aware that one of the biggest problems with disc players is that the spindle becomes dirty or greasy and can't grip as well, because of hand-grease getting on the gripping area of the disc. I agree with most of what you're saying but I've been trying hard lately to be careful about how clean my hands are if I touch the disc center. Good machines aren't easily affected by this but there's a lot of bad ones out there. I think game-machine drives tend to have the most issues, but then again that contingent includes probably a lot more kids/people who keep their disc-changing hand in a bag of Cheetos much of the time.
I always handle them with clean hands, but perhaps I should consider slipping on a pair of archival cotton gloves first.
CD has been the most noticeable audible improvement in my lifetime. I simply did not know they fell out of fashion so I kept buying them. When the hurricane knocked out internet for weeks, I was glad to have my records and CDs once the electric came back. I found out in short order that if I was to buy CDs online, I better keep a carton of new jewel cases around. I still use CD in the car and in a couple other setups in the house.
I'm a collector and like both vinyl and cd. Just love owning them
Yea owning a copy is the best way. Who trusts big business these days??
Cds forever
And pretty faces like yours!
@@Coneman3 Pretty faces like Mariah Carey circa 1989.
Lps make cds sound like garbage. Click the first link to listen to lp. Click second link to listen to garbage cd. ua-cam.com/video/BjHzw7SY4GY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/efJGDpCSrJY/v-deo.html
For me there's something FUN about playing records, cassettes and CDs and that's why I play them today and that's really all there is to it. I play music files too of course, but for some reason, I find these less fun than physical formats.
dear AM... how correct can you be :-).
I remember being a teenager in the 80's fiddling around with LP's and tape decks. All the drama with vinyl just to get some music out of your speakers and the crap sound of the tape.
And then..... holy moses; somewhere around '86 I was finally able to afford my first CD player (Akai CD-32) and how did that change my life :-) just can confirm every single word in your video. What a relief that day.
Until the mid 2010's. Being mid-life aged by now and looking at the vinyl hype on the side line. I remembered to have some boxes of these damned vinyl records somewhere in the attic of my parents home. OK.. I went with it and ordered a mid range turntable, went to my parents house attic, dug out my old '80s LP's and oh my god ... what did I love that moment.
Blowing off dust of these great pieces of art, re-living the perfect days of my youth in the '80s for just one moment.
ok, grabbed two of the boxes with vinyl.... back home where this brand- spanking new turntable was just waiting to get some old skool vinyl. Grabbed my all time favourite Pink Floyd album out of the box, cleaned it as good as I could, put it on the turntable, my heartbeate by now around 170 or so, amplifier to phone, needle down ===========> AND
what a deception ... cracks and pumps and whatever noise more and when finally the needle hit some sound it was just AWFUL. what a crap sound and all the hustle to just get some good music out of your speakers.
Thanks - really enjoyed the video. I started collecting physical media again (CD audio, Blue ray video and 4K video) a few months ago and it's been fun and a bit addictive. Another positive for CD's is that you can pick up lots of great music from charity shops for next to no money and, unlike vinyl, they are likely to be in near perfect (or at least perfectly playable) condition.
Music isn't always just about how it sounds, although that is a huge part of the deal. I got on a plane once with 2 flight cases of records. The scale at check in said 80lbs. The 14 crates of vinyl back home equate to well over 1000 lbs in total with a space requirement of about 1 1/2 ft X 4 ft X 15 ft. In contrast I have about 3 TB's of music, individual songs and mixes on a hard drive the size of your average sandwich. Including the backup drives we're talking about a loaf of bread. Plus the music is genuinely better. No pops, no background noise or parts to wear out costing hundreds of dollars. I'll take digital any day. I do still still buy vinyl and CD's though but only because I have to. Otherwise I'd buy digital files every time. I will however never stream music. I'd buy vinyl over streaming. I won't tolerate someone else having control over what I can access.
4000 cd collection since 1984 and counting. Get to put them onto usb and use them in car now. Problem is loudness war cds are junk and occasional bad mastering. But a well mastered 16 bit cd is really all you need. Another problem, many cds are out of print, oop. Another issue, many great blues, jazz, bluegrass, techno artists and other small label genre indie artists only released on cd for a decade or two, so that is the only way to get a physical copy of that music or streaming perhaps if available. Also, cd allows for bonus cuts, alt takes, etc. Finally, lossless dupe to an external hard drive kept in a safe deposit box pretty much insures you will have something to build off if you lose your physical collection someway.
Absolutely right. Streamimg services are not going to put a lot of 'obscure' blues and jazz online anytime soon (or ever). To say nothing of folk and specialist music, stuff released on independent labels and many historic classical recordings.
My collection is just a few hundred, limited by storage space (or lack of) in my flat. If I had the space though it could well head in the direction of your collection's size.
A little jealousy on my part :)
Lps make cds sound like garbage. Click the first link to listen to lp. Click second link to listen to garbage cd. ua-cam.com/video/BjHzw7SY4GY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/efJGDpCSrJY/v-deo.html
To fanatics that believe in total superiority of vinyl/records. Not everyone is obsessed with sound quality. There are many other factors to consider in music listening and most would be happy with sound quality that is decent to good. Too often, record collectors that obsess over sound quality are constantly seeking the "best" sounding issue of the same 30 to 40 albums, severely restricting their music experience. I also know of audiophiles that are fanatical about sound quality but listen to the most robotic, soulless or corniest music ever made. In my case, I'd even accept 'garbage' sound quality since I listen to a lot of music from the 1910s to 1920s and I certainly cannot afford to buy those ancient 78s, shellacs (or whatever else you call them) to accumulate even 2% of what I have on CD.
I mainly collect blues. However, most are oop and extremely hard to find. There is the the option of purchasing mp3 or streaming, but for the genres of blues it’s limited. Better off purchasing mp3 or streaming because blues music is often overlooked and taken out of digital stores after a short time.
My problem with streaming music is , I want music that I will always own, not borrowed from a streaming service who can and do take it down at a moments notice. Add in that with vinyl and CD I want the experience of the cover art in all its glory , especially so with vinyl. Therefore streaming is for me simply a convenience and not what I listen to when I want proper HiFi with all that entails!
CDs were under huge scrutiny when they were new, and the engineers were very aware and did what they could to address these issues. It’s hard to imagine in 2023 what a revolution CDs were compared to the contemporary formats at the time they were introduced.
The biggest 'revolutionary' aspect of CDs is the ratio of convenience to sonic cleanliness, and they're great and all but comparing the best CDs to the best records and reel-to-reel, Cd doesn't really win, it's 'equivalent' at best. Reel-to-reel at 7.5 ips has yet to be beat for a widely-available consumer sound format. When records improved their technology, manufacturers focused on that and stopped making high-quality reel-to-reel tapes. Then CDs came along and manufacturers focused on making more money by overcharging for discs that cost less to produce and sounded so 'clean' that people were thrilled about that and didn't notice how many CDs lack depth and detail compared to records, because records take more effort for clarity but are capable of sounding better than a CD, for those of us who know what we're doing with the format and equipment.
@@jamescarter3196 who are you kidding? Really tape and vinyl are garbage and a step back in time,next a wind up gramophone will be considered as something special . CDs took off because they sounded great and I will only buy and no other format.
I would love to see a CD revival. I love certain music too much to be okay with being dependent on an internet connection as my only means of listening to it.
I didn't know there was ever a Devival.
@@elchicharron9503❤️ lol ❤️
I like me a second-hand vintage CD in a jewel case with wear signs. It means it has a history of it's own. 😄
Even better when retains an original price sticker of £12.99 or higher 😉
Cd has a history of its own, sounding bad. LOL!
@@myronhelton4441 Well, I'm not laughing at your bad luck with mastering quality. With some albums there is little choice even after a couple of remasters.
@@ArturdeSousaRocha I just love it when I prove that digital is bs. HAHA! Click below link that says analog makes digital sound like bs. ua-cam.com/video/u2i86qEpC7A/v-deo.html
100%
It's as good as lossless streaming (if not slightly better) and it's yours for as long as you want to keep it. Plus material seems to get removed from streaming services on a whim so you can't rely on it. If you like specialist stuff like jazz a lot of stuff is missing from streaming services even now and the metadata is often poor so you end up listening to a live version rather than a studio version et. Yes CDs are space consuming and a bit unwieldy but if you want a physical format they are the best in most cases and there is unlikely to be a better mass market physical format developed in the forseeable future. If you actually want to own music CDs are no more expensive than downoads so better value.
I have CD's that are close to 40 years old. Absolutely no problems playing them with excellent sound. Besides, the used CD market is plentiful and cheap.
Amen!
You have a lot of great points. My issue with only streaming, you own nothing, and if the music you love is deemed unsuitable for a modern audience, like whats happening to movies. Streaming service can alter or completely remove it. If its been done to movies music would be no exception.
I recommend buying physical and copying it to a HDD or SSD and play it back on a pc, tablet, or hifi mp3 player.
Personally, I haven't 'revived' the medium. Haven't stopped buying. Started buying vinyl in 1971 (7'' 'Get it On' by T.Rex on Fly Records). Stopped when my local Our Price Records cleared out all vinyl overnight - late '80s? CDs had arrived. I haven't stopped buying them since. After a relationship breakdown meant moving house, the vinyl stayed with my ex and the CDs came with me. Had one or two portable players, before getting proper CD hi-fi set up in mid '90s. So have been collecting CDs for the last 35 years or so. Weirdly, crazily, irrationally, I have been buying vinyl again. But only because, seems to me, good turntables and styluses are not as expensive as they were in the '70s. (Of course I have a bit more money too.)
Have yet to be fully convinced by downloads and I simpy cannot get my head round streaming, except on something like Bandcamp - music for me is not a 'lifestyle' component. (Showing my lack of knowledge here maybe?) The hi-fi file players are still so expensive - it's a real faff to have to fire up a laptop to play downloads - though I do have the original sountrack on FLAC of 'Planet of the Apes' by Jerry Goldsmith, which seems impossible to get physically. Amazing music - sonically impressive through a second hand laptop and cheapo stand alone DAC...
CDs are my fav and always will be. They just work so well with my life.
I think the "disc rot" thing is not really a thing, at least not very common, and it's an "issue" that is blown WAY out of proportion as even being an actual "problem" with CDs at all, because I have almost 40K CDs that I've been collecting for about 40 years now, ever since I was a kid, and I've NEVER seen even ONE ever have that problem!...
I DO take really good care of my stuff though, so IDK what causes that, but since I do take care of my stuff, ALL of my CDs still play and sound EXACTLY like they did the day I bought them.
Plus now I have a LOT of really awesome music in literally almost every genre and even from all over the world, many out of print, many "collectors item" albums, rare, special edition or limited release albums, and of course just about ALL of the more popular stuff that everyone loved, spanning all the way from the 50's and 60's all the way up to many of the very latest release albums that just came out within the last few weeks. And MUCH of my music collection cannot even be found on ANY streaming service, so...
My CD collection will continue to expand throughout my life as long as the medium is still available to buy anywhere, because continually discovering new (even if only "new" to YOU) artists and music is one of the things that helps keep you forever young!
Besides, nowadays with everyone giving up all of their physical media in place of "digital downloads" or streaming services, you can find used CDs almost anywhere and everywhere, in my city they're always in abundance in dozens of thrift stores, pawn shops, garage sales, flea markets, etc., oftentimes for as cheap as $1 each, and occasionally even as cheap as 10/$1, so you really can't go wrong in trying out new to you music, because you can literally just LOOK at a disc and see instantly if it's still in good enough of condition to play properly, which about 99% of them still are, in my experience.
And any brand NEW release albums that come out on CD are still reasonably priced too, especially if you buy them when they're on sale when they first come out, (usually around $10/album on new release week sale), unlike vinyl, which, because of its "Retro FAD" popularity rn, new releases on vinyl are always more, anywhere from $20-$100/album or sometimes even more, which is just ridiculous IMO!
Disc rot, utter BS. Who comes up with this rubbish?
Too bad you don’t live close to me as I’d love to see your collection. I’ve also been collecting for 40 years!
@@markblanch2905 Apparently the "disc rot" thing was only for a limited time, and from only one CD factory in the UK, (which was using a defective manufacturing process), and it was later changed/fixed as soon as it was discovered to be a problem, but it really isn't even an issue at all in the USA or generally worldwide.
@@JoeJ-8282 thank you 👍
That explains why it doesn't even exist in my world and I'd never heard of it before.
This guy's video is genuinely cooked
Disc rot is a very real phenomenon. It was mostly confined to classical lables, especially hyperion. In some cases chemicals in the booklet ink attacked inferior lacquer on the cd label side and allowed corrosion of the data layer. Many thousands of discs were affected. They may play quite well sometimes with only a few glitches but be virtually impossible to rip,
I'm glad to see anything that pisses off a guy who hates a compact disc, because a CD is the best media ever offered for digital music.
I love CD's and vinyl.
I hate streaming.
Have a nice day !
This was a very nice summary of all the relevant details... but I would like to add a few more details...
First, on commercially produced CDs, the protective layer under the label is actually pretty thick, and does provide some degree of protection.
However, on CD-R discs, it is a very thin layer of lacquer, and can be easily damaged, especially if you write on it using a ball point pen.
And, on CD-R discs, you must never attempt to remove an adhesive label that has been applied as doing so will often destroy the disc.
CD-R discs are also much more easily damaged by things like excessive exposure to heat and sunlight.
(Also note that, recently, a few CDs that are sold commercially in small volume are actually produced on CD-R media rather than "pressed CD media".)
Second, for restoring a scratched disc surface, products intended as "compounding polishes" or "plastic scratch removers" often work pretty well.
Finally, when you play or RIP a CD on a computer, error concealment is almost never available.
This means that, if a disc is not perfect, or cannot be "perfectly corrected" by error correction, it will usually fail to play through.
Even better, many modern ripping programs offer an option to compare the ripped data to a database using checksums.
This absolutely confirms that the data you've read from the disc is perfect - and HAS NOT HAD error concealment applied to it.
And, considering my results, proves how RARELY "uncorrected errors" actually occur on discs that have been handled carefully.
(Our of about 500 CDs I've ripped I've seen a total of two or three individual tracks with minor uncorrected data errors.)
I like cds myself. Its just something about putting a cd in your cd player and listening to a wonderful peace of music. Instead of picking up my cellphone and listening to music that way. No internet needed.. Luv it
I still like to keep a physical copy of my favorite music. CDs give this in a convenient size and reasonable cost. Yes I can store ten times more FLAC files on a hard drive or thumb drive but like vinyl you loose connection with the physical handling. I detest Jewell cases and make my own mini lp style cases for all my collection (2k +) I also have about 20k album in flac on 25 hard drive for archiving. I also warn people about light being bad for both CD and CDR. Thanks for sharing
I'd be interested in seeing how you make you mini LP sleeves. Do you use the original booklet? Or photocopy?
@@stumad3069 I use a templet I made in MS Publisher and use 200g heavy weight glossy card stock to make them, I have room inside the sleeves to keep the original booklet is needed. I also use other store bought CD sleeves to hold original booklet an disc if I don't feel like making my own mini lp sleeve. I get artwork from many online sources and also scan in some myself from actual LPs
The problem with streaming is simply COMPRESSION the companies that sell their service have to pay for storage for their music so the more music you have the more storage you need. I have some ATC 19 an NAD 2 amp transparent cables and a great spinner. Plus I have found really good CD for 99 cents. I agree with the issues with CD cases. scratched records are a case of misuse I take excellent care of my albums even the used stuff
I have always had great interest in audio topics, and of course a massive CD library, alot of vinyl, and obsessively collected cassettes as a kid. I'll always continue collecting what I want to listen to on CD while it is still manufactured because while I'm totally down with the digital storage era, I rip my CDs in a higher bitrate and listen that way locally, as in no internet required, 100% available instantly whether I'm online or not. That combination is priceless to me.
I've gone back to CDs after many years of the MP3, which was cheaper and easier to obtain (mostly illegally through torrenting), but I've redeemed myself and spent the last 5 years grabbing CDs by the truckloads. It was the fabulous Beatles and Pink Floyd box sets I had gotten as gifts that rejuvenated my desire to collect CDs again. Likewise, my love expanded to building their own shelves and put them in the room as part of the decor of the room as a wall unit. I regret losing all of my CDs to MP3, I will never stream or download anything ever again. Not even movies on any site. And I'm a better human being for this turn.
I take a lot of pride in getting back to buying vinyl again,a bit harder when youre 55,trying to suss other music tastes but when i get my favoured records,i love to get them on my record deck see them spin round and play the music in fantastic clarity.
I think physical formats and their revivals have an element that gets overlooked: they provide a full-spectrum sensory experience. There's something about the excitement and intentionality of going to the record store to pick up a release you've been awaiting for a time, unwrapping the cellophane, thumbing through the booklet, placing the media in its player, and even giving it pride of place on a shelf: streaming loses something here. It also lends itself to active listening. By virtue of the effort it takes to choose a specific album and place it in a player, you're probably only going to do so when you mean to make the music your actual primary activity.
Less to do with the characteristics of particular physical formats, and more to do with the physicality and tangible nature of physical media. I personally wouldn't mind seeing some kind of solid-state ROM device for the next physical format. Like a memory card, but read-only. They could give us 32-bit samples at a rate of 192kHz, multichannel, all the goodies. Sort of an SACD on steroids without being so prone to rot.
Bravo!
Uh oh! Mr perfect here making over kill points.Cd still remains the greatest format ever.
He Does come off as a rather arrogant know it all, doesn't he? .... the Brit (almost typed 'Cockney' lol) accent doesn't help ....
between cassettes, vinyl, and CDs: CDs have the best sound quality between those three physical mediums.
As a musician I can only afford to make CD's for my releases when it comes to physical media, since vinyl and cassettes are overpriced for us, but at the same time nobody buys them.
Also, CD's have less problems than cassettes and vinyl (as CD's don't have a tendency of being destroyed by the equipment that plays them, they only get wear and tear).
All of the CD's I bought in the late 90s and early 2000s still look brand new (since they were stored to avoid wear and tear).
I don't think CD's will come back like vinyl and cassettes though, its up to the hipster audiophiles to decide that though and not those of us using logic.
I have CDs that are 30yrs old and play VERY well and have also gotten some remastered CDs that are breathtaking. I started with vinly and reel to reel, then got a cassette tape machine and all of that tech is long gone. The sound quality I am getting now is at times stunning. It saddens me how much money I have spent on these techs. I have a decent sound system and am able to enjoy concert level recordings of very good quality sound. Some new remasters there is sound that was hidden on the original issues. I have at least 400 CDs and have only replaced the occasional one to get a remastered version. I actually have 2 CDs that have some kind of distortion in them and will replace them if I can. Thankfully one of the worst recorded albums I had was Emerson Lake and Palmer Brain Salad Surgery. I recently got a remastered version and it is superb sound quality. Love my CDs.
Yep they have an amazing sound of their own just like records.
Some valid points. I'm sure casual music listeners won't be flocking back to CD's anytime soon due to the ease of streaming but for me as a musician, owning physical is a big thing. I like to collect CD's that I'm on. Mostly because I'm scared that some day the songs will disappear from streaming services and I'll never have the option of listening again. As an example, I recently had a project that I was really proud of now become unavailable because the artist has decided to go in a different direction.
Outside of streaming, storing files on hard-drives are an option but their life spans are much shorter than CDs even without much use. Definitely agree on the Digipak though. They are so much better than jewel cases. Most of the independent artists I've worked with have got basic sleeves made or Digipak. Both of them are much better looking and less plastics so better for the environment. Win, win.
Musicians, especially those like you and I who know what 'studio sound' is really like, tend to be the most-concerned about sound quality, because we actually know what we're hearing a lot more often. I'm not interested in telling anybody what they 'should' be listening to, but I'm even-less amenable to people who are enthralled with the convenience of subpar-sounding digital music trying to pretend it's 'superior' to anything when it often sounds worse than a good cassette tape. A lot of people really don't know anything about 'depth', digital artifacts or loss of detail.
You seem to be in love with a format, digital. For me its the music. Much available on CD easily and reasonably.
I've got ABBA - "The Visitors" and it has suffered zero degradation in 40 years - AccurateRip says zero errors. My 40 year old CD players aren't so happy, but couple of handfuls of capacitors and they're working again for another 40 years. I used iTunes Store in the past, but music started disappearing and Apple told me "to burn CDs as a backup" - LOL I'd rather buy the CD and rip it.
I will give into streaming when it comes with a booklet, and I can look through the collection I have bought! That is also good for the artists. I have no cd's that have succumbed to rot or anything like that, but it does worry me as long I do own them. Am currently buying my favorites on vinyl again. at least when it is cheap. cant do it for new prices.
I must also admit that I do not take as much pleasure in putting on a cd like a vinyl and cassette, but when I put on a cd it does feel like a relief. Nothing to worry about sound wise. No belts to worry about, or static, crackling or anything. It just works.
Well said, NICAM was indeed great - will CDs ever be sold with Dolby ATMOS or will it be only in the realm of BluRay, maybe the capacity would reduce the quality - any views? - is there an ATMOS topic in AUdio Masterclass ? just found you today, good stuff !
CDs are so wonderful to collect and such an easier and cheaper option used compared to the $40-50 individual option for the lesser sound of a vinyl record, prone to far more wear than CDs.
CDs never had a revival I feel. They were always there but people just ignored them until they couldn't afford vinyl anymore, haha
For so long vinyl was so much less expensive than CDs.
vinyl that is that price isn't audibly lower quality to most people lol
I recently built a hifi system and primarily went with a turntable and a separate streamer with a built in dac. All this was connected to an onkyo amp and q acoustics 3030i speakers. After getting into the build I kept thinking of getting a cd player so I finally bought a rotel CD11 tribute. Wow! All I can say is that cds to my ears sound far superior to both streaming and records. I'm seriously impressed. I can buy cds easily as they're available everywhere and very cheap here in the UK. I've had no problems with cd rot and the ones I bought in the 90s are working fine.
Yeah, to PDO UK made discs get rot. The last disc I found with rot (out of 7k discs) is Chris DeBurgh's - "Spark to a Flame" the surface of the disc is bronze and the glue between the top silver surface and the polycarbonate is filled with millions of microscopic gas bubbles. His voice sounded like he was smoking 500 a day 🤣
In my personal experience, I find that the climate of where you reside in plays a great role in the fate of the CD. I’ve lived in a very humid and warm country and a somewhat dry country with distinct four seasons. The CDs in hot and humid weather get disc rot a lot easier than in dryer places, where all my CDs are virtually perfect after 30 years.
I lived in Southern Spain for a decade and yes , the climate can affect CDs, especially copied CDs, which deteriorated much faster than in a temperate climate.
@@bonalba20 I have many CDs and can't recall any problems with factory pressed CDs. Although one or two have a bronze tinge they still play OK. CD-R's are another thing altogether, in order for your home player to create the CD (or DVD) a recordable disc is actually a layer of dye between the protective covers (this is why they look different to properly manufactured discs). This in, as you can imagine, inherently unstable and why you rarely see domestic disc recording machines any more. At best you could use CD-RW discs for 'time shifting' but I would recommend you download any archive material stored on CDR's to a hard disc or similar before it becomes inaccessible.
You are a delightful host. I look forward to hearing many more of your comments in future.
This guy lost me when he tried to make sleeve wear out to be a virtue. I love the fact that you can put a CD, booklet and tray card into a new jewel case and it looks like new. I hate digipaks because you can't do that.
CD are dirt cheap to buy and far better sound
Lps make cds sound like garbage. Click the first link to listen to lp. Click second link to listen to garbage cd. ua-cam.com/video/BjHzw7SY4GY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/efJGDpCSrJY/v-deo.html
Not really... Most of the CDs today are bad mastered as the digital streaming versions.
If you want to physically keep a music collection, and to physically have the album art and presentation, cd is still the best option. Plus:
1 you will own, not rent your music
2 sound quality is as good as digital recordings can be (Nyquist theory)
3 they are cheap, easy available and easy to store
Been collecting since the 90s, still do 💿
12:21 MUSIC OWNERSHIP, is the one-kill-all arguments in defense of CD.
When the internet or your streaming service dies (or blocks you) your curated hires collection available remotely goes down with it.
Other usecase :
Doing inexpensive perfect digital backups at home and burning them back when the CD dies is a principle of music preservation. Try to do that on vinils.
Also you can always upgrade the cover cases if needed & scan-reprint the booklet for preservation too.
The physical medium is a good way to advertise the artist to your circle of friends, your child etc.. in a slightly more field proof way.
Creating a physical backup virtually double the lifespan of the content you manage to preserve.