Collecting CDs is a wonderful thing for those who love music. They sound gorgeous on proper equipment (such as my Marantz CD player) and provide immense pleasure. I'm still deriving utility from CDs I bought almost 30 years ago. What other type of purchase still pays off decades later? I don't need to listen to all my CDs either to make having them worthwhile. They just need to be available for me, sitting on my shelves bothering no one. If I suddenly wish to listen to that Finzi CD I haven't played in 20 years - there it is! And it will be a joy to rediscover. Sincerely, those who see a problem with CD collecting are falling prey to sophistry. We have no need to declutter. There will be enough time for that once we're dead. There is no downside to having a CD collection. Tidal may disappear tomorrow and all you'll be left with is abysmal sounding lossy services. CDs are a true treasure.
I've never bought anything I wasn't interested in musically With streaming and *ahem* another way of sampling music I've passed on hundreds (thousands?) of recordings that would have been of interest that I then chose not to buy. No pleasure in buying things either, the pleasure is in listening and discovering. On the former point I've never had Amazon Prime outside of a trial period. I very much like to think of myself as "anti-consumer", what things/luxuries I do enjoy I like to buy the best of, but pleasure again comes from using (or wearing) these things than the act of buying them.
Yes, this is what I meant. The early ‘90s Sony/Columbia Essential Classics series for instance often mention they were remixed, in many cases under the supervision of one of the original Columbia producers.
I am in the same boat and trying real hard to curb my buying habits after all these years as am pretty much running out of storage space now. Unfortunately, the selling process is much more cumbersome now than I had expected, especially for CDs. Which avenues do you use for selling? I think am going off topic here so I will PM you later. Thanks!
My female friends have always reacted positively to my CD collection and my love for classical music.
Yes, but do you live alone? I could sustain your philosophy and practice when I was single. Marriage changed that, as anticipated.
My collecting has slowed drastically for many of the same reasons cited here - the sheer number of CDs (and corresponding hours/days/months of music), the rather over sized percentage of storage space it takes up within my house, etc. It has also been curtailed by my foray into high quality streaming content (along with having audio gear that does high res streaming services justice). However, my intent in collecting these many thousands of CDs was always about two things: (1) recognizing that we were at a perfect moment in the history of music on physical media where companies with vast and historical classical archives were putting this music out there in bulk for record low prices; and (2) building a library rather than a collection -- I never meant to listen to everything, just like I would never think I could read every book in a library. I can, however, browse my shelves at any time and make discoveries as easily as getting reacquainted with old favorites. The amount of money I've spent on this is staggering, but I don't regret it one bit.
I'm in a somewhat similar boat, but no storage unit. I've purchased a few megaboxes like the Szell box but I've kept it pretty minimal, and my cuter half has definitely been a part of that. She's very tolerant of my collecting (and collects a bit herself, but not on the same scale), but there's a lot in my collection I got out of vague interest or because it was a bargain, and really haven't touched more than once. Her suggestion is not to get rid of everything, but rather to focus on things I (a) actively play or (b) want to have available for ready listening. This isn't unreasonable and I'm going to start looking at deaccessioning the "it's a bargain" acquisitions first. At this point 80% of my listening is streaming anyway (I don't bring physical media to work). Google's music locker service is a wonderful adjunct to megaboxes for such purposes, but ripping is something I rarely have time to do properly these days on a large scale.
I'd consider this, but it would have to come down from the $80 range. I don't think it will. I bought three Westminster LPs recently.
This looks intriguing - I'm not at all familiar with Paillard, and have a limited amount of Erato recordings. Jean-Francois Paillard - The Complete Erato Recordings
Several years ago, I watched a video of an old-timer gun enthusiast giving advice about stocking up on ammunition. He said, "If you can get it, you oughta go ahead and get you some. That way, if you need it, you got it. If you die first, you didn't need the money noway."
Release date 13 September. New remaster. I assume this is the 60s stereo cycle? Anyone know for sure?
Hah ! Nicely put You need to marry the right missus My missus does rib me a bit about the ever increasing size of my CD collection, with a liberal amount of sighs and raised eyes. But she accepts it's a just a hobby, and that, as hobbies go, music is a pretty cool one .
Certainly looks like the stereo cycle, going by Kempff's age in that photo and plain common sense. Given DG's track record, only the Bluray version will be a new transfer. The CDs will likely use an older transfer, but it's to be seen whether it's the standard 1991 transfer or the much superior (in my opinion) 1997 transfer. The 1997 transfer was done for the Complete Beethoven Edition of that year, and re-used on the Solo Repertoire mega box, but it's not available individually as far as I know (unless you count Vol. 5 of the Beethoven Edition as a standalone release). All standard CD reissues use the 1991 transfer, despite some of them claiming to be remastered. [For those who want a sampling of how the 1997 transfers sound like in comparison to the standard one, check out the Originals CD containing Piano Sonatas 8, 14, 21 & 23.]
That's cool. My wife would put up with. . . 5,000 cds or so. My problem is I have six times that many! I'm working on reducing the size of the collection, and it feels good, but I have a long way to go.
Correction: I was wrong — the 2008 release does contain the 1997 remaster. So that's probably what's going to be on the new set's CDs.
30,000 As Top Cat would say....... yikes ! Makes my 1500 sound so miniscule - but then again, Polish flats aren't cavernous palaces !
Well said, @ClassicalCD. If streaming services malfunctioned and something happened to where you can’t stream music anymore, what are you left with? I believe the CD is still a viable and great sounding medium. It’s a shame there are people out there that believe otherwise. Obviously, they haven’t the first clue as to what they’re talking about.
Since I do not yet own the stereo set perhaps the 1997 effort will suffice. I do own the Takács Quartet's Beethoven cycle in such a 7 CDs + Blu-ray edition, and both the CDs and Blu-ray use the new remaster. That is Decca Universal. Perhaps DG Universal is different? Last year they released Kempff's DG Schubert recordings in this type of set. I now wonder if those CDs are remastered or not.
The Takács Beethoven set was remastered? Didn't know that. It looks like it was a 24-bit/48kHz recording. However, I didn't hear any difference when comparing the old CD set with the new one.
Lots of jazz. I've removed about 300 duplicates (different pressings etc.) so far from the collection and it's just a drop in the bucket. And I've been able to sell them for more than I thought as well. I'll be continuing slowly through the next few years. I'm happy that I've started.
