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What will become of my beloved CDs?

I have nearly 2000 CDs (DVDA, SACD, etc) and am very fond of them, or at least the music that is on them. However, it seems that music distribution is going to someday soon be totally on-line through downloads (True? When?). So, when most all of the music on my CDs is available in higher-quality on-line downloads (with artwork, I'm sure), what will become of my CDs? Will they be the shiny-silver equivalent to 8-Track tapes? Or, will they become a novelty and collectable? Should I seel them ASAP?? Any economists here???
bday0000
glupson
7,842 posts
 
I bought SACDs as soon as anything I remotely liked came on them.. Then I bought some of the DVD-Audios. Then I bought a player that played them both. Then I realized that DVD-Audio is very inconvenient when you do not own a TV. I managed to figure it out and placed Post-It notes with instructions in each DVD-Audio case (enter-up arrow-up arrow-right arrow-enter-enter-etc.). Now I have no player, no TV, and a few DVD-Audio discs that can be played on close-to-none of the new players. I am still not giving them away, maybe some day some distant Goodwill will have a DVD-Audio machine for $5.

When it comes to different formats, I have Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks on cassette, CD, SACD, MiniDisc (you did not see this coming, did you?), and LP record. When I realized how silly it was, I looked for it on eBay, too, but some freak snatched the 8-track in last moments. I have never even seen an 8-track player, except on the picture, but thought it would be the right one to start my 8-track tape collection with. In fact, I have Blood On The Tracks by Mary Lee's Corvette on CD, too.
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craigl59
307 posts
 

Most of the new CDs I buy come from Amazon and about every fifth or so disk is part of their Amazon Music program. In this curious animal, your CD automatically appears in your online account for streaming and potential download as a MP3 file.

So while I am waiting for the CD to arrive, I sometimes stream the advance copy and get a feel for the new listening style. Here's what I have found.

Something strange in Amazon keeps the file order unpredictable so the stream will not always move from track to track properly. There are, as well, numerous clicks and pops as part of the streaming network process -- usually at least one for every track.

When you download a MP3 file and compare it to the stream the download sounds better -- clearer and more precise (even though they should be the same).

Then, when the CD comes I rip it into JRiver and upsample it to the DAC with SoX. The sound quality is so much better that it always reminds me: MP3 really sucks but its faults are particularly evident when you compare it directly to a CD wave file.

SO, despite the continual pressure from the forces behind the Spotify/Tidal crowd I do not find streaming the same quality as CDs well done and think it is another case where the philosophy of "almost as good" is being sold to the public.

craigl59
307 posts
 

glupson:

Have a like-new Minidisc player in the garage where it has been for years. My entire collection of minidisks consists of the Brandenburg concertos.

It was another of Sony's high quality efforts that had uncorrected design issues and was allowed to perish.

Tant pis!

glupson
7,842 posts
 
elizabeth,

I, by putting turntable in a different state (geographically), managed to resist having 37 different vinyl versions of Blood On The Tracks but would have probably collected them over time, had I only had something to play them on. You surely beat me to that one. However, I do have two Blonde On Blonde SACDs. One is single layer and on one disc and one is hybrid and that one is on two discs. And I do not even like that album.

Have you ever read a short book by Nick Hornby named Songbook? It is an interesting and unexpected read. If you come across that book, see chapter about one Bob Dylan’s song. First few sentences describe just what we are talking about.

https://books.google.com/books?id=eZ8q0jS2oskC&pg=PA39&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&...
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