Why Do ~You~ Still Play CDs?


I'm curious why you still play CDs in the age of streaming. I recently got back into CD listening and I'm curious if your reasons align with mine, which are:

  • Enjoying the physical medium—the tactile nature of the case, the disc, the booklet, etc.
  • Forcing myself to actually listen to an album, versus being easily distracted by an algorithm, or "what's next" in my playlist.
  • Actually owning the music I purchase, versus being stuck with yet another monthly subscription.

Others? 

itanibro

There was a test carried out last year by  Alan Shaw and the folks at Harbeth, you can look in the forums there. What they found was not a subtle difference.

"high resolution" is a marketing myth
@brianlucey 

It appears you enjoy making provocative statements. May be that’s your thing! 

The thing that most people miss is the importance of the transport vs a regular CD player with DAC included. Even a budget CD transport like the Audiolab 6000 + a tube based DAC like the LAB12 DAC1 (non oversampling) should be an eye opener to anyone that can actually hear these changes. 

@lalitk maybe you’re someone who buys the sales pitch that you’re sold instead of someone who knows what they’re doing, but I’m willing to give you a chance

Go ahead and define what is "high definition" audio

Then please explain why music mastered at 96K is superior to music mastered at 44.1

And then explain how up sampling improves a master file

Extra Credit: why is MQA more of what the artists intends vs the mastered file

 

go ahead and be the expert, I’m here for it.