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CD in 2024

Mike Reed said:
Besides, I no longer frequent charity shops as I used to because most have transmogrified into gift shops (in Norwich)
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Thats a relative wealth thing I'm guessing Mike. Here in Sunny West Lancs you can't move for charity shops crammed with tat
 
lencotweaker said:
I've been somewhat intensely focused on records and their replay over the last 30 years, and obsessively so in the last 10 years but I've found myself taking a break over the last few weeks in favour of CD! Despite me being a massive vinyl snob (its borderline insane the amount of record players and associated paraphernalia I have here), I've recently started to notice again the huge wall full of CD's I accumulated over the years. I've started listening to them again, even started buying again, and there are some absolutely gems to be had! I'm secretly enjoying them too. Theres real joy going on.

So here are a few observations that led to this:

- new records are stupid expensive and it galls me as a vinyl lifer who's bought records every week for over 30 years. Now that the vinyl revival in full swing, the marketing departments and rip off merchants are in overdrive I suppose I'm just getting properly tired of it all. And let's not even talk about new pressing quality.

-used vinyl is hit and miss. Ebay is a crapshoot. Discogs is only marginally better. In any case, what to even to buy? I've probably got most of the 'reasonably priced' back catalogue I really wanted already. The stuff I didn't get back in the day, especially from the 90's, is now insanely expensive.

-streaming. I have a pretty high end, Roon based, multi-room, streaming set up... and I never use it. I dunno, its either tiresome because it needs an update every single time I rarely use it or its broken and needs me to put my old 80's/90's geeky computer sleuth head back on, or the choice is just plain overwhelming. I only tend to use it if I'm aware of something new or intriguing and I want a quick listen before buying a physical copy.

-over the last couple of years I've been frequenting the charity shop CD sections. In between the seemingly endless Il Divo, Frank Sinatra, Robbie Williams and Dido CD's, there are some really great discs to be had for a quid a pop. 3 for a quid in some cases! I thought the quid I paid for 'World Party - Egyptology' yesterday was a proper little nugget of gold. Oh, and quite laughable armful's of classical CD's to be had. There is so much classical on those shelves I just limit it to major label discs and you just can't go wrong.

-CD's on eBay can also be stupid cheap. Most of the stuff I've bought over the last month or so is not even on streaming services, or on vinyl. The morning delivery from the postman is getting embarrassing!

So there it is, I'm being sucked back into a format I never really fell for in the first place and now I'm thinking about CD replay hardware again for the first time in over 10 years. What I have is sounding really good anyway, an old Denon DVD2900 as transport through Luxman DA-06 DAC on one system and a Naim CDX2 in the home office, but what does top class CD replay look like in 2024 if I wanted to get the best out of this format?

Its a bit of a Saturday night wine fuelled ramble but what say you? CD's in 2024?
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I am all in for the last 35 years, and still buying in a weekly basis! CDs all the way, baby yeah :)
Although I prefer to search titles on brick-and-mortar stores, for convenience and a wide range of choice, in the end, Discogs is my favorite place to buy. Sadly, shipping costs are getting insane…
Just need a serious CD player (or transport + dac) to get the most out of the silver discs.
 
I love cd's, second hand ones are almost free in many respects. New collector ones such as FTD Elvis releases are significantly more expensive but lovely things to have. The fact I spent over £3k on a new cd player is telling how much I rate them.
 
People here probably know that I am truly exasperated and put off by the effects of the 'vinyl revival'. My last few record reissues sounded poor, clearly sourced from poor digital files and needle drops. And at the princely price of $40 per record. Don't give me that "but records are analog, sound so much better than digital, they have nice large covers and are so much more tactile" BS. I couldn't care less - they are heavy, prone to damage and mould and take up a lot of storage and require more maintenance. And they've gotten ridiculously expensive. I mean, $30+ for a used bog standard pressing of Rumors?

So, I am loving my CDs. I passed a turning point last year. I've not bought as many CDs as I have during the last year (literally hundreds!). I just got a cheap used CD player for backup and am planning on sourcing laser spares for my CD players. I used to worry about having a lot of CDs but a dwindling choice of decent players. I don't think I need to worry ATM; fortunately many serious companies are still making and introducing new CD players.

But folks, let us not encourage others to buy into this shitty format please...;)
 
I wouldn’t say shitty. Flawed perhaps.
The ‘but it’s analogue’ argument doesn’t hold today.
It was the norm till 1980 or thereabouts, then everything turned digital anyway. The last analogue record I bought was Love Over Gold.
That was 42 years ago for heaven’s sake!
 
Countryman said:
For those of us who listen to classical music, cd offers many more benefits over vinyl.
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Agreed. I haven't listened to classical on LP since before the pandemic.

Before moving my classical vinyl on to a new home a few weeks back, classical represented about 14% of my then 7 linear metres of LPs, but more than 40% of my 25 linear metres of CDs. (I gave up counting albums decades ago, although nowadays Roon tells me I'm getting close to 6,000 on the NAS - but then Roon counts anything from a single to a 17 CD boxset as one album.)
 
Lurch said:
The charity shops here in Chichester do my head in when it comes to CDs, it's basically daily mail freebies, Now thats what I call music, Max Bygraves or Richard bloody Clayderman.
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Can't beat abit of Max, make wonderful frisbees.
 
I've been CD since 1985 . Player was expensive ( GBP 270 Yamaha . When that was 9 days take home pay ) and CD was a tenner each whilst LP were 6 quid . Still CD now . Three systems around the house . Bought a CD box set last week on Ebay UK . Got about 1000 CD . Play them in the Discovery 3 and the X5 E70 .
 
Darren said:
Thats a relative wealth thing I'm guessing Mike. Here in Sunny West Lancs you can't move for charity shops crammed with tat
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I suspect chazza economics is more complex than that. There are plenty of charity shops in posh parts of town like Kensington and Pimlico. Though they do tend to style themselves as 'boutiques' with prices to match their customers deep pockets.
 
My problem with charity shop, or any shop really, CDs is that my musical taste doesn't match the mainstream, so I rarely find anything. Maybe the odd classical CD, but even that is rare. I only found out about Barnardo's stopping because I was looking for a particular DVD.
 
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I had a Meridian 507 which I thought sounded OK, but when I tried Roon last year, Roon won and was improved again when fed through a Chord Mojo 2.

The LP12 sounds different and very enjoyable, plus looks lovely - all thanks to the OP ;-). So I still buy records, but I get the point, it's expensive and not always VFM.

I did buy a CD last week though and it does seem a shame to just rip it.

I would be interested to learn if a £1000 CD player today is much better than a £2000 CD player from 20 years ago now. I get the feeling they are only the price they are today because they are made in much smaller numbers. Although, that Rotel TD11 tribute looks stupid value if it sounds OK.
 
The problem was that CD players were used in systems that were tweaked for records to sound good. Often, cartridges had falling frequency responses, as many experienced back then. CD players seemed harsh but today when I listen to the first generation players (obviously restored) I find them rather sweet. Some early CD pressings were not very good – mainly analogue recordings bad digital transfers – others were superb.
I still remember the shock when I first heard Ms. Bush’s first album on CD! It sounded incredible back in the early 80´s, and still does today. I never listened to the record again.
 
Yes, CD is still very important in our household, and I still collect early pressings; and buy some new material, mainly classical and organ music.
 
halvis said:
I would be interested to learn if a £1000 CD player today is much better than a £2000 CD player from 20 years ago now.
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I have had an Arcam Alpha 9 c.d. player for a couple of decades, original cost about £1000

I have a roksan blak c.d. player, cost £2k+

The Roksan is better.
 
Old player vs new player, that's a whole new thread. There are those who believe that the early generation players can sound very good compared with the latest ones. The earlier ones tend to lack detail in comparison but provide much better musical flow. I used to think that cd players have only improved over time but I am beginning to doubt this.
 
hockman said:
Old player vs new player, that's a whole new thread. There are those who believe that the early generation players can sound very good compared with the latest ones. The earlier ones tend to lack detail in comparison but provide much better musical flow. I used to think that cd players have only improved over time but I am beginning to doubt this.
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Agreed, I am getting great results with old players, which use a CDM4/19 mech as digital transport.
 
halvis said:
I had a Meridian 507 which I thought sounded OK, but when I tried Roon last year, Roon won and was improved again when fed through a Chord Mojo 2.

The LP12 sounds different and very enjoyable, plus looks lovely - all thanks to the OP ;-). So I still buy records, but I get the point, it's expensive and not always VFM.

I did buy a CD last week though and it does seem a shame to just rip it.

I would be interested to learn if a £1000 CD player today is much better than a £2000 CD player from 20 years ago now. I get the feeling they are only the price they are today because they are made in much smaller numbers. Although, that Rotel TD11 tribute looks stupid value if it sounds OK.
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I had a lovely old Rotel 965BX that did so many things well. Sold it for a good price and bought a Rotel Tribute CD11. Did so many more things well and for very little extra money!
 
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