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The CD revival thread

My son is now ready for his spiny thing. What should I advise. He’s just bought his house so he’s not replete with money. Where should he start. He also needs a phono amp. But budget.What’s best budget?
 
paulfromcamden said:
Me too. As a jazz fan (great!) I love all the details about old records from the 1950s and 60s - the sleeve notes, the different ways the sleeves were constructed, the marks in the runout groove, the interesting graphic design on the rear sleeves of old French LPs etc etc. All part of the experience as you say.

I even like the smell of old sleeves ...and even better so does the cat! When a new (old) LP comes into the flat she likes me to hold it out for her and she'll spend a happy minute thoughtfully sniffing the length of the spine : )
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I used to love much of that too but it’s hideously overplayed. I mean, yeah, on first play I might have spent an age reading and inspecting. After that, hardly at all. It played near zero part in the subsequent experience.
 
webster said:
If you're referring to the excellent Innuos Sense App I think you probably need to look closer to home for the real problem - it really is plug & play.;)
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yes sadly could not get on with it for whatever reason .my sonos app just loaded so easily but could not live with this one as it often failed to load .maybe a tech issue but cds are so easy to use that i stuck with that
 
Mike Hughes said:
I used to love much of that too but it’s hideously overplayed. I mean, yeah, on first play I might have spent an age reading and inspecting. After that, hardly at all. It played near zero part in the subsequent experience.
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Agree that there's an awful lot of balls written about vinyl - especially by folk coming to it for the first time.

For me, I just like records. I guess it's a bit like the way I prefer an old paperback I found nosing round a secondhand bookshop to reading exactly the same book on a kindle. No real logic to it except maybe an aesthetic preference - just horses for courses innit : )
 
Del monaco said:
My son is now ready for his spiny thing. What should I advise. He’s just bought his house so he’s not replete with money. Where should he start. He also needs a phono amp. But budget.What’s best budget?
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got an a75 and mint barely used cd6007 here if of interest
 
Exactly how I feel. I don't really like shopping online for records or CDs; prefer visiting physical stores selling used records. It takes effort and is time consuming (or time wasting, depending on your perspective) but I enjoy it - the digging around, finding a gem, chatting with the store owner etc.

It's also why I feel a bit resentful that records have become this cool, fetishistic, collectible object, making everything oh-so-precious and expensive. It's an object that is to be listened to and enjoyed, not something that serves to "signify your coolness" (in the words of Questlove).

I like CDs too, always have and I continue to buy them. In fact, I'll probably buy more now that records have become ridiculously overpriced.

paulfromcamden said:
Agree that there's an awful lot of balls written about vinyl - especially by folk coming to it for the first time.

For me, I just like records. I guess it's a bit like the way I prefer an old paperback I found nosing round a secondhand bookshop to reading exactly the same book on a kindle. No real logic to it except maybe an aesthetic preference - just horses for courses innit : )
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Tony L said:
I’m finding a lot of stuff these days is only available on vinyl or download. No CD option. Some significant labels too e.g. Gondwana etc. Annoying when one wants a physical copy but doesn’t want to drop £30 on the record.
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This is precisely why I ended up buying a turntable: I grew up on CDs and they're still by far my preferred format, but my music tastes are very niche and the artists increasingly offer a limited edition vinyl as the only physical release alongside a download. I will NEVER pay for a download because what I pay for I want to actually own and hold in my hands, so my options are severely limited by my pride...

When a cd is offered it's always my go to purchase. And I love how the new cd releases are the only thing that hasn't gone up over the years: 20 years ago I'd expect to pay £15 for a brand new cd release. Nowadays I love that it's closer to £10-12, at least for the music I listen to.

Most convenient format, sounds incredible, and now even cheaper: win, win and win!!!
 
For me it is CD from day one.
I have been collecting them for more than 30 years (counting 4500+) and still buying a lot (mainly on Discogs) from jazz to rock, ethnic and classical,
Streaming is only for background listening and finding new music.

It is absolutely perfect: small and light, physical, robust, packed with information, and great sounding - a good cd player or dac really helps a lot. Something serious like Naim, Rega, Musical Fidelity, Audio Note and that’s it.

No warping, pressings issues, dust and detail cleaning, heavy storage, and a nightmare to buy online specially second hand...
Recently I have decided to sell my complete analogue front end.

LONG LiVE THE CD :)
 
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Roy trigwell said:
Do cd’s deteriorate over time.



I did go through a period of streaming ripped cd files. I came back to listening to cd’s via a transport and dac. Glad I did, for me the sound is much more enjoyable.
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It is, and people are waking up to the fact now that the novelty and associated hype of streaming has passed.

It isnt just 1s and 0s. Noise finds its way into the analogue domain, more so with streaming.
 
naka said:
For me it is CD from day one.
I have been collecting them for more than 30 years (counting 4500+) and still buying a lot (mainly on Discogs) from jazz to rock, ethnic and classical,
Streaming is only for background listening and finding new music.

It is absolutely perfect: small and light, physical, robust, packed with information, and great sounding - a good cd player or dac really helps a lot. Something serious like Naim, Rega, Musical Fidelity, Audio Note and that’s it.

No warping, pressings issues, dust and detail cleaning, heavy storage, and a nightmare to buy online specially second hand...
Recently I have I decided to sell my complete analogue front end.

LONG LiVE THE CD :)
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This sums up my view on CDs. I kept my LPs long after I switched to listening to CDs for most of the time (along with FM) but eventually donated them to Oxfam after transferring some to CD-R if unobtainable otherwise. But I still have my turntable because it’s such a cool visual presence: a Michell Syncro with an SME 3009 - the latter an early one that I bought new to go with on a Thorens TD150. I should really sell it, but can’t quite bring myself to.
 
hockman said:
It's also why I feel a bit resentful that records have become this cool, fetishistic, collectible object, making everything oh-so-precious and expensive. It's an object that is to be listened to and enjoyed, not something that serves to "signify your coolness" (in the words of Questlove).
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I love the idea that I’m cool when I just bought two David Cassidy LPs. All for £7!
 
Still buying CDs. Most recently some of Hovhaness symphonies. (However most recent played is some of the Hendrix 'PPX Studio' recordings.)

I've not really bothered with ripping them all. Just done some for convenience and making them easier to find. Mostly, though, I play the CDs. Usually use an old Pioneer CD audio PDR-509 recorder/player as it plays discs that other players can't or struggle with. Well made CDs sound fine to me.
 
Been on a bit of a mission for a few months buying mostly 2nd hand CDs (already have vinyl equivalent but never play) along with a few new.
They get ripped to my server and sound just as good to me with the added convenience of easier accessibility.
Of the few hundred I've bought I think only one has failed to rip and to be fair was badly scratched and also looked like it might have been exposed to extreme heat.
The other advantage I've found buying 2nd hand is that quite often I end up with the original rather than the remastered (often worse sounding) version.
 
Piksky said:
This is precisely why I ended up buying a turntable: I grew up on CDs and they're still by far my preferred format, but my music tastes are very niche and the artists increasingly offer a limited edition vinyl as the only physical release alongside a download. I will NEVER pay for a download because what I pay for I want to actually own and hold in my hands, so my options are severely limited by my pride...

When a cd is offered it's always my go to purchase. And I love how the new cd releases are the only thing that hasn't gone up over the years: 20 years ago I'd expect to pay £15 for a brand new cd release. Nowadays I love that it's closer to £10-12, at least for the music I listen to.

Most convenient format, sounds incredible, and now even cheaper: win, win and win!!!
Click to expand...
I held off on streaming for ages. In hindsight that was a big mistake for many reasons not least of which is the ability to access new music. The other reason is better sound quality particularly via HiRes files. It’s much cheaper too if you are buying NEW music on a regular basis. As for ownership, I really don’t care - while it’s not as bulky as vinyl, 1000’s of CDs still take up space. I’ve just given about 500 to local charities. Let someone else enjoy them.
 
Theo said:
I love buying CDs as much as I enjoy collecting records. Bandcamp are usually pretty good at both, and on the odd occasion that they provide downloads only, I'll rely on streaming. Amazon is still a great source of cheap CDs, but I've also have great success on eBay.

I have got better at moving on items that I won't play again (or duplicate copies), because I really don't want to buy any more storage units:

fullsizeoutput_1a5f
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Lovely room from a fellow Lincolnshire living lad
 
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