A farewell to CD’s

Vincent Kars

WBF Technical Expert: Computer Audio
Jul 1, 2010
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Like so many I knew that you can download a couple of MP3’s on your PC and play them over a pair of fancy USB speakers.
Nothing wrong with it but it is not the best possible sound quality.

It took a while before I grasped it, when done right computer audio playback is a perfect replacement for a CD player. In fact you could even use it to digitize your vinyl.

What are the advantages?

Comfort
Your whole collection well-structured on a HD.
You can browse, search and sort it is many ways; by artist, album, song, composer, year, genre, to mention the most important tags.
Make playlist
Sync to a portable
Do multi room
Etc.
A very flexible way to deal with your collection.

Resolution.
By design a CD is 16 bits at a 44.1 kHz sample rate (Redbook audio).
A lot of recordings are done with a greater bit depth and a higher sample rate.
Nice but say a 24 bit 96 kHz recording cannot be played by a CD player. It is simply not according to the Redbook standard.
It has to be down-sampled 16 bits/ 44.1 kHz.
A computer with a decent sound card allows you to play a recording at its native bit depth and sample rate. The Hi-res catalogue is not big at the moment but it is growing.

Preservation.
A substantial audio collection is a substantial investment. Beside the financial part, the emotional value is high too. Often you have those recordings long out of print but you love them. For us it is audio but for a computer it is just a file. You can make a backup.
You can make another one and store it elsewhere.
They might burn your house, they might even step on your blue suede shoes but your collection is safely stored elsewhere.

Sound quality.
That is the big issue.
A laptop is not exactly build with audio in mind.
If you want to know, get yourself a Y-cable. Connect the headphone out to your pre-amp and press play. Probably decent mid-fi will be the result.

As computer audio is getting momentum, today you can get decent sound cards, USB to SPDIF converters to drive your existing DAC or USB-DAC’s of excellent quality.
I do think that sound quality wise there is no limitation anymore.
Your PC can sing as good as your CDP.
 

Old Listener

New Member
Jul 18, 2010
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SF Bay area
naturelover.smugmug.com
Good post, Vincent. A compact summary of the reasons for going to computer based playback.

I'm still buying used CDs rather than downloads for the most part. Just a cheaper way to get the music. I rip the CDs to Flac files and add the files to my permanent library. For one-hit wonder music from my youth, I buy Amazon MP3 downloads.

I download MP3 and Flac files of concert recordings and recordings from out-of-print, out-of-coppyright LPs and tapes.

Right now, I'm listening to a YouTube video of the first movement of Beethoven's ninth symphony. You need a computer for that.

Bill
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
8,570
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Calgary, AB
Great post indeed! I am and will always be an analog enthusiast, however there is a certain allure and ease of access that only digital can provide. I still cannot bring myself to download music, when I have a CD as an alternative. I keep an open mind though as you never know what tomorrow brings.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Perhaps a little off topic but somewhat related........

"why do some people rip their music one way and others another etc? Simply put, which in your opinion Vincent is the best way to rip your CD's"


BTW, a big WBF welcome to you, Vincent. We have all been admiring the information on your website as a real wealth of knowledge, so I am so pleased that you have joined our Panel Of Experts :cool:
 

microstrip

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May 30, 2010
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What will be the disadvantages? :eek:

I can immediately remember one - if I scratch or damage a CD I still have one thousand more to play, if your computer hard disk breaks you will loose all your music ...
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
8,570
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Calgary, AB
What will be the disadvantages? :eek:

I can immediately remember one - if I scratch or damage a CD I still have one thousand more to play, if your computer hard disk breaks you will loose all your music ...

Oh the beauty of cheap portable HDD's.....not an issue!:p
 

Ron Party

WBF Founding Member
Apr 30, 2010
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Oakland, CA
Given the price of storage these days, it is arguable that if you don't have a back up and your hard drive crashes you probably deserve to lose all your music.
 

microstrip

VIP/Donor
May 30, 2010
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Oh the beauty of cheap portable HDD's.....not an issue!:p

Not so sure... Look at the statistics on computer backup. Most people forget to do backups of important data of great value, do you think they will do it for music?
We are humans!
 

Ron Party

WBF Founding Member
Apr 30, 2010
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Oakland, CA
John, I see we we're sharing the same wavelength at the same time. Now if you tell me you're listening to Gary Moore right now, I gonna get creeped out.
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
8,570
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Calgary, AB
Not so sure... Look at the statistics on computer backup. Most people forget to do backups of important data of great value, do you think they will do it for music?
We are humans!

Valid point, but those who care about music will. I know I do. In fact, I have my music backed up on 2 drives (in case) and I back them up monthly.
 

mep

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Well, here is what "tomorrow" will bring you. LPs will still be available because people are actually buying them and record labels need to sell something. CDs will go the way of the do-do bird because people that used to buy CDs now think that music should be free and many will settle for whatever crappy download resolution is available as long as it's free or cheap. There is no joy in holding a cracked plastic CD jewel case in your hand. The artwork is crap and you can't read the liner notes unless you have great lighting, 20-20 vision, and you have been drinking your carrot juice. I predict that within a few years that CD players/changers will disappear from cars as they have become antiques in the digital revolution. My 2011 Ford Edge has two USB ports plus an SD card slot so I can plug in as much digital music as I want and it will fit in the palm of my hand on the way to the Edge.
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
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John, I see we we're sharing the same wavelength at the same time. Now if you tell me you're listening to Gary Moore right now, I gonna get creeped out.

Have me playing David Gilmour: Live in Gdansk (vinyl) playing as I type this. Just finished Side A of LP4 (Echoes), which in my opinion is even better than the original. David and Richard Wright are like so in tune....a match made in heaven. Turned it over on now it's Wish you Were Here...a very different version from the original, but lovely nonetheless.
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
8,570
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Calgary, AB
That is one of the issues I will address but not now (it is 0:55 AM here in Amsterdam....)

Home!:D Haven't been back in a long time, but I long to!
Hup! Holland Hup!
 

microstrip

VIP/Donor
May 30, 2010
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Valid point, but those who care about music will. I know I do. In fact, I have my music backed up on 2 drives (in case) and I back them up monthly.

I was sure you had. But before killing the CD we must be sure that a significant part of society and consummers is prepared to use the new media. Forum members are intrisecally prepared to accept that they should make backups but we are a very small number.
 

Vincent Kars

WBF Technical Expert: Computer Audio
Jul 1, 2010
860
1
0
Valid point, but those who care about music will. I know I do. In fact, I have my music backed up on 2 drives (in case) and I back them up monthly.

Only the paranoid survive…

You can (must) make a backup and yes, storage is cheap today.
You do so once a month.
Someday, somewhere a track is corrupted.
Making a backup with a regular interval of a corrupted track won’t help you….
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
8,570
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38
Calgary, AB
I was sure you had. But before killing the CD we must be sure that a significant part of society and consummers is prepared to use the new media. Forum members are intrisecally prepared to accept that they should make backups but we are a very small number.

Indeed we are.
 

microstrip

VIP/Donor
May 30, 2010
20,806
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Only the paranoid survive…

You can (must) make a backup and yes, storage is cheap today.
You do so once a month.
Someday, somewhere a track is corrupted.
Making a backup with a regular interval of a corrupted track won’t help you….

I would be very interested in having your views about musical server backup.

I recently learned about a guy owning a company whose purpose is remote maintenance of music servers. For the equivalent cost of 5 full price CDs per month he will administrate your music server, including buying and loading new music and associated information.
 

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