# Sigh...my gigantic CD collection is quaintly anachronistic, isn't it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 29, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757 "2011-12-29T21:10:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/21 "2011-12-30T05:50:59Z")
I own thousands of 78s. Unless someone here has a cylinder collection, I win. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/22 "2011-12-30T06:59:49Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Well maybe not listening to a punk rock band on a car stereo but serious music on a good system is noticeable. And how many people store their music at 320 kbps? I do, when I can. Storage space is cheap, and it’s not any more trouble. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/23 "2011-12-30T08:04:17Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Who’s going to be laughing when her hard drive crashes and she loses everything? (Or wherever the kids are storing downloads these days.) > > There’s no reason to get rid of what you’ve got, unless you need the space for something else. You can import them to whatever player you want and you’ve got the originals as backup. It’s all about the cloud now. Anything I download from Amazon I can re-download from their cloud in perpetuity for free. I can also stream the music to my PC or nearly any other device. iTunes also has a cloud for songs you buy from them. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/24 "2011-12-30T10:52:21Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > My 20 year old niece was over the other night, and she laughed at it. LAUGHED. At my enormous collection of compact discs, lovingly collected over half my lifetime. She didn’t even know what to say about my godly vinyl collection. And that laugh…it was a mildly tolerant chuckle, a private kind of titter you would give a dotty aunt and her collection of display spoons. > > ☹ Your post came to mind last night when my husband was thinking aloud about how he needed to hook up the VCR to record a show\*. He got mad at me for laughing at him. - We just canceled our satellite service and are still going thru DVR withdrawal. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/25 "2011-12-30T14:17:37Z")
I have two VCRs and I record shows all the time. If anyone points and laughs at me, it is as little drops of water rolling off a duck’s back, and I still get to watch my shows. Cheaply, too. In my lingerie drawer I have a couple of ancient cassette tapes, recordings of my little girl reading aloud from story books. Priceless (and I hope they hold up and we can find something to play them on again someday, lol.) ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/26 "2011-12-30T15:37:08Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Well maybe not listening to a punk rock band on a car stereo but serious music on a good system is noticeable. And how many people store their music at 320 kbps? Actually the standard from Amazon 256kbps VBR. > [@](#): > > Bit Rate: Where possible, we encode our MP3 files using variable bit rates for maximum audio quality and smaller file sizes, aiming at an average of 256 kilobits per second (kbps). Using a variable bit rate allows us to allocate a higher bit rate to the more complex sections of music files while using a smaller bit rate for the less complex sections. The average of these rates is then calculated to produce an average bit rate for the entire file that represents the overall sound quality. Some of our content is encoded using a constant bit rate of 256 kbps. This content will have the same excellent audio quality at a slightly larger file size. > > File Size: A typical 3-minute song takes up approximately 5MB of storage space. I know some people who store music in loseless format, but that isn’t very practical for a portable mp3 player. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/27 "2011-12-30T17:15:52Z")
It’s only the first of many things 20 year olds will be laughing at you about. Comes with age. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/28 "2011-12-30T20:59:21Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > I own thousands of 78s. Unless someone here has a cylinder collection, I win. We’ve got a really old player piano - we’ll win when we get some spindles of music for it and get it fixed up so it can play. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jamicat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/29 "2011-12-30T21:02:49Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > I own thousands of 78s. Unless someone here has a cylinder collection, I win. I let this guy borrow my LAST ONE. :mad: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/pnsizkVjGm8/hqdefault.jpg "One of a kind Wax Cylinder breaks on camera") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnsizkVjGm8) ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/30 "2011-12-30T21:22:46Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > The jokes on them, Ipods are wonderful but ACCs and mp3 are shit when it comes to fidelity. The sad fact is people are being trained to listen to music in formats that sound horrible compared to CDs and LPs. +1 Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/31 "2011-12-31T03:20:46Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > It’s all about the cloud now. Anything I download from Amazon I can re-download from their cloud in perpetuity for free. I can also stream the music to my PC or nearly any other device. iTunes also has a cloud for songs you buy from them. NOW you can. It’s a new idea and they’re waiting for folks to become accustomed. TV, radio and cable internet were all free at one time as well. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/32 "2011-12-31T03:50:06Z")
I miss the cover arts of CDs (hell, from what I can tell, most people don’t bother with cover art on their iTunes, settling for the grey musical note - I _always_ make sure mine has cover art, since most of my collection are self-made collections of files rather than commercial collections, I create a cover art for it). My dad, in the meantime has had recordings that he’s had to transfer from reel-to-reel tape, to 8-track, to LP, to cassette tape, to CD, to MP3. Seriously. And he still has several recordings in all of these formats. ---
**Author:** ![sangfroid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@sangfroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sangfroid)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/33 "2011-12-31T04:02:05Z")
Don’t fret, **Ogre** - [Freshness ain’t forever](http://www.echonyc.com/~stone/Ethan/New/EthanTired.html) [Last panel of the strip says it all…] 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/34 "2011-12-31T04:14:17Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > I do, when I can. Storage space is cheap, and it’s not any more trouble. I’m 0 for 5 on hard drives. I’m done with magnetic discs after this computer dies. It’s all going to be on DVD’s, solid state drives or possibly cloud storage. Not sure I like the idea of cloud storage giving how much fun people have hacking into stuff. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/35 "2011-12-31T06:26:14Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > It’s all about the cloud now. Anything I download from Amazon I can re-download from their cloud in perpetuity for free. Where “in perpetuity” means “as long as Amazon stays in business”[sup]1[/sup]. 1. which, I admit, is for the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/36 "2011-12-31T08:45:57Z")
I prefer to buy albums on CD rather than digitally because most CDs still come with goodies like lyrics sheets or notes from the artists or bonus discs sometimes (Amon Amarth, in particular, likes to put full concert DVDs as a bonus disc on their albums), and because I don’t have an mp3 player dock in my car. That being said, once I get it home I generally rip them to my computer right away and stash the disc in my closet forever unless I want to listen to it in the car. ---
**Author:** ![BeaMyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BeaMyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeaMyra)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/37 "2011-12-31T08:47:57Z")
Just rip your CDs to FLAC, WavPack or another lossless format and you’re all set. External storage is pretty cheap ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/38 "2011-12-31T17:49:55Z")
I have more than 2000 CDs and probably a greater number of LPs. I also have most of the CDs on one of my hard drives. My partner, who is 20 years younger than I am, knows better than to laugh. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/39 "2011-12-31T17:59:48Z")
I found a bunch of old vinyl at a garage sale that a guy despised SO MUCH, he let me have his entire collection for five bucks. Along with an old N64! Those records are now (mostly) Mp3 files on my itunes. Worth every penny I paid for the USB turntable. This guy had Deep Purple, Earth Wind and Fire, and old Polka albums in there…what an eclectic mix! But yeah, I still love CDs, even though my cellphone and my iPod can be wired into pretty much every sound system I own. Those “Digital Booklets” aren’t the same as seeing beautiful artwork on the cover and having the tactile sensation of the album and the liner notes. Back in my musicology days, I knew a few profs and indy musician peers that even bucked the CD trend with a new system: they press vinyl copies of their music, complete with liner notes and some nice art on the front, and inside is a code to go to a server that lets you download the digital copy of those tracks. You get to have these (in my opinion, quite aesthetically pleasing) mounds of records, yet you aren’t bogged down by analog technology if you don’t want to be! ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757/40 "2011-12-31T18:01:40Z")
> [@Sudden\_Kestrel](#): > > Your post came to mind last night when my husband was thinking aloud about how he needed to hook up the VCR to record a show\*. He got mad at me for laughing at him. Most people are still using VCRs. DVR penetration is only at 37%. > **[DVR Penetration Means Time-Shifted Viewing Is Up](https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/141342/)** > > Television time-shifted viewing is growing this season -- for almost all shows. Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate media director for Horizon Media, says throughout the season so far > there are 19 shows that witnessed 3 million or more... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigh-my-gigantic-cd-collection-is-quaintly-anachronistic-isnt-it/607757.md?page=3)