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CD's sound great, i forgot.

Elkjær

pfm Member
So I have a large cd collection that i have not listended to for 6 years. Only listen to vinyl. But then an old love of mine poppede up on the used market in denmark. A HOLFI xara nfb cd player. I gave 70dollars for it and it is working sublime and looks great. How lucky am I? So now I have to admit that cd has it place in this world. They sound great, they Are small, they dont eaily break and they do not suffer the urge to zap around like streaming those. I have never been religios about format. But really happey to have two formats in cd and lp that are physical media and works so well. Really diggin the HOLFI sound. Sorry they do not exist anymore. But they were more into maling products than controlling their eclnomics:)
 
So I have a large cd collection that i have not listended to for years. So now I have to admit that cd has it place in this world. They sound great...

Yes, that's good news isn't it? Like you, I have a large collection of CD's but being a vinyl man myself, I don't play them very often. I can't resist buying them though , because used ones are such good value for money. When I have more time on my hands, I'll have great fun exploring the CD's sitting on the rack! The only thing I don't like is that CD's are too long; I always thought that 40 minutes was optimal.
 
Yes, that's good news isn't it? Like you, I have a large collection of CD's but being a vinyl man myself, I don't play them very often. I can't resist buying them though , because used ones are such good value for money. When I have more time on my hands, I'll have great fun exploring the CD's sitting on the rack! The only thing I don't like is that CD's are too long; I always thought that 40 minutes was optimal.

Strangest objection to CDs I have ever heard sort of like: "barkeep this beer is too tall for me, it just don't taste good".
 
Not a brand I’ve heard of before but looking at them, €70 seems a bit of a bargain.

I bought a Linn Genki for £100 and it sounds great, I’ve recently had to repair it and give it an overhaul but I got four years trouble free from it... and it was 15 years old when I bought it. The repairs only cost about £20 plus three hours of my spare time so it’s been the best sound per pound source I’ve owned. It resides in my dining room setup where it’s used daily. I do mostly stream in my main setup.
 
I've never quite understood the common hostility towards the CD, often in favor of records, as if one cannot enjoy both. I own and listen to lots of both media. Overall, I have a slight preference for (old) records mostly because as a physical cultural artifact, they certainly are more pleasing to handle and appreciate the artwork. But CDs aren't too bad either; they are much easier to play, store and maintain and are generally resistant to rough handling. They can and sometimes do sound better than their vinyl counterpart. What's not to like?

My only real fear is the continued availability/maintenance of good CD players over the longer term with the declining popularity of the CD and the inherent limited lifespan of lasers/transports.

As Still says, keep it quiet, and let those vinyl fetishists chase expensive records while the rest of us pick up bargain CDs!
 
I always thought CD was the best format invented, for the reasons mentioned above. Now I’m into streaming (with Roon in my case) I feel CD has been eclipsed by the added flexibility of HDD storage and the almost limitless music discovery opportunities of subscription services like Tidal and Qobuz. Having said that, CD is the most rugged and easy to use format out there. In comparison, getting good reliability and sound out of vinyl or PC audio is orders of magnitude more faff.
 
I've just started streaming, and at the moment I regard it more as background. If I have to get a cat off my lap, ease myself out of the armchair and go to a cabinet to choose some music, be it on cd or vinyl, I then find myself more focused on that music than if I have to merely prod my iPad.
 
I've never quite understood the common hostility towards the CD, often in favor of records, as if one cannot enjoy both.

I suspect a lot of it comes from old Linn/Naim systems etc which were so tonally tilted to sound good with a very over-warm LP12 as a source. In such a system CD sounded painfully thin, lean and bright. This is certainly what put me off and made me a late adopter of the format. Now I run far more neutral systems (I actually setup with CD and balance the vinyl to it) I love the format and have become quite an obsessive collector of well-regarded early CD masterings. I also very much like SACD.
 
I always thought CD was the best format invented, for the reasons mentioned above. Now I’m into streaming (with Roon in my case) I feel CD has been eclipsed by the added flexibility of HDD storage and the almost limitless music discovery opportunities of subscription services like Tidal and Qobuz. Having said that, CD is the most rugged and easy to use format out there. In comparison, getting good reliability and sound out of vinyl or PC audio is orders of magnitude more faff.

I started putting files onto a NAS so I can play them in various rooms more easily, and this works nicely. e.g. listening to an LP, then a cassette, when in the kitchen.

However I also still play CDs. One reason for this diversity was underlined a few weeks ago when *two* storage devices pined for the fyords in the space of a few days. One an old SSD, the other a fairly new spinning rust box. Hence I've had to spend a lot of time since getting new strorage devices and copying across TBs of files.

Sometimes making things easier requires tedious work. :)
 
I think cd will be with us for a while. It has various advantages in being an established physical media. It has been for some decades now.

Not all music fans are IT savvy and au fait with the likes of NAS and SSDs. A more conventional disc is more intuitive. People know what to do with them and the players are common place.

Another reason. Both the music industry and the punters love merchandise. Eg the after gig CDs sell well to audiences wanting a playable souvenir to take home with them.
 
Yeah i never understood the cd vs vinyl religion to. You can enjoy it both if hardware is good. I heard streaming via a Lumin device the other Day and that was also really cool. But I just Can not enjoy it the same way, when it is not a physical media. Sorry.
 
..., CD is the most rugged and easy to use format out there...

Plenty of my CDs won't play anymore. All of my records do. I look after both formats.

I would say that CD is least rugged format since the wax cylinder. Actually, the wax cylinders I have also play fine!

Part of the joy of the art of the album is the artwork. CDs are useless there and streaming is a much better option where you can have the artwork on an iPad or something.

But the format does sound good and has enable plenty of music to be released that could never have been economically viable on vinyl.

Stephen
 
CDs can sound amazing, and no surprise collectable ones are becoming more of a thing when you compare different masterings etc (one major downside to subscribed streaming IMO, especially for your absolute favourite stuff).

It will be interesting in ten, twenty years to see interest in the format and if new players are still being made.
 
All of My cds work just fine. Some of them from 1989 where we had our first cd player in the house. I think the case with streaming is also that i want to be free from having a Phone or ipad etc to look at:)
 
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CDs can sound amazing, and no surprise collectable ones are becoming more of a thing when you compare different masterings etc (one major downside to subscribed streaming IMO, especially for your absolute favourite stuff).

It will be interesting in ten, twenty years to see interest in the format and if new players are still being made.

This ^

It's one of the reason I keep hold of two CDPs and a spare transport, in case one player goes loopy on me.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the silver disc format, and SACDs are especially fine (with a good quality mastering). I would hope that my turntable and CDPs would see me through the rest of my days.
 
I don't own one CD that won't play anymore. That might happen if you don't store them right, but why should this be the case if they are stored in their case and only played in the CDP.

I agree with this in all the years I have played cds I can't remember one not playing & some are 30 + years old.

One of the main reasons a cd won't play is a dirty mech.
 


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