Why Do ~You~ Still Play CDs?

I don’t need unlimited access to all music.

@condosound Yes you do, you just don’t know it yet. Once you get to explore limitless amounts of awesome new music (and much of it in hi res BTW), playing familiar stuff over and over again becomes an antiquated and ridiculous notion. I discover wonderful new music almost daily and as a result am having more fun as an audiophile and music lover than I ever have in my life, and it’s so interesting and exciting I rarely spin a CD anymore. Once you start streaming you’ll never go back. My only regret about streaming is that I didn’t start sooner. Continue to ignore streaming at your own peril. There are worlds of incredible new music out there just waiting for you to explore, enjoy, and to greatly expand your horizons.

With a high quality CD Transport and DAC, CDs sound better.

That’s absolutely not true at all.  A well-constructed streaming setup will match and potentially surpass CD, and streaming offers thousands of hi res recordings you can’t get with CD  

Artists actually ....you know..... make money from CD sales.

Why Not

At ATOMIC Records, California they have thousands of CDs all in very good to excellent shape some still in their original wrappers -  at the most 4.99 with many and I mean many for .99 cents.

I buy the .99 cent one's for their case alone, to replace the cases I break.  And I have the tendency to break/crack the cases.

So there you have it.  Cheap prices, great condition what more can I ask for. Ok OK so I am cheap wish they were for free - 

Have an awesome Holiday.

Because a lot of the CD’s I have are not on any streaming services is one reason. I can say the same about a bunch of records I have.

@Lalitk

@soix

+1

The sound quality coming from a CD player is the sum of all its internal component... physical transport, streamer, and DAC (as well as its power supply, internal design, case... etc). The quality of streaming is the quality of the streamer and your DAC. Assuming we are talking about a very good streamer, it will isolate you from network noise (if not then this can be an additional variable). So, to make a valid comparison you have to have all the components the same level of sound quality. Difficult for most.

I have had a number of CD players, DACs, and streamers over time. Currently I have a great CD Player / DAC (functioning as both... great for comparisons) and streamer (which has internal memory for ripped CDs). I have compared a number of albums which were the same recording and mastering. The short story is the CD, internally stored files, and streaming sounds the same. So, just as in comparing vinyl, the sound quality is dependent on the equipment you are using, not on the media. There is an additional variable thrown in to vinyl, the pressing number as unlike digital where each recording is the same analog is not. But typically this is not a huge difference.