Being a member of the “streaming revolution” for some time now, I’ve barely listened to my large CD collection (I’ve listened to records because I acquired a new analog setup). Several thousand CDs have been lying fallow. This is partially due to mobility issues (although records are more demanding,) and the convenience and lure of listening to new music, Now, I’m delving into my CDs and discovering treasures long forgotten. Although it’s a little more effort, I find it very much worth it. It’s like refinding old friends. Very rewarding.
Absolutely, although I have to admit that 'streaming' was never attractive to me in the first place. I have music on all day now that I am retired, usually on a college FM station, but I also have a multi CD player (Onkyo) which I load with a lot of music which I enjoy, but would otherwise rarely pull off the shelf to just sit and listen to (I have a decent CD setup for single disc's when I really want to just sit down and pay attention. BTW I got Buniatishvili's Mussorgsky's Pictures, and it is as you described, a very enjoyable performance.
FWIW, I love just roaming thru my CD's. I hated trying to read the small spines on the plastic cases so I put them in plastic sleeves and placed them in drawers and in open shelving, so I could just manually flip thru them as you would have done with LP's in a record shop in the old days. Amazingly it reduced the shear volume of CD's (absent cases) by an almost 18 to 1 ratio. No small job to make such a conversion even if you're inclined to do so, but then there are always a lot of rainy days. :-)
I went back and forth from vinyl to CD and back to vinyl several times until I gave up on vinyl altogether, but still have my records and analog gear for a rainy day. As far as streaming and going back to CD, I have not gone back to CD since I discovered streaming except on maybe 2-3 occasions when streaming didn’t have the songs I was craving at the time. I don’t anticipate deviating from streaming anytime soon. It’s just toooo convenient! I’ve been contemplating what to do with all my CDs, which are needlessly taking up almost two entire walls in my main listening room.
I have about 500 CDs. I ripped them to my Innous Zenith streamer and sold my CD player. I find it very convenient to play a ripped CD from my streamer instead of feeding them into a CD player. I stream from Qobuz and Tidal, but vinyl and my R2R tapes are still my favorites.
Always been a CD guy. In fact I just recently picked up an old Elite 101 disc carousel as a backup to my Brennan B2 which I have ripped all of my cd's to. I switch back and forth between the Elite and the Brennan. I have a DENAFRIPS Ares II 12th on the Elite and the DENAFRIPS Pontus II 12th on the Brennan...
I find steaming far more rewarding ,after you spend at least what a good turn table setup would cost Digital sounds better presently I am almost there .
I use a used term8nstor2 dac which is very good ,but the T+A 200 dac is
in another league over the Holosprings May dac , the best dac under $15k
at $7200 a bargain and excellent class A descreet preamp built In between LPS power for your router a must. Linear Tube Audio is the best in class ,on Audiogon $700 a great buy , then don’t go cheap on Ethernet cables ,or usb just cables are over $3k then a decent Lhy sw8;Ethernet hub for $600 a very good deal
and decent power cords , no weak links in the chain , not having to get up all the time and play QObuz library ,to Roon organizing ,make playlist for any type of music being semi retired now I have to save for larger ticket items.
but well worth it .there is a learning curve but just go to you tube.
Streaming rules in my system but CDs and vinyl still have a place in it. And playing CDs requires very little effort in my case. As for for the vinyl medium, reading some of the CDs inserts while listening to them can be a rewarding thing.
@czarivey You listen to cassettes? Very nostagic. In the early seventies the quality was about like a wornout 45 record, tape hiss and cheap cassette blanks. I was unhappy with them compared to LP's so I bought a cassette recorder and recorded my LP's on Maxell tape to play in the car. How about dolby? took the hiss away but also the high end. Ended up donating all things cassette. Hope someone likes them.
mostly CD for me, though lots of streaming and LP too...CD replaced LP as primary for me about 7-8 years ago...have been enjoying streaming a long time now...
I just recently bought a Cambridge Audio CXC Transport and CA DacMagic 100 specifically to revisit my CD collection. I love it. I also listen primarily to Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, and Progressive Death Metal. A lot of fantastic new British, Norwegian, Polish, French, and U.S. bands are entering these genres, and they don't have the funds to press vinyl. CD's give me a way to support them besides just streaming. Many are not on Tidal, so CD's or the band's downloads are the only way to get physical or semi-physical formats.
@hickamoreNAIM claim a 5-6 minute rip time… so the math is 350 hours or so… of rip time….DB Power amp is similar on my laptop. Project unfolded gradually over years after getting bulk of my collection ripped…. not something i want to repeat… and frankly as streaming improves the NAS rips are not always better sounding….
Best to you as i always enjoy your thoughtful contributions here
Whenever I feel nostalgic for listening to cassettes, I slightly enlarge the holes in my LP's.
Didn't everyone make tapes for the car? Remember how excited you were when car cd-players came along, then made a sad face each time you drove over a manhole cover?
I have had thousands of cd's. If I didn't like one after a few plays, it was gone. I keep around 1,500. If I haven't listened to it in 2 years, bye. As one comes in, one's gotta go. I built the storage unit with that limit in mind.
Re: rediscovery:
My plan has always been this: I want to play them, by artist, in release order, start to finish---all of them. If an artist's entire catalog is 6 titles or 30 titles, no matter; I've kept not one title that I just can't bring myself to play. I'm not a collector of catalogs, only the music.
I intended to start with "A," of course. Somehow, I ended up playing the first four Kinks albums (that takes barely 2 hours), so I continued w/the remaining 20. (I buy studio albums only, and always have. I think I own two/three live (concert) recordings.)
It is revelatory to hear an artist's entire output in order. Is it a commitment? Sure is! However, you will discover musical connections you had no idea existed, not only within that artist's oeuvre, but to other music that may have influenced that creator, or not. If it's a small catalog, it may be completed in a day. For some artists, it may be a few days. Also, I listen to no other artist's cd's until the current artist's catalog has been completed. I'll take breaks of indeterminate lengths in between artists. I just couldn't do all of Bowie, then immediately dive into the Byrds, then The Cars, etc. I'm not a flagellant, well not that kind. This is critical listening meets comparative listening---to the music; not a single gear-thought allowed.
I would really like to play them all in release-date order someday, jumping all over the place by artist. Afterall, that's how we all acquired and got to know each of our LP's, AND formed our opinions of them individually, as well as the entire "scene.". Just to prepare would take two weekends of Excel sheets and Wikipedia. Maybe I will, if I survive this first goal.
@tomic601Sounds daunting, and like you I’m wondering whether improvements in streaming might achieve the same end more easily. Appreciate the kind words, especially from one as knowledgeable as yourself, from whom I often learn.
Warms my heart as i stream Blind Boys of Alabama - Taj Mahal - Talking Christmas…..
Great thread @rvpiano,,, sorry to hear of mobility issues… i can relate as mine come and go…. i’m not so much knowledgeable as i am high milage out of warranty…..
@bob70i suspect you would LOVE ROON….. no spreadsheets required…
All of my CD's are ripped and are on a network drive and backup locations. I play the ripped CD's and stream music via Qobuz through Roon. I listen to my music through Roon in multiple rooms so CD's don't make much sense for me anymore. I don't miss the clutter of hundreds of CD in my living room.
I still purchase music. I prefer to purchase high resolution or CD quality downloads if they are available.The music that I purchase is mostly new releases. Older music that I don't own is usually streamed. Lately I have been purchasing a lot downloads from Band Camp. When I buy CD's, I immediately rip them onto the network and the CD's go into bins in my basement. I won't be going back to physical media.
I appreciate the suggestion. My sound system(s) and computers have never been allowed to touch to each other, no matter by how frail the tether. I have inculcated hatred, jealousy, and distrust to help keep them apart.
The cd racks are as enjoyable to look at as neatly-stacked artbooks are to me. I keep cd's as far away from the listening room as our current, vast estate will allow. I want to see them all just before I turn out the bedstand light, and again each morning at the crack of 9.
When thinking about what to play, I peruse my alpha database and choose. Then I am forced to get up off of my ancient arse and go fetch it (them.) It also keeps my orthopedists happier, as did swapping out my changer(s) for single-players.
I used to be a museum curator. I love being around tons of old things on shelves, (as long as they're all cataloged and ordered by me), even though I am permitted to touch and move only one thing at a time, with both (cotton-gloved) hands, or possibly lose my accreditation. Rules are rules.
Similar to RV, I took the plunge with streaming (Aurender150) and Qobuz. I have been blown away by the quality of the stream even when comparing to my own cd with LPS.
Much better channel separation bass and detail . It is obvious to me, the difference.
Im wondering if there is something else going on like upsampling or perhaps even some AI doctoring of the stream. Theoretically AI could enhance music adding qualities that appeal to people : decay, reverb, harmonic IDK
I just got to 70! For 5 years, I've approached its arrival much as a doomsday-prepper. As for the vice-grip, w/o it, I would have already succumbed, repeatedly.
I'm not a very good old, retired, white dude. I can walk to past a golf course within 4 minutes from my front door; a little farther to pass by where folks fish, and the Atlantic Ocean is 20 minutes away.
Those little holes in the ground, next to the flags, are just too far away from each other for my liking, and everything you reel in out of the water, any water, smells bad.
As for "them," I didn't mean to anthropomorphize my cd's. I was being PC, bcs I've never known their individual gender identities. I think it'd be great if there were a word solely for a bunch o' cd's! That'd be cool; like a murder of crows or a shrewdness of apes.
but I also have a multi CD player (Onkyo) which I load with a lot of music which I enjoy...
Same here. I picked up a Pioneer 300 disc "jukebox" CD/DVD carousel to insert into my office system. I drew up an Excel spreadsheet with the CD names, artist, slot # and printed it off for easy reference. I even typed in the disc names and artists into the player itself (somewhat tedious, but a dreary Sunday afternoon and bottle of Aberfeldy to take the sting off made it bearable).
I had recently scored a good-sized CD collection off ebay that I couldn't pass up (described as an estate sale of sorts, "my dad's CDs"). I got about 150 CDs of some GREAT jazz and classical (lots of Solti/Chicago SO, Mahler, several Mingus, some Coltrane, Kenny Barron, Dave Holland, Carla Bley, Gary Burton, Steve Swallow - some real gems and lots of great players) for a whopping $50. How do you pass that up? I had already amassed a good-sized CD collection but wanted something to put this great, new music in that would be convenient. The Pioneer DV-F727 has worked out really well.
Streaming certainly has its place in my world, and I do it often, but I'm probably about 35-40% CD content.
I’ve abandoned CDs for years mostly because most of my collection was ripped to HDD and streaming is so convenient. However, recently I’ve been bringing some of my CDs back from storage (trying a CD transport) and even purchased few new ones. Some of the music I have on CD isn’t even available on Tidal or Qobuz and I missed listening to those albums.
I retired a few months back. I have been having great fun listening to CDs that haven’t been spun for years. Many were impulse purchases based upon favorable reviews in Classical Music review magazines and after one or two playing were shelved and forgotten. Now I stream those recordings and only buy the ones that I deem truly exceptional, which means that I probably will miss out on having the rediscovery process that I am currently enjoying.
I think I have passed the five year mark… now what was I saying?
Oh, yes. Life is getting even better… although I really have enjoyed the time since I retired. I have always had more interests than I could ever pursue. I took off a year or more four times during my career to pursue my interests… hiking, bicycling, reading, music, mountaineering… etc.
From experience with others that have retired, it takes five years to adjust… yes… five years. We were trained to achieve… get through kindergarten… then sixth grade, college, graduate school, first job, family second job… etc. relentless achievement. Which many of us loved. Then retirement… no goal… or at least, not one we are in a hurry to achieve. So, the re-orientation / slow down takes a long time.
I love each day. I have gotten rid of every tiny interruption to “my time”. I enjoy coffee and a fire in the morning and listen to music on my headphone system while painting. I listen to lectures on philosophy while walking the dogs and riding my bicycle. Anyway, it just gets better. My three hours with my main audio system is the apex every day.
Congrats @ghdprentice It is surely a transition even tho 7 years in i still have my toe in the bleeding edge world if just for a few hours a week. Peace and Happiness to you and yours !
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