So, do any of you out there actually listen to CDs anymore?
Hell, I still listen to phonograph records. Got 300 of 'em.
I’ve never really switched to the iPod - I don’t like the sound quality of mp3s compared to the CD so everything is in full CD audio quality format and therefore takes up a fair amount of disc space. The CDDB just irritates me compared to the liner notes of the original LP, a real problem with iTunes (“Whadda ya mean, you’re not going to tell me who played bass on this day and track?”). So, while I enjoy the convenience of an iPod, nothing on earth is going to make me give up or give away my LPs or CDs.
My CDs are stored under my bed. I don’t listen to them, but I feel weird dumping them just in case.
A legacy of my years working in record stores, my vinyl collection occupies a wall and is going to be a real bitch to move when we get the new house. The wife has promised to get me a turntable with a USB connection for Christmas so I can start moving some of the music onto the computer. The problem is that, until digital, every new format involved a loss of about 80-85% of the music the previous format supported. So I still keep LPs around, because nobody is ever going to put a lot of that stuff out digitally.
I own over 10,000 of them; whaddaya think?
My CDs are in a small-ish box in my entertainment center. The cases are all in the basement alongside the 48s, 45s, 33s, 8-tracks and cassette tapes.
I’m holding on to everything for when the revolution comes.
I think like an archivist.
If you rip your CDs to MP3’s, you are losing something in audio quality. No, I can’t hear it, but a younger person might, and besides, it’s the principle of the thing. So I don’t discard my CDs or LPs or 45s or 78s or cassettes (never had any 8-tracks).
And if you discard the cases, you might lose the art work, or at least lose the association of art and music. I see nothing wrong with using slimmer cases, tho.
If you scan your printed music, the same thing happens. Degradation will occur. Insignificant, perhaps, but still…
Which is why I keep my original open reel tapes, even tho I have transferred them to digital storage. Why I keep my DV tapes even tho they have been transferred to computer and/or DVD. Most of these conversion processes are lossy, and if ever someone wanted to go back and re-convert to some other format or medium, they might be able to do so if they have the original. It’s very difficult to restore quality that’s not there.
There was an article in the New Yorker some time ago about how libraries were tossing their bound archives of original newspapers. Once they had microfilmed them, they saw no reason to pay for permanent storage.
But an archivist pointed out that microfilm is a lossy medium, color newspapers (yes, they had those long, long ago!) were filmed in monochrome, and sometimes the scanning mechanisms malfunctioned and whole sections were poorly copied or didn’t get scanned at all and are now totally lost.
Such is progress.
I rip everything to the original 192 bitrate from CD so I’m not losing anything soundwise, then whenever possible I acquire higher bitrate rips from original masters–preferably FLACs. I have all my original CD discs in paper sleeves in several neat little Ikea collapsible zipper boxes right next to the DVD collection boxes. The jewel cases and covers are in a rack in the library but I really need to pack them up in a box for storage out in the shed.
As for listening to CDs, that’s kind of a “yes and no” thing. I burn data CDs with upwards of 150 mp3 tracks per disc to play in my car. I don’t wanna blow money for a fat hard drive in there because of mounting issues as well as temperature regulation problems. If a data CD goes tits up it’s pretty simple to reburn it–also I have a tendency to give them away to people. I very seldom listen to an audio CD, though, too short to bother with!
I’m still in the process of downloading all 2000+ CDs into iTunes, and the best tracks onto my iPod. I’ve already filled the 60G iPod. I’ve got 4 floor-to-ceiling shelf units, almost filled with CDs.
I hold on to them. I’ve had way too many hard drive failures to think I won’t have to re-rip them in future.
SOME of them, I have copied to CD-Rs full of mp3s, but it’s not a complete collection (just stuff I wanted to listen to on my mp3-capable CD player, or laptop computer while travelling), I tend to LOSE - or scratch the HELL out of - my burnt CDs, but not originals (the jewel-cases help), and it’s no slower to re-rip than to copy from the mp3 CD, in my experience. So keeping the originals is important.
Don’t think I’ll have much to offer in this thread, seeing as over the weekend I pulled out a Buddy Holly LP for my kids to listen to after seeing the play “Buddy.” 
Of course, during the play one character was using a portable reel-to-reel. When I commented that I had had one just like it, my kid exclaimed, “Exactly how old are my parents?!”
Ditto. I want to keep it all legal and ethical.
A friend of mine, sound-scientist by profession (he used to design dial tones for Philips phones) made a hobby out of putting his old record collection of classical music on-line.He says he gets a lot of enthusiastic visitors to his site that are thrilled to hear back some particular old obscure LP recording.
I keep 'em in about five wire milk-crates in the back of the apartment. Legal and ethical.
Is this an accurate statement? (Not challenging your integrity, but rather my own lack of technical expertise). I was under the impression that any conversion to mp3 involved some loss.
Of course, if you meant that most people wouldn’t notice, then that makes sense. Especially to these tin ears…
Yep. What I don’t own is an MP3 player or, in fact, any MP3 far as I know ;).
Shoot I still have some ( currently ) irreplaceable cassettes. Can’t get semi-rarities like Penelope Houston’s On Borrowed Time any other way.
I threw most of my audio CDs onto 2 spindles, gave the jewel cases to my girlfriend at the time, and kept the interesting liner notes. I haven’t bought a CD since Weird Al’s Poodle Hat in 2003, and I never intend to again. I really have no good reason to hold onto those CDs anymore either…
No it’s not accurate. CDs are uncompressed and stored at 1,411.2 kbit/s. All MP3s are indeed lossy and the concept of “cd quality” is a misnomer that essentially means that the average listener can’t hear a difference. Of course theres a huge variance on what is considered “average” and many people do hear better than that. I personally always rip everything at 256 kbit/s with a LAME encoder just to be safe.
I’m keeping my CDs and for the foreseeable future I’ll probably continue to mainly purchase my music on physical media. My Nano right now has something like 2.5GB (out of 8) on it and other than podcasts of NPR shows not available locally, there’s a mere handful of downloaded tracks on it (and only one purchased from iTunes itself). My CDs are good for when I drive (compared to fiddling with the iPod’s menus, the controls on my car CD player I can manage without taking my eyes off the road) and for playing at the home stereo over speakers or through good headphones: the MP3 is strictly for when light mobility is more valued; or to make a “party playlist” and plug it in for such an ocassion where quality won’t be an issue since the event itself should be keeping the audience’s attention.
(BTW, it becomes a pain to purchase online, as every store seems to want to install a downloader – dudes, just give me a password to a secure page and let me do “save as” --and many like iTunes want a premium for non-DRM tracks (and Amazon won’t sell downloads to my address!); might as well do it old-school)