CDs or Streaming, take your pick? It's a false conundrum. I have tens of thousands of MP3s that I've culled from various sources: from YouTube downloads, Amazon Music, Pitchfork links, my own CD collection, artists' websites. These MP3s are on my hard drive, i.e. mine, scrubbed of any Digi-identification nonsense. When I drive to work, I load them at random on my lowly 29-dollar MP3 player, unconnected to anything but my unruly and unwieldy taste in music.
12
CD belongs to you forever. No risk of Apps providers remotely deleted your collection of songs.
26
At 67 I am not tech savvy; not proud of that but perhaps when I retire I'll catch up. Never had the time to create my own play lists. My 2008 Subaru had a 6 CD player. No SiriusXM. It was great. The 8 hour drive from here to Cleveland to see the grandkids allowed me to listen to many of the 100's of CD's I have. Our 2014 Forester had a single CD player, and that too was ok. I just had to change it more frequently.
Now I have a 2019 Jeep and to my horror, no CD player! It does have SiriusXM so I have tons of "my music" from the 60's (luv ya Cousin Bruce), 70's, Beatles, the Dead, Bluegrass, Sinatra, comedy. And there is the occasional song I haven't heard in ages that comes on, but I miss playing 'albums'; finding that nugget I haven't heard in a while - Nyro, Miles, Trane, BS&T, Al (not Alice) Kooper, Mayall, Cream; "For Emily where I may find her", the Dangling Conversation. "Old Friends", Joni.
So I went to Walmart, bought a $30 CD player and plugged into the AUX port.
Ahhhhh. I guess a smiling or contented emoji should go here.
21
No mention of the abominable sound quality of streaming? CDs are light years better sounding.
35
I have digitized my collection of CDs, but would never settle for Spotify, and the advertisement is only the smallest problem.
These streaming services have not idea about classical music. Unless you are asking for "Eine kleine Nachtmusik", they have no clue what you are asking (Try any part of Beethoven String Quartett Op. 135, Cleveland Orchestra and you will probably get an expression as if you asked your donkey about Quantum Chromodynamics). If it does find what you want, you can't specify the artist, and you can be sure it will only play the 1st movement, or start with the 3rd in shuffle mode. Really?
Another important reason is royalties: When buying CDs more of the royalties go to the artist. I may sometimes listen to something pirated. But if I like it and am halfway sure I want to listen to it again, I will always buy it.
21
The article doesn't even hint at what kind of CD playback system he's using. Seems like he would have mentioned it.
During a time of financial destress I sold a $10K LP playback system, and then an LP collection of more than 1500 records. Sad! Now, at 70, I am still "stuck" with extraordinary hearing. I have about 200 CDs of my favorite 60s and 70s albums, and a decent stereo. I hated the sound of CDs when they first appeared and they are still not up to LPs, but they are sure as hell better than compressed digital music streamed through heaven knows how many transfer points.
Another commenter hit the nail on the head: music is analog and so are LPs. Any digital reproduction of music is tainted at best.
12
I bought a Tesla. Of course, no CD player. I transferred all my music onto a USB stick, plugged it in and suddenly...tunes! And I still buy CDs.
3
If you want that privacy, don't forget to avoid Chromecast and Windows Media Player (et seq.) and smart speakers to play those CD's. Be sure to get a dumb CD player, too. While you're at it, rip the CD's to audio flac files and play them with VLC on a Linux machine, using a hi-def Bluetooth link to dumb powered speakers. Orwell problem solved.
6
I've stopped listening to music. I love it but I can't stand the barrage of musak, music, and other loud noises we're subjected to whenever we set foot in a store. I hate listening to the same idiotic messages on the phone while I wait for a customer care representative to assist me because "we care about your call". As a teenager and a young adult music used to relax me. Now, because of how noisy our daily lives are thanks to advertisers who have descended to using gas stations to push products at us while we fill our tanks, malls that flood the corridors with jangles and jingles, and the overall deluge of meaningless sound, music leaves me feeling tense.
I listen to the silence when I'm alone. I go birding and revel in the absence of canned music. I love hearing the wind, the bird songs, the chipmunks, the frogs, and the entire chorus that makes up a spring or summer day. I'll take the rhythm of a snowstorm over a good classical CD any day. It's a shame because I have some vinyl and CDs I used to love to pull out when I had the time.
11
If you have an intelligent device in your home, such as Alexa or Google Assistant, all your CDs, which tracks you play, and when you play them are all being learned.
3
High bitrate mp3 is good quality portable music with none of the tracking or privacy concerns of streaming.
Even when iTunes first came out I couldn't believe how dumb and naive my friends where who chose to pay for music without the ability to play it wherever they might want to...!
6
I just dropped about $300 on cds and probably have about 3000 + total. Recently on a Miles Davis spree. I love the sound of a well produced cd thru a decent sound system and room treatment so I hear the music and not the room sound...The bad news is a lot of the cd back catalogue of artists is going out of print and becoming rare. Along with the box sets, etc. Good luck trying to get Linda Ronstadt Get Closer on cd. It is sad how music is all disappearing to the cloud and the corporations.
13
I just purchased a new album released on microcassette by a small Welsh label. Microcassette, not “compact cassette” (although plenty of new music come out on those still). I also listen to vinyl, cds, and various sound file formats, depending on the context. Fidelity is relative and an illusion, to each there own.
1
I go back and forth between buying music from iTunes, streaming music or buying the CD. It depends on the music and artist. CD's take up space, and sometimes I don't want to deal with it. Streaming is a good deal for renting, but I still like owning music and never gave up on the CD over the years. The sound quality of iTunes and CD are nearly equal to me, I really can't tell the difference anymore, I doubt most people could if their life depended on it. I do rip my CD's to Apple Lossless (as well as AAC) however, for archiving the files. I see Hi-Rez Audio as the latest snake oil, it simply sounds "better" because you spent a ton of money on audio equipment and downloads...that's it.
1
i recently borrowed a USB turntable and ripped my modest vinyl collection to digital. a real oddball collection from my youth - rev gary davis, john maclaughlin, Stefan Grossman, elmore james.....One album to one huge MP3 - No fast forwards, no shuffles allowed. just one listen, start to finish.
and then I have away the LPs.
that plus my collection of some 150 Leo Kottke MP3 tracks and 600 This American Life episodes and I am good to go.
3
Not hard to get why people love the tactile and collector’s enjoyment aspect of CDs and LPs in our ever-more digitized world. But as a life-long minimalist and mega music fan, I really love Tidal. They have master track/uncompressed versions of many albums (as good or better than CD quality), pay a bit more to artists for royalties than other services, have production and performer information for almost every song/album, and often have well written reviews of the albums available. I know it’s pricey, but for someone who loves hi-fi yet dislikes having lots of stuff, it’s worth it. CDs are great too though!
6
Thanks so much for writing this, for two reasons: 1) for letting me know I'm not such an old fogey weirdo for preferring cd's; and 2) for that photo taken at Academy Records in Manhattan. It brought back many happy memories of hours spent discovering music there at reasonable prices - a lot of which are still in my collection and still loved.
14
CDs and vinyl are my one-and-only preference for music listening, aside from excursions on YouTube for music videos and identifying rare singles/remixes. The tactile joy of holding the discs/records and reading the liner notes create an incredibly relaxing atmosphere. I don’t listen to music as background filler, but as a legitimate experience of growth, surprise and joy.
16
I have been buying classical cds since they first emerged, and now have many thousands, all shelved and catalogued in my typically obsessive fashion. I can find what I want to hear in almost no time, even though the cds are in 4 different rooms in my house. I have zero interest in streaming, and am horrified at the sloppy and casual way classical music is offered in that medium: often no booklet is provided (so how can you learn about the music and the performers?); and movements of symphonies etc are referred to as "songs"... I waited for cds to be invented from the time 78s gave way to LPs, and am very happy with my vast and greatly enjoyed library... (Who I leave it all to is a problem, however.)
34
You wrote what I was just about to write. Thanks!
4
CDs still my preferred method. All my friends make fun of me. Meanwhile I have all the music I want. They are paying monthly fees for service after service. I also like to look through the book with a bottle of wine and the music playing. I like to read the lyrics and see who is playing the instruments. I also know things my non-CD friends don't know - like the actual names of the songs! Viva CDs!
43
It might be his job, but his life sounds way too complicated: "regularly poking around on about a dozen apps."
I never stream music myself. It's either CDs directly or CDs ripped (at 256 kbps, ie, pretty good fidelity), with only the tracks I like, played on an MP3 player while gardening, walking, washing dishes, etc.
Simplicity has its virtues.
10
Why play a music CD? Good luck navigating your smart phone in your car as you bounce between different apps, looking for what you want to play.
Don't forget that actually futzing with your phone as you drive is now against the law in many cities (for good reason, distracted driving kills).
Don't forget that streaming costs money, not only for the subscription to the services, but also a data plan for your smartphone. And it requires a constant Internet connection.
And then, as noted in the article, there are the privacy concerns. Although I'm not sure that it matters to anyone that I listened to Warren Zevon's "Excitable Boy" record (streamed) on the drive home the other day.
At home, I'll just pull a record off the shelf and play the thing. Simple, effective.
15
I like streaming public radio like RadioParadise in FLAC format and use DEEZER also in 16/48 FLAC. Buying used CD has gotten pretty cheap so I still do that a little as well. And the DACs have gotten really good now and reasonably priced so the sound quality is good. It's really fun to go to the record store and look for used vinyl which is from the 60/70/80s which is tolerably priced. New vinyl is a ripoff so I don't do to much of that although I do splurge on a Mobile Fidelity Sound lab on occasion. The bottom line, no matter the source format, is taking the time to stop being in a Mind Full state and be in a Mindful state, stop sit down and really listen to the music. It really is therapy.
2
@Jobie-won kenobi
The 2 tangible reasons I prefer electronic reproduction of sound vs. the "real thing" (i.e., a CD), is space.
My wife and I love certain BBC crime series (Morse is a prime example). It is a easier to pop a DVD into a player and hit the Play button that to turn on my computer, change to the Cloud, find the correct program, and then to hit the necessary keys to Start it. But ... there quickly gets to be a space issue. CD's, etc., require a plastic cover, plus a piece of furniture to contain them. My reasons are a bit individualized, but real to us. Maybe somebody in the industry will read this and "invent" a disc capable of holding a lot more data than is presently available AT a price which will make them attractive to everyone in the chain from producer to listener/viewer.
1
@SRH - I have had one of those for a few years now. One day, my old roommate the computer geek brought me a gift from the store shelves where he worked - an external hard drive that I think holds 500 gig. I don't remember because I have saved all of the digital photos that I do for photography along with all of my music and I have not made a dent in the thing. It is the size of a paperback and is lightweight as can be. I have never understood why people keep wanting to keep their stuff on someone's "cloud" when storage is and has been so cheap.
3
You can have CD quality without the CD. Correctly configured Exact Audio Copy (it's free) in secure mode with AccurateRip will create perfect copies of a CD. You can easily have your entire music collection on one hard drive and keep it in WAV format for maximum compatibility if required, just make sure to create a mirrored image backup on a second drive.
1
@Ben Adams I hope you realize that CDs reduce the original music by striping the upper and very lower frequencies. The counter argument is that you cant hear these anyway, but while you may not be able to perceive hearing them, your brain still gets the information and processes it; which may be why vinyl purists feel CDs are sterile compared to vinyl. I mostly listen to LPs, Some music comes only on CD, so I still buy them. I also have ripped all my CDs (at one time > 700) as well as the vast majority of my LPs (probably 1000 of my 1200 so far) I use a loseless format and stream in my car (via carplay) or in the house for a party or to my backyard oasis. The rest of the time I play LPs either on my main living room set up, or in my office smaller setup (I'm ripping Some Girls as I type this)
2
I was into Napster, Limewire, and the early version of iTunes. I still listened to CDs. I'm not into streaming services. I tried them for a few years and then found a few great radio stations and stream those: krcb, wwoz, kxpr, and folk alley radio. I like my music curated by a real time DJ. I buy a lot of vinyl and don't really listen to CDs anymore.
2
I still listen to my CDs for just these reasons. Love them.
12
As a life-long jazz listener, I value LPs and CDs because they (usually) have the discographical information that I need – especially for my radio program (Gifts & Messages with Dr. Jazz, available on allaboutjazz.com). Who does digital booklets other than iTunes? When I was young and poor, I spent hours in Sam Goody's and the Lincoln Center library in NYC just reading liner notes on LPs, learning about the players. For music that I REALLY value, I want to own it physically.
30
The article makes no mention of sound quality. Audiophiles enjoy the quality of a recording as much as the actual music. Apple and Spotify are painfully compressed for the discerning ear but probably ok for most. Tidal is a significant step above and I find that creating my collection is far simpler than locating a CD on a shelf. A lot super audio discs are available. This is a whole different experience. Streaming Sirius XM in a high fidelity setting is also excellent. The more I listen the more I appreciate the original master recording. A great format cannot make a poor mastering better but it can make a great mastering sublime.
12
I'm another fan of CDs. Yes I listen to XM, streaming audio sources, etc. Some times I hear something new, something I like .... I stream it again. If I really like it I buy the CD if it is available.
I have a very good system and like the sound of CDs. Yes I have vinyl and a good player but face it vinyl wears out and ages, yes to a mellow sound. I prefer CD sound.
Nothing is better than reading the CD cover and info, dimming the lights, turn up the sound and enjoying!
17
Heck yes. CDs that come with artwork, lyrics, credits, etc. in an album format. It creates an association to remember the music, and the album an experience. Digital streaming music is much more forgettable. I also like knowing some service can't take my music back, or discontinue streaming a song. Most importantly for those of us interested in the music of the world, streaming services are unbelievably parochial, nationalistic, and anglo-centric. I listen to music of Cuba, Turkey, Angola, Morocco, Okinawa, etc. none of which is available to stream. A Brazilian artist I enjoy has 1 song available to stream in the US, while she has 280 million "views" on YouTube. American music is mostly boring.
14
CDs? I’ve got plenty, many of which despite being kept in a climate controlled room have had the thin aluminum coating corrode, I was really surprised ho fragile they are, and to my ear they always sounded clinical and harsh. My LPs on the other hand, many bought in the late sixties all work the same as they did when new, I always handle them carefully, never touching the surface. Your CD certainly does use a algorithm, it’s a digital format. The LP is a straight analog system, especially when amplified by tubes. Big bonus is that there is absolutely no compression, MP3s are a commercial bastardization to save a few cents. Even with my aircraft jet engine damaged ears, I can hear the difference.
Cassettes were laughable when they were the latest “leap” in technology, they only place they deserved to be was in a car. The sound quality is crap, being two sided each channel was crammed onto at most 1/16” of tape moving at 1 7/8 ips. Hardly much room for information.
4
For the dwindling number of us folks who have a good stereo system and appreciate the way it sounds, there are options better than CDs. These include high-quality vinyl (such as 12-inch 45-rpm disks) and high-resolution digital streaming. The vinyl route is expensive and too fussy for my taste. I like the convenience of hi-res streaming of 24-bit FLAC format files and MQA-encoded recordings streaming from Tidal. (Other streaming services should get on the MQA wagon.)
Hi-res digital music has been available for purchase and download for several years; I now find it irritating to pay for a CD when I can't find a recording I want in hi-res. And when I do buy a CD, I rip it to a FLAC file on the PC where my digital music lives.
Better quality, arguably up there with the best vinyl. Convenient. Artists get their cut. Playlists if you want to build them. No ads. No AI listening in. Just gorgeously reproduced music, what you want when you want it.
5
I am sort of going back to CDs. I can't take the unreliable optical media, but the sound quality, the complete artistic expression of the artists, and the information provided on the physical disc and packaging make it will worth purchasing CDs and converting them to a lossless file format (FLAC or ALAC).
The improvement in sound quality from compressed audio to a CD or a lossless copy of a CD is significant, especially with high quality modern digital to analog converters.
The other issue is more subtle: streaming inspires artists to produce music that is catchy, that hooks you, and that gets you to play the song on repeat. An album, on the other hand, can be a more complicated work of art. An album can be pleasant or challenging. It can be an hour you want to repeat over and over, or it can be a profound experience that you appreciate only one time.
Finally, I want to own the music. I want to know that in 20 years I will not be buying or renting the same music again. I don't have to repurchase the music of my childhood and college years to enjoy it in high quality today, but I do have to repurchase or purchase many of the albums I have enjoyed for the last two decades, and only have low quality mp3 versions of.
14
I have an extensive classical CD collection of which I've ripped most listened to items to iTunes for car and portable listening. I only download music which I know I will rarely listen to - mostly out of cost considerations. My preferred platform is Blu-Ray audio on my near audiophile system, especially in surround sound. Sound quality is best and I do hear the difference. Wagner's entire Ring on one disc. All Mahler symphonies on one disc. I also enjoy Blu-Ray videos of live concerts. Beats buffered streamed video.
5
@ET I like your choice of music. I am also a classical music collector. However, I am a little confused about placing Mahler 2nd and 3rd symphonies on one disc plus the entire Wagner Ring also on one disc. Mahler 2nd is 89 minutes and the 3rd is 95 minutes. I owned the entire Ring which consisted of 19 lps on London Records. A cd only accepts 80 minutes. You must have been leaving out a lot of the score when you place these music on one 80 minute cd.
2
@Tonjo While a CD has a data capacity of about 750MB, a Blu-Ray, which was designed to hold hours of HD video and audio, has a capacity of 50GB, over 60 CDs worth.
3
@Scott Soloway but you cant play a blue ray inmost car systems
1
Any music I really care about I still buy on CD. The rest of what I listen to comes off SiriusXM sat radio. I've fiddled with net-based music solutions, but they tend to be more trouble than they're worth.
It's also worth pointing out that these days many artists make a significant part of their income from concerts, given the dearth of income from recording contracts. Part of that growing concert income is from the sale of CDs. This is enhanced by the fact that such direct sales leave out the middlemen who siphoned off the bulk of this income before it arrived in the hands of the artists.
See a live show, buy a CD, support art.
37
@Mike, "many artists make a significant part of their income from concerts ..."
True, right up until the point where they cannot tour, for whatever reason.
It'd be nice if the billionaires at Spotify paid for the content they serve up.
7
CDs for me. When whatever "cloud" my music is stored on falters, or whatever hard drive my music is in crashes, or whatever streaming thing I pay for goes bust, I'll still have my tunes.
26
Depends on the music genre .... classical -- assuming you listed to the whole composition in all its movements-- in my opinion is definitely CD (or vinyl).
22
All of the above: I use Amazon Prime Music (the paid for version, and CDs, and vinyl, and FM radio (mostly college stations in my area), and Sirius XM. They all have their place and I like having the different experience (and the pros and cons) each one brings. The most fun so far has been going back to vinyl and my old Bang & Olufsen turntable - and hitting the record stores and thrift shops.
5
I gave up on CD a while back and went back to vinyl because I just could not get CD to sound good to my ears. More recently though I started using Tidal and also Qobuz because of the hi-resolution available. Without having a collection I now have more music available than I could possibly ever hear. I also have my music distributed around my house to any system that has a standard rca input using inexpensive wifi receivers (Raspberry Pi computers) and it is all remote controlled on my phone.
3
There is a steady stream of popular music readily available on several (probably lots more) public radio stations. KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW’s Eclectic 24, KEXP, KCSN, WFUV come immediately to mind. This is virtually commercial free stuff. The DJs on these stations know the contemporary music scene as well as anybody. And you don’t need to be in NYC, LA, or Seattle to tune in.
16
I agree with CD listening... but it seems the interviewee is concerned more with content than quality of sound. Though I would say that it mostly works for album oriented music such as classical and select pop/rock works. There were plenty of CDs I've bought that had one hit and the rest was filler. That is actually the primary reason I stopped buying CDs. The other is the lack of time - for me listening is now restricted mostly to the car or riding on train/subway. And I'm not going to take a CD Walkman with me with a folder of discs, and I still won't play them in the car for fear of scratches (mostly).
Related note: I tried to find a music player on my stock Android 8 and 9 phones. No luck, wound up using Amazon Music. What am I missing? Are they pushing streaming so hard that there's not a stock MP3 player? What about a standard player for lossless formats?
1
Look up the Double Twist player on the google play store for android, it’s a decent MP3 player for offline files, I’ve used it for years. Even has chrome cast support.
Compact discs were a step back in sound quality from records. When CDs started coming out, discerning music listeners could identify the subtle differences. Now we've stepped back from that. The sound quality of most streaming and downloaded music is such that it makes a cymbal sound as if it is made of aluminum foil. Young people growing up listening to such poor quality music will never learn to listen to music with discernment for its subtle qualities. It would pain me to listen to an MP3 recording of Led Zeppelin or Winton Marsalis. With one hand, we have developed all these amazing technologies to purchase, share, and store music only to diminish it with our other hand.
35
@MRod
They all sounded better to those of us that had or grew up with cassettes. Even with Dolby B, C, and later S, HDX and all that trickery, the CD killed it. Plus (mostly) random access (anyone remember indexes, not just track numbers?). Only downside was read-only until CD+/-R[W] but I never bought a recorder. DCC (digital compact cassette) was DOA for some reason. DAT (digital audio tape) was dead in the consumer market but used helical scan like video tape -- some folks used VHS for audio to record near-cd quality. MP3 came later
2
@Not Convinced
and probably someone will mention miniDisk as another compressed format that didn't do the trick
@MRod With the Qobuz streaming service you can listen to better than CD Led Zeppelin and CD or better Winston Marsalis. There are still legitimate reasons to prefer CD, but sound quality is no longer one of them.
2
These formats all pale when compared to reel-to-reel.
12
Don’t forget 8-track!
3
The only downside to maintaining a CD collection is the question of how to sort them
Alphabetical by band/surname?
Break them up into loose genre groupings then alphabetise?
Actually, there is the other downside of a disc not placed back in its case. More like the end of the world, really
5
From this librarian: I have arranged my extensive CD collection by the artist’s last name or band name. Sinatra in the S’s and Led Zeppelin in the Z’s. Disregard beginning articles. The Beatles are in the B’s. CD’s are then arranged by title of album within the artist’s section.
4
@LoftyDreamer
Led Zeppelin in the Z's? I've worked in music retail my entire life and Led Zeppelin has never been anywhere but the L's. Interesting.
11
@sigourney While I agree with you, it makes a certain kind of sense. How do you file Alice Cooper (the band) vs Alice Cooper (the individual) in his method they'd both be the same under C.
Still have a collection of cds (no thanks to being on the autism spectrum, collecting a very specific type of music, usually experimental). I realized that online services provide 24hr. listening stations in a way, like the kind that were available back in the day when you could listen to a cd or record or whatever. Also, I don't really "get" the idea that cds are passé, and so still order them pretty regularly. But I am getting rid of duplicate copies that I have and uploading stuff I rarely listen to. At some point, I'll probably unload everything onto Amoeba.
4
Best of both worlds. Have all of your CDs ripped lossless to a Network Attached Storage device, and play them through your Sonos. We had about a thousand CDs put on a NAS by a service in California, much faster and better than I could ever do it, at a very low cost. All instantly available through my SONOS setup, in any room of my house, through an app on my smartphone. Best thing I ever did.
6
CD's are the red headed step child of music formats right now. You can pick them up used for a dollar or two. Vinyl used to be that way 25 years ago when everyone was ditching records for CD's.
23
Let's not forget the magic of vinyl!
28
@Brian Stewart
For me, vinyl is as pleasurable for the tactile experience as it is for the sound quality.
7
FLACs for me, thank you! I have ripped most of my large CD collection to FLAC--took some time, but ultimately worth it for ease of use and preservation of maximum sound quality. 90% of all my new music purchases are FLAC downloads. The other 10% are CDs purchased at concerts (mostly indie touring bands that don't offer FLACs). No use for streaming services, because I despise lossy compression almost as much as I despise subscription fees. Die mp3, die!
1
@Merry Runaround
Deezer, Tidal and Quobuz offer lossless streaming and the latter two have Hi Res titles as well.
5
Also, no lousy lousy *lousy* sound quality.
Want carry-it-with-you digital? Rip your CDs in a lossless format. They'll still sound good --- and they'll still be all yours!
1
@HarlemHobbit I guarantee you can't tell the difference between a CD and a properly encoded 320 kbps Mp3 in a blind test.
Sure, the original 96kbps and 128kbps files were garbage as were the original encoders, but plenty of double blind studies have shown people can't tell the difference between a CD and a 320 kbps Mp3.
1
"To be honest, my preferred way to listen to music is on CD, as unfashionable as that might be. You push a button, the music plays, and then it’s over — no ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms!"
Me too ~ and the songwriters actually Get Paid for their creative work!!!
64
The only cds I ever enjoy were made by XRCD JVC and 24 karat gold disc made from original master tapes. I also prefer to make my own cds using my Yamaha cd recorder. I never stopped buying lps. The cds I mentioned are very close to the sound of great lps. I am not into downloading music, not great sound.
3
Can anyone identify the headphones shown in one of the photographs used in this article? Thanks.
@Bob They look like Bowers & Wilkins (B&W).
@Bob B&W P5. They have have just been discontinued but some resellers should still have them in stock.
1
Despite their disappointing proneness to scratches, there's something calming about gazing at a CD cover and the efforts of the band it represents, putting in a CD in the car and being forced to concentrate on its contents then merely adding music to the rest of anonymous, randomly-skimmed files that the rest of civilization has become. One's appreciation is deeper, and the music's effects longer-lasting.
21
Yep, CD's are the way to go (well, LP's are, but that's another story!), but try to find a high quality player (single disk! not the huge, noisy six-disk players) that doesn't empty the bank account). Mine died, and no where to go.
3
@Joseph Schall: Thrift stores. Ours has plenty.
3
@wg owen
Agreed. When my Sony CD player from 1990 died last year, I went to Goodwill and found a similar model that works fine. All for the low price of $6.
8
@Joseph Schall: If you've got a BluRay or DVD player, I'd use that, hooking it up the same way you'd do it with your CD player. And my experience is that the fidelity is actually better than conventional CD players.
4
I never stopped buying CDs.
58
It seems unlikely that devices like Google Chromecast Audio could replace all of the hardware between sources, like CDs, and speakers, with no change in quality of reproduction, regardless of what the previous hardware might have been.
Is this an issue for Mr. Sisario? (It doesn't come up in the interview.)
@Joe Ryan
Streaming devices can be attached to existing sound systems in the same way as a CD Player. They are available in a wide range of prices up to tens of thousands of dollars.
1
CDs? Enough of this newfangled space technology, where you can skip tracks. Cassettes are the way to go.
16
@Bonnie Porter, fast-forward to 2019—several bands and independent musicians have unearthed cassettes for issuing very limited releases, and therefore rare versions of recorded samples and complete albums.
Low tech, magnetic tape will never die, but same can be said of CD’s and vinyl...!
Owning a physical copy has many advantages over strictly digital and streaming. Try to go to a concert and later have a meet and greet encounter with the band members with only your phone and iTunes or Spotify account to point to...? It is not quite the same experience at all.
2
@Zig Zag vs. Bambú "Try to go to a concert and later have a meet and greet encounter with the band members with only your phone and iTunes or Spotify account to point to...?"
Well, they can always give you an e-autograph or just sign the screen!
1
I was a streaming hold out for quite some time, though I was an adopter of digital music pretty quickly via Napster, LimeWire, and then iTunes with the 2nd gen iPod. I preferred downloads of music to own or rips from my CDs from the 1980's and 90's. What changed my mind was finally math: $15/month for a family plan on Google Play Music for a nearly unlimited library, accessible from multiple devices anywhere in the world? Sign me up. The quality perceived as lacking by audiophiles does not effect my ears one bit.
1
Yes I have lots of music downloaded on my phone (I pod was a flash in the pan), but it is still so easy and enjoyable to put five discs in the old CD player and hit play. No need to worry about shuffling, batteries or playlist.
11
Since I was a kid with my transistor radio taped to my bike's handlebars I have been sampling music. When the internet began I was in heaven with the many ways to listen to music. Over the years one platform after another has disappointed me. I dislike the way they take over my computer with nonstop adds and notifications. I can tolerate them for a short time to listen to a new or old find, and then I search the library or buy a hardcopy. I admit that it is wonderful to have all these options. It is a matter of proper dosing for me.
7
CDs are also pretty much the only way to get cd quality music. I prefer to buy cds and then rip them to my hard drive for playback. I really like buying flacs from bandcamp too which I hear is artist friendly and which is also pretty much guaranteed to be cd quality. Hi-res download sites are often not hi-res, they are just inflated with extra bytes. mp3 download sites like amazon or itunes have compression applied at rates that I don't choose. I am not a streaming fan.
14
@APS - I agree with you. However, a friend recently told me about Tidal. They offer a CD quality (non-compressed) streaming service. It’s not cheap ($19.99/month), but the quality is superb and at the equivalent cost of ~1.5 CDs per month, it’s not bad. I bought a Bluesound streamer which also rips CDs to a built in hard drive, so I have my entire CD collection without the CD clutter on the bookshelf. In the 9 months I’ve been on Tidal, I could probably count on one hand the number of artists I tried to find but were not on the platform.
Btw - You couldn’t pay me enough to put an Alexa or Google listening device in my home.
Enjoy!
19
@APS
I sometimes use spotify premium streamed from my ipad to a rocket fish into a modified tube DAC then to my stereo preamp. Tunes are listenable and more. At least I can discover a bunch of new music. For the tried asd true, I still have my cds and lps.
1
@APS
Tell it, APS, tell it!
1