Physical Audio Media

[PortaStudio]

Hello everybody,


I just watched a video by techmoan commenting on the declining popularity of the CD format. Recently I was asked if I wanted a CD player by a seller I've got a used amplifier from. I declined since I don't see myself using it.

I was asking myself how I would share my own music with friends in the future. I prefer to give them something physical instead of sending them a link. Will this still be a thing in the future?

Thanks in advance.

 

[BentonF]

For me it is about quality. I use DEEZER hifi which supposedly sends an unadulterated FLAC file to you but I compared Prince Sign of The Times yesterday to the CD I have and it was poor in comparison to the CD when switching between the two through the same gear. The FLAC sounded dull, cymbals wee muffled and bass didn’t go as deep. I’m not saying that is always the case but others have reported the streaming companies fiddle with the files. Personally, a problem for me and some others, I find myself skipping tracks/albums and that much choice is distracting. Finally, after a day’s work, the last thing I want to be around are screens, laptops and tablets.

 

[restorer-john]

Compact Disc put the best digital audio in the hands of consumers. There will never be another moment like that again.

Anyone pursuing the ultimate performance in high fidelity equipment, and yet streaming content with seriously dubious provenance and/or sonic manipulation is a complete and utter fool in my book.

Buy the original CDs while you still can. Not remasters, not 'best of' compilations, not special editions. Find the first releases. Know what you are listening to and what you are being sold. Anything else is just lazy.

 

[Grotti]

Compact Disc put the best digital audio in the hands of consumers. There will never be another moment like that again.

Anyone pursuing the ultimate performance in high fidelity equipment, and yet streaming content with seriously dubious provenance and/or sonic manipulation is a complete and utter fool in my book.

Buy the original CDs while you still can. Not remasters, not 'best of' compilations, not special editions. Find the first releases. Know what you are listening to and what you are being sold. Anything else is just lazy.

I still have a Philips CD-100 in working condition for sentimental reasons. Bought it second hand a few years ago because I couldn't afford it when was released. You are absolutely right: the CD was a revolution in terms of accessible sound quality and we will never whitness something like it again.

In fact I suppose we will see a degradation of sound quality in future due to the fact, that most of the young people simply don't care and are satisfied with a cellphone, Bluetooth and some portable active-speaker-thingis...

 

[BenjaminB]

In fact I suppose we will see a degradation of sound quality in future due to the fact, that most of the young people simply don't care and are satisfied with a cellphone, Bluetooth and some portable active-speaker-thingis...

degradation has already happened:
Audio quality in telephony is today much worse than 20-30 years ago. Mainly due to VoIP, also to some extent 4G and 5G which doesn't have specific speech channel.
many of these "surrounds" has lower audio audio quality which to some extent is compensated by multi-channels.
And certainly all these streaming services like Spotify which have nearly all possible music stored but streaming quality is similar to mp3.
and so on ... audio quality doesn't seem to be as important for many as it was years ago.

Anecdotal: when I was a student everybody got some kind of hifi equipment, a reasonable turntable + amplifier + loudspeakers. Today's students doesn't care for such things, they use a mobile + a BT speaker and that's it. Oh well ...

 

[OldHvyMec]

For me it's simple. I OWN the, 78s. 45s, 33s, 16s, Reel to Reel, Cassette, CDs and the right to sell any of them legally. I have always observed
copyrights for music, software and patent rights. Everything I have copies of I have the original. Several times I've acquired different copies
of the same song on the same media, BUT across a few generations. I did have a few 78s that were used to make distribution tapes and
a few reel to reel that were first and second gen master tapes.

I guess it's the difference between buying the tool or renting the tool. For the record, if music I liked didn't come on perminate media, like
LPs or CDs, I probably wouldn't use it any other way. One of the reason I didn't like magnetic media. It just takes a magnet to wipe it out.
Reel to Reel as a media, was and is, really fun, just like cassette. BUT like a physical hard drive magnets can be catastrophic.

The wife has been streaming for almost 3 days in a row. I also know everyone of the songs she listen to in those 3 days we still own the
physical media in one form and some times in 3. LP, Cassette, and CD. My 2003 Camry has a cassette/cd factory installed. It was not easy
to get that, it was special order.

I have a great CCR, Santana, ZZ, The Pretenders, B52s, and a few other cassettes for "Drivin". Great song too. "Drivin". Difficult format for
HiFi. While I'm bouncing down the road, the quality of the media is usually not an issue, the Semi in the other lane is.

Side Note: My brother was in a headon on highway 12 last Saturday (a week ago). He told me about it yesterday. Every air bag deployed and he and
his wife of 52 years survived with cuts and bruises and 2 cracked ribs. This is my big brother. 2022 or 23 GMC 2500 PU. The sadan blew a
tire (?), crossed the double yellow. It took the entire left front corner of the PU OFF. He creened back across the highway and landed in the
ditch from the side he started in. There was one article that said there were 2 survivors of the three. My brother and spouse are fine.
That PU no doubt saved my brother and SIL's life. I was his best man at his wedding when I was 15 years old.

The rule is simple, DON'T travel two lane roads if at all possible and ALWAYS leave yourself and who ever is in front of YOU a way out.
The delta is full of roads with WATER, sometimes, on both sides of the road. I've wound up OFF the road at least 3 times in 50 years of
driving in the delta. I've seen some VERY bad wrecks as a HD and DOT mechanic. Two lane roads are killers.

I've had one incident in my life driving a service truck for 49 years and cars since birth.
I'm 68. It dented the rim on a service truck and cost 725.00 USD to fix. I've driven a million miles backwards it seems.
I did clip the shop with a tractor when I was 9, Oops! I think Johnson was president.
I wonder if anyone was listening to music?

The moral of the story is; drive a bigger vehicle and pay attention. I'm not sure on the music part yet. I'm not of big fan of drivin'
I would like to take a rocket launch or two, or three and return or not. LOL

Regards

 

[PortaStudio]

Hey,

thanks for all the answers. I agree with everything posted here.

Having nicely produced audio for CD is quite alot better than mp3 even m4a and for sure better than what I got from streaming.

What concerns me, however, is the social aspect of sharing audio in a physical object format. Sharing a link of your audio content with someone is just not the same, than handing them physical media. How would you share your audio like this these days? An USB stick perhaps? I think there is a social quality lost when you have no physical option at all anymore.

Buy the original CDs while you still can. Not remasters, not 'best of' compilations, not special editions. Find the first releases. Know what you are listening to and what you are being sold. Anything else is just lazy.

Interesting. I always thought that remasters are a good job, unless they are messed up. Why do you recommend going for first releases?

 

[PortaStudio]

For me it's simple. I OWN the, 78s. 45s, 33s, 16s, Reel to Reel, Cassette, CDs and the right to sell any of them legally. I have always observed
copyrights for music, software and patent rights. Everything I have copies of I have the original. Several times I've acquired different copies
of the same song on the same media, BUT across a few generations. I did have a few 78s that were used to make distribution tapes and
a few reel to reel that were first and second gen master tapes.

I guess it's the difference between buying the tool or renting the tool. For the record, if music I liked didn't come on perminate media, like
LPs or CDs, I probably wouldn't use it any other way. One of the reason I didn't like magnetic media. It just takes a magnet to wipe it out.
Reel to Reel as a media, was and is, really fun, just like cassette. BUT like a physical hard drive magnets can be catastrophic.

The wife has been streaming for almost 3 days in a row. I also know everyone of the songs she listen to in those 3 days we still own the
physical media in one form and some times in 3. LP, Cassette, and CD. My 2003 Camry has a cassette/cd factory installed. It was not easy
to get that, it was special order.

I have a great CCR, Santana, ZZ, The Pretenders, B52s, and a few other cassettes for "Drivin". Great song too. "Drivin". Difficult format for
HiFi. While I'm bouncing down the road, the quality of the media is usually not an issue, the Semi in the other lane is.

Side Note: My brother was in a headon on highway 12 last Saturday (a week ago). He told me about it yesterday. Every air bag deployed and he and
his wife of 52 years survived with cuts and bruises and 2 cracked ribs. This is my big brother. 2022 or 23 GMC 2500 PU. The sadan blew a
tire (?), crossed the double yellow. It took the entire left front corner of the PU OFF. He creened back across the highway and landed in the
ditch from the side he started in. There was one article that said there were 2 survivors of the three. My brother and spouse are fine.
That PU no doubt saved my brother and SIL's life. I was his best man at his wedding when I was 15 years old.

The rule is simple, DON'T travel two lane roads if at all possible and ALWAYS leave yourself and who ever is in front of YOU a way out.
The delta is full of roads with WATER, sometimes, on both sides of the road. I've wound up OFF the road at least 3 times in 50 years of
driving in the delta. I've seen some VERY bad wrecks as a HD and DOT mechanic. Two lane roads are killers.

I've had one incident in my life driving a service truck for 49 years and cars since birth.
I'm 68. It dented the rim on a service truck and cost 725.00 USD to fix. I've driven a million miles backwards it seems.
I did clip the shop with a tractor when I was 9, Oops! I think Johnson was president.
I wonder if anyone was listening to music?

The moral of the story is; drive a bigger vehicle and pay attention. I'm not sure on the music part yet. I'm not of big fan of drivin'
I would like to take a rocket launch or two, or three and return or not. LOL

Regards

That is horrible I hope they will recove swiftly.

 

[egellings]

Hello everybody,


I just watched a video by techmoan commenting on the declining popularity of the CD format. Recently I was asked if I wanted a CD player by a seller I've got a used amplifier from. I declined since I don't see myself using it.

I was asking myself how I would share my own music with friends in the future. I prefer to give them something physical instead of sending them a link. Will this still be a thing in the future?

Thanks in advance.

With the CD or LP, you'll always have that copy of the music. With streaming, music you like may become unavailable after a while.

 

[DVDdoug]

The 1st thing I thought of (if you don't have a CD) is a USB thumb drive. They are cheap enough that you can give them away.

Most music seems to still be released on CD and/or you can still buy & own MP3s from Amazon and M4As from iTunes. Maybe that will change in the future. I usually buy CDs (or an MP3 if the CD isn't available) but I'm old (over 65) and I already own most of the music I want so it's getting rarer for me to buy one.

...But it is a copyright violation if you keep the original and give-away a copy. I don't loan anybody CDs, DVDs, or books anymore because I've lost some. If I want to share I'll make a copy and tell the person that they can scrap or destroy it if they don't want to permanently-keep a pirated copy. And if they like it, of course they can buy their own copy. I don't tell them to destroy it when they are done "borrowing" it. So yeah... I'm guilty. But I usually buy music (and movies) when I can. A couple of times I've "recorded" from streaming or downloaded a pirated copy when it wasn't available legitimately. (No, I don't copy books... They have to get their own copy.)

Having nicely produced audio for CD is quite alot better than mp3 even m4a and for sure better than what I got from streaming.

Purchased (or other good quality) MP3s and M4As are quite good! In most cases you can't hear a difference in a proper blind ABX test, or you have to listen very carefully to hear the difference between the original and the lossy copy. That's assuming it's the same master and the same recording... Sometimes MP3, M4A, or streamed copy is a different version (maybe remastered).

 

[FeelinNoPain]

What concerns me, however, is the social aspect of sharing audio in a physical object format. Sharing a link of your audio content with someone is just not the same, then handing them physical media. How would you share your audio like this these days? An USB stick perhaps?

A USB stick would be the obvious way to do it. There is the obvious ethical issue as to whether sharing music this way robs someone of income. Share responsibly!

 

[FeelinNoPain]

Compact Disc put the best digital audio in the hands of consumers.

Absolutely.

There will never be another moment like that again.

? You don’t *have* to stream. There is no shortage of music to purchase for download in 16/44.1 and up (and that isn’t a poorly done remaster - hell, you can even buy new music). My fan-less network ssd storage and streamer replaced my cd player a while ago. I love rooting through my local used CD shops (can still find cd’s in back behind the vinyl records!). Those rips are about half my collection - the other half being lossless purchased downloads.

 

[Mean & Green]

Compact Disc put the best digital audio in the hands of consumers. There will never be another moment like that again.

Anyone pursuing the ultimate performance in high fidelity equipment, and yet streaming content with seriously dubious provenance and/or sonic manipulation is a complete and utter fool in my book.

Buy the original CDs while you still can. Not remasters, not 'best of' compilations, not special editions. Find the first releases. Know what you are listening to and what you are being sold. Anything else is just lazy.

Absolutely bang on, exactly my thoughts.

 

[sergeauckland]

Interesting. I always thought that remasters are a good job, unless they are messed up. Why do you recommend going for first releases?

Most (agreed, not all) remasters are done to make the sound more acceptable in today's listening environment of earbuds, smart 'speakers and the like, not high fidelity listening. Dynamic range is squashed, there is excessive limiting and even serious clipping, all to make it louder. EQ is often excessive, all boom & tizz. As a great example, the original Dire Straits CDs even have headroom and plenty of dynamics. Later remasterings are worse in my view.

I try whenever possible to buy the originally issued CD rather than a remaster. On the other hand, recent releases which are poor, like the Alison Krauss Robert Palmer cooperations might well benefit from eventual remastering to undo the damage on the original release.

S

 

[Chrispy]

In the vinyl days we shared our collections by visiting each other's houses for the most part. Maybe just go to the record store and have them play recommendations you'd gotten to see if you wanted to buy it. After cassettes arrived I would make mix tapes from the vinyl for close friends perhaps, but didn't give them copies of albums particularly. With cds you can easily make copies on thumb drives or record a cd, tho I generally don't give those away. I can't imagine not having an optical disc player, altho I don't play cds particularly rather than rip them to drives for streaming on my network (but still buy them).

All optical discs are waning in popularity last I checked, streaming has taken over for the most part. You can still easily make someone a copy aside from legality. I still buy optical discs, tho I rarely gift copies, but rather just recommend something they can stream to see if they would like it/buy it if not just play it for them on my gear....giving them a copy isn't necessary really since most everyone I know has a streaming service they subscribe to.

 

[Prana Ferox]

Specifically in the context of sharing, in the physical media age what you did with music that you had bought was always in some copyright grey area, but it was generally well accepted that you could lend out or even re-sell it. Making a tape copy of it (like a mix-tape for your buddy) while you kept the original was more over the line. People of course blatantly ignored that line because it was stupid, but it drove the music industry nuts over imagined lost revenue.

In the digital age essentially everything you do with music is making a copy of it, and that copy is (minus any lossy encoding you subject it to on re-process) perfect. For this reasons its more clear (at least in the parts of the world that pay attention to copyright law) that this is not permitted. This is again ridiculous and routinely ignored, and again it makes the music industry lament over the money they swear they're losing.

We're somewhat lucky that no enduring music medium ever got stuck with DVD/BD-style DRM attached, janky and useless as those turned out to be. A big part of the appeal of streaming, for the music companies, is that it's supposed to be harder for you to 'steal' the original files and do whatever you want with them. That also allows them to retroactively cancel licenses, modify 'originals' etc. At least from that angle it brings little benefit to the consumer.

 

[restorer-john]

How would you share your audio like this these days?

Tough question. I don't know what's the best way. I guess giving a CD would elicit some strange looks from a young person, like WTF is that?

My best mate and I regularly give each other older music on CDs. Often rare discs either of us pick up, we know the other would want. CDs we wanted when we were young, back when we had to borrow music and record to tape to share.

He'll ring me or send me a pic of a 1st release Japanese pressing of something he found at a car boot sale asking if I have a copy. I'll give him a pile of original Black Albert AC/DC discs I found at a thrift store.

 

[PortaStudio]

Thanks for all the informative answers.

To be clear, I share my own (self made) music or other forms of audio productions, I own the rights to, with friends sometimes.

Often I have audio in 192khz 24bits. I understand that there are many arguments against doing this, but it works for me.

The simplest step for me to take would be to export in 192khz 24bit. What format would be best to use, to share with people on a thumb drive? At what point is the sampling rate to high that it causes issues? How do you feel about sharing in different sampling rates in dedicated folders? Might be confusing to a causual listener.

Is a thumb drive going to be a more accessable medium to share audio for listening purposes than a CD?

 

[Room314]

Tough question. I don't know what's the best way. I guess giving a CD would elicit some strange looks from a young person, like WTF is that?

Well, I wouldn’t call myself young anymore, but yes. A couple of years ago I got a CD as a Christmas present (from someone younger than me, which is weird in itself). I had already given up CDs for years, so I tried to hide my surprise as best as I could... The gift was, of course, appreciated, and at that time I still had an older laptop with a CD drive, so at least I could simply rip it. Thankfully, it wasn’t a vinyl record or cassette (which probably would have surprised me less, given their recent comeback).

When it comes to sharing music with friends, nothing beats listening together, I believe. That’s something the lack of physical media can’t take away.

 

[Yasuo]

The FLAC sounded dull, cymbals wee muffled and bass didn’t go as deep.

Is volume normalization enabled?