Recordable CDs - HELP!

[Philbo King]

I used to own a 6k CD player and more than one expensive CD burner. My workstation now is the only CD player and recorder and most importantly rip device I own.

Just let go of CDs, recordable or not, as a medium for playback.

Agreed on this. Less fodder to slowly rot in the landfill.

 

[Wolf]

No, and you can't make me...

 

[beeface]

I'm hooked on CDs, especially now that I have a source for pristine ten cent classical CDs. And my CD player is a Sony Blu-ray player that also plays SACDs that set me back all of $8. I couId play my DVD-A discs on it if I wanted to. looked at Ebay today to see if similar players are still available for similar prices, and they are. Although I understand the attractions of streaming, so far I've encountered dropouts when streaming on my computer. Every now and then I'll listen to something from YouTube, but most of the time if I want to hear music, I'll play a CD.

If you already have the player and the media, I do see the appeal of sticking with what you have tbh.

The "modern" approach would be to rip your CDs to a PC or local server, then use software for playback.

There's pros and cons to each approach. Even though CD playback is far less popular these days, I actually don't think there's a right or wrong answer.

When you add CD burning to the equation it starts to make less IMO.

 

[pablolie]

I'm hooked on CDs, especially now that I have a source for pristine ten cent classical CDs. And my CD player is a Sony Blu-ray player that also plays SACDs that set me back all of $8. I couId play my DVD-A discs on it if I wanted to. looked at Ebay today to see if similar players are still available for similar prices, and they are. Although I understand the attractions of streaming, so far I've encountered dropouts when streaming on my computer. Every now and then I'll listen to something from YouTube, but most of the time if I want to hear music, I'll play a CD.

Anything from youtube is not ever a valid argument against streaming. It is no secret their quality is compromised aka compressed. If you get 256k out of it you are very lucky.
And I am talking about a locally held library of FLAC lossless files. Zero audible compromise there.

 

[Robin L]

If you already have the player and the media, I do see the appeal of sticking with what you have tbh.

The "modern" approach would be to rip your CDs to a PC or local server, then use software for playback.

There's pros and cons to each approach. Even though CD playback is far less popular these days, I actually don't think there's a right or wrong answer.

When you add CD burning to the equation it starts to make less IMO.

I ripped about 1600 CDs to two USB drives. The one attached to a computer got corrupted and lost a few titles, not a lot fortunately. The other storage is on a tiny chip in a Digital Audio Player. I filled both up. These are .5TB storage devices, filled with apple lossless files. So, if I want something that's not already in the collection, don't really have the option of sending it to what passes for a server, in my case. And I'd rather not tie up the computer playing music, though I often used the DAP for music playback. But lately, I've been playing CDs more.

 

[Robin L]

Anything from youtube is not ever a valid argument against streaming. It is no secret their quality is compromised aka compressed. If you get 256k out of it you are very lucky.
And I am talking about a locally held library of FLAC lossless files. Zero audible compromise there.

Yeah, but I was streaming from other sources when I experienced these problems. Like Amazon Prime. And I've heard good and bad YouTube streaming. But like I already said, I'm happier with CDs these days. My locally held library of Apple lossless files suffered from a little data corruption, though the back-up of those files didn't.

 

[mvleff]

Oh dear me, so many perfectly valid and very different opinions. What I deplore is the tunnel vision that rejects the possibility that what is sauce for the goose may not be sauce for the gander. For instance: I love using thumb drives when it suits me but there are ways that a "legacy" component CD recorder allows for far greater flexibility. Mind you, I'm not a studio technician but can you imagine telling one that they should limit their work to what they can accomplish with a USB stick?! It's clear from the range of responses that CDs are far from a dead medium. Respect, please! Without rejecting changing technology, there are very good reason for preserving some of the old. Why do you think we still have vinyl? I don't have too many years left ahead of me and I'm damned well not going to abandon what suits me (and apparently no small number of other folks) until it truly looks like a lost cause.

 

[beeface]

I ripped about 1600 CDs to two USB drives. The one attached to a computer got corrupted and lost a few titles, not a lot fortunately. The other storage is on a tiny chip in a Digital Audio Player. I filled both up. These are .5TB storage devices, filled with apple lossless files. So, if I want something that's not already in the collection, don't really have the option of sending it to what passes for a server, in my case. And I'd rather not tie up the computer playing music, though I often used the DAP for music playback. But lately, I've been playing CDs more.

Yeah, these are definitely real issues.

One might argue that the "correct" or "ideal" way to store ripped music is to build a dedicated server with RAID redundancy. The problem with this is that it involves a lot of money, effort and time.

And then one might say "what if the server burns down? The redundant drives won't help you then". So you start to look into a subscription-based cloud storage solution for off-premises back up - further costs.

Like I said, I do see the appeal of sticking with a CD collection if you already have it.

 

[Robin L]

Yeah, these are definitely real issues.

One might argue that the "correct" or "ideal" way to store ripped music is to build a dedicated server with RAID redundancy. The problem with this is that it involves a lot of money, effort and time.

And then one might say "what if the server burns down? The redundant drives won't help you then". So you start to look into a subscription-based cloud storage solution for off-premises back up - further costs.

Like I said, I do see the appeal of sticking with a CD collection if you already have it.

Last time I counted I had around 800 CDs. Got 46 more last week. One big, fat box has all of Beethoven's compositions on 85 CDs. There's around 80 SACDs. I know that there's no point in trying to sell any of them. Might as well play them.

 

[restorer-john]

The TDK CD-Rs are fine for playback on your standalone CD-Recorders, even if you recorded them on a PC/External CD-ROM, but you wont get the standard CD-R (data)s recording on your Pioneer.

Some standalone CD-recorders could be 'tricked' by removing the CD-R (consumer audio) after it's done the laser burn power calibration (rec/pause) by manually opening the drawer or lifting up the chuck and inserting a CD-R (data) from the same company (TDK-TDK, SONY-SONY) but that doesn't work on all machines.

One thing about ASR is members just cannot resist telling you how you should be listening, recording and generally consuming your music and what media (if any) you should be using (according to their group think policy). Just ignore anyone who doesn't answer your question is the best policy.

And for those who think the CD format is dead, just tell Yamaha. They've just introduced a 5 disc player, like their ones from the early 90s (with USB too). They now have 4 in the range.

 

[Chrispy]

I used to burn my own cds when I used them in vehicles and wanted to keep the originals at home....but that's been a while (a thumb drive in the car now). I probably still have a good supply of CDRs to burn getting dusty, dvd's too. Never heard of a "music" CDR....

 

[Chrispy]

I used to burn my own cds when I used them in vehicles and wanted to keep the originals at home....but that's been a while (a thumb drive in the car now). I probably still have a good supply of CDRs to burn getting dusty, dvd's too. Never heard of a "music" CDR....nor had much in the way of issues in burning/using them, I used a coupla brands including Maxell. What was useless about the Maxells you referred to?

 

[Ifrit]

Never heard of a "music" CDR...

CD-R marked "For Audio" have the marker stamped in them, allowing consumer (standalone) CD recorders to record, regular CD-Rs that do not have that marker wouldn't be able to be recorded in those.

 

[Chrispy]

CD-R marked "For Audio" have the marker stamped in them, allowing consumer (standalone) CD recorders to record, regular CD-Rs that do not have that marker wouldn't be able to be recorded in those.

Just never heard of that. I always just used a drive in my computer to burn discs. So your hardware is deliberately crippled?

 

[mvleff]

The TDK CD-Rs are fine for playback on your standalone CD-Recorders, even if you recorded them on a PC/External CD-ROM, but you wont get the standard CD-R (data)s recording on your Pioneer.

Some standalone CD-recorders could be 'tricked' by removing the CD-R (consumer audio) after it's done the laser burn power calibration (rec/pause) by manually opening the drawer or lifting up the chuck and inserting a CD-R (data) from the same company (TDK-TDK, SONY-SONY) but that doesn't work on all machines.

One thing about ASR is members just cannot resist telling you how you should be listening, recording and generally consuming your music and what media (if any) you should be using (according to their group think policy). Just ignore anyone who doesn't answer your question is the best policy.

And for those who think the CD format is dead, just tell Yamaha. They've just introduced a 5 disc player, like their ones from the early 90s (with USB too). They now have 4 in the range.

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Delightful, your post. Especially the bit about so many ASR members having the holy grail of how we should all best enjoy our music.

And you refreshed my memory as to the fact, I believe, that the data CDRs that play on component units were recorded from computer files via external burner, NOT on a component unit.

In part, I'm having to reinvent a wheel, re-climb a learning curve, finding myself in a place defined for some years by serious health challenges and not being very actively engaged with my serious love of music and minor obsession at times with gear and the process of building a modest library.

And I'm just now recalling that my solution to one of my more sticky problems involves using TDK Music CD-RWs. I still have a decent supply of those, purchased before the cost skyrocketed over the years to the bank-busters they are now.

Thanks again, Restorer-John

 

[Chrispy]

I'd think you could buy a usb connected recordable cd drive for maybe $40? Or would the player still be an issue? Do you need to actually play cds or would a file be okay?

 

[restorer-john]

So your hardware is deliberately crippled?

It was the compromise the hardware makers had to accept to bring standalone component CD-recorders to market. A levy on the 'consumer' audio media. It's just a flag on the disc in the lead in/TOC area.

Tascam professional machines and Marantz Professional, maybe Denon didn't have the limitation.

Was like SCMS with DAT. It was switchable on the pro-units and digital to digital dubbing was not limited to one generation.

 

[Chrispy]

It was the compromise the hardware makers had to accept to bring standalone component CD-recorders to market. A levy on the 'consumer' audio media. It's just a flag on the disc in the lead in/TOC area.

Tascam professional machines and Marantz Professional, maybe Denon didn't have the limitation.

Was like SCMS with DAT. It was switchable on the pro-units and digital to digital dubbing was not limited to one generation.

Thanks, just never saw the need for a component like a player/recorder.

 

[restorer-john]

And I'm just now recalling that my solution to one of my more sticky problems involves using TDK Music CD-RWs

That's what I did at one point. Record on the music/consumer CD-RW, on the dedicated component recorder, and then erase and re-use.

I've got a Yamaha CD-HD1300e which has the onboard 120GB HDD and CD-Recorder (R/RW) with the AMQR. Doesn't get used anymore, but it was a solid machine, albeit with the most annoying title editing for the stored music. Primitive by modern standards, but a great CD recorder as you could go from line in to the HDD or the CD-R or I think both. Easier to edit on the HDD and then burn the disc, either via analog (limitless copies) or digital (one copy-move, unless it was an analogue source, then you got a few more copies) SCMS at its worst.

I was never a pirate or recorded anything much live/musicians, so it was just another digital recording toy I had to have.

 

[Robin L]

This is something like the CD burner I used for over a decade, might work for you:

Amazon.com