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The case for CD over streaming, by Cyrus

awkwardbydesign said:
My wife reads on Kindle, while I don't. One thing I dislike about Kindle books, is I can't see what she is reading, or how far into it she is. If I glance over, every book looks exactly like very other, including the font. It distances the reader from others, I feel. And that's apart from any feelings about the physical nature of books.
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Books smell better.
 
I probably read more on the Kindle because I can read in bed without disturbing my wife. I do like real books, much better if you have illustrations as I read quite a bit of non-fiction. I've tried booklights but they still disturb her.

I think it is often a case of horses for courses, streaming has its uses and advantages in same way that ebooks have.
 
Recieved a package from Germany today with 7 mint CDs all in new jewel cases probably. Wrapped in those thin plastic jackets that have a flap with a sticky bit.

All 80s or early 90s first pressings, one even Japanese, no obi tho. Everything time warp, so good. Playing them now, great day. All for < €50.

I like CDs
 
awkwardbydesign said:
Naughty! And that denies the artist the extra revenue from his work. I buy and rip, but always keep the CDs.
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Except that these are price sensitive opportunistic purchases. I would not have bought these at new prices and already have some of them on LP. It's also not such a bad thing to be supporting charities. I do aso but new full price LPS and CDs for music I specifically want to own.
 
Robn said:
Except that these are price sensitive opportunistic purchases. I would not have bought these at new prices and already have some of them on LP. It's also not such a bad thing to be supporting charities. I do aso but new full price LPS and CDs for music I specifically want to own.
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I was referring to getting rid of them after ripping them. Illegal in the UK.
 
When streaming online music, you are obliged to a internet subscription + obliged to a online music provider. In other words, you are very dependent. What if you want to take a break for a while?

It just doesn't feel comfortable to pay for all this when you don't care. In the long term, vinyl and cd's are way more affordable and convenient unless you like to run after your tail like a mad dog.
 
I joined Facebook for the sole purpose of listening to the artist Fish who has been broadcasting on a Friday night. This year seen him producing his final album and being the storyteller he is it’s been fascinating listening to him talk about the process. We joined him when the vinyl samples arrived (1/2 speed masters) and he played them on his system (interestingly the vinyl now sold out first) and he’s also commented on his lack of knowledge of all things technical but how he’s had to get on board with the streaming platforms.

It can be a fascinating listen at times and a real insight into what’s involved in creating content in 2020 especially as an independent artist. From recording at home, dealing with packaging, distribution and of course getting the music out there to the general public via physical media and streaming. He’s been very up front about costs as well which is very refreshing.
 
Del monaco said:
They all have their merits. Just enjoy the music you have access to.
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Totally agree - I have Lp, CD (ripped to a server) and streaming options.

AndyU said:
That’s a fair point about the dependency on broadband, but were that to happen to me I would still have all the rips of the CDs I have bought, and the downloads I have bought, to keep me going. And Qobuz lets you have a few thousand tracks in a local cache for offline listening, so I could easily last 12 days! And what better time than lockdown to get round to ripping your cd collection!
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Qobuz deals with this easily, for £15 a month. Also its worth asking yourself that, out of the 1700 CD's you own, how often do you play them all?

Del monaco said:
I love handling vinyl and CDs but streaming came of age some time ago and is equally valid IMO. With cd quality streaming the gap is closed and now we have choice.Applications like Roon add a great deal to the experience. Vinyl and cds have survived whilst cassettes, MDs etc have fallen away, though I still occasionally listen to cassettes. Streaming is here to stay and music is where it’s at.
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Yep - and Roons playlists has introduced me to some really good stuff from present and past, that I'd not heard of previously - whether on the Radio or via friends/PFM.

Heckyman said:
I was comparing the use of streaming devices vs a CD player
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Did that - I compared Lp to CD to Innuos Zenith III streamer/server. Did it with older and more modern stuff. CDP was NAIM CDS 3, LP12 was Nima, Heed Quazar, DV XX2(so not shoddy). Loads of arguments here for how I did the comparison, so I'll leave it there.

TLS said:
When streaming online music, you are obliged to a internet subscription + obliged to a online music provider. In other words, you are very dependent. What if you want to take a break for a while?
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See above - example of use would be CD quality offline recordings via iPhone 11 into UE5's, or plugged into the car stereo. Once I've had enough of said recording, delete it and get another.
 
Andrew C! said:
Totally agree - I have Lp, CD (ripped to a server) and streaming options.
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Yeah. I have 'ripped' (me calling it 'recorded', but I'm just an old fart) most of my LP's to my computer, downloaded from here and there, I even, ocassionally record of the radio and I'm still playing my good old CD's. Actually, while listening to it the source is meaningless to me. If there was some kind of blind test, I probably wouldn't be able to tell what's what.

I'm just enjoying the bright new world.
 
gustav_errata said:
As for the difference between streamed bits and his home-ripped CDs, we don't know the providence of either of the files. Did he confirm that his rips are exact, bit-for-bit replicas of the CD? I would trust that the label puts a bit-perfect copy in the streaming platform before I trust that he ripped them 100% correctly.
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Nobody knows the providence of their music. Provenance is another matter.
 
When I was converting all my CDs to lossless (and verifying them) I noted that a few of them were in fact lost forever. Some form of internal imperfection that had affected the integrity of the seal and the substrate had tarnished it somehow and I could not verify the rip. CD in my view does not have the longevity we were all sold. At the time I went and bought duplicates of every album that had degraded and confirmed I got a good rip. The discs that were worst all seemed to be the ones with curved edges more than sharp edges FWIW. I guess someone will tell me I should have written to the record companies and asked for a fresh duplicate.

Now this was a few years ago. I can guarantee my lossless collection has remained bit perfect since then as I regularly replicate it to fresh backup devices etc. Meanwhile I DOUBT VERY MUCH that my CD collection is currently bit perfect as compared to the date I ripped them. It will have aged. Somewhere in there, one of the albums will now be toast. To be fair I can see the merit of buying a CD, then ripping it to lossless, and putting it on the shelf forever :) Very satisfying way to know you have a good audio file and you paid for it. And you get the fun of the physical media etc.

Oh and I have two cyrus CD players in the loft, both with phillips glass laser assemblies ( i think ) that have given out.

One day I might see if I can retro fit a more modern (and cheap !!) laser assembly with into one of them for kicks. Or maybe gut it and use it for a special shoe box project, or two shoe box projects :-O

Edit: actually a waaaay better idea would be to hack it to be a DAC and fit a streaming device where the transport was .... hmmmmm .....
 
gustav_errata said:
Well, some sources of bias there: a manufacturer of CD players wants you to buy a CD player (recognizing that Cyrus also sells streamers), and a record label makes more money from selling physical copies than from streaming their catalogue.

I don't buy the unsubstantiated argument that identical files streamed from different services will sound different. That needs a lot more explanation / evidence before it's believable.
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I agree

My understanding ....

Streaming companies have a number of supply chain platforms through which they can order content from publishers. When they order it they specify a number of parameters including resolution, formats, meta data spec, fade cuts, and more. This all happens through B2B systems and ordering UIs. And the platform they are ordering from looks to see if there a binary file "in stock" that matches the spec. If not, a new one will be transcoded from a master binary which will typically be a hi res binary sitting on a storage array somewhere. And when its ready they can retrieve their file or it gets pushed over ftp or similar.

So I can see how the binaries can be physically different because it will be down to these parameters and whether theres a sense of "use the defaults please". But once you are past the fade cut and into the track I would think a ( same format & rate) track from service A would sound the same as the same rate track from service B because frankly the streaming service didnt make the binary, the binary actually came from the same supply chain source associated with the record label. The binary would have been made using the same transcoder potentially with different fade cut parameters. Now if the binary is a different format (aac vs mp3 for example) then it will have been manufactured using a different transcoder and I could see how that might affect things.
 
Andrew C,

Sounds like a lot of effort digitizing your vinyl. That must have taken many man hours especially if indexing individual songs. Hats off to you!
 
Since acquiring a Node 2i and streaming from Tidal (hifi) in the last month, I have not played a single CD. Vinyl records, yes, every weekend.

But, I have yet to make a direct comparison between streamed content and CD. Given that I'm using the DAC on my CDP, it should be a simple matter of popping in the same album and comparing. I must do that this weekend and give the vinyl records a rest.
 
Streaming services can be great. For classical I'd suggest it's a no brainer. But there are many instances of previously issued CDs containing better sounding masterings than streaming services where Universal (or whoever) have handed them a later more compressed or limited version. I like streaming for trying new stuff but if I find there is a better version via a ripped CD or vinyl I prefer to listen to that.
 
Bob McC said:
In the UK ripping a CD whether you own it or not is a breach of copyright and technically illegal.
The right to make a digital back up for personal use was overturned by the high court in 2015.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-...-hard-drives-uk-high-court-says-10402163.html
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Is this still law though?

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/28B

According to discussion here https://www.quora.com/Has-anyone-ev...play-on-portable-mp3-players-or-other-devices it is not clear-cut.

Incidentally I feel this is relevant to the discussion as the transferability and resale value is a particular advantage of CD vs downloads.

Buying, ripping to keep, and then reselling though, is to my mind unethical.

Tim
 
My dac has spidf input for the streamer and I’m using aes for a transport. If I play a cd and stream the same from qobuz and switch inputs the cd is slightly cleaner sounding but very much recording dependent. As usual a good cdp will outperform a mediocre streaming setup and vica versa.
None of it beats my ARC 9 into a grounded grid amp for Stax cans though.
 
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