Why Do ~You~ Still Play CDs?

I play CDs all the time, in a way. It just so happens I rip and then I stream my CDs.

I was introduced to streaming three years ago and took up Roon about two years ago. I have no interest whatsoever in playing a CD physically if can help it. The nearest equivalent is my Ayre DX-5 DSD player and I find it a huge pain to look through my alphabetized collection to find the one or two that I have decided to play.

I have a large vinyl collection and I had my B&O Beogram 4004 turntable completely restored last year and yet I rarely play it because I find it a chore to go through the ritual so many seem to enjoy. . Streaming has spoiled me, there’s no doubt of that! I play my vinyl just enough to keep everything moving. And that is even though I enjoy listening to vinyl for a change. I wish a record cleaner wasn’t so darn expensive. I don’t have a Degritter or a Kirmuss and it pains me greatly to play a record that hasn’t been cleaned properly.

For those who like rituals, there is a ritual associated with streaming, but it’s 100% a comfortable armchair or sofa process. I interact with a Roon app and I enjoy the ritual of ripping my CDs and tweaking the metadata just the way I like it. I thoroughly enjoy the ritual of strolling through my albums either deliberately to find something in particular or just browsing, as you might in the old days in a Tower records store (and I do so miss Tower Records and their counterparts.). It’s so easy and so enjoyable to browse because the album art is presented so nicely and I often wind up playing something I wouldn’t otherwise have thought of. I enjoy everything about streaming. Try it! You might like it as much as I do.

One more thing to mention… I still buy a lot of CDs but I buy used 99% of the time because they only have to work just once to be ripped.  That saves lots of money.  I do typically look for used labeled excellent or very good just because I want a decent used copy in case I ever decide to liquidate.

When you're 90 and looking back you'll really be happy about everything you missed (!). Streaming has turned me on to a mountain of stuff I would have missed otherwise, and my large collection of CDs sound astonishingly good using a new CD player into a great DAC...vinyl can sound incredible including stuff I've owned since the 60s...it's called FUN.

I put off streaming for years.   In 2018 I bought a Vault 2i and it changed my life.   I had that for a few years and bought an Aurender.   

Qobuz and Tidal sound great,  the amount of awesome new (and old) music I've discovered is insane.   

I recently bought the Teac 701t transport.   My CDs have never sounded better.  I like playing CDs , in many cases they sound better than a remastered stream. . 

I still play LPs  too but streaming is so convenient and overall sounds so good I stream probably 70% of the time.  

Anyone firm on not streaming is missing a lot , for the price of a movie ticket or less.    

I like owning physical media, that will never change , but I only buy CDs that I like most tracks or you can't get on streaming platforms. 

well said wolf_. !!!

Lots of the reasons why I still listen to CDs have been mentioned here before. 
 

The same goes for the argument that with buying physical media artists actually get paid. It bugs me that with streaming the people paying (so to speak) for my convenience are the artists. They generally earn a pittance and money goes to the owners and stockholders of streaming companies. Spotify’s Daniel Ek is quite outspoken about the fact, that musicians are just content providers to him (which keep the business running that makes him even more rich.) Most of the artists I like have low streaming numbers. There is a lot of music that people used to happily buy in significant numbers, music that they only play from time to time, music that does not go into heavy rotation anywhere. In physical media times you could still survive like that, with streaming not. On top the popularity of streaming and the way it works (popular playlists, suggestion of similar music etc) brings about a certain blandness. It‘s tougher than before to do something new and daring and make a living from it. It‘s literally calculated what many people listen to (and what they watch). It‘s a bigger discussion but I feel this all need to be pointed out because there‘s not only our consumer side to consider. Having said that, I do stream from time to time, mostly to listen to newly released songs or stuff I don‘t know. Then I gladly buy the CD.