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Vinyl is not obsolete, Will CD become obsolete ?

Rasher said:
Think how unimaginable it was that LPs could disappear when the CD was first announced. No-one had a CD player and everyone had a record player, and moreover no-one had ever changed formats in any media from books to art to music or whatever, so changing a medium was itself an alien concept. But it happened.

The CD falls between two stools as neither being the digital access-anywhere-form-free media, or the tangible piece of physical art that the LP was so successful at. Good art, paintings, sculpture, antiques, demand careful handing and reverence, and that is why the LP stands as a piece of art - because it demands reverence and care, and will get damaged and worn, thus increasing its value as a personal item - not monetary, but personal.

The CD doesn't have a role now. The CD will certainly become obsolete, if it isn't already. I myself most certainly will not replace my CD player, but end up transferring my collection onto a hard drive when the time comes.
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Good post.

Of the two physical media, CD and Vinyl, the latter is certainly the more "special" of the two, for want of a better word.

However, let's keep in mind that assuming humans have been making music for the last 40'000 years (source), they have only used physical media for the last ca. 100 years (or 0.25%) of that time. So the use of physical media (at least WRT music) is a mere blip in human history, assuming that they will vanish almost completely in the next 50 years (and I think they will).


Cheers,
Samuel.
 
Disbeliever said:
Not worried, just curious I am unable to understand anyone having as many as 2000 CD,s especially Classical ones.
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Why are you unable to understand this?

To my mind, 2000 is 'more than is in most collections, but still not excessive' , and offers a good variety of listening.

With much less than 2000 albums, I'd be feeling I was listening to the same stuff over and over again.
 
Come on then, tell me.
Without going the whole way of getting the whole system together, and as I have the task of re-cataloguing my CDs anyway, what do I do, what software do I get, to rip my CDs at full weight onto a large external hard drive? Just to begin the process. I have all the hardware except a DAC.
What do I do? I even have a spare 1TB hard drive gathering dust.
 
Rasher said:
Come on then, tell me.
Without going the whole way of getting the whole system together, and as I have the task of re-cataloguing my CDs anyway, what do I do, what software do I get, to rip my CDs at full weight onto a large external hard drive? Just to begin the process. I have all the hardware except a DAC.
What do I do? I even have a spare 1TB hard drive gathering dust.
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Plenty of advice on this elsewhere, and probably a subject worthy of its own thread, rather than hijacking this one.
 
Although I agree with you, I've decided to comment on:

Minstrel SE said:
If cds were crap, Naim Rega and others wouldnt be making players. You cant write off 30 years of cd development as nonsense.
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Naim, Rega and others will make whatever sells. It's usually any company #1 rule. Sell to survive.
CDs don't really have 30 years of development. The standard was created and remained the same since. I believe we might had seen some evolution in the transport laser reading technology, but certainly not 30 years of it.
The evolution in digital processing is never lost because it continues to evolve either DACs have a CD laser reader available inside the same case or not.

Michael
 
I remember hearing that cassette is actually still a massive seller in India or China or somewhere. We might think it is dead, but in terms of worldwide sales it is not.

CD is a different matter I think, as the data on CD can very easily be moved to computer, unlike all the data on millions of vinyl and cassette.
 
Vinyl is obsolete. The fact that a few (and it is a few) enthusiasts continue to use it does not mean a lot.

Steam trains are obsolete, but there are enouggh enthusiasts out there to keep a few going.

CDs are also obsolete. All a CD is is a data store. And not a very good one at that. HDDs do the job better, & the cloud does it even better than that.

Chris
 
Mescalito said:
Vinyl is obsolete. The fact that a few (and it is a few) enthusiasts continue to use it does not mean a lot.

Chris
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It means a lot to those who want to continue buying their favorite music in that format. As long as the artists I'm interested in continue to offer their music on vinyl, I'm a happy camper.

What's popular or in vogue with the masses has never interested me all that much. Downloads and music services have and will be the future of music but there will likely always be a physical format as long as there's a sufficient market.
 
Tenson said:
CD is a different matter I think, as the data on CD can very easily be moved to computer, unlike all the data on millions of vinyl and cassette.
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Which might be a motivation for the music industry to obsolete the format.
 
John said:
It means a lot to those who want to continue buying their favorite music in that format. As long as the artists I'm interested in continue to offer their music on vinyl, I'm a happy camper.
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Even knowing that the master from where the vinyl came from is digital?
...and that you could possibly get an exact copy of it?

I know vinyl sounds really nice, but being manipulated by the industry doesn't sound so nice to me.

Michael
 
CD will go the same way as 8-track, audio cassette, DAT, mini-disc. Might take a few years, but it's possible that vinyl will outsell CD again at some point, at least in Western markets where online music options are present. Seems weird to me since I gave up vinyl as soon as I could possibly do so, but it takes all sorts :)
 
If something can keep the CD alive, it's the audio industry. CDs in the computer world are long "obsolete", newer systems are being made without CD drives (even desktops) and the only advantage CDs (or DVDs) have is (still) very low cost, compared to ie. flash thumbs. So if one needs to provide a digital version of ie. medical data to a patient, CDs are the new floppys!

For most people, though, ~$1 flashdisks from ebay are a better option.

Vinyl compared to CDs *can* have an advantage due to using a different technology. CDs compared to "streaming" don't have any advantage on a technical level. So yeah, CDs are becoming a category similar to vinyl when it comes to people using them.
 
John said:
It means a lot to those who want to continue buying their favorite music in that format. As long as the artists I'm interested in continue to offer their music on vinyl, I'm a happy camper.

What's popular or in vogue with the masses has never interested me all that much. Downloads and music services have and will be the future of music but there will likely always be a physical format as long as there's a sufficient market.
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The analogy with steam preservation groups is striking.

Chris
 
Until my CD player dies, I will continue to buy CD's. And I'd happily buy a 2nd hand replacment player as I can't be bothered with all this downloading streaming cobblers. Each to their own, but just seems a bit Emperor's new clothes to me. I don't think they will die out completley.
 
It’s just a matter of time before CD’s disappear sales are going down year on year though still higher than vinyl. Though if you have spent a lot on a CD player and have a large CD collection it’s not what you want to hear.
Digital streaming is the future so music can be put out for sale the way it was recorded and not compressed in to 16bits. Music industry should get it’s act together and outlaw the rally compressed music that’s out there for downloading. Did not realize just how bad it is until a work mate asked me to listen to a track. This made me listen to a few tracks before I told him why don’t you use lossless ? What is lossless he asked ? That proves a lot of punters have no idea what quality they are down loading.
 
Completely agree about all this download cobblers .... !!!!

It just sounds so clinical and precise comparer to my CD12 which manages to create a nice analogue sound from a CD .... much better !!

Emperor's new clothes me thinks !
 
If you download a file at 16/ 44.1 it will be the exact same data that is on the CD.
Keith.
Oh and then if you played that file through your Cd12 ( could you ) then it should sound the same ,providing Linn implemented the digital input correctly.
Keith.
 
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