Anyone else coming back to CDs?

[RayDunzl]

I too haven't been away from CDs for repeat listening.

Sometimes I stray off into the wasteland of streaming just to see what's there. The only "paid" service I have is the limited included stuff with Amazon Prime, but I have a free Spotify account, and maybe others, I forget.

Seems like used CD prices are rising, though. I haven't been tempted for quite a while, and don't see bargain listings from some sellers I used in the past.

That's OK, I keep finding things on the rack I forgot I had, and many of the newer ones that I know I have, haven't made an indelible mark on my audio memory yet, so listening to them is almost like having a new (used) disc. I went shopping for Bela Fleck Perpetual Motion, was ready to click "buy", but checked the shelf and it was already there.

Most recent purchase was the new (pre-ordered new with some price improvement during the wait) Hiromi, just to add to her place on the shelf.

I'm a sucker for discs from folks I already like, which is part of what having a collection is about to me.

 

[captain paranoia]

The last 15 years or so have been an absolute boon for fattening up my CD collection for cents on the dollar via thrifts

Here are the stats for my CD collection... Cost per year and #discs bought per year, and average cost. Bit of a lean period between 2004-2009, until I started hitting the charity shops...

 

[restorer-john]

Here are the stats for my CD collection...

I used to keep a running tab (where, when, who and how much etc) for years, but once I started grabbing entire collections at garage sales it got way too hard.

 

[Sal1950]

I've had to replace a number of my earliest discs due to the stupid plastic problem they had back then. Blah.

I've had this happen too. Usually, the disc player starts making bad noises or can't play them, but if you catch it the first time, the PC disc player will usually still be able to read them even when the disc player can't. So you can use the PC to extract the data from the CD and burn a fresh copy.

I got a feeling the root cause of your problems stems from coating the edges with those green pens and spraying the surfaces with WD40.

My CD buying has dropped off a lot, it's got to be something that I really love now that makes me want to own the physical copy over just streaming it.
I have been spending a lot lately on the various multich disc forms, more so now that I've got the ripping tricks mostly worked out. 5.1 SACD DSD files can be a bit tricky at first.

 

[RayDunzl]

The only commercial disc I remember having a problem with was one whereby being fumble fingered with the jewel case actually and unbelievably clipped off the edge of the disc when it got caught in the hinge.

That's probably not a repeatable action, but, there it is.

 

[DonH56]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot

There was a run of bad CDs in the 1980's or 1990's that had adhesion problems and pinholing that caused the reflective layer to oxidize (and thus become less reflective). For a while the store I worked for was exchanging them but when it hit several hundred a month had to stop.

Never used a green pen or WD40 on any of my discs. Most are pristine and still many had disc rot.

 

[Ron Party]

I rarely buy CDs any longer. Last one I bought is this classic

 

[captain paranoia]

I used to keep a running tab

I have to keep a record, otherwise I keep buying duplicates. It was one of the main reasons for getting my first Psion 3A...

 

[Sal1950]

Never used a green pen or WD40 on any of my discs. Most are pristine and still many had disc rot.

Just kidding Don

 

[JJB70]

I buy on CD and then rip to FLAC. To be honest I don't think FLAC makes any difference relative to 320k (or even 256K) MP3 in terms of listening to music as opposed to giving myself brain overload trying to discern differences but I am playing a trick on myself and it does seem to sort of work.

Why do this rather than stream? For one thing I like the album art and sleeve notes and in the case of vocal music the libretto. The one thing that I miss about vinyl is the sleeve art, at one time artists invested a lot of effort into the art and in some cases (such as Quadrophenia by the Who) went as far as photo albums to tell the story of the album. Does that make the music any better? No, but it does add pleasure. I also like the thought that if necessary I still have the physical media to play, and like others at times I do still use the discs simply to decouple enjoying music from my computer. And in many cases older CDs of the pop music I enjoy used much better masters than the current versions. Finally, I find that for some reason a lot of the classical music I buy (which is most of what I buy) is cheaper to buy in CD form than FLAC download form which seems a bit bonkers to me.

And CD players work extremely well, put a disc in, press play with instant operation. Maybe it's a generational thing but I enjoy the interaction and tactile feel associated with physical media. Since I travel a lot (I'm actually in Beijing as I write this) I carry a DAP with a 246GB card full of music which is fantastic but when I'm at home I quite enjoy being old fashioned. I live and die by my computer and devices at work, sometimes it is nice just to have them all switched off.

 

[typericey]

I had created a similar thread on CD Players, posting it here for cross reference.

I envy US-based folks where there are thrift shops selling $1 CDs.

Yes, CD rot is a valid concern that's one of the reasons that keep me from diving back into collecting.

 

[BillG]

Anyone else going back to CDs?

Not really, even though I've a large suitcase full of them that immigrated with me from the US to Aotearoa (New Zealand) in '96. I'll occasionally take one out to rip, but other than that, I've not touched them in years...

 

[Daverz]

I had created a similar thread on CD Players, posting it here for cross reference.

I envy US-based folks where there are thrift shops selling $1 CDs.

Yes, CD rot is a valid concern that's one of the reasons that keep me from diving back into collecting.

I have thousands of CDs and maybe a dozen that have a problem playing or ripping cleanly.

 

[DonH56]

I have thousands of CDs and maybe a dozen that have a problem playing or ripping cleanly.

I had thousands of records but probably only a couple of thousand CDs with perhaps 100-200 I've had to replace, mainly the early ones from about 1982 (first year I saw them -- should have kept those anyway!) through perhaps 1990~1995. Just unlucky, I guess. What was frustrating was many had barely been played and most all were treated well. I have gotten a few new ones in the past few years that would not rip cleanly but am not sure why not; a couple were obviously damaged in shipping but there was no obvious flaws on the others. My rate of buying has slowed significantly so my recent sample size is much smaller.

 

[restorer-john]

I have to keep a record, otherwise I keep buying duplicates.

Duplicates are good. Stuff I really like I'll buy again (especially for a few cents). Handy for doing realtime AB comparisons of CD players- that's my excuse anyway...

 

[Frank Dernie]

In that case, your physical CD collection is stored in exactly the same way as my ripped CD collection; by physical album, and I tag classical albums by composer, with performer as Artist. So, if i wanted to listen to some Mahler, I would just type Mah into MusicBee's album browser, and it would take me to all the Mahler albums in my collection. I would choose the one I wanted, double-click on the album cover, which would add the entire album to the now playing list.

Ah but then I would need a PC (I gave mine away when I retired and no longer needed both a PC and a Mac) and have it on and connected to my stereo.
I am too impatient to wait for my computer to boot before playing music as well, that was another reason...
I do have an old iMac connected by USB to my system and I rip most new discs to it and I can and do use it sometimes, but it isn't my principle source mainly for Qobuz to listen to new interpretations of stuff and decide whether to buy the CD or not.
My room is full and messy but I don't mind that. I built it for listening in, not looking at.

 

[Island_Kenny]

i still use CD players for my speakers. desktop computers produce too much noise

 

[Island_Kenny]

Duplicates are good. Stuff I really like I'll buy again (especially for a few cents). Handy for doing realtime AB comparisons of CD players- that's my excuse anyway...

cheaper rip a CD and burn another one if you have a computer

 

[restorer-john]

And CD players work extremely well, put a disc in, press play with instant operation. Maybe it's a generational thing but I enjoy the interaction and tactile feel associated with physical media.

Nothing nicer than pulling out a drawer or opening a glass door to get a particular CD and you see several others either side you'd forgotten about, or simply hadn't listened to in a while. It's very easy to go down a artist/genre/session musician hole when you know all your music and have you have it organized and at hand.

I wouldn't swap physical CDs for all the streaming/NAS tracks in the world. I certainly can't face ripping them all- it would take 6 months to rip them if I spent 8 hours a day at an average time of 10minutes per disc.

But horses for courses. People can do what they like. All I know is once ripped to a device and the discs sold/disposed of, that device must be backed up, replaced down the track, backed up again etc etc. It's guaranteed future work and potential catastrophic loss of the entire collection. The CDs are in essence distributed backup as damage is unlikely and is contained to individual discs, not the entire collection.

 

[restorer-john]

cheaper rip a CD and burn another one if you have a computer

Nope. The original is better, cheaper* and longer lasting.

*Note: we have been talking about CDs for a few cents on the secondhand market, not brand new ones.