CD's Gone By 2020?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Fannymac, May 22, 2019.

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  1. Norco74

    Norco74 For the good and the not so good…

    :agree:
     
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  2. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    When I said I was bothered by CD production sonics above I just didn't mean brickwalling. Remastering and remixing have become much more aggressive since 2000 in all genres. I realize that the digital fiddling started in the late 90s but it became much more ingrained in the last 15 years. Sometimes as with historical mono recordings the more aggressive remastering if done with care and better sources results in noticeable improvements.

    But most of the time the result is much worse. I happen to have many original pressings so the bar is even higher as to what I notice. But the problem is spreading to jazz and classical and is no longer limited to pop rock. The smaller CD labels are more likely to have decent sonics even in classical. This is what is sustaining the vinyl resurgence.
     
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  3. doppelganger

    doppelganger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Frankfurt
    If I'm being completely honest with myself (not easy to do), one of the major reasons I'm holding on to certain physical possessions is simply because of sunk cost. If I hadn't spent all of that money on physical media already, I'd probably be fully into the streaming only lifestyle and wouldn't miss a thing.
     
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  4. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

    Valid point. What you haven't experienced is difficult to miss.
     
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  5. doppelganger

    doppelganger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Frankfurt
    And it works both ways, doesn’t it? When you’ve had a particular experience you feel like you wouldn’t want to miss, it’s difficult to imagine someone else being content without that experience in their life.
     
    Pop_Zeus likes this.
  6. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

    Yes. Our sense of contentment has to transcend, and not be dependent on, CDs and streaming.
     
  7. Mr D

    Mr D Forum Resident

    Location:
    Missouri
    There's a lot of truth in this. I'm not going to unload CDs I paid full price for in the 80s and 90s as I'd be lucky to get 25 cents to a dollar today in trade or garage sale. I made the investment so might as well keep them and enjoy them even though more convenient options are available.
     
  8. Stefanie M Lesser

    Stefanie M Lesser Forum Resident

    Location:
    santa rosa, ca
    Most likely yes but I hope not. Its nice to sill have the non digitial music. Just in case...
     
  9. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    A lot of popular music -- and I'm talking about pop, rock, country, r&b, etc. -- doesn't have a lot of dynamic range like classical music often has. And it doesn't have long passages of p to ppp music, like classical music might have, so vinyl surface noise, mechanical noise from LP playback, even things like groove echo, are masked by a constant, relatively high level of signal where, if you're listening to music with 5, 10, 15 minutes of music at the p to ppp end of the dynamic scale, any kind of mechanical intrusion is going to be extremely noticeable.

    Also, those genres also tend to have shorter works -- you don't have to get up and flip sides multiple times in the middle of a piece the way you're going to have to do with a Mahler symphony. And it's not just classical, it's any kind of music with long quiet passages and longer form performances or compositions. Like the Art Ensemble of Chicago's People in Sorrow -- brilliant enthralling record. But it's a 40 minute continuous performance, most of which is played ppp, and with long sustained notes (where vinyl eccentricity is more apparent). It's never been released on an official CD from a source tape as a continuous performance, so you live with what's available. But it's something I'd love to have on CD instead.
     
    Luisboa likes this.
  10. clhboa

    clhboa Forum Resident

     
  11. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    And Numero Group axes CDs and is having a blowout sale in 2019. Which major label will follow suit first?
     
  12. blastfromtheeast

    blastfromtheeast Active Member

    Optical discs holds the advantage of currently having a lifetime of 50 - 100 years. In the field of data storage there's a growing need of archiving data. That could be done in HDD, SSD, magnetic tapes or optical discs. It is common practice by data centers to migrate data to a new media every few years which is known as Remastering. In HDD it is common practice to remaster every 3 - 5 years. This number is 5 - 7 years for magnetic tapes and around 10 years for SSDs. Advertised lifetimes for Archival Discs (Sony-Panasonic) that has capacity of 200 - 300 GB is between 50 years (non-ideal conditions) and 100 years (ideal conditions). Currently, there are efforts to increase data capacity up to 1 TB (still in R&D phase) in a 12 cm disc.

    Coming back to audio CDs I want to point out for durability, read/write issues, mechanical wear & tear due to playback, data loss/bad fragments due to thermal loss/physical shock, weight/volume ratio, I whole heartedly believe that there's not a single media better than CDs. This coming from an electrical engineer/material scientist who is currently doing research in a LASER lab.
     
  13. blastfromtheeast

    blastfromtheeast Active Member

    Like any business, CD sales eventually need to bring a profit margin for the companies. If sales decline, even with demand from music lovers and fans/musicians wanting it, CDs might become obsolete in the coming decades. Younger generations might feel it consumes space which can be easily saved and streaming services might completely take over (concept of no ownership or music/fine art). I hope that won't be the case. Not just for the sake of nostalgia. Like I mentioned in my post, I think it's the best media to own, music on, archive digital data and I like the fact that unlike vinyl, you cannot simply wear out the data written on the media by playing it over 10,000 times. Fungus/mould due to humidity/weather and CD rot can be overcome by better care from users and high quality manufacturing. Write-once-read-many (WORM) media is important for preservation of data.
     
  14. bherbert

    bherbert Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Africa
    As long as the mix is in modern stereo - centered drums, bass & vocals and the mastering is good I will continue to buy cd’s.
     
  15. anorak2

    anorak2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    Ping pong stereo isn't just a 60s thing.

     
  16. Somerset Scholar

    Somerset Scholar Ace of Spades

    Location:
    Bath
    I am buying huge numbers of 80's classical CD's from charity shops. So well mastered. Beautiful performances, great liner notes and those thick well made cases. Often these CD's are near mint too. Well looked after, they are reducing my carbon footprint too. It's winning all the way.
     
  17. broshfab4

    broshfab4 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    Bought several last weekend so what is all this about CD's being gone exactly?? LOL sounds like a Spotify ad more than anything else.
     
  18. A shop today was clearing out a mess of CDs at $1, a mix of old and more recent pressings. Scooped up a lot of stuff I wouldn't have purchased at $5 or $10, but $1 was hard to pass on.
     
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  19. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    I stopped into two Zia stores in the area in the past few days and a (non) shocker the CD spaces in each had been reduced substantially. I would guess by one third. The other I stopped in today had several rows of empty CD bins with "excuse our dust" signs on them. As absurd as I thought this thread title was when originally posted maybe it is much closer to the truth than I anticipated.
     
  20. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    I agree with the comment that negates the issue include physical media and though I prefer best sources for exceptional quality I would also disagree that it is a necessary inclusion to be an audiophile. Love of music. Lover of sound quality at whatever level one chooses. That's it.
     
  21. Mbd77

    Mbd77 Collect ‘Em All!

    Location:
    London
    CDs making a comeback by 2021.
     
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  22. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    If this is the near end of CD's I am fortunate in one way in that I pretty much have everything I want in the versions I want. There are only two titles I cannot find or find at a price I am willing to pay. Otherwise I could stop buying music and enjoy what I have to my end. I would miss buying the occasional new release and certain audiophile remasters but I could do without those also.
     
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  23. Norco74

    Norco74 For the good and the not so good…

    Probably the OP title should be changed to ´In stores CD gone by 2020´.

    Only independent and on line stores will continue to stock and sell CD.
     
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  24. douglas mcclenaghan

    douglas mcclenaghan Forum Resident

    I am now thinking of upgrading my old system and have started to do some research. I am amazed at the number of cd players still being made, with new models being introduced. Some absolutely brilliant high-end stuff takes me back to the halcyon seventies. If cd production and consumption is in terminal decline why would Marantz, Yamaha etc all be continuing to manufacture and develop these awesome devices. Maybe the lower end of the market may suffer in terms of range of equipment, but if you're able to spend a dollar, wow, it's amazing.
     
    Gus S., ClassicalCD, RSteven and 2 others like this.
  25. libertycaps

    libertycaps Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR, USA
    Yes. Please. Give all your CDs away to the local Goodwill by this December. All the cool kids are doing it! Keep your CDr burns cuz they are just as reliable as CDs. Promise!!!
    Plus all your fave music will always be avail streaming. C'mon. Box 'em up and give them away. Think of all the space you will have for other more important stuff like shoes & clothes!!
     
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2019
    Pop_Zeus, ClassicalCD, 99khan and 8 others like this.
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