Compact Discs

[York Minster]

I'm just curious how many physical CDs people own (exclude burned CDs)? Now that mp3s are so prevalent does anyone have less physical CDs than they did a few years ago? And how would you rate your overall collection of CDs in terms of condition. I know over the years most of my older CDs have been in and out of the car and put in piles in the house and some have been on the floor that a solid 30 percent of my CDs have some issue with playing, and a good 95 percent are have moderate scratches. It seems like no matter how hard I try, CDs always get scratches, no matter how careful you are.

[Radiophonic]

I put my entire record collection on my iPod last year, so never get my records out. I've not really bought any new music - the last album I bought was Yes.

[glennjridge]

the sooner CD's die the better.
in modern day it seems primtitive to have music on something physical that you have to insert into something else to play.

my car stereo has a USB port so I've been transfering hundreds of songs onto a flashdrive stick and playing them in the car and even that seems backwards.

everything should be done wirelessly. I should be able to be at a red light, pull up I-tunes, sample music and buy it on the fly and play it.

[York Minster]

I still feel like I prefer the physical product in my hands. Will CDs die completely to the extent that cassette tapes have? I find that hard to predict. I'd be ok with that as soon as every single digital download was lossless. I'm sure with increasing memory spaces (we're up to like 2 TB now for hardrives) that by 2015-2020 that should be easily doable.

I put my entire record collection on my iPod last year, so never get my records out. I've not really bought any new music - the last album I bought was Yes.

This is where I have a problem. I have over 1000 CDs. How long did it take you to do this? It just seems like a tremendous waste of time to me to do it, and I refuse. But if you had only 45 CDs or something I could understand doing it.

[Deschanel]

I don't miss the physicality and clutter of CDs. But it's a fact that they sound better. It bugs me that when I buy a song from iTunes it downloads in ten seconds flat. It means it's highly compressed, and you're just not going to get any sonic richness out of it. It's low-definition music, and that's a shame. I would pay more for higher resolution versions, even mega FLAC versions. Because there really is a lot of data, sound, air and nuance lost in these flattened, compressed versions sold online. It's a Xerox print of a beautiful painting sometimes.

[Radiophonic]

I still feel like I prefer the physical product in my hands. Will CDs die completely to the extent that cassette tapes have? I find that hard to predict. I'd be ok with that as soon as every single digital download was lossless. I'm sure with increasing memory spaces (we're up to like 2 TB now for hardrives) that by 2015-2020 that should be easily doable.

I put my entire record collection on my iPod last year, so never get my records out. I've not really bought any new music - the last album I bought was Yes.

This is where I have a problem. I have over 1000 CDs. How long did it take you to do this? It just seems like a tremendous waste of time to me to do it, and I refuse. But if you had only 45 CDs or something I could understand doing it.

I don't know how many albums I have on there, but I have 10,166 tracks (just checked!) All my albums are on, plus PSB and Madonna remixes. I couldn't be bothered with my old CD singles - I might do them one day.

It took me about two or three months altogether, but I was doing it very leisurely - just a couple of hours a day.

[York Minster]

I want to put all my music files on an external drive, but when I looked into it everyone seems to report that all external drives crash eventually. Has anyone had any experience with external drives? Why do they crash, but not internal (or at least, not as often)? Should I buy two external drives and do a backup? Or will both those drives die anyway?

[Electronic Dave]

I want to put all my music files on an external drive, but when I looked into it everyone seems to report that all external drives crash eventually. Has anyone had any experience with external drives? Why do they crash, but not internal (or at least, not as often)? Should I buy two external drives and do a backup? Or will both those drives die anyway?

I think 'crash' is the wrong word to use. Hard drives are mechanical so yes they do 'fail' eventually. However most have an average lifespan of usually 5-7 years, but some as much as 10 years.

I wouldn't recommend putting large music collections on external drives to play as accessing the library (via USB2.0) may be slow to use...externals should only really be used to backup data (e.g. music collections). You need to buy a new internal hard drive for your PC (3.5") - they easy to fit.

I have my entire music collection as MP3s (18,000+) but always buy CDs so I can add them to the library without restrictions...I use iTunes for library and CDex/LAME to copy

[glennjridge]

lacking a physical destructive act like dropping it down a flight of stairs,I think the first thing that usually goes on those on their own is the devices power componant.
in which case your data can be recovered, but the drive isnt usable after that.

[Firthy2002]

My first choice for buying music is still the humble CD.

I don't need to worry about copy protection or if it will still play in 5 years time*, I can just pop it in my CD drive, load up CDex and I have mp3s ripped to my own specification within minutes.

*=I bought the Flamboyant single version in copy protected WMA format from mycokemusic back in '04. It will no longer play due to a problem obtaining the licence.

[Fredddyyy]

In my age (14), having CD's is like, something from the past century.
I'm a quality maniac, and I can't bear see how my friends play their music at 128 kpb/s!
O:
That's why I use CD's. When I buy them, I rip them right away to my iTunes, at a lossless format (Apple LAC).

[StevePSB]

I buy CD's in the first instance, but never play them. I buy them to immediately rip to MP3 then the files are copied to my iPod and my PC - one for listening to in the car (iPod) and the other for listening to at home (PC). I always like to have the physical disc though. as I don't get the same feeling of having bought something and having something to show for it with MP3 downloads. You also don't get the disk inlays/booklets with MP3's. Another good thing about owning the CD is that you can always go back to a CD to make a new MP3 whereas you can't often re-download a purchased MP3 for free if your hard drive dies (as my storage drive did last year) and you don't haver a backup!

With regards quality - maybe I don't hear as well as some of the audiophiles here, or maybe I am not playing the music back on the right equipment (I don't have any fancy expensive headphones for a start). but I am hard pushed to tell the difference between an MP3 at 192+ kbps and the CD when played back either in my car or on my PC via my hifi.


StevePSB

[Radiophonic]

If it's the Pet Shop Boys I want to walk into a record shop and buy it. As I always have done.

[York Minster]

but I am hard pushed to tell the difference between an MP3 at 192+ kbps and the CD when played back either in my car or on my PC via my hifi.

I can see not hearing the difference of a 320 vs CD, but at 192 it's usually painfully clear to me. Sometimes I've listened to low quality mp3s around 192 for awhile and I get used to it, but when I go back to CD or headphones it's a huge transition to much better sound. I really resent that Amazon doesn't even encode at 320. I have purchased maybe 10-15 total songs as mp3s in my life, and I don't plan to purchase anymore than I need to.

[AdamDowds]

I sometimes buy CD's still, but only from eBay and Amazon. I currently have Pet Shop Boys' first Disco CD on my eBay watching list. I've also bought original masters of CD's like the second Peter Gabriel album (with the big finger nails) and Bilingual. If I can get a good bargain on CD, I'll get it.

The ABBA albums boxset for example, all 8 albums plus a bonus B-Sides disc for just £20.