CD players are they still worth buying now theres other media

[admin_exported]

Now that single music CD's are being stopped, is it still worth spending out on a good CD Player! As it seems people are using other formats! I feel a bit sick as ive just brought the Rega Apollo 35th Edition play £660.

What do you guys think regarding CD's are they going to dissapear!

 

[JoelSim]

Not for a few years fella

ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Not wanting to brush you off but there are a great many discussions on the forum only recently about this matter. I expect you will see a great deal of change in products offered by manufacturers over the coming year so as JoelSim says give it a few months before you make up your mind.

 

[Anonymous]

lol but ive brought the player already, just wondered if ive made a BIG mistake ...........

 

[JoelSim]

No you haven't. It's a very nice machine and will do you for 5 years

ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

No, there is absolutely nothing wrong with your CD player. The relevance of computer music is largely based on the impact the future will bring to us. As JoelSim actually said I wouldn't worry for a few years yet but at some point there will be a gradual 'switchover'.

 

[professorhat]

Indeed, in fact, I've actually increased my CD purchases over the last few weeks. Thing is, if I want to listen to a song and find the only copy I have is digital, I immediately go online and actively look for the CD to buy. I just prefer to listen to the original CD.

 

[Anonymous]

We live in exciting times of rapid developments in technology.

I have found nothing to beat CD's for music, BUT now dub them onto a hard drive! I have a CD player that is not used anymore, and it is as good as anything money can buy.

Same with radio stations, has anyone noticed that listening to the Freeview ones through your AV amp is actually better than through your tuner?

If I hadn't bought my 1st AV system (details below) I would have remained happy and enjoyed further my stereo set up.
So what that you have just bought a CD player, you just have a extra unit that you could have done without and spent the money on something else, that's all.
It will give you years of pleasure until you decide to buy say a PS3, or a Sony 995RDR and put your collection of photos and music onto its hard drive. The price of which (Hard Drives) has dropped massively over the past 2 years.

 

[Anonymous]

Bit of a flame bait thread really.

There is always going to be a need for physical media. cd's are not going to disapear any time soon.

 

[Tony_R]

trevor79:....Same with radio stations, has anyone noticed that listening to the Freeview ones through your AV amp is actually better than through your tuner?

If I hadn't bought my 1st AV system.....

Trevor, I believe this is due to bit rates being higher on freeview / ntl / sky than on DAB.

 

[Terryff]

Well they told us the LP was dead, but i buy more now than i ever used to and likewise cd, i buy more now than ever, as long as their is a market, they will be available and there is still definately a market. I am also tinkering with the idea of computer music, but not to replace my cd player, to run alongside it, perhaps.

Don't worry, its a lovely bit of kit, just listen to your cd's and enjoy them.ÿ

 

[matengawhat]

i have never downloaded a track - i would still prefer to buy the cd and have something in my hand then decide on whether i want to transfer to my computer and ipod - still use my cd player far more than any other source - think it safe for a good while yet

 

[Tony_R]

Well let's see, we've had DVD Audio and SACD and now Blue Ray audio (whatever it's called) and neither of the first two managed to dislodge CD from it's leading position, not even the promise of better sound quality.

I think CD is likely to be around for many years yet...

 

[chebby]

As others have said, the CD itself is not 'dead' nor is it likely to die out anytime soon. Even people like me - who are ripping losslessly onto our PCs/Macs and playing back through a DAC - need the CDs to feed the process.

What is going to disappear quicker (though not completely yet) is the stand-alone, hifi quality, component CD player. This will eventually become a niche product. Obviously lower end mini-systems/car systems and suchlike will retain the ability to play CDs for longer.

You have a great player that I think still has a distinct edge on lossless/corrected files from iTunes via a CA DacMagic. (This is only my one opinion based on recent real-world comparison of a Rega Apollo + Primare I30 vs iTunes/lossless/iMac/DacMagic + Primare I30 connected with Chord XLR balanced connections.)

Go over this slightly unfair (£600 CDP vs £200 DAC) budget level and start comparing more ambitious DACs with price equivalent CD players and things get very tough for the 'traditional' CD player.

No-one is ever going to be convinced (or otherwise) of the merits of computer based lossless music via a DAC from these 'Good vs Evil' type threads. I have seen too many of them (CD vs LP, Digital vs Film, PC vs Mac etc.) No one gets inspired to try it for themselves and people just entrench into their respective digital foxholes and throw things at each other!

I also find it amusing how after 26 years of CDs and CD players, people even tend to forget that they are playing a digital format on a mini computer (the CD player itself) via a built in DAC! Now that CD is coming under threat I have seen people describing CDs with terms like... 'analogue' (yes honest, I have seen it in print!), 'warm' (eh?), 'tactile'. History is repeating itself and all the expressions used to describe vinyl against CD - when THAT battle was raging - are being recycled in the most comical way.

The vinyl LP played on a decent turntable IS a unique experience and sounds (to me) gorgeous. I will not be getting rid of vinyl anytime soon and I see the CD player as being far more threatened (in the long term) than the turntable. A well refurbished 1950s/60s hifi turntable (eg Thorens, Garrard) can still slay most modern budget/mid-priced decks. Try getting your 2009 CD player refurbished in 40 years time and see if it sounds better than the technology prevalent then!

 

[manicm]

Chebby, actually some nuts with engineering know-how may actually refurbish CD players to reference level.

In a UK magazine a few years ago there was an article(wish I bought the mag) about Ken Ishiwata from Marantz who did a once-off mod of one of his mid-range CD KI players with standard 44.1khz/16 bit replay with no upsampling whatsoever, and to spectacular results.

Apparently he optimised all the electrical topology and the chassis, it was a fascinating article, maybe there are others who can recall this.

He allegedly also mods his cellphones!

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think CD's are under threat at all, they are still the best source to Dub off.
Transfering onto hard drive makes CD players redundant, you simply can get the same quality off a £300 Sony 995 RDR recorder!

As more and more people find this out it will have a huge effect on sales.

 

[Anonymous]

I suspect that in the future CD will be replaced by files on computer, for the same reason why CD replaced LP - Convenience.

I am treading the day. The number of hard drive failures I have had, makes me tired reliving the experiences now. CD may becoming old fashion, but for me they seldom fail, and the after effects are small when they do.

 

[Anonymous]

I dont trust storing music files on computer and mp3 is rubbish quality i feel, and i prefer a hard copy ie the Cd! Also on Cd like Vinyl you can see what you got easily and pic out what you want to play and you dont forget what music you have because you can visually see what you have in your collection! To look through a computer is a pain!

 

[chebby]

randydevilad:I dont trust storing music files on computer and mp3 is rubbish quality i feel, and i prefer a hard copy ie the Cd! Also on Cd like Vinyl you can see what you got easily and pic out what you want to play and you dont forget what music you have because you can visually see what you have in your collection! To look through a computer is a pain!

Sorry but I have not seen such an ill-informed contribution on this subject in a long time. Every single point you make is wrong.

randydevilad:I dont trust storing music files on computer and mp3 is rubbish quality i feel, and i prefer a hard copy ie the Cd!

Trust... Just because I have ripped a CD to iTunes does not mean I have thrown the disc away! I also take regular whole system (bootable) backups and keep one offsite (locked in my desk at work). Do you have duplicates of your entire CD/LP collection in a safe offsite loacation in case of fire/flood or whatever in your home? (Surviving digital photos on computer/solid state media outnumbered surviving traditional photos and negatives by a factor of 10 to 1 after hurricane Katrina).

randydevilad:Also on Cd like Vinyl you can see what you got easily and pic out what you want to play and you dont forget what music you have because you can visually see what you have in your collection! To look through a computer is a pain!

I can organise my music on iTunes in any way I wish and searching for an artist/genre/track/album title is a doddle and takes a click. Far easier than searching through shelves/boxes/racks of CDs (even if they are kept in order) and then removing the last played disc and loading the new one and waiting for the player to 'initialise' (up to 15 seconds with some CD players like the Rega Apollo.)

I can 'visually see' what I have in my iTunes collection just by flicking through the cover art if I want to do it that way. Again just a click.

How could I possibly 'forget' what music I have?! It is all there on the screen with cover art, organised as albums and various tracks in various playlists of my making and ordered/sorted exactly as I wish with minimal effort.

To access my music on the computer is a joy and a liberation, not a 'pain'.

randydevilad:...and mp3 is rubbish quality.

Who is talking about MP3?

That is just one option and not mandatory! I rip my CDs in lossless with correction so when replayed they sound at least as good as (maybe better) than the original CD on a player. Judging this whole means of replaying digital music (PC + DAC) on just your experience of some ropey MP3s is plain blind bias.

(By the way, not all MP3 is rubbish. I listen to Radio Paradise in 192kbps MP3 quality from the internet and it sounds great.)

 

[Anonymous]

trevor79:I don't think CD's are under threat at all, they are still the best source to Dub off.

Out go CD player, out go CD. Don't forget us freaks who want bit perfect copies are merely a drop in the ocean. The vast majority will stop buying CDs if they don't have a CD player(!). Personally I don't think CD will become niche like vinyl has because high quality downloads and cheap hard drives will allow people to have exactly the same copy. I'm not talking next year, though give it ten and I think there will be plenty of CD players gathering dust.

 

[Anonymous]

chebby

Its my choice and it suits me if you dont like it move on! But its how i feel! we are all different so respect that please!

And what i said suits me! end off.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks
Octopo

You made a good positive point its appreciated

 

[Anonymous]

no problem
randydevilad

 

[Anonymous]

If it works for you Chebby then im happy for you!

 

[the record spot]

CD can still be excellent, but I despair of the current trend in churning out discs which are mastered too LOUD!!! Listening to some pre-remastered discs is a revelation; got some recently and they're mind bogglingly good as opposed to mind bogglignly mind numbing. Got Billy Joel's Innocent Man album on just now, a Japanese original copy (£2 at a record fair today) and it's almost as good as the vinyl. Ditto some original Virgin/Charisma Genesis and Gabriel albums.

So yes, definitely worth buying a CD player - I can't be bothered with all the faff that comes with downloading, ripping, etc., so hard disk music will never happen in this household. I like the whole thing; good packaging (hence why vinyl kicks the pants off any other format), sound quality and for me analogue is still the one to beat, lastly being able to touch the product is reallyimportant for me. Binary down my phone line just isn't quite as good...!