Hello CDs, I missed you!

I have a long story with CDs. I was born in 1975 and grew up with records and cassettes. I was already a music fan with my small collection of records and cassettes when CDs started being sold. My father, who was a music fan too, bought a CD player and a couple of classical music CDs. Later, Rock CDs came to Brazil and I remember him rebuying his Rolling Stones record collection in CDs.

My first CD was Suicidal Tendencies, "Controlled By Hatred". Then I got myself a minisystem with a CD player and started building a collection. LPs started to disappear from the stores. I kept almost all of my collection, but the collection stopped growing since no one sold records here anymore. Occasionally I would buy a record in used bins but CDs became my priority. I still remember saving cash until I had enough money for my next CD.

A few years ago I moved and found myself with no place for my CDs. I put all ~700 CDs in two big drawers in the TV room (the stereo is in the living room right next to the TV room).

Recently I started to build a proper stereo system. I have no CD player anymore and was playing my CDs through a DVD player connected to an old Denon AVR. I wanted something better though. I first bought a Schiit Modi to play CDs from my MacBook to the AVR.

Since I had a DAC and was playing from my laptop, I started ripping my CDS to FLAC files so I didn't need to take the CDs from the drawers in the next room and back each time.

Next step I threw away all the jewel cases and put the CDs in plastic envelopes because the wife wanted to use the big drawers for something else. I put about 6-7 CDs in each envelope and dug them in a smaller drawer.

Last step: I got rid of the Denon and bought a Parasound Halo, a Chromecast Audio, and a Tidal account.

The result: I wasn't even seing my CDs anymore, let alone playing them. I thought that playing the FLAC rips from the MacBook to the Chromecast would be a good idea but the truth is that I dislike dealing with my laptop and would only play records and Tidal through the phone.

I realized I was missing my beloved CDs. I dug up my DVD player and bought myself a coaxial cable to benefit from the decent Halo's DAC. I took my CDs from the drawer and started to put each one in its own envelope. Then I put them all in the shelves by the system where I can easily see and pick them. Without the cases I have space for them.

Now I'm much happier with my digital music. Sound quality is probably the same but the experience is different. I found out I prefer CDs to files. I prefer to play a CD than a computer. It is nice to take a CD from the shelve, touch it, look at it, enjoy the artwork, read the booklet, and put it to play. It's like I finally had my 700 CDs back. I'm even considering buying more CDs

 

AMEN!

 

Hmmm, this reads like a rough draft of a script for an upcoming Pixar Animation feature....!

 

Tidal I admit is pretty damn good

 

Yes it is! Love it too.

 

I don't have it but a mate does, he also has a 15K hifi and I'm impressed with its quality.

 

Sounds familiar. I went one step further and put them back in jewel cases

 

Nice accounting of a familiar and apparently common experience for we who love us some good music. Glad to hear you fortunately found a way to hang onto your collection, not always the case in some tellings. A quiet spinning DVD player is definitely a positive, mine at the moment is atrociously loud. Peace.

 

I love my CDs. It does not have to be rational.

 

I’ve always loved CDs. It’s a shame they get so little respect now... They seem to be considered somewhere between cassettes and 8-tracks.

Mastering isn’t what it was, but a lot of those early titles sound fantastic. The CDs longevity is a serious factor too.

I hope they come back into fashion at some point. A packaging revamp wouldn’t hurt either... Those thin ‘gatefold’ cardboard sleeves that substitute as ‘artwork’ aren’t doing anyone any favours..

So yes, long live the CD. Remember when getting them as Christmas presents was a thrill? Now it’s like receiving a soap on a rope.

 

I find it so odd that apparent music experts want to denounce the quality of cd sound reproduction, when none of the reproduction issues I ever hear are anything to do with the cd itself

 

@4011021 ... I have no problem with folks streaming, each to their own, but nothing will replace a physical product for me. Perhaps I am just too old school, but part of the pleasure for me is looking through to see what I want to listen to, and there is a tactile pleasure in the functionality of it for me

 

No one speaks about how horrible vinyl could sound back in the days when it was in mass production. Cut outs, exotic pressings, damage because the record was abused in the record store. Sometimes I had to bring an album back more than once.

 

Much like Vinyl, the CD is a hard copy, not a file stored on a cloud or hard drive. The CD can't be edited or altered unless it's physically destroyed as part of an organized effort to re-write history....

 

I'll never give up my cds. I only download if it's a rare out of print track. I still find that cds sound better than downloads. My iPod is convenient but it just doesn't compare to a hard copy.

 

I prefer CDs and vinyl, and don't purchase any downloaded music unless it's unavailable in a physical format. With a download, you don't own anything.

 

I still love Tidal/Spotify for its convenience and because it enables me to listen to music when I don't have records or CDs.

 

I never purchased a download.

 

Very similar for me, except born in 1973 and Austria instead of Brazil. I just bought a turntable half a year ago to listen to my few LPs from before I collected CDs. I also started buying vinyl again, it's fun but expensive.

CDs suffer from the fact that they just hold digital information that can come from a harddrive or streaming as well. But once you get over that, you can appreciate how great CDs in fact are. They sound great (better than vinyl if you don't have a brickwalled one: no surface noise, no distortion, no bad pressing). And there's the booklet. And they are really cheap now.

Vinyl is cool too, but I can't deny that I've grown up in Team CD.

Last week I was on a trip to Edinburgh and bought 2 records and a CD. Buying music on a trip was better before Amazon would bring everything to you, so I thought vinyl would bring the old magic of searching for music in foreign lands back. It worked but then I didn't dare putting the records in my checkin suitcase and carried them all the time. That's a lot easier with CDs.

 

At which temperature do our beloved CD's catch fire and burn?

 

My first CD's were U2 Under a Blood Red Sky, CCR's Greatest Hits and Beatles Hard Day's Night. I actually bought my first CD player at the same time. I don't remember the year but I don't think I have bought anything on vinyl since. 30 plus years ago I suspect?

I also have a fairly big vinyl collection.

 

I respectfully disagree here but this is not the point of the thread, I'd rather try not to turn this thread into a CD x vinyl one.

 

Sure! As I said, I like both.

 

I never liked the cases very much. They are fragile and can't handle thicker inserts. And they take space. I only miss reading the spines.