Ruminations On CD Players

@vonhelmholtz

A bit over a year ago I decided to take the 4K I was going to spend on a top transport and upgrade my streamer/server and I’m very happy with the results. My music is on an internal Aurender SSD and backed up to a Synology Raid network drive. CDs are in storage. All is controlled by my iPad.

Glad you’re happy with your set-up. I have no doubt it sounds excellent.  

I spend enough time and experience more than enough frustration as it is with my PC, smart-phone and various other digital devices with screens. Having a similar interface with my audio system holds absolutely zero appeal for me.

Call me a "dinosaur", a "nostalgist" or even a "nostalgic dinosaur"; I enjoy searching shelves for a CD, pulling it off the shelf, removing it from it’s case and placing it into my Jay’s. Perhaps there’s a ritual aspect to it -- I haven’t psychoanalyzed myself in this particular regard but it’s physical media for me!

@soix

I’d never dispute the advantage you cite! In fact, I’m finding it’s been harder and harder to find CDs I want to buy. This has in fact been going on for some time. But this is not for lack of trying! I spend a lot of time on spotify looking around for possibilities. The "problem" is me.

It’s an idiosyncrasy of mine that I’m very album-focused, rather than artist-focused. It’s not at all uncommon for me to own only one or two recordings from a single  artist, because when I compare their entire output, those are the ones that really grab me. The rest, I can do without. And repeated listening rarely changes my opinion. If I didn’t like something 10 years ago, hearing it again almost never changes my initial impressions.

Similarly, I favor a small number of visual artists, photographers and poets, whose work I go back to again and again. Restaurants, too. It’s just the way I’m wired, I guess. If you want to call if "Neanderthal", that’s OK -- I don’t take it personally! ;o)

@soix 

Thanks for the clarification but the apology isn't necessary. I didn't take it at all personally -- I was simply attempting to be humorous, which doesn't always translate well  in a medium where non-verbal cues are absent!  It's all good. 

I'm familiar with that "kid in a candy store" feeling -- it lasted for a good 20 years while I was focusing on exploring Jazz but at this point, I have a very good sense of what I like and don't like and it takes very little listening to an unfamiliar artist or release to determine whether it's something I'm likely to enjoy playing over and over. In other words, I'm limited by the boundaries of my own tastes/preferences, which I haven't found to be very flexible.