If CDs are obsolete, why old CD players are still expensive?

[Feelas]

But parametric EQ is now free. I doubt "traditional" 10 band equalizers are seeing much use these days. And, for the most part, EQ-ing consists of seeing the frequency response of the gear to be EQ-ed, then compensating in the other direction. Much easier to get good results with APO EQ [freeware] than with just about anything else.

Well, yes, albeit it's been discussed in the context of @Frank Dernie mentioning how years ago it didn't requite much knowledge to regulate for preferences, and in fact I perceive it quite opposite - you were forced to be as knowledgeable as possible to fit what you need into a 10-band & 2 shelves (most often having a presetup shelf start) setup.

These days, yes, of course!

 

[Robin L]

Well, yes, albeit it's been discussed in the context of @Frank Dernie mentioning how years ago it didn't requite much knowledge to regulate for preferences, and in fact I perceive it quite opposite - you were forced to be as knowledgeable as possible to fit what you need into a 10-band & 2 shelves (most often having a presetup shelf start) setup.

These days, yes, of course!

Right.

Recording and reproduction of sound has improved. I had to use those 10-band equalizers and Burwen pop filters back in the bad old days for radio production. I'd say that a lot of what's driving audio improvements in the 21st century is trickle-down tech from smartphones, learning how to jam all that processing power into an object that fits in your pocket.

 

[Harmonie]

CD is becoming the "vinyl" of the XXI century!
I still have a CD player in my car, but do not feed it anymore, or rarely.
At home I am listening Amazon music HD.
When I switched from "vinyl" to CD I trashed all my records.
For now I am keeping my CDs, but I do not know for how long.

Not related , but how about the this vinyl ?

 

[valerianf]

Sorry but I trashed my turntable decades ago.
I kept my parents turntable are souvenir (they are no more alive).

To go back to the discussion about CD, it seems that it is going to be the last physical support for music.
It is a little sad as video has moved to ssd many years ago.
Ssd has the advantage to be compatible with many various digital formats when the CD is frozen in its original birth.
No hope for CD upgrade...

 

[Robin L]

Sorry but I trashed my turntable decades ago.
I kept my parents turntable are souvenir (they are no more alive).

To go back to the discussion about CD, it seems that it is going to be the last physical support for music.
It is a little sad as video has moved to ssd many years ago.
Ssd has the advantage to be compatible with many various digital formats when the CD is frozen in its original birth.
No hope for CD upgrade...

But Blu-Ray audio already exists.

 

[valerianf]

Yes there were several tentative BR Audio, SACD.
I doubt that new albums will come to theses formats.
The only trend nowadays is streaming.
I will keep my CD library, but I doubt that I will listen to them very often.
Who knows...

 

[Harmonie]

Sounds like I will be one of the Last Mohicans ?

 

[abdo123]

CDs are not obsolete. They will never be obsolete because they make the artist and record label the most amount of money. Much more than streaming or buying individual tracks on iTunes.

As a refence point, the average actual real per stream rate for Sound Recordings for Spotify's Premium subscription service in November 2019, was $0.0043 per stream.

Itunes take roughly 37% of records sale.

Phyiscal CDs are almost 100% profit to the record label, the numbers simply do not compare. Selling music in physical format will always be available to people who want them.

 

[andreasmaaan]

CDs are not obsolete. They will never be obsolete because they make the artist and record label the most amount of money. Much more than streaming or buying individual tracks on iTunes.

As a refence point, the average actual real per stream rate for Sound Recordings for Spotify's Premium subscription service in November 2019, was $0.0043 per stream.

Itunes take roughly 37% of records sale.

Phyiscal CDs are almost 100% profit to the record label, the numbers simply do not compare. Selling music in physical format will always be available to people who want them.

Yes, but just because a format is profitable to them doesn’t mean that consumers will continue to choose it. Among under-40s I know, vinyl is the only physical music medium still purchased.

 

[watchnerd]

Looked at the price of turntables lately?

CDs?

Turntables?

If you ladies want reel pain, you need to look at reel to reel prices.

The price of some of my decks are up 300% in the last 3 years.

 

[abdo123]

Yes, but just because a format is profitable to them doesn’t mean that consumers will continue to choose it. Among under-40s I know, vinyl is the only physical music medium still purchased.

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If you read my post, i said record labels will always offer physical media. But that doesn’t mean people will buy them at the same frequency forever.

 

[andreasmaaan]

If you read my post, i said record labels will always offer physical media. But that doesn’t mean people will buy them at the same frequency forever.

Yeh I understand that. I agree physical media will be around a long time. What I meant though was that I think the vinyl record will long outlive the CD.

 

[watchnerd]

Yeh I understand that. I agree physical media will be around a long time. What I meant though was that I think the vinyl record will long outlive the CD.

+1

CD is just a digital file storage medium.

LP is a music reproduction medium.

 

[Robin L]

Yeh I understand that. I agree physical media will be around a long time. What I meant though was that I think the vinyl record will long outlive the CD.

It's a better Baseball Card/Participation Trophy.

 

[abdo123]

Yeh I understand that. I agree physical media will be around a long time. What I meant though was that I think the vinyl record will long outlive the CD.

The reason why Vinyl is having a comeback is because you can’t dynamically compress tracks on Vinyl in the same dramatic way you can digitally.

People think Vinyl sounds better but it’s just their speakers clipping on the digital file lmao.

 

[Robin L]

The reason why Vinyl is having a comeback is because you can’t dynamically compress tracks on Vinyl in the same dramatic way you can digitally.

People think Vinyl sounds better but it’s just their speakers clipping on the digital file lmao.

I'm a people and I don't think LPs sound better. I know the sound always gets worse the closer you get to the end of an LP side.

ALWAYS.

 

[watchnerd]

The reason why Vinyl is having a comeback is because you can’t dynamically compress tracks on Vinyl in the same dramatic way you can digitally.

People think Vinyl sounds better but it’s just their speakers clipping on the digital file lmao.

Is that the reason it's having a comeback?

That's interesting, because what you describe has nothing do with why I collect vinyl.

 

[xykreinov]

Market demand wise, yes, they're falling by the wayside. Maybe in the future, some hipsters will treat them like vinyl or tape. But, I have my doubts.
Though, objectively speaking, there's still a good reason to use CDs for local playback: the data rot and general worse reliability of hard drives, SSDs, etc. Discs, be it DVD, Blu Ray, CD, etc. are simply much much less prone to have various types of data corruption over time. So, CDs are a nice type of long term storage, with the bonus of having tangible value that your copied lossless files never would.

 

[abdo123]

Is that the reason it's having a comeback?

That's interesting, because what you describe has nothing do with why I collect vinyl.

It’s the only explanation i found to why the general public thinks vinyl sound better.

 

[watchnerd]

It’s the only explanation i found to why the general public thinks vinyl sound better.

Some people, like me, don't think they sound better.

But love to collect and play them, anyway.