# Why Didn't Anyone Suggest This When AOL Was Mailing Out CDs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 10, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777 "2008-05-10T03:29:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/1 "2008-05-10T03:29:06Z")
[Turn a CD into a 45.](http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/old_cds_are_new_9751.asp) > [@](#): > > The handy tool re-purposes old CDs by ‘overwriting’ existing data and cutting grooves on 'em so they can be played on a turntable. All you have to do is show up with a track, an old CD, and voila! Off you go with a brand “new” 45RPM single. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/2 "2008-05-10T03:40:59Z")
I’d rather shoot them _with_ a .45. And they still mail them out–I got one yesterday, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Myself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@Myself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myself)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/3 "2008-05-10T04:18:13Z")
Because we back then we’d all thrown out our turntables. And I don’t think a dwarf disk could hold the entire the “1812 Overture,” or “Inagodadavida.” 78s begat the 33 1/3, begat the 45, begat the 8-track, begat the cassette, begat the CD, begat DVD, begat the MP3, begat the blue ray… We gotta keep America’s planned obsolescence going here, buddy! ---
**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:** [May 10, 2008, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/4 "2008-05-10T11:43:14Z")
So, [Austin Powers](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQhQR_hJsGE) wasn’t really confused when he tried to play that CD on the turntable? He was actually ahead of his time? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/5 "2008-05-12T17:23:34Z")
Cute. But even though I still have a turntable, it’s a legacy medium, rather than something I really _want_ to keep. If the LP Fairy would appear and magically convert my hundreds of LPs and my handful of 45-RPM singles to MP3’s for me, I’d be happy to toss the turntable and the phonograph records. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/6 "2008-05-12T17:27:06Z")
[This](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm1.static.flickr.com/79/239429420_ff25eeb551.jpg%3Fv%3D0&imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/lwr/239429420/in/set-72157601209261651/&h=500&w=333&sz=173&hl=en&start=19&um=1&tbnid=H4kF8F0AsTz3VM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=87&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcd%2Bfish%26start%3D18%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN) is what I always wanted to do with them. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/7 "2008-05-12T22:12:21Z")
Endless fun for small children: put them in the microwave for a few seconds.\* JRB \*Adult supervision recommended. Not responsible for damage to microwave incurred during this activity. ---
**Author:** ![Euthanasiast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Euthanasiast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euthanasiast)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/8 "2008-05-12T22:56:50Z")
The thing of it is that even with all of our advancements in the audio medium over the years, we’ve only really moved backward in quality as we moved forward in convenience. The LP remains the pinnacle of audio sound quality, and the closest that we’ve managed to come since has been DAT. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/9 "2008-05-12T23:19:06Z")
[QUOTE=Euthanasiast] The LP remains the pinnacle of audio sound quality, and the closest that we’ve managed to come since has been DAT. [/QUOTE] Oh, Bosh! You can say it as often as you like, but that will never make it true. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/10 "2008-05-12T23:25:04Z")
[QUOTE=Euthanasiast] The LP remains the pinnacle of audio sound quality, and the closest that we’ve managed to come since has been DAT. [/QUOTE] Appar…_POP_…ly it’s bee_crackle_ a while si_hissss_ce you’ve list.._POP_ to a_crack_ LP. ---
**Author:** ![Euthanasiast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Euthanasiast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euthanasiast)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/11 "2008-05-12T23:47:43Z")
Sorry, but it is. The Lp is an actual cut of the waveform; it **is** the music. All digital medium is merely a digital representation of the wave form. Admittedly a poorly cared for LP on a cheap turntable will sound like garbage. Give me an EAR reference, Teres, Redpoint, VPI, Krell, etc. with a new record and Grado cartridge and it will walk all over anything digital out there. Of course electronics factor in and speakers as well, but I’ve never found, IME, that this was a debate at all. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/12 "2008-05-12T23:59:40Z")
[QUOTE=Euthanasiast] The Lp is an actual cut of the waveform; it **is** the music. [/QUOTE] No, it isn’t. It’s merely an analog approximation of it. And not even a particularly good one at that. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/13 "2008-05-13T00:02:05Z")
[QUOTE=Euthanasiast] Sorry, but it is. The Lp is an actual cut of the waveform; it **is** the music. All digital medium is merely a digital representation of the wave form. Admittedly a poorly cared for LP on a cheap turntable will sound like garbage. Give me an EAR reference, Teres, Redpoint, VPI, Krell, etc. with a new record and Grado cartridge and it will walk all over anything digital out there. Of course electronics factor in and speakers as well, but I’ve never found, IME, that this was a debate at all. [/QUOTE] Well, I can see that this will end up in GD. The groove in an LP is no more an “actual cut” of the waveform than the pits on a CD. The audio signal has been transformed by the microphone, pre-amp, mixer, equalizer, power amp, cutter head, etc. just because it’s analog, that doesn’t mean it’s superior. All my listening experience has shown that CDs are not only more rugged, but better sounding also. ---
**Author:** ![Euthanasiast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Euthanasiast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euthanasiast)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/14 "2008-05-13T00:11:23Z")
Although CDs have a wider dynamic range, mastering houses are often encouraged to compress the audio on CDs to make it as loud as possible. Since the audio on vinyl can’t be compressed to such extremes, records generally offer a more nuanced sound. Another reason for vinyl’s sonic superiority is that no matter how high a sampling rate is, it can never contain all of the data present in an analog groove, Nyquist’s theorem to the contrary. And I’d be more than happy to continue this in another thread if someone would like. I think I’ve hijacked this one enough. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/15 "2008-05-13T00:18:43Z")
[QUOTE=Euthanasiast] Another reason for vinyl’s sonic superiority is that no matter how high a sampling rate is, it can never contain all of the data present in an analog groove, Nyquist’s theorem to the contrary. [/QUOTE] The analog groove in an LP is similarly limited in its information-carrying capacity for the simple reason that you cannot have an infinitely thin groove. In addition, stereo recordings on vinyl have terrible crosstalk issues _in the recording medium itself_, whereas a digital recording can have absolutely perfect channel separation. Both media have some degree of crosstalk inherent in the playback circuitry. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-anyone-suggest-this-when-aol-was-mailing-out-cds/448777/16 "2008-05-13T00:26:12Z")
[QUOTE=JR Brown] Endless fun for small children: put them in the microwave for a few seconds. [/QUOTE] You need a large microwave, or a small child.