I bought my first ever CD on the weekend.

[Wood and Wire]

Hi!

This might be weird to most of you, but I just got my first two CDs on the weekend, this past Friday (I often work night shifts etc so to me, Friday was the weekend ).

I really do not enjoy the current streaming services and the requirement to be always online for most of them and the God awful implementation of most of the offline modes along with ads, so I decided to buy their stuff in the meatspace.

I grew up poor and I never had most of the things that a lot of people in the western world take for granted, so this felt a lot like rewarding my child-self a little bit and being my own cool mom My whole idea is to go to the CD store every month and pick one album that I am a fan of and one album that I know nothing about.

So... one old, one new. That way I collect my faves and add something new to my listening, whatever it ends up being.

During the holidays I received a few gift cards, so with these I was able to buy a CD drive to rip the CDs onto my Music app that's on my iMac. The next step?

Buying a modded iPod classic 5.5 with an upgraded battery and storage, Wolfson DAC and to get some IEMs to tie it all together for that ultimate old-new-on-the-go music solution.

View attachment 5309401

Anyway, the music I got so far is -
The Black Dahlia Murder - the Nocturnal album from 2007. My old favourite...
I really like that the cover for the case doubles as a booklet with lyrics for every single song on the album, such a great thing!


Benighted - Obscene Repressed from 2020. I had no idea what this was, turned out pretty good. I would get another album from them Some of the songs are in French, which really messed me up for a moment. Also, the song "Muzzle" has this bizarre jazz (?) in the middle, this made me laugh so much (I was drunk, had 5 bottles of mead...) that it became my instant favourite.



So that's it for now. We will see what I get at the end of this month.
Thanks and until next time TB!

Just be prepared that eventually you will run into a CD that has the kind of copy protection that renders it unplayable / un-rip-able on a computer CD drive.

You'll still be able to play it on a regular CD, or DVD / Blu-ray player, but as far as ripping it you're usually just left with either downloading someone else's rip, or playing it over S/Pdif to a DAW, and chopping it into the individual tracks.

If your CD drive is in an externally housed USB caddy, you might not have any problems.

 

[Antares]

Great choices! I love Benighted. The bass tapping riff on Grind Wit off their album Icon is one of my favorite things to play.

 

[john_g]

Just wait until you get an LP with liner notes!

Imma get The Gambler by Kenny Rogers on my 8 track next week

 

[roccobass]

Hi!

This might be weird to most of you, but I just got my first two CDs on the weekend, this past Friday (I often work night shifts etc so to me, Friday was the weekend ).

I really do not enjoy the current streaming services and the requirement to be always online for most of them and the God awful implementation of most of the offline modes along with ads, so I decided to buy their stuff in the meatspace.

I grew up poor and I never had most of the things that a lot of people in the western world take for granted, so this felt a lot like rewarding my child-self a little bit and being my own cool mom My whole idea is to go to the CD store every month and pick one album that I am a fan of and one album that I know nothing about.

So... one old, one new. That way I collect my faves and add something new to my listening, whatever it ends up being.

During the holidays I received a few gift cards, so with these I was able to buy a CD drive to rip the CDs onto my Music app that's on my iMac. The next step?

Buying a modded iPod classic 5.5 with an upgraded battery and storage, Wolfson DAC and to get some IEMs to tie it all together for that ultimate old-new-on-the-go music solution.

View attachment 5309401

Anyway, the music I got so far is -
The Black Dahlia Murder - the Nocturnal album from 2007. My old favourite...
I really like that the cover for the case doubles as a booklet with lyrics for every single song on the album, such a great thing!


Benighted - Obscene Repressed from 2020. I had no idea what this was, turned out pretty good. I would get another album from them Some of the songs are in French, which really messed me up for a moment. Also, the song "Muzzle" has this bizarre jazz (?) in the middle, this made me laugh so much (I was drunk, had 5 bottles of mead...) that it became my instant favourite.



So that's it for now. We will see what I get at the end of this month.
Thanks and until next time TB!

I still buy CDs, but mostly at estate and garage sales where the sons and granddaughters want to clear out all the "antiquated media". I get most for $1-$2. I love it! My car still plays CDs too!

Welcome to the Dark Side!! Enjoy!
And best of all......

 

[Wood and Wire]

When producers went to CD wave format they had to reduce the “sound” to make the album fit the cd.

That's total horse manure.

In fact, the physical limitations of vinyl not only impose a time constraint, but also the level of bass frequencies (beyond the implementation of the RIAA curve) in direct relation to the total run time.

Sonically, CD quality is the most faithfully representative of the original recording.


That said, vinyl is by far the superior experience (in exactly the same way that an identical cup of tea just tastes better when you go through the ritual of brewing the pot, and taking the time to shut out the rest of the world, whilst you savour it from a China cup - verses sipping it from a disposable cup, as you walk down the street).

 

[GretschWretch]

Didn't even know that [liner notes] was a thing until I read your post. Awesome

And, unlike early CDs, vinyl LPs have music on both sides.

 

[sacahill42]

Excellent! Congratulations and may you enjoy a long and fruitful ride on the CD train!
Your story reminds me of my first experiences getting a paycheck (as a teenager). The first place I stopped after cashing it was the record shop. My mother was not happy, but I had a car so...she couldn't stop me. The first album I purchased with my own hard-earned cash was Black Sabbath Master of Reality.
Cheers!

FWIW, album covers not only (usually) had cool artwork and liner notes, they were also very handy for preparing a certain herbal sacrament which we teenagers felt enhanced the listening experience.

 

[GretschWretch]

Yes!! Vinyl has the best sound. When producers went to CD wave format they had to reduce the “sound” to make the album fit the cd. Then mp3 came out. Reduced the “sound” even more. So. Congrats on the CD format purchase! Move on to vinyl. Grew up poor? Yes, me too. I lived on the edge of the ghetto all my life because we could not afford anything else. (Sorry if that offends anyone) fortunately God has blessed me enough to live in a better neighborhood. I do like inexpensive basses.

The thing was, vinyl had so much clarity we often could not only name the make of the guitar/bass being used, but also the model. The compression of more modern media works against that.

 

[MasterMonkeyMan]

There is some reasonably good, what is referred to as ChiFi stuff, on Amazon these days.
I picked up a HiFi Walker hires DAP for $123 (i've seen them on sale for as low as $109 once) and KZ DQS IEM's for like $20. I must say, the sound quality of this combo is fantastic. Some other IEM's in the $20 range I also have are the Moondrop Chu2 and Truthear Hola. All sound great.
As for music, Qobuz, in addition to streaming has a download store for Hi Res and CD quality downloads.
It can get a little pricey buying music that way but at least you can get FLAC downloads that you own offline.
Just copy 'em to the DAP from your computer.
I also visit a local used CD store for good buys.

 

[bigdaddybass12]

That's total horse manure.

In fact, the physical limitations of vinyl not only impose a time constraint, but also the level of bass frequencies (beyond the implementation of the RIAA curve) in direct relation to the total run time.

Sonically, CD quality is the most faithfully representative of the original recording.


That said, vinyl is by far the superior experience (in exactly the same way that an identical cup of tea just tastes better when you go through the ritual of brewing the pot, and taking the time to shut out the rest of the world, whilst you savour it from a China cup - verses sipping it from a disposable cup, as you walk down the street).

There have been many claims that vinyl records sound better than CDs, however there are also claims that both formats’ sound quality do not have much difference from one another. These claims have really caused much confusion and so we have stepped up to give some clarifications.

Indeed, vinyl records give a richer and closer sound to what an artist intends to let their audience hear compared to CDs, as long as the custom vinyl record pressing was done professionally. This may have been due to being an analog format. It’s a format that’s a complete replica of the track’s soundwave, so every bit of information is present during playback.

CD is a digital type of audio format, which means that they contain snippets of the tracks’ sound waves and translate them into numbers. This method causes some music information to be lost, therefore removing some of the nuances that the artists may have included.

 

[GretschWretch]

I installed a record player for 45 rpm singles in my first car. I am in the process of culling my vinyl, moving along those I know I will never again play. Ditto my CDs. Many of my cassettes I will keep, because they are things that are "home recordings" and were never sold commercially. I recently found a cassette my father had recorded of my then band performing at a local music jamboree. In 1973.

No streaming for me at all.

 

[perfektspace6]

I got really tired of the streaming. I tried but it's not for me. Too inconvienient.they take away songs/albums as they see fit. Screw that, I want to own what I want to own and not let some algorithm or some suit decide what I can and cannot listen to.

You are not alone. I never migrated to streaming services and still purchase CDs. You own that CD and can play it whenever you want. Absent theft, no one can take it from you.

 

[Wood and Wire]

There have been many claims that vinyl records sound better than CDs, however there are also claims that both formats’ sound quality do not have much difference from one another. These claims have really caused much confusion and so we have stepped up to give some clarifications.

Indeed, vinyl records give a richer and closer sound to what an artist intends to let their audience hear compared to CDs, as long as the custom vinyl record pressing was done professionally. This may have been due to being an analog format. It’s a format that’s a complete replica of the track’s soundwave, so every bit of information is present during playback.

CD is a digital type of audio format, which means that they contain snippets of the tracks’ sound waves and translate them into numbers. This method causes some music information to be lost, therefore removing some of the nuances that the artists may have included.

I'm going to keep this cordial, and not go down this rabbit hole with you, but you're parroting a lot of internet wisdom, that has absolutely no relationship with the actual science.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Talk about CDs reminded me of a friend in college that put a high end CD head in his Honda Civic, this was the early to mid 90's. Was bragging about how the player wouldn't skip and to show how stable it was to whoever was in the car, he sped up and hit a hump in the road very fast. Something happened and the car went out of control and rolled 3-4 times, landing back on the wheels and the CD player kicked back in when the rolling stopped. Everyone was ok and the damage wasn't too bad for rolling your car. Pounded out some dents and drove the car for a few years after that. Buffered CD playback made skipping a thing of the past. He was very lucky, still drove like an idiot.

 

[Wood and Wire]

Talk about CDs reminded me of a friend in college that put a high end CD head in his Honda Civic, this was the early to mid 90's. Was bragging about how the player wouldn't skip and to show how stable it was to whoever was in the car, he sped up and hit a hump in the road very fast. Something happened and the car went out of control and rolled 3-4 times, landing back on the wheels and the CD player kicked back in when the rolling stopped. Everyone was ok and the damage wasn't too bad for rolling your car. Pounded out some dents and drove the car for a few years after that. Buffered CD playback made skipping a thing of the past. He was very lucky, still drove like an idiot.

I hope that happened during a drum solo...



Never missed a beat.

 

[gln1955]

There have been many claims that vinyl records sound better than CDs, however there are also claims that both formats’ sound quality do not have much difference from one another. These claims have really caused much confusion and so we have stepped up to give some clarifications.

Indeed, vinyl records give a richer and closer sound to what an artist intends to let their audience hear compared to CDs, as long as the custom vinyl record pressing was done professionally. This may have been due to being an analog format. It’s a format that’s a complete replica of the track’s soundwave, so every bit of information is present during playback.

CD is a digital type of audio format, which means that they contain snippets of the tracks’ sound waves and translate them into numbers. This method causes some music information to be lost, therefore removing some of the nuances that the artists may have included.

You are ignoring the physical limitations of vinyl. It is most certainly not a complete replica of the original sound waves. It may sound better to many people because of this lossiness, and that's OK.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

There have been many claims that vinyl records sound better than CDs, however there are also claims that both formats’ sound quality do not have much difference from one another. These claims have really caused much confusion and so we have stepped up to give some clarifications.

Indeed, vinyl records give a richer and closer sound to what an artist intends to let their audience hear compared to CDs, as long as the custom vinyl record pressing was done professionally. This may have been due to being an analog format. It’s a format that’s a complete replica of the track’s soundwave, so every bit of information is present during playback.

CD is a digital type of audio format, which means that they contain snippets of the tracks’ sound waves and translate them into numbers. This method causes some music information to be lost, therefore removing some of the nuances that the artists may have included.

Most vinyl today is pressed from MP3s. You get a mechanical approximation of digital originals.

 

[ShadowGroover]

With computers no longer taking a disc It will probably be soon where being unable to replace the players

Buy a cd/dvd reader/writer with a USB connection for your computer. They're super cheap

 

[Williethump]

I don't know if you have thrift stores like Goodwill in Sweden, but they are practically giving CDs away. Your money doesn't go to the performers but you could build a nice collection pretty quickly.

I don't know if you have thrift stores like Goodwill in Sweden, but they are practically giving CDs away. Your money doesn't go to the performers but you could build a nice collection pretty quickly.

What you say. I'm old and the music I like is too. At charity thrift stores like Goodwill, SPCA and the Cancer Society CDs cost .50 cents to $2.50 and almost always work. Flea markets, yard sales and recycle places like Jimmy Carter's Restore also sell them cheap. I use Linux and an old desktop PC to rip them to mp3. I thumbdrive the files to my Android phone's extra storage chip and play them to my JBL Charge5 Bluetooth speaker using VLC software. It's so cheap I buy stuff I know I probably won't like, but I just donate the CD back to charity, and delete it from my phone if I don't care for it. Granted, the artist gets nothing from 2nd hand sales, but OTOH the artists I like are more than likely to be already deceased.

 

[Joebone]

That's total horse manure.

In fact, the physical limitations of vinyl not only impose a time constraint, but also the level of bass frequencies (beyond the implementation of the RIAA curve) in direct relation to the total run time.

Sonically, CD quality is the most faithfully representative of the original recording.


That said, vinyl is by far the superior experience (in exactly the same way that an identical cup of tea just tastes better when you go through the ritual of brewing the pot, and taking the time to shut out the rest of the world, whilst you savour it from a China cup - verses sipping it from a disposable cup, as you walk down the street).

Well, both not quite right here. Any digital recording technique involves "sampling" of a real-time sound wave. Sampling techniques can seek to improve accuracy by way of bit depth (how much information recorded in each sample) or the rate at which samples are taken. So the samples can come quite close to re-creating the original wave, but at the end of the day, sampling is an approximation and the integrity of that initial sound wave is compromised.

In contrast, analog recording techniques and vinyl reproduction maintain and replicate that original sound wave, but the mechanical realities of a phono needle tracking record grooves impose limits on the lowest bass frequencies, the highest frequencies, and the dynamic range (loud to soft) that can be replicated, including the noise floor, below which musical signals cannot be heard. Meanwhile, optimized digital data provides a much wider dynamic range, including a much lower noise floor. It also may not be subject to the physical degradation associated with vinyl - scratches and pops. However, in practice, many digital signals are NOT optimal; compression techniques - MP3 in particular - trade sonic data for storage capability, so that the sampled material - already an approximation of the original soundwave - is further compromised.

If you have the ability to to compare a tune across MP3, typical CD "Redbook" standard, digital resolution via data streams exceeding the Redbook standard, and good vinyl playback, you'll likely flee from all of your MP3 sources (although for digital streaming of radio programs or for reasons of convenience, you may be stuck). You can hear the promise of digital in the way of dynamic range and lack of background noise, but for many listeners this is a trade-off for coloration or incomplete resolution of timbre and timing cues, as well as spatial information relating to performance in live spaces.

I'm not doctrinaire - I love the convenience and enormous breadth of availability through streaming (I use a premium Tidal subscription), I like the sound and convenience of CDs, and by the mid-1990's, CD recording techniques locked in to provide - for me - a more satisfying experience. But I'm spread across two locations and the CDs are mostly in one place, which also is where my 3000 phono records are stashed - I never gave up on vinyl, and have a lot of obscure jazz and world music material that does not show up in streaming libraries. On streaming, I detest a ridiculous royalty structure that denies creators from reaping appropriate value from their work, and only adopted streaming once I was in the two-location mode, and realized that ripping all of my CDs would be a gargantuan task for which I have no patience. Overall, I prefer vinyl for certain things, CD or high-sampling rate streaming for others, but happily live with all (except MP3 or other compressed formats), depending on convenience.

One caveat - over the years I've been able to develop high-quality audio playback systems in each location, and suspect that low-resolution playback might mask the sonic differences I've addressed. If you're relying on desktop speakers and meh amplification, maybe MP3 is fine...and that's cool. But if opining with broad pronouncements re the virtues or vices of digital vs. analog, consider the breadth of your experiential base.