Cd’s when are they obsolete ?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by pocofan, Apr 7, 2018.

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  1. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    My experience is this has been mostly a US thing. I've not come across it on Amazon.uk, for example. I'm sure some are there, but it's not as common as the US site. The CD'R's has been a deal breaker for me - I can burn my own damn CDR.

    CD's have become ubiquitous, so any change in availability will be noticeable. They'll fall back, and then hit a new "normal" of availability.

    What's noteworthy for members here is that what'll be le3ft on the market are previous releases, older discs, and since they tend to be better than the "remasters" we're getting these days, I can only see that as a good thing. I mean, I simply don't need another Black Sabbath remaster, or John Cale, or <add band name here>. Not if the original CD's are decent.
     
  2. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Catalog titles are starting to shrink.

    Certainly! Carrying catalog titles took up space that could be used for more lucrative items like DVD and blue-ray. The sad thing is that today the general population values movie ownership more than music. Hollywood has done a great job of this. Downloads are great, but the average person still wants to walk into a store and buy product. Most people, aside from we music nuts here, and people who are happy to stream, do not want to order CDs and LPs online. This is also anecdotal.
     
    shaboo likes this.
  3. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I am in my fifties. I looked for the best sound I could afford.

    As a guy my age I also grew up with the LP, but I do not hold a special spot for it today, meaning, if I had the choice of a CD and the vinyl counterpart, i'd buy the CD. But, if a hi-rez download price is right, i'd go for that instead.
     
  4. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    It's not factual however. There hasn't been the explosion in record stores in UK that appears to have occured in USA. People don't expect to travel more than a few miles to shop. Most record stores are individuals or chains that survived the vinyl slump and they are more focused on vinyl than CD. Realistically, for CD back catalogue online is the only source. Amazon themselves may not stock so much back catalogue but there are plenty 3rd party sellers that do. I imagine older CDs were pressed in very large numbers and with the fall in sales there are warehouses still full of back catalogue items, even if they are officially deleted by the labels. As for CDR's, I did notice a few listed some years ago but have not recently. Have noticed CD prices creeping up over the last year or two especially when titles become scarce. Some OOP CD prices are crazy similar to OOP vinyl from 90s and 00s, but suggests sellers are getting some takers. Prices stabilising probably coincides with the CD sales decline curve flattening out. Maybe some downloaders have gone back to CD rather than migrating to streaming?
     
  5. vinyl diehard

    vinyl diehard Two-Channel Forever

    I as well buy many albums on CD. I think it is a solid format that can give you much satisfaction. A great mastering is a great mastering whether CD or LP.
     
  6. vinyl diehard

    vinyl diehard Two-Channel Forever

    All analog. Really! No digital coding going on in the process? Ever?
     
    dcscott and Fishoutofwater like this.
  7. Chooke

    Chooke Forum Resident

    Location:
    Perth, Australia
    No, the 'warmth' if it is not in the actual recording is really a form of distortion which some find pleasing. The better the pressing and playback cart the less s that so called warmth. I have yet to find a cartridge/tone arm combination that is as accurate as an average DAC.
     
    ClassicalCD and fatwad666 like this.
  8. inspiracy

    inspiracy Senior Member

    Out of the last 15 new CDs I’ve purchased, 10 had radial scratches and/or imperfections resulting from manufacturing; some minor, some not so much. Quality control isn’t what it used to be.
     
  9. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    For real! Most recordings made after 1986, or so, have had some form of digital processing.
     
  10. Buggyhair

    Buggyhair Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ann Arbor, MI
    Two things about movies:

    1. Back when people were commonly downloading songs, that didn't take much bandwidth. Certainly not the case when it came to downloading a whole movie in a format that was watchable, like full screen HD. That's why the music business was so greatly impacted by downloading and the movie business wasn't much.
    2. Bonus features. Most DVDs had as much or more bonus material as the movie itself. I'm happy to own as many DVDs and Blu-rays as I do for that reason alone. You don't get any of it with streaming. There's no equivalent reason to own CDs.
     
    Grant likes this.
  11. sleeptowin

    sleeptowin Forum Resident

    Location:
    Birmingham
    this thread is one long argument about what you yourself prefer.

    I'm trying to follow it, but it sounds like old people talking about things before the war, or when all of this was fields..
     
  12. vinyl diehard

    vinyl diehard Two-Channel Forever

    Don't blame us. The title of the thread combined with the opening statement left it wide open. :agree:
     
    nosliw, Chooke and DME1061 like this.
  13. Stencil

    Stencil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lockport, IL
    I was just using the word 'warmth" because thats what the original poster used. There is an intangible quality to analogue vinyl. I most certainly was not referring to a digital "sheen". I also have never heard a crosley type player, so I can't comment on that.
     
  14. Stencil

    Stencil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lockport, IL
    Depends on the vinyl. In some cases yes there is. Some good examples of this are Ry Cooder "Bop Till You Drop", Fleetwood Mac "Tusk", and Steely Dan "Gaucho". These albums still maintain their analog (lets call it warmth) while having a nice sparkly digital crispness that sounds quite modern. A bad example would be one of the newer releases of Joe Walsh "But Seriously, Folks". I found this album unlistenably sharp and harsh. Sold it immediately and found a great vintage copy at my local store that sounds amazing. I think digitization can be used well like any other "effect". It can also be used poorly. It makes me wonder what The Flaming Lips "Embryonic" would sound like on vinyl. Its an album that explored the use of digital distortion in the creative process, much like the use of guitar feedback explored analog distortion in the 60s.
     
    Crimson jon and vinyl diehard like this.
  15. Stencil

    Stencil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lockport, IL
    Im confused as to how you are even comparing the two. The digitization process incorporates a huge amount of distortion. When something analog is digitized there is literally an infinite number of data points being lost in the process.
     
  16. Chooke

    Chooke Forum Resident

    Location:
    Perth, Australia
    Digital sheen, analog veil whatever, we can all use meaningless terms to describe our subjective perceptions. The point is that your earlier statement has no technical basis or objective support. And why crap thread?
     
  17. Chooke

    Chooke Forum Resident

    Location:
    Perth, Australia
    Wow, you do know which hashich distortion no? And how does digital processing compare with the loss and artefacts from analog processing, particularly when converting the signal through transducers? I'll give you a hint the higher the playback fidelity is to the original signal the higher will be it's signal to noise ratio, dynamic range and linearity of frequency response. You really could do with some basic reading on pros and cons of analog and digital signalling.
     
  18. Andreas

    Andreas Senior Member

    Location:
    Frankfurt, Germany
    Every recording has a finite amount of information, be it analog or digital, and that is determined by the (finite!) signal-to-noise ratio (resolution) and the (finite!) frequency bandwidth. I don't deny that any transition is bound to lose some information, but the loss certainly not infinite.
     
  19. Stencil

    Stencil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lockport, IL
    What I said has little to do with SNR or frequency bandwidth. Its just a fact of the difference between digital and analog. Given any two discreet sampling points on an analog waveform there is an infinite number of points between them. You can argue that such a minute amount of analog waveform is irrelevant since it encompasses such a small amount of time, however it does represent an infinite amount of points that are not being sampled. Digital music is a discrete medium. Analog music is continuous.
     
  20. Stencil

    Stencil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lockport, IL
    Hash distortion is used to compare two different digital files. Its not even applicable to comparing digital files to analog. You can digitize a signal then compare the original digitized signal to the same signal modified through various digital techniques and get an estimation on the distortion produced compared to the digitized file, but there is no way you can compare that to the original analog.
     
  21. wrat

    wrat Forum Resident

    Location:
    29671
    I dont own a dedicated silver disc spinner of any sort anymore......
     
  22. Andreas

    Andreas Senior Member

    Location:
    Frankfurt, Germany
    There are two fallacies displayed: First, any analog recording medium has a finite amount of information. There is not an infinite amount of points that represent the audio, it is limited by the parameters of the medium. Second, digital sampling can capture all of the information of the sound waves up to half of the sampling rate, which is likely more than what was originally recording by the audio equipment. I will leave it at that because this is off topic and also was discussed on this forum countless times before.
     
  23. Stencil

    Stencil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lockport, IL
    You are incorrect on both counts. You should read some books on basic mathematics.
     
  24. profholt82

    profholt82 Resident Blowhard

    Location:
    West Michigan
    I've noticed that a few new mainstream albums that have come out this year are digital only, no CD or vinyl LP. I think this will probably become the new norm. Notice how small the CD sections have already become at box stores like Best Buy and Target. With a lack of new releases on CD, those sections will likely shrink even more.
     
  25. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    I can deal with digital only if it is hi-res. Just don't offer me MP3's.
     
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