CD's sound great, i forgot.

[Nagraboy]

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

I've never had a CD not play anymore, apart from badly damaged ones. Wonder what happened to yours? As for the fragility of CDs, I don't know of any other format that can play just as well after years of use as on it's first play.

As for artwork, a CD still has artwork (and ofteb booklets too) and other than size is not worse than vinyl. Many LPs I have have poor quality card sleeves, which don't help the experience. Others have very nice luxury gatefolds etc, eg. Steve Albini's band Shellac. But it's the minority. Cover art with streaming is OK, but no better than a CD.

Ease of use, durability, low playback equipment cost and booklets are great things in CD's favour. It's just the flexibility of streaming that pulled me away.

 

[Fretbuzz]

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.

Transport mechanisms are the Achilles heal, and having had a couple go pear-shaped there's no way I'd spend decent money on one (CDP or separate transport unit) now without knowing it would be supported for a decent amount of time; or as you say have your own spare.

 

[Tony L]

I've never had a CD not play anymore, apart from badly damaged ones.

I have had a few go with the dreaded UK PDO plant disc-rot/browning, 1st pressings of Warp’s AI Series and Planet Dog being the ones that come to mind, e.g. Aphex Twin Selected Ambient II, FUSE Dimension Intrusion, Black Dog Bytes, Banco De Gaia Last Train 3xCD etc. All mint condition, stored well (no damp or excess humidity), but showing some degree of brown ingress from the outside edge of the disc that impacts the last track.

 

[lazycat]

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.

Same experience here. I heard Stan Curtis's player thru a Linn/Naim system(1983). Put me off CD for 10 years. I only bought a player because I had no choice - diminshing vinyl releases. More fool me - well, young me.

That said, it's taken til this year and my TEAC dac to finally be happy with digital.

 

[stephen bennett]

I have had a few go with the dreaded UK PDO plant disc-rot/browning, 1st pressings of Warp’s AI Series and Planet Dog being the ones that come to mind, e.g. Aphex Twin Selected Ambient II, FUSE Dimension Intrusion, Black Dog Bytes, Banco De Gaia Last Train 3xCD etc. All mint condition, stored well (no damp or excess humidity), but showing some degree of brown ingress from the outside edge of the disc that impacts the last track.

Same as Tony—mine are also stored extremely well. My Robert Wyatt and Friends still plays but has turned purple! The late '80s/early '90s CDs are the worst. Once it happens the CD is usually useless. Follow the link—it's a recognised problem. Just because you haven't experienced it, doesn't mean other haven't or you won't!

As for artwork, a CD still has artwork (and often booklets too) and other than size is not worse than vinyl...

Many LP covers are considered important works of art. Are any CD covers?

Other than size? LP reproductions at CD size are like seeing the Mona Lisa in person vs looking at it as a very tiny postcard IMHO. An iPad at least allows a view of something approaching size it was meant to be viewed at. I guess it depends if you think the cover art important or not.

As I said, CDs have merits. I just bought the Consequences re-release at a price much less than a five-LP box set would cost (no choice here though!)

Stephen

 

[chartz]

I have lots of CDs I bought from 1988, and only one has turned copper (a Decca sampler that came with a 1989 issue of HFW&RR).
But it plays fine.
Even my burnt CDs (1999 on to today) all play just fine, even on old 1982-3 players.

About 10 degrees in winter and 30 degrees in summer, for 30 years.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

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!

Argh! Did you not know that PDO Blackburn used to replace the flawed discs FOC? I got all my CDs that browned replaced by them decades ago! Alas, I suspect this replacement scheme ended long ago now.

But only a tiny fraction of the CDs I've bought got caught by that. The vast majority still play as well as ever. I bought a player and my first CDs the year the CD system was released in the UK.

 

[Stunsworth]

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've had a few that stopped working. It was a problem with a Blackburn pressing plant that meant CDs from there oxidised and wouldn't play. Of course they eventually solved the problem, but not before a lot of CDs had shipped. They all played fine at first, but deteriorated over time.

 

[Stunsworth]

But only a tiny fraction of the CDs I've bought got caught by that. The vast majority still play as well as ever. I bought a player and my first CDs the year the CD system was released in the UK.

Mine were mainly from Hyperion and they replaced them FOC. I found a few others when I was ripping everything to hard drive 10 years or so ago.

 

[matt j]

I'm of the age where CD should be very much 'my format', and yet it isn't. I grew up with it, all my music was bought on it and I listened to it religiously, until I heard a reasonable DAC and then I just ended up ripping them all and playing them back that way.

These days I don't even do that, I still have all that music on a couple of drives somewhere but I've not listened to them for some time now, it's either vinyl or Qobuz.

 

[Nagraboy]

I'm of the age where CD should be very much 'my format', and yet it isn't. I grew up with it, all my music was bought on it and I listened to it religiously, until I heard a reasonable DAC and then I just ended up ripping them all and playing them back that way.

These days I don't even do that, I still have all that music on a couple of drives somewhere but I've not listened to them for some time now, it's either vinyl or Qobuz.

So what equipment do you use to get Qobuz into the DAC? Before I got my Roon Nucleus I used my phone with TIDAL through WiFi to a Chromecast, the Optical output into an Arcam DAC. Very cheap setup and essentially what I still use now, just with the Roon Nucleus for TIDAL and my 2TB SSD.

 

[matt j]

So what equipment do you use to get Qobuz into the DAC? Before I got my Roon Nucleus I used my phone with TIDAL through WiFi to a Chromecast, the Optical output into an Arcam DAC. Very cheap setup and essentially what I still use now, just with the Roon Nucleus for TIDAL and my 2TB SSD.

Just USB out from the PC into the DAC.

 

[Rug Doc]

Cd’s are great! I have quite recently got all mine out of boxes and back on shelves in the house. It’s great to stand looking through the cases to decide what to play. So much better than your phone replacing YET ANOTHER THING!

I was home alone earlier, my kids came home (aged 8,5,3) and the eldest gave me a hug and asked if we could put some records on.... Yay. TV off, Phone down and looking through vinyl with them.

That’s what music should be about... not another thing on the bloody phone.

 

[mattgbell]

I've had a few CDs turn golden brown (texture like sun) -- they still play OK. But even if they didn't, it wouldn't matter, as I've ripped all of them. This for me is the great bonus of the CD format. You have a disc you can play, and you can also make a perfect immortal copy of it.

 

[Mullardman]

My problem ith CD is.. and always has been..not so much SQ, but finding the disc I want to play. By the time I have it, I've gone off the idea.

 

[Stunsworth]

My problem ith CD is.. and always has been..not so much SQ, but finding the disc I want to play. By the time I have it, I've gone off the idea.

That was my motivation behind ripping them all a decade or so ago. I can now find any instantly, and a combination of those ripped CDs, Qobuz and Roon make everything even better.

 

[Alex M]

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.

... and this was also the reason why some turntables didn't sound good next to a Linn in a Linn-optimised system. The Townshend Rock and the Pink Triangle were much more neutral decks than the LP12, and these could sound anaemic in direct comparison. I did wonder whether the Roksan Xerxes, which was certainly aimed as a direct competitor for the Linn, still had a little bass warmth specially designed into it for this reason.

Alex

 

[Darren L]

CD's are great given a decent CD player and generally a little - attenuation, very handy when working, cooking or otherwise engaged. I listen to both CD and cassette tape in my studio on a daily basis.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

I've had a few CDs turn golden brown (texture like sun) -- they still play OK. But even if they didn't, it wouldn't matter, as I've ripped all of them. This for me is the great bonus of the CD format. You have a disc you can play, and you can also make a perfect immortal copy of it.

Not quite "immortal", alas. Storage media dies.

 

[Mr Pig]

I've never quite understood the common hostility towards the CD..

Because, they often don't sound very nice?

If you have CDs that have deteriorated and won't play any more you might be able to save them. Copy the CD into your computer then burn a new disk from the file. Your CD player has to read the disk, more or less, in real time. The computer doesn't, so it will take the time to dig out and sort the information on the disk and you end up with repaired file. I've done this with about a dozen disks that skipped or crashed and it worked every time.