Music CDs came out in the 80s and we still can't replicate their quality?

[Pancreas]

How is this possible?

Where you have to be an audiophile, pay niche streaming services, buy high grade FLAC compatible equipment, etc just to replicate lossless quality

We went backwards on this crap, where lossless is now a selling term? when is just 80s technology

What happen to just having a discman?

What happened to boombox disc players?

We went backwards from high quality cds to everyone downloading crap mp3s from torrent, limewire, or buying mp3 files off amazon, etc to crappy streaming services that are not really lossless except for a couple ones that of course charge more for the joy

and to manufacturers exploiting this to create and sell overpriced music players, upcharge for streaming services, overrated devices, etc just to replicate what could be done in the 90s with a $20 cd and a $50 discman or $100 boombox

bruh

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

Ever blind tested high BR lossy vs lossless?

The sound quality I can get via my phone streaming 320kb mp3 to a decent Bluetooth speaker easily exceeds anything I was able to get from any of the (many) boomboxes I had in the 80s, CD or not.

 

[Rednaxela]

to replicate what could be done in the 90s with a $20 cd

I can’t replicate Spotify with a $20 CD.

 

[Blumlein 88]

How is this possible?

Where you have to be an audiophile, pay niche streaming services, buy high grade FLAC compatible equipment, etc just to replicate lossless quality

We went backwards on this crap, where lossless is now a selling term? when is just 80s technology

What happen to just having a discman?

What happened to boombox disc players?

We went backwards from high quality cds to everyone downloading crap mp3s from torrent, limewire, or buying mp3 files off amazon, etc to crappy streaming services that are not really lossless except for a couple ones that of course charge more for the joy

and to manufacturers exploiting this to create and sell overpriced music players, upcharge for streaming services, overrated devices, etc just to replicate what could be done in the 90s with a $20 cd and a $50 discman or $100 boombox

bruh

Follow the money. Having streaming service is economically equivalent to buying one full retail CD per month. Did as many people who subscribe to these average that level of purchasing of CDs? I think in the past no, and of course in the present it does not matter because CD is essentially obsolete in the market. The promise of course is having access to the entirety of the musical library for only the purchase price of 1 CD per month. So for the lifetime purchase price of 600 CDs you get tens of thousands.

 

[Mart68]

I can’t replicate Spotify with a $20 CD.

Spotify can't replicate the $20 CD if they don't have the rights to that particular album.

 

[BDWoody]

and to manufacturers exploiting this to create and sell overpriced music players, upcharge for streaming services, overrated devices, etc just to replicate what could be done in the 90s with a $20 cd and a $50 discman or $100 boombox

I dunno...

For the cost of one CD a month I have access to millions of songs. What we had back then was the radio if we wanted a varied playlist, unless we cut our own mix-tapes of course.

We also didn't have some of the amazing codecs we have today, where above about 320k bit rate (being generous... Likely less with most music) most would be very hard pressed to differentiate from Redbook.

I'm not really seeing where the complaint is... You can still go buy CDs and play them on your boombox if that's your platonic ideal.

 

[Pancreas]

with spotify, apple music, etc you're just renting, thats the norm nowadays

youre renting cars as many people lease more than finance nowadays, you're renting movies, tv shows through netflix, disney, amazon video

youre renting storage on apple cloud, google drive, icloud, onedrive, etc

youre renting shipping services as amazon prime

youre renting ad free experiences like youtube red, etc

99% of phone apps now are subscription based, youre renting apps

You're renting computer sofware like office, security suites, antiviruses, VPNs

youre renting game purchases online

 

[ahofer]

with spotify, apple music, etc you're just renting, thats the norm nowadays

youre renting cars as many people lease more than finance nowadays, you're renting movies, tv shows through netflix, disney, amazon video

youre renting storage on apple cloud, google drive, icloud, onedrive, etc

youre renting shipping services as amazon prime

youre renting ad free experiences like youtube red, etc

99% of phone apps now are subscription based, youre renting apps

You're renting computer sofware like office, security suites, antiviruses, VPNs

youre renting game purchases online

Doesn’t seem like “quality” is what you are complaining about, but licensing vs ownership.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

We also didn't have some of the amazing codecs we have today, where above about 320k bit rate (being generous... Likely less with most music) most would be very hard pressed to differentiate from Redbook...

...if they were comparing under ideal circumstances using their best headphones listening for artifacts they have trained to identify perhaps. On a boombox or a discman with average earbuds? not likely...

 

[wadude]

with spotify, apple music, etc you're just renting, thats the norm nowadays

youre renting cars as many people lease more than finance nowadays, you're renting movies, tv shows through netflix, disney, amazon video

youre renting storage on apple cloud, google drive, icloud, onedrive, etc

youre renting shipping services as amazon prime

youre renting ad free experiences like youtube red, etc

99% of phone apps now are subscription based, youre renting apps

You're renting computer sofware like office, security suites, antiviruses, VPNs

youre renting game purchases online

It is a big change.

 

[Mart68]

I still rather pay a tenner for a CD than pay it monthly to Spotify for access to millions of songs 99% of which I've no interest in and the rest I probably have the CD already.

True that I can't tell between the lossy and the lossless but I don't like the idea of lossy and that's enough to put me off whatever the rational mind says. I think the o/p is right we did go backwards (although maybe not with the boomboxes).

 

[Rednaxela]

Matthew 6:19.

 

[Rednaxela]

I’m glad I don’t own the CD of every track I ever listened to on Spotify.

 

[DVDdoug]

I still buy (and rip) CDs. Sometimes I'll but an MP3 from Amazon if the CD isn't available or if I'm in a big hurry for it, etc. I already own most of the music I want (I'm old!) and I don't subscribe to a streaming service (I occasionally use free Spotify).

We went backwards on this crap, where lossless is now a selling term?

Lossy streaming requires less bandwidth. Lossy compression makes smaller files. That's a "selling point" when streaming is free or low cost or if you want a lot of files on a portable player. I have about 18,000 MP3s on an iPod attached to my car stereo. (Nowadays, I probably could store all of those files losslessly on an SD card on my phone.)

There is lossless streaming and even some "high definition" streaming (although most recordings "out there" were not recorded in HD and many were recorded on analog tape.)

I think the major music companies are reluctant to sell HD copies that can be easily pirated. You can find some HD music on Blu-Ray (copy protected) but there doesn't seem to be much market demand for it. When Apple created iTunes they required copy protection on the lossy copies. DVD-Audio (also copy protected) supported HD but it wasn't compatible with most DVD players and it died in the marketplace. There doesn't seem to be a lot of demand for HD streaming either. And that's logical since CD quality is generally better than human hearing.

We went backwards on this crap,

I grew up with vinyl and I'll take an MP3 over vinyl any day!!!

And IF you can hear a difference between a CD and a high-bitrate MP3 or AAC copy (in a proper blind ABX test) you have to listen very carefully to reliably identify which-is-which. The 1st MP3s I heard were low quality and I was a "snob" about it until I got a DVD player and I found out that Dolby Digital is lossy compression. Some of the best-sounding music I own (to my ears) is concert DVDs with 5.1 Dolby surround!

 

[Steve Dallas]

Just because redbook CD is technically better than lossy files doesn't mean it sounded any better back then. Remember that many current mainstream DACs struggle to reach 16 bits of dynamic range. Most mainstream amplifiers struggle to reach 14 bits. Then there is speaker compression. What do you think you were getting out of those old boomboxes? Your old car stereo? Lossy files would have sounded exactly the same as CD. CD was actually overkill.

 

[Mart68]

Matthew 6:19.

yeah, he wasn't that into music though, it's a known fact.

 

[JRS]

I agree that playlists are the cats meow. Having broken free of vinyl in the late 90's, for better or worse, I seldom listen to a complete LP or even side, and in the main really, really like 3 or 4 songs. So each of those songs ends up on one or more playlists and several hundred or more per playlist. Sometimes I'll pick each song, others I just put it on shuffle and fast forward past any tune I'm not in the mood for. IMO 320k is all but perfectly transparent in casual listening. I started streaming exclusively around 2008. By now I'd have 180 CD's and going by the above average access to say 600 songs I really, really enjoy--Compared to a couple of thousand, plus being able to taste new music (or old) without buying is priceless.

 

[Joe Smith]

I think there's a place for both. I buy CDs and LPs now for music that I really love and where I think very high replay value is there, for either new music or old. I use Spotify and Amazon to continually find new music and go deeper into artists I like. It's a surfeit of riches, really. In my mid-60s, I like my music library size and don't really want to grow it significantly, so I'm down to about 30 hardcopy purchases a year.

I met a guy at the local record shop who went from 500 LPs in 2005 to 12,000 today by his estimate. He was buying about 15 albums yesterday to add to that, probably his normal weekend buy rate. So that's about $150 a week to add to the "collection". The last time he moved, he said it took a month and half to move all the albums. Ugh! Not for me. There is a place to get off the Merry-Go-Round of buying more & more, everyone just has to find a spot they can live with...

 

[Owl]

It's a business model you can either work with or against. People want convenience, not stuff. As far as treasure's here on earth, many greedy people would like to control you and your assets, and decide who or whom will be the recipient's of those assets when you die. But that's a political rabbit hole we should go down on this forum.

 

[coonmanx]

I can’t replicate Spotify with a $20 CD.

You are paying too much if a CD costs $20. They can be had for much cheaper than that these days.