Anyone still buying CDs and Tapes?

[kingston12]

Lefty said:

There’s some truth in this.

Indeed. As much as I love it, it IS objectively a ridiculous way to listen to music in the 21st Century!

[thepritch]

I’m a convert to Spotify now. Love music, have a good ear and love listening carefully to the layers of instruments / vocals on a favorite song. But 90% of the time streaming is good enough for me as my music tastes aren’t particularly niche or obscure. Spotify’s catalogue is immense. If Spotify went bust, I’m confident another service would appear.

But I also am now going to more local gigs / concerts etc which is on another level to recorded music and that ‘analogue ’ experience completes my musical wants. All things considered I have no desire to go back to CD’s.

[nuyorican]

I buy CD’s for the car as I can’t be bothered to learn how to install a modern unit and I don’t really do streaming/internet music. I listen to records at home!

Don’t spend proper money on CD’s. Just classic albums from charity shops

[Lefty]

kingston12 said:

Lefty said:

There’s some truth in this.

Indeed. As much as I love it, it IS objectively a ridiculous way to listen to music in the 21st Century!

I’ve got a basic ProJect turntable, a Schiit valve headphone amp and some Klipsch powered speakers and old vinyl sounds incredible to my non-audiophile ears. Cost under a grand all in.

I’m very selective on what records I buy because they’re so damn expensive!

I don’t even have a cd player in the house any more but have a few hundred cd’s in the loft that get fked through various old cars that have cd players. Daily driver is CarPlay and Apple Music and I use that on the go. I haven’t bought a cd or tape in decades. We do have an Apple home pod in the kitchen which is useful and good enough for what it needs to do (radio mostly).

[Lefty]

kingston12 said:

Lefty said:

There’s some truth in this.

Indeed. As much as I love it, it IS objectively a ridiculous way to listen to music in the 21st Century!

I’ve got a basic ProJect turntable, a Schiit valve headphone amp and some Klipsch powered speakers and old vinyl sounds incredible to my non-audiophile ears. Cost under a grand all in.

I’m very selective on what records I buy because they’re so damn expensive!

I don’t even have a cd player in the house any more but have a few hundred cd’s in the loft that get fked through various old cars that have cd players. Daily driver is CarPlay and Apple Music and I use that on the go. I haven’t bought a cd or tape in decades. We do have an Apple home pod in the kitchen which is useful and good enough for what it needs to do (radio mostly).

[SwissJonese]

GravelBen said:

I still buy a few CDs (then rip them to a FLAC copy to play from devices and put the CD away in a cupboard), most often if I can't find a high quality download to buy.

If I can find a good quality download then I'll normally buy it that way for convenience though.

This is what I do. It is so annoying, as it seems you can only buy digitally low quality MP3 or play via spotify.

So I have to buy the CD which I rip to FLAC so can play in the car/van/Hi-Fi. The CD I usual either sell or bung in the cupboard.

Why don't they just sell proper Flac versions of albums?

[toon10]

SwissJonese said:

This is what I do. It is so annoying, as it seems you can only buy digitally low quality MP3 or play via spotify.

So I have to buy the CD which I rip to FLAC so can play in the car/van/Hi-Fi. The CD I usual either sell or bung in the cupboard.

Why don't they just sell proper Flac versions of albums?

Me too. I have most of my CD collection ripped to FLAC and I have a few thumbnail drives which slot into a couple of amps I have and, in my car, too.

[toon10]

SwissJonese said:

Why don't they just sell proper Flac versions of albums?

You can download albums to FLAC from a few sources. https://www.whathifi.com/features/where-can-you-bu...

[Mont Blanc]

AC43 said:

Jimjimhim said:

No, CDs were always crap and cassettes were even worse to own, so why would I now when there are better options!

I just had a look at three of my favourite Spotify playlists; I've been adding to them for ages.

The jazz one is relatively recent but I've already got it up to 11 hours 58 minutes.

My house playlist is at 28 hours 49 minutes.

And my lounge one is 30 hours 58 minutes.

That's a lot of flicking through cases of CD's.....

Exactly this.

I also have a Jazz playlist that is currently sat at 14 hours 41 minutes.
I also have House at 69 hours...
Jazz, House, Lounge.. We probably have very similar tastes

But the point is that playlists are the best thing since sliced bread, and you can't get that experience from physical media. You just assemble the best of the tracks that fit that particular genre or mood, and enjoy.

I don't think I've ever listened to a full album all the way through more than once. Even if I really like a particular artist, there is usually only 2 or 3 tracks from an album of theirs that I want to listen to again and again, so listening to albums has never worked for me.

[MrB.]

Mont Blanc said:

AC43 said:

Jimjimhim said:

No, CDs were always crap and cassettes were even worse to own, so why would I now when there are better options!

I just had a look at three of my favourite Spotify playlists; I've been adding to them for ages.

The jazz one is relatively recent but I've already got it up to 11 hours 58 minutes.

My house playlist is at 28 hours 49 minutes.

And my lounge one is 30 hours 58 minutes.

That's a lot of flicking through cases of CD's.....

Exactly this.

I also have a Jazz playlist that is currently sat at 14 hours 41 minutes.
I also have House at 69 hours...
Jazz, House, Lounge.. We probably have very similar tastes

But the point is that playlists are the best thing since sliced bread, and you can't get that experience from physical media. You just assemble the best of the tracks that fit that particular genre or mood, and enjoy.

I don't think I've ever listened to a full album all the way through more than once. Even if I really like a particular artist, there is usually only 2 or 3 tracks from an album of theirs that I want to listen to again and again, so listening to albums has never worked for me.

I still love listening to single albums all the way through, but I agree on the playlist thing. I have a few on my Spotify account, some genre, others just songs I like arranged in a list so I can play them for hours when I am on a long drive and don't want the hassle of having to keep choosing a new album or artist.

[snuffy]

I find it amazing how cheap CDs and albums are. 40 odd years ago I'm sure I was paying say a tenner for a new CD release. It's not much different to now.

I often watch stuff late at night on say BBC4, hear some old group I've not heard before, then look on Amazon and Jeff then pops a CD round the next day for the price of a pint of lager down the boozer.

[AC43]

Out of curiosity, I had a listen to the Stone's album, Tattoo You on Spotify last night. I only know because my sister bought a copy when it came out and I vaguely remember listening to it; I was much more into the punk stuff stuff at the time.

Anyway, the recording sounded amazing and the tunes pretty good too. £5.26 later and the remixed double CD + MP3 are on their way.

It'll be interesting to hear in the car and I might dig out the CD player to listen to it on my full set up at home.

[AC43]

Mont Blanc said:

AC43 said:

Jimjimhim said:

No, CDs were always crap and cassettes were even worse to own, so why would I now when there are better options!

I just had a look at three of my favourite Spotify playlists; I've been adding to them for ages.

The jazz one is relatively recent but I've already got it up to 11 hours 58 minutes.

My house playlist is at 28 hours 49 minutes.

And my lounge one is 30 hours 58 minutes.

That's a lot of flicking through cases of CD's.....

Exactly this.

I also have a Jazz playlist that is currently sat at 14 hours 41 minutes.
I also have House at 69 hours...
Jazz, House, Lounge.. We probably have very similar tastes

But the point is that playlists are the best thing since sliced bread, and you can't get that experience from physical media. You just assemble the best of the tracks that fit that particular genre or mood, and enjoy.

I don't think I've ever listened to a full album all the way through more than once. Even if I really like a particular artist, there is usually only 2 or 3 tracks from an album of theirs that I want to listen to again and again, so listening to albums has never worked for me.

Yup, very few artists (for me anyway) nail an entire album-worth of songs. There are exceptions but, generally, I like to pick and choose.

Playlists are great for weaning out the best stuff. And Artist Radio - that's how I find loads of new stuff.

[AC43]

thepritch said:

I’m a convert to Spotify now. Love music, have a good ear and love listening carefully to the layers of instruments / vocals on a favorite song. But 90% of the time streaming is good enough for me as my music tastes aren’t particularly niche or obscure. Spotify’s catalogue is immense. If Spotify went bust, I’m confident another service would appear.

But I also am now going to more local gigs / concerts etc which is on another level to recorded music and that ‘analogue ’ experience completes my musical wants. All things considered I have no desire to go back to CD’s.

I'm reading David Byrne's How Music Works (and have also listened to Nick Mason's excellent pod The History of Recorded Music) and they make some interesting points; how the original intent of recording was to make it sound as "real" as possible. Then later, the pendulum swung the other was when recording techniques improved massively and artists started trying much harder to recreate the "real" studio sound live.

Anyway, the thing that live music has in spades that I really love is all that fantastic bass. You don't get that on studio monitors as they are designed to be flatter. Me, I love the visceral feel that some proper bass boxes give to a performance and that's why I always have a sub hooked up to my sound system. Purists might shudder, I just love that extra punch which is what you hear live.

[AC43]

This thread has made me think and realise that I still have access to a load of (album) MP3s from back in the day when I bought physical CDs and stacked them in my car CD changer/took big fat wallets of them on holiday.

I'll play around at the weekend and see how they sound when I Chromecast Audio them to my hifi - should sound that much better than the equivalent Spotify stream.

When I jump in the car I'll see if I can get the Android system to play stuff via Amazon music; that could be an easier way of listed to high quality MP3s than the mush more cumbersome process of ripping then onto a storage device and than plugging that into my OEM car system/transferring it onto the hard drive in the car.

To be clear; I'm not after actual hi-res, just CD quality as my home and car systems both support hi bitrate streaming.

[AC43]

Update; just had to go for a quick drive as the MP3 files sound SO MUCH BETTER in my car. Louder, fuller, punchier, much more detailed.

I started with Beverly Night's Soul UK (as its an amazing recording) then tried some Air, Teleman, Scissor Sisters and Jimmy Smith.

I managed to get the Amazon Music icon on the screen but, annoyingly, it can only "see" playlists and not albums. So I might have to create one playlist per album.

Anyway, this is good; I have another way to access CD-quality music in the car and can do it through the interface I want to use.

[NDA]

AC43 said:

I always have a sub hooked up to my sound system. Purists might shudder, I just love that extra punch which is what you hear live.

I added a sub to my system about a year ago - a KEF KC62 - it's made a massive difference.

[AC43]

NDA said:

AC43 said:

I always have a sub hooked up to my sound system. Purists might shudder, I just love that extra punch which is what you hear live.

I added a sub to my system about a year ago - a KEF KC62 - it's made a massive difference.

Wow that's a serious bit of kit. Yes, if that's the sound you like there's no substitute. I like lots of smooth, clear low frequencies that you typically get from a decent stack at a gig or in a club or in a funky bar. Or in a cinema for that matter.

I have a mate who's a music producer and said how much he enjoyed the bassy sound of my system. I wasn't sure whether he really meant it at the time but when I asked one of his music industry peers about it he explained that in a studio everything is deliberately flatter so you won't get the same low-end punch.

I've got subs on everything; my sound system, my 5.1 AV system, two additional sound bars, the audio system in my room and the system in my car.

They don't dominate proceedings but they do make sure that the bottom 20% of frequencies are well represented.

[Jimjimhim]

Blimey this has turned into a right nerd fest lol

[AC43]

Jimjimhim said:

Blimey this has turned into a right nerd fest lol

Saturday is the day for nerding about.

And this thread had made me really think; specifically because the Spotify in my car streams more quietly than the old skool MP3s and CDs I can still play in there. And when the OP asked about CD's it reminded about that fact.

Anyway, more research; I didn't realise there were settings in Spotify other than choosing max quality for download and playback quality to max quality.I just found two more settings; there's a playback setting for Quiet, Medium and Loud. Who Knew?

And a setting for Young, Middle Aged and fked ears.

Trying a few tracks on the headphones and I'm liking the volume but not so sure about the ear settings/equaliser settings; I've put that put that back to flat.

Now to have a go in the car and see if the volume lifts things a bit.