Are CD players still fashionable

[Blacksabbath25]

I just wanted to no who on here still uses a CD player and do you still buy CDs still as I still do because I like owning a collection of CDs I do some streaming but my favourite is still a CD player call me old fashion *smile*

But it seems everyone is streaming now and not really owning a music library anymore I mean this was what started me of in hifi 30 years ago was the excitement of going out and buying new music .

But now we have hardly any music Stores left times have changed and if you want to buy new music it’s online stores or downloading or streaming it just doesn’t feel the same to me like it used to when I could walk in to a record shop and find new stuff .

The streaming market is ok but I do feel a complete detachment from theses kind of services and you own nothing that’s the bit I struggle with when your paying £10-£20 a month for a streaming service as I look at it this way I could buy 2 albums a month and own them .

what about the future when everyone has jumped on to the steaming bandwagon and theses companies up there prices to £50 a month and you can’t afford that but at least I’ve steel got my CDs and they are not costing £50 a month. .

Maybe it’s just me getting older and I am turning into an old fart but there must be some logic in what I am trying to say

 

[chebby]

I buy lots of CDs regularly. I just don’t play them. They get ripped to my library then stored.

 

[nopiano]

After radio, I think I put in more hours with CD than any other source. Though Qobuz must be very close these days!

Not buying more than a handful of new CDs every year nowadays, so I'm continuing to segment my music by date and medium. For example, everything from the 70s and 80s is on LP, or cassette!

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I mean people still buy vinyl why not CDs still I mean people spend lots of money on hifi components but do not actually own any media it’s a bit like buying the bread but not having the filling .

It was a shame what happened to SACDs as that was the replacement for standard CDs but at the same time streaming took off so killed off SACDs before it had a chance to get going and the fact it was very expensive at the start to get into which didn’t do SACDs any favours .

 

[bigfish786]

probably not.

But it’s still a damn good source of music for many of us.

Digital downloads and streaming just don’t appeal to me.

i too like collecting music, I suppose that is a big part of my hobby.

Listening to it is the major part. And the last few days I’ve been listening to cassettes. Which have their own charm and magic to them. And for me, it’s got that nostalgia and fun I remember from being very young owning my first portable cassette deck, and going to buy my first ever cassette . The escape that small device gave me was amazing,

and it’s probably the reason why music and hifi are still important to me now

 

[MajorFubar]

No they're not fashionable. Crappy MP3s are fashionable, as is streaming from lossy content providers, where someone you've never met gets to decide whether you can still listen to your favourite artist or album this time next week, and as you've already said, they can change their T&C's at will to charge you through the nose for the privilege if they so desire. Not for me I'm afraid, except for background noise, and to let me listen to new music which I might want to go out and buy, commonly on CD but sometimes on LP (very rarely).

 

[Blacksabbath25]

After radio, I think I put in more hours with CD than any other source. Though Qobuz must be very close these days!

Not buying more than a handful of new CDs every year nowadays, so I'm continuing to segment my music by date and medium. For example, everything from the 70s and 80s is on LP, or cassette!

I have a load of vinyl that I’ve collected over the years but I do not own a record player but maybe one day I will get a record player and start to use my collection but I’ve used CDs for so long now and pretty happy with the format and I understand that they are not Flac quality but they still sound pretty good .

 

[Blacksabbath25]

probably not.

But it’s still a damn good source of music for many of us.

Digital downloads and streaming just don’t appeal to me.

i too like collecting music, I suppose that is a big part of my hobby.

Listening to it is the major part. And the last few days I’ve been listening to cassettes. Which have their own charm and magic to them. And for me, it’s got that nostalgia and fun I remember from being very young owning my first portable cassette deck, and going to buy my first ever cassette . The escape that small device gave me was amazing,

and it’s probably the reason why music and hifi are still important to me now

that’s how I feel and totally agree with you as that’s what started me of buying music and collecting it The hifi bit came really afterwards as I started of with a cassette player and then moved on to CDs , MDs

 

[knaithrover]

Cd's are definitely not fashionable but that doesn't mean they don't sound good. Ive got 5 cdp's and rotate them round my set ups. I subscribe to Tidal hifi, play music from a nas, buy records and cd's and enjoy all of them and the different listening experiences they give me. I grew up in the 70's and therefore have a lot of vinyl vast amounts of cd's from the late 80's onwards and also have a hard drive with 20k + tracks stored from the early 2000's. If I was starting out now I would probably stream only - Tidal hifi/Masters into Sonos Connect and Arcam Dac sounds very very good indeed. However, my best source is probably my Roksan Oxygene cdp.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Cd's are definitely not fashionable but that doesn't mean they don't sound good. Ive got 5 cdp's and rotate them round my set ups. I subscribe to Tidal hifi, play music from a nas, buy records and cd's and enjoy all of them and the different listening experiences they give me. I grew up in the 70's and therefore have a lot of vinyl vast amounts of cd's from the late 80's onwards and also have a hard drive with 20k + tracks stored from the early 2000's. If I was starting out now I would probably stream only - Tidal hifi/Masters into Sonos Connect and Arcam Dac sounds very very good indeed. However, my best source is probably my Roksan Oxygene cdp.

that’s great !

But as you where brought up in the 1970s like I was to you have grasped the new technology of streaming which I would of thought that would be something you would struggle with as you where brought up with vinyl, cassette , CDs and when CDs first came out we all thought that was a miracle

 

[bigfish786]

probably not.

But it’s still a damn good source of music for many of us.

Digital downloads and streaming just don’t appeal to me.

i too like collecting music, I suppose that is a big part of my hobby.

Listening to it is the major part. And the last few days I’ve been listening to cassettes. Which have their own charm and magic to them. And for me, it’s got that nostalgia and fun I remember from being very young owning my first portable cassette deck, and going to buy my first ever cassette . The escape that small device gave me was amazing,

and it’s probably the reason why music and hifi are still important to me now

that’s how I feel and totally agree with you as that’s what started me of buying music and collecting it The hifi bit came really afterwards as I started of with a cassette player and then moved on to CDs , MDs

i think it’s time to get you reacquainted with turntable ownership.

When I sold my Leema amp yesterday, The major selling point was just how good that Avenged Sevenfold album sounded on the turntable.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

probably not.

But it’s still a damn good source of music for many of us.

Digital downloads and streaming just don’t appeal to me.

i too like collecting music, I suppose that is a big part of my hobby.

Listening to it is the major part. And the last few days I’ve been listening to cassettes. Which have their own charm and magic to them. And for me, it’s got that nostalgia and fun I remember from being very young owning my first portable cassette deck, and going to buy my first ever cassette . The escape that small device gave me was amazing,

and it’s probably the reason why music and hifi are still important to me now

that’s how I feel and totally agree with you as that’s what started me of buying music and collecting it The hifi bit came really afterwards as I started of with a cassette player and then moved on to CDs , MDs

i think it’s time to get you reacquainted with turntable ownership.

When I sold my Leema amp yesterday, The major selling point was just how good that Avenged Sevenfold album sounded on the turntable.

I’ve got all the black sabbath albums on first print vinyl which I’ve never played I brought them just for joy of collecting everything I could get my hands on to do with my favourite band as I used to go all over the place hunting it down

 

[bigfish786]

probably not.

But it’s still a damn good source of music for many of us.

Digital downloads and streaming just don’t appeal to me.

i too like collecting music, I suppose that is a big part of my hobby.

Listening to it is the major part. And the last few days I’ve been listening to cassettes. Which have their own charm and magic to them. And for me, it’s got that nostalgia and fun I remember from being very young owning my first portable cassette deck, and going to buy my first ever cassette . The escape that small device gave me was amazing,

and it’s probably the reason why music and hifi are still important to me now

that’s how I feel and totally agree with you as that’s what started me of buying music and collecting it The hifi bit came really afterwards as I started of with a cassette player and then moved on to CDs , MDs

i think it’s time to get you reacquainted with turntable ownership.

When I sold my Leema amp yesterday, The major selling point was just how good that Avenged Sevenfold album sounded on the turntable.

I’ve got all the black sabbath albums on first print vinyl which I’ve never played I brought them just for joy of collecting everything I could get my hands on to do with my favourite band as I used to go all over the place hunting it down

you really owe it to yourself to get a decent turntable and pop those records open.

 

[CnoEvil]

I had the original Linn Karik/Numerik, which was seen a a fairly highend CDP in its day...but the relatively humble Linn Sneaky was considerably better.

When you add in the flexibility/usability/reliability of a streamer, it's a no brainer, as far as I'm concerned. I too buy, rip and store CDs.

 

[Al ears]

probably not.

But it’s still a damn good source of music for many of us.

Digital downloads and streaming just don’t appeal to me.

i too like collecting music, I suppose that is a big part of my hobby.

Listening to it is the major part. And the last few days I’ve been listening to cassettes. Which have their own charm and magic to them. And for me, it’s got that nostalgia and fun I remember from being very young owning my first portable cassette deck, and going to buy my first ever cassette . The escape that small device gave me was amazing,

and it’s probably the reason why music and hifi are still important to me now

+1

Fashionable I would question but fashions come and go

I still buy all music formats but do not stream. Does that make me old fashioned?

 

[knaithrover]

Cd's are definitely not fashionable but that doesn't mean they don't sound good. Ive got 5 cdp's and rotate them round my set ups. I subscribe to Tidal hifi, play music from a nas, buy records and cd's and enjoy all of them and the different listening experiences they give me. I grew up in the 70's and therefore have a lot of vinyl vast amounts of cd's from the late 80's onwards and also have a hard drive with 20k + tracks stored from the early 2000's. If I was starting out now I would probably stream only - Tidal hifi/Masters into Sonos Connect and Arcam Dac sounds very very good indeed. However, my best source is probably my Roksan Oxygene cdp.

that’s great !

But as you where brought up in the 1970s like I was to you have grasped the new technology of streaming which I would of thought that would be something you would struggle with as you where brought up with vinyl, cassette , CDs and when CDs first came out we all thought that was a miracle

It's not a struggle at all I've always liked shiny new technology, as big a miracle as CD is having access to millions of tunes at your fingertips which via Tidal sound very very nice indeed.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I do both streaming and use CDs but my Cd player is my number choice but it is great to see people on here still buying some sort of physical media I thought no one bothered with it anymore .

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

I sold all my vinyl last summer..and turntable,cartridge ,phono stage /psu......I was getting a bit obsessive with it all and it was starting to get out of hand financially......so I bit the bullet and took it right out of the equation....now I still buy the odd cd here and there but streaming tidal and Spotify on the superuniti is a absolute breeze and I very rarely even dip my toe into the nas drive these days....sold my naim cd5i mkii a few weeks ago and never missed it...in fact it just couldn't compete with the streamer/dac section of the superuniti.I still love the vinyl though but when the bug bites it bites hard and I had to make a choice.lol.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

probably not.

But it’s still a damn good source of music for many of us.

Digital downloads and streaming just don’t appeal to me.

i too like collecting music, I suppose that is a big part of my hobby.

Listening to it is the major part. And the last few days I’ve been listening to cassettes. Which have their own charm and magic to them. And for me, it’s got that nostalgia and fun I remember from being very young owning my first portable cassette deck, and going to buy my first ever cassette . The escape that small device gave me was amazing,

and it’s probably the reason why music and hifi are still important to me now

+1

Fashionable I would question but fashions come and go

I still buy all music formats but do not stream. Does that make me old fashioned?

I think it makes me old fashioned me liking the old formats

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I sold all my vinyl last summer..and turntable,cartridge ,phono stage /psu......I was getting a bit obsessive with it all and it was starting to get out of hand financially......so I bit the bullet and took it right out of the equation....now I still buy the odd cd here and there but streaming tidal and Spotify on the superuniti is a absolute breeze and I very rarely even dip my toe into the nas drive these days....sold my naim cd5i mkii a few weeks ago and never missed it...in fact it just couldn't compete with the streamer/dac section of the superuniti.I still love the vinyl though but when the bug bites it bites hard and I had to make a choice.lol.

That why I’ve not brought a turntable yet is because of the cost of doing it properly I mean if I went and brought a Pro ject classic with what ever cart that came with would it sound any good ? I just do not no would it make my black sabbath albums sound good or would I have to spend a lot more

 

[MajorFubar]

I understand that they are not Flac quality but they still sound pretty good .

You understand wrongly: FLAC is just a lossless compression format, it does not have an inherrent quality. If you rip a CD to FLAC files, the resulting files will be CD quality. If you buy FLAC files that are of a higher bitdepth and bitrate than CDs, you could argue they are of a higher quality, though I doubt if you could hear any difference with all else being equal. The 'all else being equal' is a huge qualification however: some hi res files are sourced from better masters to start with, and some DACs just sound better at higher bitrates regardless, plus there are other variables. But you get the idea.

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

Ortofon 2m blue at the very minimum....oh and the (moving coil)audio technica atg ptgii sound great.....and it wouldn't be long before you start wanting to up the phono stage to move into moving coils...cause your a bit like me.lol.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I understand that they are not Flac quality but they still sound pretty good .

You understand wrongly: FLAC is just a file format, it does not have a quality. If you rip a CD to FLAC files, the resulting files will be CD quality. If you buy FLAC files that are of a higher bitdepth and bitrate than CDs, you could argue they are of a higher quality, though I doubt if you could hear any difference with all else being equal. The 'all else being equal' is a huge qualification however: some hi res files are sourced from better masters to start with, and some DACs just sound better at higher bits rates regardless, plus there are other variables. But you get the idea.

Is this a lot of us miss that we can’t even hear all the benefits of the high res formats and that CDs are in our hearing range so perfect really we all just want a much more dynamic and more detail sound from the recording

 

[BigH]

No not fashionable and some manufacturers have stopped making them. CD sales are plummetting, maybe vinyl will overtake them soon. Streaming or downloads are the fashionable way to listen to music these days. I admit I don't play cds much anymore since I started streaming, it's easier, quicker, more variety. Some artists now don't even produce cds. Only prblem with streaming is you don't have much choice over which mastering you can play and some albums come and go, not everything is available. But on the other side they may have the more recent remaster that is better than the ones you own. If you have 70s albums on vinyl then you should buy a decent TT, I don't think the cds are as good.

 

[newlash09]

Probably. But I belong to a younger, restless generation, where the next best thing is launched every Christmas. So there is a lesser sense of ownership for the interim period that it lasts between amazon to eBay. Music has almost always been a virtual thing, always heard but never seen in physical format. So there is no longing to own it. And the added convenience of streaming is a bonus. That said, I still like the look of CDP's compared to boring amps.