Convenience has always been the highest priority for many.
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8 tracks and cassettes WERE convenient at the time. And entropy wrecks 'em, you can't preserve them. The magnatized info fades. NEVER close to the master recording. CDs ARE close for better or worse. They can be sensibly ripped to lossless+. Anyone that does that with a compromised tape format is too cheap to stream lossless. And as your playback chain improves they sound better than the streaming service's does. No comparison. |
Hi, As long as music industry is interested in making CD’s they will co-exist with anything else. More than 100mil CD’s were sold last year a figure that continues to drop but till it reaches the non existent low we have time. Mathematically it will happen, sooner for the average consumer, but there will be room for better quality CD’s targeting to a niche and selected market. So do not write it off so quickly. I can see some people selling their collection of CD’s for peanuts and others to benefit. |
Right now I'm totally enjoying an EMI CD of the Puccini opera La Rondine. Beautiful tone. Clear and distortion free -- issues that can be iffy in opera recordings, especially on vinyl. Fine if not quite world class imaging. I fished the multi-CD album off the shelf. Even on the classical streaming service Primephonic, complete opera recordings are not yet commonplace. In other words, in my view it's not quite time to write off the silver discs. |
Sometimes I walk to town. On other occasions, the car makes more sense. And there are times I might be found on a plane or a train. Sometimes I stream. On other occasions, I spin a CD. And there are many days when I pull out a piece of vinyl and listen to a record. I didn't stop walking when I first got my license. Why should one format preclude the others? -- Howard |
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Considering the economy is in permanent melt down mode, my guess is yes,, but thats a ways off. I have my classical cd collection complete and have recently upgraded my tube cd player. Perhaps will one day add the Prima Luna tube player as well. I have no interest in streaming/ computer uploads. Tube cd player makes the muisc come to life, Straeming is like ss mechanical, = no life, just 1 dimensional. |
I expect the most important factor in the viability of the format is the availability of the mechanical transports. Being a mechanical device running at very high speeds they all fail eventually. Since the computer market offers optical disc readers in fewer and fewer devices the incentive to keep making the spinners is decreasing. Most CD players that die do so because the transport fails and there's no available replacement. It's just a matter of time. |
So like turntables, more and more high end CD players at shows, the very best sounding gear will be said to sound "CD-ology" and CD will take on an air of acknowledged if unspoken superiority and become fastest growing segment in audio. Hollywood movies will have the star putting on a CD to show his superior taste. Like turntables. Right. |
How do you get really high prices for audio goods? You have a limited supply out there, they aren’t made anymore and huge demand. You know, like cassettes. Hel-loo! Whereas CDs have always been expendable dog meat. They made a million of them. Top 100 most expensive cassettes on Discogs, https://blog.discogs.com/en/top-100-most-expensive-cassettes/ |
I feel like many on here that they may struggle and will not be a mass market thing at all in years to come as Record players went as CD came in , having said that i also believe that "high end" High Quality sound reproduction from a small form physical format ...thats CD .. will always have a place as so many millions have been produced .. |
8 tracks were a convenience, nothing more; never were a hifi choice. They worked barely well enough in mobile settings, but never sounded as good as a high quality cassette or reel to reel (best of all). The problems with tape is that they are not forever, and needed a highly mechanical unit in top shape to keep sounding good. The CD was to be the end game; I remember being at some show where the presenter played a CD, took it out of the machine, threw it across the room, picked it back up, and put it back into the CD player, while saying "these discs are indestructible and will last forever" or something to that effect. There will be those who, for whatever reasons, will never go to only streaming - those who resent paying every month for a service that yanks away all of your music if you don't keep paying, those who think physical media has a quality that's not present in streamed data, those who already have all of the music they listen to on some media and are not interested in anything new (or spending money for the same songs on yet another format). In any event, most likely there will some other way in the future to get your music that might make all of the previous ways you listen to music obsolete. |
Not a chance, as there will always be old school Luddites who resist what is perceived as progress. The larger the CD collection, the better the excuse to resist. If the average audiophile is in their 50's or 60's, they've already been thru five format changes: 1) vinyl 2) reel to reel 3) 8 track 4) cassette 5) compact disc. Kind of hard to fathom wanting to going thru yet another format change. |
For the umpteenth time, CDs are going nowhere, unless you settle for iffy sound quality. With CD, I always get great sound quality. When I’ve had the chance to listen to streaming or NAS stored music, it’s been hit and miss enough for me to just see it as an expensive way to listen to radio, which is free. 😄 All the best, Nonoise |
I am wondering how long CD's will be around as well. Our current 3 cars had no CD players from the factory. I asked the dealer to add a CD changer to our 2018 Cadillac. Btw, I do still have and regularly play 8 tracks on the Sony compact system I had in college. Surprisingly, cartridges are easy to find just like vintage vinyl. |
As luck, or the lack there of, happens I was preparing for an evening of listening as I was preparing to insert a new Sain pc into my system. I was going to start with a few favorite tracks and then make the switch to identify any immediate changes, Unfortunately, my DAC elected to crap out for one reason or another and I was left with my Nal CR7a as a source as I did not want to stream through my Dynalab 809. I spent the night listening to tapes that were made some 20 years ago and from memory of the original CD's no discernable difference in SQ. Cassettes dead...I think not, they saved the day... |
I have a 67 Mustang that went through a 6 1/2 year restoration, I occasionaly take it for a ride. the suspension wasn't much better than the same year Camaros, so that got a few levels upgrade... the original radio was long gone so put an alpine cd player in it's spot with an extention cable for ipods in the glove compartment, It sounds just ok as the speakers are all the way in the back, one of these days I'll try a couple of speakers in the doors... funny enough, a couple years back in a Mustang gathering, saw a 65 that had an original lp player under the dash! I think it played 7" lps, but can't imagine what would happen going over bumps and all... |
a couple years back in a Mustang gathering, saw a 65 that had an original lp player under the dash! I think it played 7" lps, but can't imagine what would happen going over bumps and all...Back in the day I know Chevrolet offered an underdash record player as a factory option. The idea was NOT to try and play while driving but for when you were parked say watching the sun set or by the beach or boardwalk. But I am sure some tried while driving, I can only imagine the results! I did see one in a 55 Chevy at a local car cruise meet, no idea if it worked though as never saw the owner around the car or would have asked. |