Cd's to make a come back in the future?

I don't know.  The future is hard to predict.  There are so many of them around that you'd think that someone will think that it's cool to have physical media and an antique cd player to play them on. 

On the other hand, digital is progressing steadily and the sound quality of streamed music might be so good that no one would want to bother with cds.  I'm not sure I'll be around if they do make a comeback.

I am sure this has all been said before with vinyl.
However the big difference is I do not think there will ever be any nostalgia attached to CDs.

And not many are going to achieve the almost cult status of numerous vinyl audiophile recordings.


I do not think will make a comeback simply because they have not really disappeared to any extent as vinyl did.

Heck I still play a lot of CDs in the car.

Just be sure you have plenty of provisions. 😬

My cd collection is probably only valuable musically to me. I mean how much could I get for 300 goth cd's or 200 opera's? 
I've been verbally threatened  from going weekend thrift store pilgrimage shopping..........
Only time will tell.......

If this can happen, why not a CD comeback?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/23/cassette-tape-music-revival-retro-chic-rewind

CDs need to fade away before they can stage a comeback.
They are nowhere near the “ extinction “ level that vinyl was at.
I do not see them ever reaching the same state that vinyl did or  indeed ever reaching the same status as vinyl has.

uber makes a great point in that they have never really left us. As far as them ever being really popular again, I think it depends on the advancements that are made with DAC sound quality. That said, there has been notable advancement in that area over the last 5 years or so, it could happen. On the other hand due to streaming, it probably has as much chance as disco or the hula hoop to ever being popular again. Who knows. 

I think the CD _has_ left us.  Except for audiophiles, when was the last time you saw someone use a CD?  Maybe someone driving a car that was 10 or more years old?

I'm 42; when I fell for the audio hobby eight year ago, I dove into digital since 100% of my music collection was CDs.  (Much respect to my vinyl brethren.)  I've since ripped them all to flac on a hard drive.  But streaming from Qobuz and Tidal sounds _better_ than the local flacs.

So I only stream, but I keep the hard drive, and its backups -- okay, and a few hundred CD in the attic -- in case of wartime.

I'd love to see the public realize that CDs sound better than mp3 streams, but those interested in physical media (for its very real virtues) are gonna spin records.

Many new car models are produced without CD players.

Also, the concept of streaming and "on demand" music, especially for the under-27 generation, is an expectation, not a novelty.

That said, whether you stream Tidal or Deezer or Spotify or Quboz or whatever, you're simply renting the music. Once your subscription goes, so does your music. However, with generous data plans and ever-changing playlists and the paucity of album sales, I can't see the album-format ever really making a huge comeback, especially among cd's, and especially amongst a listening public whose appreciation of 320 kbs is just as real as ours is for lossless.

Plus, how may of us take a time-capsule tour when we go through friends' or spouse's cd collections that haven't been updated since the late 90's?

+ 1 Redbook CD. People have no idea,, generally speaking, just how much information is waiting there in the nano-scale spiral of data waiting to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Getting from point A to point B is a gauntlet of obstacles. People have jumped ship and gone to streaming or servers, one assumes because they got tired of the hassle. Please, anyone who thinks Redbook right out of the box is the greatest thing since chunky  peanut butte, no angry emails.

Technology moves on and convenience has slipped in. I mean we now have cars that brake when needed without driver input, cars that drive on their own. Motor cycle's that are self balancing, air bag jackets (don't think we will see Harley riders wearing one though), Where's the fun gone? 
I am (very quietly and thank a god for separate credit cards,lol) stocking up on cd's to have for now and the future. I can easily buy at least 50 cd's from various thrift stores local to me in a day. A few years back a dear friend of mine was recovering from cancer, so as a treat I paid for her to an all expenses paid trip to the US with the small proviso that I could use her additional suitcase allowance. Luckily the luggage bag scanners paid no attention to the approx 6000+ cd's (minus cases) we had between us in our suitcases.lol
I do not know anyone  who owns any cd's that is not an audiophile. I know very few audiophiles personally. When I went to audition some Magnepan's even the salesman played a CDR of music. 

Physical media as a mainstream commodity was killed by streaming and downloads. CD has few redeeming qualities anyhow. 

While I totally get the allure of vinyl and analog I cant imagine their being a nostalgia for CD now that better digital formats are available. What’s next, collecting MP3 files?

there are at least a few decades left of many music listeners who will never do streaming or computer audio...

What about cassettes? there is a Nakamichi cassette deck on here for $2395. Wow.......

Tape is a natural medium. It breathes. I’ll take my $3 Sony Walkman Cassette Player and let folks fight over the Nakamichi.

Not sure there will be much, or any fisticuffs over the Nak at that price. No matter how good it is. The buyer will have to be a real tape 'nut' to purchase that. 

“Nakamichi cassette deck for $2395”. 

I left my stash of 200 cassettes and Technics dual tape deck outside my apartment dumpster about 17 years ago. I was moving out and didn’t want to lug around tapes and CD’s. 

I could be that nut and I would win, but for the price and much less I will take Otari two track any moment. Top of the line Nakamichi 1000 ZXL in perfect condition costs more that $2395 and 1000 ZXL Limited much more if you can find it. A few Tandbergs are also very expensive. Open reel decks are not for everyone for various reasons but anyone can be in agreement with cassettes. Some people also have high end Nakamichi cassette players in their cars, so they can make analog recording from records and reels, and record from cds too. Great cassette deck is a valuable stuff. I use one at home almost daily.

Lalitk.
Think you dumped the wrong medium. Lol.

My Nak 582 gets a workout every couple days, today it had Siamese Dreams playing through it.
$2395 is somewhat steep but maybe it is just right for someone.

I moved a few years ago from the East Coast to the SW USA. I downsized my CD collection from a couple thousand to about 600 "keepers" I never listen to a straight CD anymore although I have an Oppo transport. All those CD's were ripped to a hard drive with triple backups. I agree with Uberwaltz, the CD doesn't have the palpability of an LP (I don't listen to LPs anymore). So I stream Tidal and tap my hard drive library.

There is a Pioneer Stereo cassette deck CT-F900 near me for $160 ..........hmmm.
I need a justifiable reason.. coz two cassette decks is not enough? three is my lucky number? 

@uberwaltz,

LOL!!!! Next up for donation is my stack of 400 plus CD’s to Goodwill. Most of the listening nowadays is Tidal/Qobuz and my premium stack of SACD’s /  XRCD’s. 

Great to be finding such low prices on so many CDs

+1 "Great to be finding such low prices on so many CDs"  

There’s much to be said for a good cassette deck. I’ve been extremely happy with my Sony TCK-570 3 head deck and my Technics RS-M234X with dbx. Naturally that is a medium that very few would allow themselves to enjoy today. 

Aiwa 660, 770, & 990 here lol.....and a nak bx100 just to say I own a nak...long live the cassette!  My marantz sa8005 sounds pretty darn fine to me, whether I'm playing red book or sacd....got the compact marantz hdcd1 as a back up, plus it looks neat with the wood side panels....working on a deal for an audiolab cdt transport to combine it with the 6000a integrated....i also own three turntables, pro- ject, thorens, and a music hall mmf7....and tons of lp's that I play daily...yea....I love my physical media....hahaha....no streaming for me...

There used to be a member here from Munich, Germany, with five or so Studer open reel decks in perfect condition, and he said he played them all. There was a picture of his listening room - very impressive.
As for cds, first of all it is unknown how long they last. And then - come back probably not but many will keep them even if for the only reason that they own them and they rarely break. With computers you own really nothing let alone this streaming thing. Computers break often, they don't last, back-up hard drives break too. It is all unreliable junk.

I agree that CDs are unlikely to generate any nostalgia.  I was among that generation who experienced vinyl, eight track, cassette and then CD. And while nostalgia is often cited as an appeal toward vinyl, nostalgia really doesn't draw me to any media.

For me the appeal of CDs is as follows:

1. Real media that I own even if I cancel a streaming account.
2. Inexpensive. The least expensive medium you can own.
3. Extensive selection and availability.
4. Easy to find components to play them.
5. Even low end CDPs sound good and can be used as transports.
6. Can be ripped for all the convenience of streaming.
7. You can dive in deep with CDs with little risk. In other words, you can buy a lot of them for little money, get a good CDP, a great DAC and rip them all onto a HD. And if you decided to be done with CDs tomorrow you're out the cost of the CDP and the CDs. The rest you can still use.

2. Sometimes records are just as inexpensive and sometimes they are very expensive
3. Not everything can be found on cds but a lot.
5. No way, totally wrong. Besides, transport is at least as important as dac, some people don't know it.

The good thing is that we don't have to select only one or two formats.  We can enjoy each of them for their best qualities. 

What I like about streaming is the access to all that music for $20 a month.  Every Friday morning all the new releases are on my tablet.  I can try any album before I buy it and listen to stuff I might want to hear once or twice but don't want to own.  If you're reading about some music you can pull it up and give it a listen with a couple of taps.  I love it and I'm keeping my Cds, Lps, cassette tapes, etc. too.  

I explore new music on youtube, old unreleased music too.

I do not think I could ever or would even like to entertain the idea of just playing vinyl or just playing cd or just streaming.

Sorry but I want the whole 9 yards and mostly have it.

Only thing missing right now is a r2r unit and I am sure the itch will make me buy one sooner or later.

One experiment I am going to try this morning is to record a 24/96 stream to my Nak cassette deck and see how it sounds on playback.

I said:

"Even low end CDPs sound good and can be used as transports."  

@inna said:

"No way, totally wrong. Besides, transport is at least as important as dac, some people don't know it."

No, not wrong at all. As inexperienced as I am I have had the opportunity to listen to some good CDPs, some fair CDPs and some $14 CDPs. The $14 CDPs sound 'good'. Not as good, not fantastic, but certainly not off-putting or awful and the differences are often subtle.

We could argue all day about what 'good' means, but that was not really the point. The point is that in comparison with the other popular physical medium, vinyl, you don't have to spend tons of money to exploit the basic value of the media. In a recent vinyl thread a member was told that he might as well not even think about vinyl unless he's willing to spend a grand or more and to not even bother with a $350 TT.

A $350 CDP will do a reasonable job whereas conventional wisdom is that a $350 TT will not.

I can’t imagine CD’s coming back. With Vinyl there is the analog “warmth” e.g. dust and crackle ;-) and process of cleaning and caring for the vinyl and turntable to feel nostalgic about. CD’s are about the digital reproduction of studio music sessions to get the best copy possible for playback in digital form. Tidal provides this level of reproduction for a monthly fee and other music download sites provide a better than CD digital copy for purchase. There are at least 5 sites that allow purchase of DSD and FLAC music that is currently the best reproduction of music available anywhere. For me, streaming is best for day to day music listening due to selection and introduction to new music and DSD/FLAC for best possible format critical listening sessions for beloved songs and artists. 

My CD/SACD collection continues to grow, have never looked back

I think Darko's point was that with DAC technology advancing-- that a CD transport and an external DAC-- makes the sound quality, in many cases, sound better than the HiRes download.  So why pony up for a HiRes download of a CD that you already own, when in fact the CD might sound as good as the supposed HiRes download.  And ripping a CD and then using a great DAC can make the sound quality better than the CD.  So again, I think his point is, keep the CD collection.

And not to beat a dead horse but for the frugal audiophile (an oxymoron if there ever was one) if you do the leg work you can get an extremely well engineered CD, e.g. Two Against Nature by Steely Dan (my reference CD) for $5. Hi res files are $15 and up and require a back-up strategy.

I think there is another element here. To the aspiring audiophile DACs, cables, transports, streamers,jitter  etc etc, especially the high dollar stuff, can be off-putting both in their complexity and cost but also in the wide range of opinions in regard to how to go about streaming, server set up and all that.

If I were to advise someone interested in dabbling in high end audio I would recommend starting with a good CD player and CDs. Simple. Relatively cheap. This will allow them to hear high end and get their feer wet and without someone telling them that SQ is awful through anything but a $10,000 DAC with $500 USB cables. From there they can get into servers, streaming, jitter management devices etc. as their interest level and SQ tastes dictate.

In other words, CDs are the cheapest, easiest way to get into hi-fi.

My local cd/vinyl shop sells both new and used Items. Cd's are from $10 up and vinyl probably $25+.

Todays Thrift store visit yielded 19 cd's for $19.
here are a few that are in the 19;
Marianne Faithful- Perfect Stranger-The Anthology 2 discs.Looks new
Diana Krall-Quiet nights
Steely Dan-Two against nature
Stone Temple Pilots-Core
Foo Fighters-The Colour and Shape
System of a Down-Toxicity
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Cleo Laine- The very best of 2 discs.
Incubus- S.c.i.e.n.c.e

The rest are classical
Bargain!

With the advent of the rising popularity of better and better DACS, we are seeing that even the standard Redbook CD has more information than we once thought. I, like everyone else, gave away my records when the CD came out in the early 80s. Now I'm spinning vinyl again but I'm hanging on to my CDs.  We live in a time where convenience rules.  Thus, the CD has a lot of convenience options and hey, DACs are still improving. I won't make the same mistake twice. I'm keeping both formats: CDs and vinyl LPs.

What's the point? Digital is digital. While vinyl does sound different, a CD does not sound different from a lossless file. And as far as I know, no one ever got satisfaction from dropping a CD in its tray like they claim from dropping a needle on vinyl.

Dumped my vinyl in '91 with no regrets. Slowly dumping my CD's now. My whole collection now resides on a 512GB flash drive and a 256GB backup. Goodbye clutter.

The point is not a nostalgia road trip or to create some mystical ritual like dropping a needle. Why would that be any more pleasurable than pressing a button or watching a CD tray slide open?

The point is that with a CD you _own_ great sounding media at a literal fraction of the cost of downloadable hi-res media and the component requirement is one decent CDP. Simple. Cheap. Easy and high quality. No other media really ticks those boxes.

"Goodbye clutter"

Well, except for the two drives,cables, wall warts etc. And to me, digital clutter (all things considered) is as bad a physical clutter. And to me a shelf of CDs is no more clutter than books.