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The Compact Disk


Proclaimer888

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Kinda fun watching how things come & go, and come back. Seems the vinyl records and that niche have rebounded nicely from glory years.....So how bout the CDs? I still have my cd collection and have a blast going to used book stores/pawn shops and finding the diamonds. Will they make a come back? I hope so since I cannot make myself purchase the digital versions of records. Missing all the cool stuff (jacket,liner notes,pics..ect). I would like to get back into records but cannot find a record player that fits in my car. [crying] Anyway, hoping that we might once again see stores stacked with rows n rows of CDs.!! [thumbup]

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The CD was an astonishing success, if you see sales charts by format you'll see how the 90's were so strong for music sales and I think it was in part because of the portability of the format, you could play it at home, in the car or in a portable device. CDs are also much harder to damage than LPs and tapes.

 

The problem with CDs is that digital technology is indeed replacing them without a loss of sound or much of an experience, while it's nice to have a CD physically it is not exactly a mind-blowing thing.

 

I always say those grunge and alternative bands from the 90's got super lucky that the CD format was so popular and that they sold millions before Napster appeared and ruined the gig.

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Cassette tapes are also making a comeback in the hipster community so who knows what will happen with CDs. I think because Lossless files are a perfect equivalent to the Compact Disk and the fact that you can just put mp3s on a thumb drive, insert that into your car's usb and you can have your whole library in your car, the CD is done.

 

I get people wanting vinyl and to a lesser extent the cassettes since they are analogue. If I can just download the digital version of the album...or even stream it on spotify, then why would I buy the digital CD. I buy new music on vinyl and usually that copy comes with a digital download so I can slide that music on my computer and phone. I don't need to be bothered with a CD as well.

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The problem with CDs is that digital technology is indeed replacing them without a loss of sound or much of an experience, while it's nice to have a CD physically it is not exactly a mind-blowing thing.

 

I always thought the big issue that gave rise to downloads was the price... They were charging more and more for them rather than less and less as the technology changed and got cheaper.. Like say MP3 players.. They are so cheap now cos the technology got better and is what happens in time..

 

With CDs before the internet they were charging something like £25 for a classic album like Sgt Peppers or Dark Side of the Moon.. Just an awful greedy money grab for albums that have paid for themselves over and over already. So I blame the greedy record companies for what happened. Cos the other end of the scale was youd buy a new album based on a single and it was a crap rushed effort and not worth the money and at that time just seemed like a big con...

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I still buy tons of CDs

About 2 weeks ago I drove almost 45 min. to buy 65 used CDs from a lady for 50 cents each.

They were all in perfect condition. Eagles, Who, Cream, Clapton,plus a ton of 50s and 60s music.

I just missed the big sale the day before where they sold close to 200 used CDs

That’s all I play is CDs, I have a 300 CD unit in the house, and. 200 unit in the work shop.

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I always thought the big issue that gave rise to downloads was the price... They were charging more and more for them rather than less and less as the technology changed and got cheaper.. Like say MP3 players.. They are so cheap now cos the technology got better and is what happens in time..

 

With CDs before the internet they were charging something like £25 for a classic album like Sgt Peppers or Dark Side of the Moon.. Just an awful greedy money grab for albums that have paid for themselves over and over already. So I blame the greedy record companies for what happened. Cos the other end of the scale was youd buy a new album based on a single and it was a crap rushed effort and not worth the money and at that time just seemed like a big con...

 

Well, Napster is what ended the CD reign, the ability to legally buy downloads came later and as a consequence if I remember correctly. The strange thing now is that things have flipped and it is most of the time more expensive to download an album than buy it on CD.

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Cassette tapes are also making a comeback in the hipster community so who knows what will happen with CDs. I think because Lossless files are a perfect equivalent to the Compact Disk and the fact that you can just put mp3s on a thumb drive, insert that into your car's usb and you can have your whole library in your car, the CD is done.

 

I get people wanting vinyl and to a lesser extent the cassettes since they are analogue. If I can just download the digital version of the album...or even stream it on spotify, then why would I buy the digital CD. I buy new music on vinyl and usually that copy comes with a digital download so I can slide that music on my computer and phone. I don't need to be bothered with a CD as well.

 

My hearing isn’t too flash so Spotify does it for me these days! I’ve increased the bitrate to 128 and it sounds great to me.

 

Couldn’t be bothered with CD’s at this stage.

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The compact disk wasn't as great as the Record Companies said.

 

One of the inventors of the CD said it contains severe quantization errors. In other words, it doesn't sound right. But the record companies turned that into a lie, "CD Quality".

 

Still, they are more durable and convenient than the old better sounding LP they replaced and they sound much better than the cassette tapes. And they don't sound that much worse than the LP, and in exchange for less fidelity, you get the absence of pops and clicks - a fair trade IMHO.

 

Personally, I don't want to give it up, and if I'm forced to buy via download, I'll burn a CD-R so that I can keep the music for years.

 

My LPs still play, but I mostly give up a little sound quality and play them on CD. I record the LPs and digitize them. Once in a while I get out the vinyl, and I can hear the difference.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

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I don't want to hijack this thread, but since we are on the topic, can anyone recommend a way to transfer a cassette tape to a digital format? thanks

 

And just to add on to the OP, my latest car I bought has XM Radio, USB, Aux and Blue Tooth but no CD player. eusa_think.gif

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.

I did some of that quite a while ago. Audio out from the deck or stereo to audio in on you PC/laptop and record to a wave or mp3 file.

 

Regarding no CD player: My brother ran into that. The car had an AUX in. So he got a portable CD player with a 12V car power adapter and plugged the headphone out into the AUX in.

 

.

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The CD format was very successful because of its convenience but that quality has been surpassed.

I have a SACD that sounds much better than CDs, but must be played on a DVD or better player. If played on a normal CD player it reverts to the lower bit-rate of the CD itself.

 

CDs never sounded great to me. They all seem to have an unnatural edge to the sound. My favorite sax player (who I heard live a few times), Stan Getz has a tone more like Zoot Sims on CD.

 

But as I said before, the absence of those clicks and pops are also disturbing.

 

Cassette tapes had a very severe high frequency roll-off and in addition to that, 8-tracks sometimes switched tracks in the middle of a song.

 

45RPM records were lower fidelity and also had the surface noise problem.

 

Mp3s vary from terrible to not much worse than a CD.

 

So you pick the distortion you are most comfortable with.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

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One of the inventors of the CD said it contains severe quantization errors. In other words, it doesn't sound right.

 

The CD format was very successful because of its convenience but that quality has been surpassed.

 

In fairness, there have been many improvements in CD sound since the format was introduced. The SACD and DSD CD are both much, much better quality and CDs have a far wider frequency range than LPs, much as I love the latter.

CDs were a godsend to anyone who likes classical music and this is reflected in the total un-saleability of old classical LPs (especially box sets it seems), most of which are worth absolutely nothing.

I know because I am having to sell my records at the moment and nobody wants the classical stuff - of 134 LP sales, just 2 have been classical and one of those was a Segovia LP, solo guitar.

Re CDs, I spent nearly a 4-figure sum on my current CD player and a few hundred quid on upgrading my speakers, which are big by modern standards. It was all well worth it.

Still have my record deck etc (Garrard, SME arm, Quad amps, all classic stuff from the golden age of English hi-fi) and all my cassettes too. Love all of it.

 

Plus I grew up in the mono, lo-fi, medium (AM) and long wave radio era so I know what sounds bad as well as what's good.

I'm not necessarily championing CDs as the best thing going (hate the small print), but what has surpassed them in quality? Can 'lossless' files be any better? :-k

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I have a SACD that sounds much better than CDs, but must be played on a DVD or better player. If played on a normal CD player it reverts to the lower bit-rate of the CD itself.

 

CDs never sounded great to me. They all seem to have an unnatural edge to the sound. My favorite sax player (who I heard live a few times), Stan Getz has a tone more like Zoot Sims on CD.

 

But as I said before, the absence of those clicks and pops are also disturbing.

 

Cassette tapes had a very severe high frequency roll-off and in addition to that, 8-tracks sometimes switched tracks in the middle of a song.

 

45RPM records were lower fidelity and also had the surface noise problem.

 

Mp3s vary from terrible to not much worse than a CD.

 

So you pick the distortion you are most comfortable with.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

I have a few SACD's and they sound great. The re-masters Steven Wilson is doing in 5.1 surround sound with Yes and Jethro Tull and King Crimson sound really good.

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Yeah, well I spent 2 years copying all my live Grateful Dead cassettes to minidisc. Then the minidisc player packed up and died a couple of years later.

 

](*,)

 

 

 

I'm glad I kept all my CDs because iTunes has decided it no longer wants to recognizes my music library location. So the iPod can never be updated again. I'll have to get another one if I want to put anything new on it.

 

Never had these problem with CDs or Vinyl.

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Yeah, well I spent 2 years copying all my live Grateful Dead cassettes to minidisc. Then the minidisc player packed up and died a couple of years later.

 

](*,)

 

 

 

I'm glad I kept all my CDs because iTunes has decided it no longer wants to recognizes my music library location. So the iPod can never be updated again. I'll have to get another one if I want to put anything new on it.

 

Never had these problem with CDs or Vinyl.

I had me a wife

She's been trouble all my life

Run me out in the cold rain and snow

 

I got tons of the GD digitally I can send you if you have a Dropbox.

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When I awoke, the Dire Wolf

Six hundred pounds of sin

Was grinnin at my window

All I said was "come on in"

 

 

I also have a bunch of live shows (most on CD now). Its just those few great ones on cassette that are no longer accessible.

Thanks for the offer. I had a dropbox when I worked.

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I have an SACD player and yea, it sounds great. But never built my SACD collection.

 

When I said that the CD format has been surpassed I meant the convenience of portability. You can carry around lossless files in devices much smaller than CDs without sacrificing sound compared to a CD.

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I have an SACD player and yea, it sounds great. But never built my SACD collection.

 

When I said that the CD format has been surpassed I meant the convenience of portability. You can carry around lossless files in devices much smaller than CDs without sacrificing sound compared to a CD.

As you mentioned earlier.. Its all about convenience, people want easy and cheap.. Portable CD players were huge (for obvious reasons) its one reason mini discs were cool... MP3 players can be tiny and have no moving inner parts (just buttons) and thus so cheap everyone can afford one... (I still have CDs in my car by the way :) )....

 

Also I think that most people don't seem to care about sound quality and don't really know any better....

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I doubt the CD will rebound since it's too similar in quality to stuff streamed in high quality or downloaded in lossless audio or whatever. Vinyl sounds a LOT better, so I'm not surprised it's been resurrected, but still, it can't be a huge industry, can it? But it's nice that there are used record stores still around that can stay open thanks to vinyl.

 

Where the record companies screwed up was indeed when they started raising CD prices in the vain hope of competing with illegal downloading, but legal downloading would've replaced the CD in time anyway. They could have squeezed some extra cash out of the dying format by lowering prices. But hindsight is 20/20.

 

I'm satisfied with legal streaming and buying the occasional vinyl I really want to listen to in hi-fi. I understand if someone would not be, though.

 

I think the prices they charge for legal streaming these days are fair and well worth it.

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As you mentioned earlier.. Its all about convenience, people want easy and cheap.. Portable CD players were huge (for obvious reasons) its one reason mini discs were cool... MP3 players can be tiny and have no moving inner parts (just buttons) and thus so cheap everyone can afford one... (I still have CDs in my car by the way :) )....

 

Also I think that most people don't seem to care about sound quality and don't really know any better....

In my car I could care less about sound quality, but at home I want my stereo to be the business. I have CD's in my car as well and can plug in a ipod and can also Bluetooth my phone, which is what I do most when driving cause I always have it with me.

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Although I use my MP3(ipod) player almost exclusively, I still have a big collection of CD's, cassettes, and LP's(not the guitar) [biggrin] only one of those. In fact, one of the big decision maker's on my new car, I bought last year, was it had a CD player, along with MP3 capability. Narrowed it down to two cars, one had a CD, the other didn't.

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