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I haven't made the big switch yet either - I did easily switch from LP to CD and never looked back - still hold the few sdtks that haven't made it from LP to CD, but other than that I'm CD all the way. I have been doing a bit of work at comparing lossless tracks to mp3 along with the old .wav format - is anyone porting their iTunes library through their home sound system, and if so, how's the quality?
I've been thinking about ripping all my discs into lossless and then listening to them via my home system, but I'm worried about the sound quality - anyone done it, and how's it sound?
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Posted: |
Jun 27, 2013 - 1:33 PM
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By: |
Ian J.
(Member)
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I suppose you could call me a borderline digital immigrant.
I remember in the 1980s, before CDs had caught on in the UK, that most of my purchases were either LPs or tape. One thing I remember with most loathing was the poor quality of those analogue mediums. LPs would have rough patches that hissed on every revolution, tapes would wow and flutter from the get go, etc. Once I could get hold of CDs, I joyfully consigned LPs and tapes to the bin (except where no CD existed).
Will the same happen with my CDs? Unlikely. First off, there are no manufacturing defects on my CDs, and even if there were, I'd just return any such discs for replacements immediately after purchase, knowing that eventually I could get a flawless disc. Secondly, the chances of all of my CDs getting high definition download releases are very low. Film soundtracks appear to be just too 'niche' to get that treatment.
But I rarely listen to a CD directly today. Most of my listening takes place in less than ideal conditions (where there is other noise around), so high quality MP3s suffice.
So, to the OP's question: am I then 'liberated' from the CD? To which my answer is not really. I use my CDs as a backup source if nothing else, and the extra details in the booklets are all there as well, I haven't gone to the extreme of scanning that lot into files on my computer, it would just take way too long.
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Posted: |
Jun 27, 2013 - 2:15 PM
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By: |
CinemaScope
(Member)
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I am still enthusiastic about CDs, love their convenient size, find the liner notes are much better than they ever were in LPs
Booklets that are the same size as a single piece of toilet paper, housed in a 2¢ piece of lowest quality, easily-cracked and scratched plastic, aren't my idea of "better".
What, becouse it's the same size as a bit of bog paper it's not worth having, not worth reading, that's such a stupid comment. And who cares if the case gets scratched or cracked, its job is to protect the disc.
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I grew up with LPs and I remember having vinyl soundtrack albums well into the 1980s. I don't think that I had any problems moving from vinyl to CDs when CDs became more popular and soundtrack CDs became more widely available.
I don't really have an affection for the old LP (I don't have any of them left) and thinking back to my LP collection I am in many ways glad that they fell by the wayside. Ease of use was a prime plus for the move to CD: placing a disc in the player for the whole running time of the album was great, and being able to programme a running order that followed the chronological order was an option that I used frequently. I never saw/heard any change in the quality of the music when I made the switch but the improvement in the sound of the medium with CD was marked. No more crackles of the LP and no more scratches affecting the music (pops and clicks I still hear today when listening to CDs of old LPs that had these defects.) Personally, I can't see why people want to go back to vinyl and risk ruining their listening experience with a scratch.
Making the transition to digital files was just as painless in terms of the quality of music - I am one of the lucky ones who doesn't really notice that much difference between CD and digital music. The convenience is there with digital: I see an album, I want it and I can have it in the space of a few minutes. Lower costs (CD itself and no shipping costs) is also a bonus. I do miss the physical presence of the CD though. Receiving the CD in the post, opening it and holding the physical disc somehow imprints on my mind that I actually have the disc; I can picture it in my mind's eye. Digital albums are just a square of artwork in a online store's web page or an entry in my iTunes or MediaMonkey playlist or my OrangeCD database. Lack of artwork and liner notes in general is not an issue as most albums available as digital versions tend to have minimal information in their booklets so that's no great loss.
I am waiting for the technology where scenes can be projected on walls in your home or a wall is made up of one huge TV display so I can have all my albums on virtual shelves and, with touchscreen technology in place, all I would need to do is touch the screen and my album plays anywhere in the house.
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Posted: |
Jun 27, 2013 - 6:08 PM
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By: |
.
(Member)
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Booklets that are the same size as a single piece of toilet paper, housed in a 2¢ piece of lowest quality, easily-cracked and scratched plastic, aren't my idea of "better".
So, you'd like the booklets bigger and taking up more space? Plus, scratched replaceable plastic holders preserve the paper inside, unlike LPs where the paper had no protection and one had to use additional plastic sleeves to keep the cover art from rubbing off. I remember the sort of info on the back of the old LPs and it was nothing like the wonderful in depth material included in the new CD booklets we're very spoiled to have at our fingertips. Then there's digital, which is just a slice of territory on a whirring hard drive. Talk about lack of romance! Like I said, I've got thirty year old CDs that still play on the new system I presently own. I would have gone through four of five hard drives and God knows how many computers and operating systems to arrive at the same destination.
I prefer excellent, far more flexible online notes in PDF form (like Lukas' fine FSM examples) over any toilet paper-sized booklets.
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Posted: |
Jun 28, 2013 - 9:28 AM
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By: |
Dana Wilcox
(Member)
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Thank you for the replies.
It's interesting that so many of you seem to have parted with your LPs so easily, but would never do so with your CDs. I'm having a hard time understanding this. LPs offer something different that cannot easily be digitized, while a CD can quickly and conveniently be cloned. I would give up my CDs before my LPs, because even the CDs take up lots of space, and I can listen to lossless extractions. I wonder why I seem to view this so differently from many of you who responded.
Speaking only for myself: Having grown up in the era of LPs, and having had to contend with warpage, scratches (inevitable even when well cared for), poor vinyl quality etc., the arrival of the CD was for me a wish come true. For the most part permanent, less susceptible to careless scratches that would be sufficient to affect the playback, improving sound quality (compared to the first CDs that is), and much less of a storage issue (volume-wise), while still tangible and with artwork (admittedly smaller) but much more information about the music, composer etc. in liner notes than ever fit on the back of an LP... I loved my LPs for their warmer sound but they were my "problem children." Happy with my CDs now and not planning ever to go to digital downloads.
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I've learned to not get rid of anything. Nostalgic aspects aside, there is stuff I have on LP that will never be reissued on CD.
(It remains to be seen if everything currently available on CD will be reissued on non-physical formats. So it's like a repeating issue every time a new format comes along.)
Good point. The same holds true for VHS-DVD-Bluray. Some stuff is still on VHS only while others will likely never make it past DVD.
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