Is this the end for your CD collection?

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What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision - Blogs | AudioCDArea.Com — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:30:33 GMT

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re: Is this the end for your CD collection?

manicm — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:55:23 GMT

What Gilad of Linn fails to realise that, if his Linn equipment is anything to go by, a true audiophile soft digital setup is hideously complex for someone who just wants to turn on the power and press play. In fact Linn themselves insist on a professional installing their DS systems.

A soft digital setup is still in its infancy, usability wise, and I for one will wait.

While I agree the CDP may die, the CD itself will not, as there simply is not enough high-quality music downloads out there yet.

In fact as far as the CDP goes Gilad may be jumping the gun here, Cambridge Audio have just released new CDPs and I'm sure they did not take the decision lightly.

re: Is this the end for your CD collection?

al7478 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:40:49 GMT

whats a soft digital setup?

re: Is this the end for your CD collection?

al7478 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:16:59 GMT

i think we are getting way ahead of ourselves. The highest res music downloads are very much a minority sport, still. A lossless ripped CD is still the best most will get.

I grant, tho, that many simply dont care, and some will do the necassary teting to decide that theyre fine with lower bit rates.

re: Is this the end for your CD collection?

al7478 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:19:20 GMT

And we mustnt end up with everything being streamed. the try before you buy thing is the puspose of streaming, and should remain so. Physiacal or not, i want to store my music and have control over it.

re: Is this the end for your CD collection?

Dazmb — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:45:11 GMT

"Many people retain a genuine affection for vinyl, which has a special joy of ownership and gives people a tactile connection to the music"

'Mr Linn' talks rot. I and many others from the 80's & 90's generations still retain a genuine affection for CD. It is the best medium yet IMO. What other media has these qualities: High quality sound, practical size and most importantly a 'real' ownership experience of a physical product which music lovers love as it gives you the basic thrill of collection, an album cover and sleeve notes to read and make all those interesting music 'connections' with producers/session musos and studios + all the artist thankyou's etc....

These are what make the music yours, and music lovers as a breed I suspect - unlike bland boring digital d/l's which are the music equivalent of supermarket white label washing powder IMHO - ie a totally annoymous product with no pride of possesion whatsoever.

I have bought 8 2nd hand CD's in the last few weeks from Ebay and Amazon marketplace. Looking forward to getting them a damn site more than any download I buy!

re: Is this the end for your CD collection?

manicm — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:48:38 GMT

al7478 - I meant PC/Streaming/Software playback.

re: Is this the end for your CD collection?

ShadowTD — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:27:14 GMT

Last.fm founder Martin Stiksel "... people still want physical products on their shelves at home."

And yet another individual high up in the music industry who Simply Doesn't Get It. Teenagers today download *everything* and bung it all on their iPod. They couldn't give a monkeys for the 'physical object'. Anyone saying otherwise (and I used to be one of them) is deluded.

I don't like it, but at least I can smell the coffee.

re: Is this the end for your CD collection?

Dazmb — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:08:53 GMT

"And yet another individual high up in the music industry who Simply Doesn't Get It. Teenagers today download *everything* and bung it all on their iPod. They couldn't give a monkeys for the 'physical object'. Anyone saying otherwise (and I used to be one of them) is deluded."

Teenagers grow up (thank god..). How many middle age people do you see walking around headphone clad with Mp3 players? Not many. As you get older you change your habits - listening to music becomes something you do at home more than anything. And that's when music lovers much prefer physical media as sound quality/ease of use becomes more important. And the population is getting older as a percentage.

Sorry, but you are wrong. And the continued fairly healthy survival of vinyl, CD and DVD proves that. Single sales, well that's different. But adults don't care about singles anyway.

re: Is this the end for your CD collection?

johnnyblue — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:00:10 GMT

Dazmb, I don't agree. As someone who was a record dealer for almost twenty years I can say very definitely that that the percentage of under 30's using record shops, independent or chain, has declined dramatically in the last ten years, hence the fact that HMV are now just about the only high street chain left standing. In the university town where I used to have a shop virtually every new/secondhand record shop has closed down. I know much of their sales have transferred to internet sites like amazon, but an awful lot have also gone to downloads.

You're right that as you get older you change your habits - I'm in my fifties and I listen to Spotify all the time at home, which I have put from the laptop through our Phillips DVD surround sound system. Is it as good as my hifi?No.But at the moment I'm checking out loads of albums from the past that I couldn't or wouldn't want to buy. If it was £5.00 a month I'd subscribe tomorrow. For a tenner I'll wait until they don't do it free anymore, because for that I could buy about 20 plus used or cheap cds a year.

I think the thing to remember is that most people, young or otherwise, don't own expensive hifi systems and are quite happy with the sound quality they get from, for example, a cheap micro system or a ghettoblaster (are they still called that?).