The future of CD

[StevieC]

Unfortunately MajorFubar is perfectly correct in what he says. I say unfortunately because I still think it's so sad that sound quality is given so little consideration in preference to all the other aspects.

Mind you, I often think back to the 70's & 80's when 90% of my music was on vinyl and the other 10% made up of a handful of cassettes. OK so I certainly didn't have mind blowing sound but wasn't life so much simpler?

Thanks, Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Minidiscs were really cute, though.

If I recall correctly they were 100% compatible with all CD players (not sure about the slot loading ones) and they would have been great for single hits since the singles only have two or three tracks in them.

I only own one Minidisc and is the Disney's Hercules videogame for the PC.

I keep it jealously.

Don't know why producers didn't adopt it for the singles.

 

[Sizzers]

I've had a few downloads on my phone and sounds great for bopping along down the street, but that's all.

I'm not that clued up on the technology to be honest, but even at 320 bit rate (if that's right!) it's unlistenable through my hi-fi. There's just so much missing to my ears, and why would I want to plug my phone in to my hi-fi in the first place?

 

[daveloc]

Most people weren't interested in re-buying all their music collection on yet another physical format which looked just like a CD.

True; each big audio format success has been physically smaller than the size before: LP->CD->HDD/SSD->nothing (streaming, cloud)?

Even leaving aside rationalisations like rising populations, declining storage space, it may be that to the mass market, uninterested in actual technical specs, the size drop itself is a signal of "progress" that helps trigger the buy response?

Hmm: an 8cm BD holds 7.5GBs, or about 100 minutes of 24/192 LPCM, and my supermarket sells players for £75 that upscale DVD and play CD as well. Not working in slot-drives on computers could even be an advantage. Might still be worth another try

 

[manicm]

If I recall correctly they were 100% compatible with all CD players (not sure about the slot loading ones)

Minidiscs were a completely different format to CD, and effectively replaced the cassette tape as it was recordable too, and many Minidisc players would record too. So they were never compatible with CD players.

You may be mistaking Minidisc with smaller diameter CDs - singles were sold in this format ala vinyl.

 

[manicm]

[Hmm: an 8cm BD holds 7.5GBs, or about 100 minutes of 24/192 LPCM, and my supermarket sells players for £75 that upscale DVD and play CD as well. Not working in slot-drives on computers could even be an advantage. Might still be worth another try

Blu-ray audio discs would have the advantage over SACD and DVD-A players in that Blu-ray players are now cheap and ubiquitous. However people like myself would be put off by not being able to rip it for the car. I have no reason to buy a Blu-ray drive for my laptop anyway.

Having said that, the alternative which is hi-res audio files requires streaming and and I find said devices like Linn, Naim et al too messy. The PC, from what I see, is just not well suited to playing hi-res audio.

What the hell is wrong with this industry??

 

[Anonymous]

Minidiscs were a completely different format to CD, and effectively replaced the cassette tape as it was recordable too, and many Minidisc players would record too. So they were never compatible with CD players.

You may be mistaking Minidisc with smaller diameter CDs - singles were sold in this format ala vinyl.

I see.

Thanks for the clarification.

I checked on the supposed Minidisc I own and there's written "Compact Disc" on it, so yes, it is simply a smaller diameter cd. Too bad

 

[MajorFubar]

These are Mnidiscs: http://www.minidisc.org/part_What_are_MiniDiscs.html

Totally and completely different technology to miniature CDs.

 

[Anonymous]

They look a lot like PSP's UMD

Maybe they recycled the idea.

 

[lazinov]

Hi,

The Cd format has been destroyed by CD producers publishing classical music that does not sound natural.

If classical music enthusiasts were able to buy CDs that sounded more like that of the concert hall and less 'electronic', less 'engineered, there would be no reason not to continue buying CDs.

The technical standard is perfectly adequate.

Try downloading a free sample CD of natural sounding classical music, both chamber and orchestral from this link http://www.occds.org/cd/cd000.html. When played on high quality sound equipment you will be able to appreciate my meaning.

Geoffrey