My thoughts (again): The Quietus | Opinion | Black Sky Thinking | Perfect Sound For A Little Longer: In Defence Of The CD
Such a person exists only in your heads. Enjoy your moribund format, but try to accept the fact that nobody else really cares. We've moved on.
If CD were to come back at 80s volume levels, I would be interested. I mainly spin LP these days, but have nothing against a well mastered CD.
I grew up in the CD era and loved collecting them back then, but since 2011 have primarily been collecting vinyl. But with horrid quality control happening to vinyl lately, I'm finding myself going back to CDs if the LP is pressed at MRP, URP, Rainbo, etc. I don't want to see CD die completely but at the same time, if it stays where it's at, I'm ok with it. Used CDs are nicely priced and newer CDs are still decent as well (admittedly I miss $9.99 first week on new releases at Best Buy, etc). Now to just get a good CD player for my receiver instead of relying on my Sony UDP-X800.
Maybe it won't shatter, but it will probably bend to a point that it'll need straightening before it's usable again. Back in the early 80s (pre cd) I worked as the chief engineer at a combined radio/tv broadcast facility. I saw plenty of bent or broken reels and mangled tapes back then. I still have the first cd I bought back in 87, it plays just fine. I also have a box of 10 inch Ampex tapes (456?) here somewhere. At least one or two of them are factory sealed. Is the personal info in your profile accurate? If so, quite a hobby for a person your age. Enjoy.
It is accurate, yes sir. I'm a 14 year old kid who found reel to reel as a fun hobby from my dad. I also play guitar.
So, you'll be buying one of these if they're reintroduced? https://www.intertique.com/TwentySevenInchChanger1.jpg
Worthless format in every sense. I’ve got more that enough hard disc and other physical storage to permanently mitigate thousands of jewel cases and booklets too small to read anyway. Hi-res files sound better, lossless files sound identical and cut out the needless manufacturing process of what is ultimately a vastly more limited lifespan medium. And as for streaming, certainly not necessarily the superior fidelity option, but plenty good enough when driving in a car or listening on a noisy subway train. CD’s were basically a scam from day one, and I’m all too happy to see them go.
Nostalgically I miss going into Tower Records and Virgin Megastore and browsing racks and racks of CDs, but if I'm being perfectly honest, I'm really part of the problem. There were two new albums I was looking forward to this week, and I bought both of them in 24/96 FLAC instead of CD. Why bother with driving to the store when I'm just going to rip the CD and then store it on a shelf or in a box for eternity. Heck, the new Raconteurs album was only $10.49 for 24/96 on 7digital, probably cheaper then I could have found the CD in a local shop, IF I could find it. I'm actually more worried about lossless downloads dying out than I am CDs.
I'll always fondly appreciate compact discs, and I still feel jolts of excitement much like I did in the '80s when I held them in my hands. But, knowing that they were needful in the early days of the internet and that they're simply containers for digital content, I'm not panicking at the thought of them going away. I actually prefer loading my DAP and enjoying my favorite music that way. Same great sound, but with very convenient and quick access to all my favorite albums, which I've ripped to lossless FLAC. I'm holding onto my meager CD collection though because it's just way cool!
Yeah, but it might be difficult to find something to play them on. On the other hand, technology might evolve to rip them directly to our brains.
A problem I'm finding more frequently as time marches on, is that more obscure and even popular music is being issued on CD-R, which annoys the crap out of me!
I think we're getting close to the inflection point on CD sales. Although total sales of CDs are way down, you still can get almost any new release on CD. Maybe not in a physical store but at an online store so nobody who is still interested in CDs feels any hurt yet. Once mainstream artists stop offering their releases on CDs but only on downloads or streaming then the game will change. May be a while for that to happen but who knows. The trend is certainly headed that way.
New releases are slowly fading into the background, however. Granted, I know that's not everyone's thing but just scanning Friday's new releases, a number of them are either streaming / download only or the CD's look to be delayed. Generally new R&B / hip hop btw.
Beta probably survived as long as it did because it was used by the professional community. Beta was better than VHS in terms of performance, which is also probably why it was more successful in Japan, where they care more about that sort of thing. We had a Beta player, I think from 1984. And it trounced the VHS we replaced it with in terms of picture quality; the VHS was from the early 90s. On top of that, Beta tapes were also smaller, another plus. I guess leave it to the consumer to get it wrong. The better format lost in this case. I'm sure Sony messed things up as well but that's a different point. Anyways, I hate tape formats overall. From not being able to jump ahead and back easily, or from the machine that's playing eating the tape. My old home made music cassettes - recorded from CD's btw - could sound amazing. And I hear R2R is great. So tape doesn't really take a back seat there. But I'm a lot happier using any kind of shiny disc, be it CD, SACD, DVD, BR, etc. They are just a lot more elegant and easy to use. Umm, just be a little careful when you're holding one? Taking one out of the case and putting it into a CD player (and vice versa) takes a few seconds. Not like you have to carry an unprotected disc around with you all day and every day for a month. I'm hardly the least clumsy person around but all my discs are virtually free of scratches and other damage. And quite a few were owned by me when I was a teen (unfortunately over 20 years ago now).
I have one or two CDs that can't play through on my machine. Something to do with how they were made, because they are in perfect shape (bought new by me) and my player plays every other disc I throw at it. I've just accepted that will happen in rare cases. I burn it to a blank CD and it plays. This is maybe one or two CDs out of 600 or so, and I can get it working if I burn to a new disc. DVDs are another animal. There is a thread here about DVDs that stopped working. I've had a few of those. Luckily I don't own a lot of them and I almost never buy DVDs anymore (preferring streaming or Blu Ray). There is something up with DVD's and how they are made that is leading to a large number of failures. I haven't had any issues with Blu Rays though.
I think in the end, it was a price thing... VHS was cheaper and 'good enough' from the unwashed masses' point-of-view, so it won out, despite not being as good. This happens a lot, actually. .
Technology Connections (YT) had an interesting take on the topic. The feeling with the initial hardware was that the smaller tape for Betamax meant less recording time. 90 minutes max of recording time meant you can't record a movie, nor could you record a (US) football game.
