Continuing with CDs?

"I’ve got a PS4 but it’s hooked to an a/v setup" I don't think ps4s play CDs either, from what I remember. maybe they've updated since the last time I tried this but they didn't a year ago which was baffling to me.

oh yeah there’s something weird about that, right?

What's the problem again

Craigslist usually has amazing older audiophile CD player for peanuts now

hmm I may still have a PS1 in a boc

*box

Clearing out my father in law's house, this last visit I found two rather audiophile looking portable CD players which I am looking forward to fucking with.

having a 2006 car w/ no aux port or bluetooth was 90% of the reason i continued w/ cds, (the other 10% that we have a pretty good local used cd/record store chain) that car is totaled now and im looking for a new car. i still feel attached to cds though, way more than i ever have w/ vinyl. feel sad but spotify is a better deal then buying these things

hmm, I did neglect to mention the car because I don't think of it as being "at home?"

I've got a six disc changer in that thing that I haven't stocked for a while -- the problem is the stuff I listen to in the car is the kind of thing I'd tend to stream, like podcasts, dj mixes, pop singles

at some point I will just permanently affix six lana del rey albums in there and then seal the access port

i went a bit crazy last month and bought a brand new cd player in the january sales. probably won't fully get back into buying new releases on cd other than nice reissue/archival stuff, but i have been having fun idly rooting round in charity shops and buying used cds for pennies

this music dude who moved out upstairs last week left behind tons and tons of stuff in the giveaway pile.

Funny that hauling all that media to a second-hand music store wasn't worth it, by the original guy. Back when I was culling the collection every few years, Everyday Music in Portland was great for taking everything I brought, even as the payouts declined. Didn't really care if a cd only generated .50, I just didn't want to be handed a pile of unwanted discs. Now I take the odd duplicates and unwanted discs to work and add post-it "FREE" stickers.

I still fondly remember trading in CDs for $10CDN credit back in the early 90s. I now have a dozen banker boxes full of them, which will stay with me until I finally accept that I can't get more than fifty cents apiece from the local merchants.

I bought three CDs off Discogs this past weekend alone. still on board. commute/work vehicle has a CD player, I play FLAC rips at home.

I really don't think there's a secondhand music store around here that deals in CDs! Dude knew his stuff, I def think he'd determined it wasn't worth fucking with.

Went to a great little second hand music shop the other day; bought 12 CDs for £35 - Terry Callier, Bert Jansch, Mercury Rev, Spinners. I'm still in.

There was a new vinyl shop up the road. There are identikit shops opening all over the south. They're small, shiny (polished wooden floors a must) carry a small amount of stock and are run by the same late middle aged bloke with a small business loan and a microscopic knowledge of 70s soundtracks. The first thing I saw was Clapton's Unplugged in some limited edition or other for £25.99. I turned around and walked out, John Carpenter ringing in my ears.

It still seems like CDs are still more expensive than records were in the early 2000s.

This is just to say, if there were dollar bins with appealing CDs (I'd call Mercury Rev and the Spinners appealing) then that would be a good value proposition. 4.25 per CD is still too high.

I think it's just inflation. Most record/book store used CD bargain bins I see are in the $2-3 range, while thrift stores bring the $1 stuff (and they'll sell anything--starting to see a lot CD-R back-up discs in the racks).

you all can just give your good cds to me, i'll listen to them

I'm still paying 40 pounds for little known goth cds.

Pretty much I'm glad I live in SF with Amoeba right there, because they take anything from me. Even if some of it is 'can't do anything with it,' they'll still take it.

Got a bunch of nice price, new in packaging Cds for $2.99 each down at a store in Atlanta when there on business back in November - Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, Deep Purple, Montrose, Aerosmith, Ram Jam, Joe Perry Project, Spirit, Mountain, Night Ranger, Ratt Etc.

this music dude who moved out upstairs last week left behind tons and tons of stuff in the giveaway pile.

Funny that hauling all that media to a second-hand music store wasn't worth it, by the original guy. Back when I was culling the collection every few years, Everyday Music in Portland was great for taking everything I brought, even as the payouts declined. Didn't really care if a cd only generated .50, I just didn't want to be handed a pile of unwanted discs. Now I take the odd duplicates and unwanted discs to work and add post-it "FREE" stickers.

― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Monday, February 5, 2018 12:21 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

God, I miss Portland. I have a few record stores near me but they're crap.

My Sony CD player is fucked and I only got it in 2010. Is that normal? Is it the new normal?

Checking around for new cd players and none of them seem to have DSGX or Bass Boost. Do they not need it anymore? Do they sound like that by default now?

they never needed it.

i dunno, maybe 8 years is a good run nowadays.

I thought it always made everything sound better.

nah, "flat" sound is the way to go IMHO.

Amplifiers usually have time controls.

Tone

My Sony CD player is fucked and I only got it in 2010. Is that normal? Is it the new normal?

― Robert Adam Gilmour

Odd. The entry-level NAD deck i bought in 1998 only made it about 10 years before requiring service (which i know as a 20yr old deck i could still get serviced). But the Sony CD Walkman i still have from the mid-80s will play discs reliably. I did, however, purchase what was to be "the last VCR i'll ever have to buy" in the early 'aughts and it only lasted a few months beyond the original warranty -- and that was the last Sony product i've purchased since.

My car stereo (2-year old) has a bass boost button that i find easier to use while listening at low levels -- especially because you otherwise have to navigate through many menus to adjust the traditional tone controls.

I don't think I've had a CD player last more than 5 or 6 years before refusing to play certain CDs or developing other defects like the drawer opening and closing when it's not supposed to. Maybe I've just been unlucky?

I think it's normal for a CD player to need service after 5-10 years - moveable parts and a lens that gets dirty

You could take the cover off and clean the lens with a q-tip, might give you a few more years use

I don't know where you live but in Denmark you can get a used CD player for next to nothing

I've given up on CD hifi components and got a nice, cheap Discman on eBay

This lot approves!
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/best-cd-sound-ever-panasonic-sl-s120-and-sony-d25-portables.556664/

aw I had that panasonic years ago and it sounded lovely. think I accidentally left it in a car I sold.

I like cds because I make a lot of greatest hits mixes using the 80 minute standard. Most people can play these mixes in their vehicles.

I put more care into a playlist (volume normalization and track order) when it is going to become a mix cd.

So yeah, cds are way more giftable than music files.

I used to go all the way with that, mixing and sequencing, creating a single audio file, then burning it as separate seamless tracks. a huge pain in the ass but a rewarding one.

Amplifiers usually have time controls.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, April 7, 2018 5:35 AM
Tone
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, April 7, 2018 5:35 AM

My car stereo (2-year old) has a bass boost button that i find easier to use while listening at low levels -- especially because you otherwise have to navigate through many menus to adjust the traditional tone controls.
― bodacious ignoramus, Saturday, April 7, 2018 10:25 AM

I don't like fiddling with tone controls, because I don't know what I'm doing.

To address the original thread topic: I still buy CDs. I avoid buying albums in digital download format unless there’s no CD available.

I’ve ripped many of my CDs to Google Music, so I can listen from my desk at work (though it seems I’m always wanting to hear an album I haven’t yet ripped); but if I’m really *listening* to music, it’s most likely a CD in my car.

My previous car had terrific sound, for whatever reason (it was a 2008 Mazda3); my newer Toyota’s stereo doesn’t sound as great (I’m told Toyota cheaps out on this front), but good enough.

I have two Panasonic ‘discman’s which I bought in 1996 and they’re both still going strong despite having been brutally carried around like iPods avant la lettre

My much-used Discman finally carked it when a puppy saw the earphones dangling off a table-edge, grabbed them and worried the whole thing into bits.

I still prefer CDs and feel defensive about it. I work with a bunch of vinyl "connoisseurs" who will readily heap shit on CDs for sounding sterile/harsh. But it's just dumb tribalism - there are well-mastered CDs that sound amazing, and badly-pressed vinyl that sounds like dogshit.

CDs also mean I can get some extraordinary music for $1 a throw, which has enabled me to both catch up on some areas of listening that I'd always meant to explore, and take risks on things that have led to real revelations and joy.

If my workmates spent as much money on a CD player as they did on their authentically wood-panelled turntables they might feel differently too. I always thought all CD players sounded the same, and then I got an amp and speakers that were good enough for me to hear the deficiencies in the CDP that I was using. Now I use an old Denon universal player (ie it was a DVD player with audiophile pretensions) that cost under $100 second-hand and sounds rich, warm, detailed and generally fantastic. I'm sure the ridiculously expensive ones from Accuphase or whoever sound incredible, but I'll never know.

I recently bought a new car and it didn't come pre-installed with a CD player (which I was expecting); what I wasn't expecting was to easily find many aftermarket CD players still available to purchase.

AAAARRRGGGHHHHH!

I often worry about discs scratching or having a skipping problem but I think it's actually happened only a couple of times before with the same second hand CD, and eventually the later times I played it, it never skipped again. One dodgy disc in roughly 15 years is not bad.
Some CD players had problems reading some old discs but the two CD players I bought could read anything.

I started playing the first disc of the new(ish) Lush box set Chorus. It skips like a bastard and a few reviewers have noted this, good thing I didn't buy an expensive replacement. Why did such an important package have to have this problem?
One reviewer said that with a CD over 76 minutes, there's a risk of skipping but I've never had this problem.

My new Sony CD is great but it smells really bad of strong plastic. Hope the smell fades over time.

I'll say that the way most labels are packaging their CDs now--in flimsy cardboard digipacks that ten years ago would have been used strictly for promotional copies--is definitely not encouraging me to opt for CD versions. Looking at you, new Sleep album, Drag City, Neil Young...

...New Pornographers

having never actually owned a cd player apart from my computer and playstation I'll cop to a certain level of ignorance here but records are packaged in cardboard and that seems to work ok?