Why Do ~You~ Still Play CDs?


I'm curious why you still play CDs in the age of streaming. I recently got back into CD listening and I'm curious if your reasons align with mine, which are:

  • Enjoying the physical medium—the tactile nature of the case, the disc, the booklet, etc.
  • Forcing myself to actually listen to an album, versus being easily distracted by an algorithm, or "what's next" in my playlist.
  • Actually owning the music I purchase, versus being stuck with yet another monthly subscription.

Others? 

itanibro

I have tons of CDs, my player/dac combo sounds great to me, and I own everything that I listen to on my little system. Plus, I know what I like - I don't need a computer to create playlists for me. (I get ideas from books and publications for that.)

I had a top of the line Classe cd player that was rated very high back then plus 1 of the earlier Sony sacd players back in the early 2000’s.  Back then, it was proven that ripped cds sounded better than thru a cd player. I thought so too and sold the Classe. Still have the sacd player but haven’t used it in 15 years. I’ve been selling a couple thousand cds ever since. Now I stream ripped cds and from Qobuz and Tidal. 

My CDP is my best source. An ARC Ref CD9. It sounds so good it’s always a treat to listen.

1 I own the music and also have a lot of obscure CD titles which will probably never be available for streaming. 

2 I have more invested in CD playback vs streaming and it sounds way superior on my system. (Jay’s Audio CDT2-MK2 / Denafrips Pontus / I2S connection) vs ( Bluesound Node 2I / Denafrips Pontus / coaxial connection)

3 I like physical media but dumped my vinyl decades ago because I was tired of warpage, “snap, crackle and pop”, rolling the dice every time I bought a used LP, and the royal pain of maintaining records and turntables.