Do you still play your physical Audio CDs?

[lordsmurf]

"I can hear the Sharpie marker writing on my CD."

[orsetto]

The quest for audio perfection is a fool's quest. Many of the quest'ers are deluded. Myths and idiocy, be it arguments over CD-R brands affecting quality ("I can hear the wobble!") or whatnot.

Yes and no. Are there a lot of fools with money to burn and too much time on their hands? Absolutely. But the lunatic "high end" serves a purpose: a small percentage of the "crazy" proves reasonably true and eventually drifts down to more to affordable gear, giving us great price/performance deals. Some of us do really have "sensitive ears", which develops preferences. I don't necessarily believe those preferences are based on logic: the sound we like better is probably nothing more than a preference for a certain collection of distortions.

When I was 22 the world shifted almost overnight from LP to CD. Believe you me, those early CDs and players were pretty bad: the vinyl fringe that seems crazy now (and largely IS crazy) was perfectly sane then. Vinyl had irksome click, pop and noise issues and its never been easy or cheap to get a good turntable/cartridge, but until the studios stopped being lazy in the late 80s and began mastering CD properly, good vinyl had an edge in listenability. Better CD mastering helped even the score with vinyl, but then you were still stuck trying to find a really good CD player. Most of the great ones were way out of my league, though I finally spent a months pay on my Nakamichi in 87 (and still own it- nothings ever topped it). We regressed somewhat with the rise of DVD players that can play CD: they can, but most don't do a good job of 2-channel dedicated audio decoding. I'm not a snob and I don't go by price. There's some very cheap hardware out there thats amazingly good: Sony and Phillips occasionally drop a $99 DVD player that can rival high-end CD players at audio playback. Every couple years someone comes out with a $300 receiver that sounds incredible. Affordable stuff today can and should beat megabiuck hardware of years ago- all it takes is intelligent design. Sometimes we get it, often we don't.

I can hear differences between some amps, tuners, turntables and CD systems. What I prefer might be not be what others like, and vice versa. But I make rational judgements of how much difference I hear and how important it is vs the prices and drawbacks involved. When I flip thru the amusingly deranged British audio rags, and see reviews of $5000 "budget" turntables, I laugh my ass off. $5K for a plywood shoebox with a clock motor, rubberband and four springs? GTF outta here: for $200 a used Thorens 160 will come damn close. The $5K turntable still uses belt drive, and while belt drive sounds subtly different from direct drive it always adds annoying mechanical noises and issues. I opted for the Thorens after buying and selling a dozen other turntables, but still miss the durable ole Technics SL1200 direct drive for its ease of use and zero mechanical noises. (On the day the world ends, the survivors will be cockroaches and Technics SL1200s). Same deal with tuners: I got caught up in the "get a good vintage tuner while you still can" craze a few years ago, and dropped out pretty quickly. Why? Because those great old tuners are a PITA, thats why. Fun to use, look great on the shelf, sound awesome- but good luck getting one to lock solidly on a funky station, despite the claims of the tuner freaks. I ended up with a $40 used Yamaha T70, a slim nondescript digital tuner (Yamahas first actually). Its average in every way, but sounds passable and doesn't require alignments or adjustments or new dial bulbs.

Theres a limit to what these "golden ears" will put up with, never mind pay for... you can assemble my entire audio system for about $800 by shopping eBay.

[MOVIEGEEK]

I'm waiting for someone to brag about tube amps.

"I can hear the Sharpie marker writing on my CD."

This is why you should always write with the laser groove...never across.

[orsetto]

My best bud from HS is a tube amp freak. He's viewed as a traitor to the cause, though, since he plays his thousands of vinyl LPs on a direct-drive Technics SL1200 (the horror ) . His picture is up on "wanted: dead or alive" posters in high-end clip joints all over the state. :P He rags on me all the time for using a "prehistoric" belt drive Thorens and 20 year old CD player, yet hes sitting on a dozen Dynaco tube amps in various states of repair. Pot, meet kettle...

[JohnnyMalaria]

Exclusively CD. I can't listen to mp3 even at the higher bit rates. I can hear artifacts that many cannot. I can't watch any HD TVs. That's just the way my senses are. I can tell if a car has LED tail lights that are not d.c. powered. I can even tell you the duty cycle. Very distracting while driving.

[SquirrelXss]

I Only use the blue verbatims from 2003-2004 they were the best. I have my collection of unwritten disc in an air conditioned climate controlled safe.

[usually_quiet]

I usually listen to music using a radio, but I own mostly CDs and a few casette tapes. I have only a handful of mp3 format recordings stored on my computer. (I got them by drinking enough carbonated beverages to qualify for a give-away.)

[Xylob the Destroyer]

buy a new disc, rip it to the PC downstairs, put the disc away in the closet...
I stream to all other PCs in the house and copy to portable players as needed/wanted.

[racer-x]

I still remember playing 8-tracks in my cars.............I remember cutting a big big hole in the dashboard of my old 1971 Torino to house the 8-Track collection for easy access. That was state of the art back in the day. I remember having to wedge matchbooks in the player to keep the tape from slipping. Ahh the memories...................

Mostly use CD's nowadays.

[lordsmurf]

See, that's just it orsetto -- claiming MP3 or CD or vinyl is better is usually all horseshit. You've hit the nail on the head. What people are actually hearing is their own crappy stereo speakers, D/A converters or location. Music easily sounds different from room to room, from computers to computer (or stereo to stereo), car to house, etc. But that has nothing to do with format.

Comparing CD version to MP3 version to LP version is valid, too, absolutely. It's not always mastered the same, or to the same care/quality. I have vinyl that sounds better than CD, and CD that sounds better than vinyl. It's not the format, it's the music itself, and how it was put onto these platters (or tapes or digital files).

Common sense should prevail, but as we all know, sometimes it's not so common.

[JohnnyMalaria]

I have vinyl that sounds better than CD, and CD that sounds better than vinyl. It's not the format, it's the music itself, and how it was put onto these platters (or tapes or digital files).

You're contradicting yourself. How do you know that your audio equipment is transparent to all the formats? The differences you hear could quite easily be due to format differences. MP3, for example, is inherently lossy and very much based upon modeling of the *average* human auditory system.

You can't isolate the format from the signal processing chain. You have to consider them as a system. At the end of the day the only way to hear the recordings the way they were intended is to sit at the original console in the original control room using the same recording equipment and the same monitors driven at the same level. And the original chair at the original height.

And most music doesn't merit the effort.

[lordsmurf]

No, I'm not contradicting myself. I think you're looking for a loophole.

The way to isolate is to control an experiment. Sit from recording room, listen to it live -- then again listen to it on CD, CD-R, MP3, cassette, etc. I've done this. The only one not tested was vinyl. But that can be A/B tested in other ways. Same for 8-track, others.

The easiest way to butcher audio is to use POS players, or POS encoders (if digital). Or to alter it during recording or post-processing, prior to media creation.

The format itself is not the weakest link in the chain.

For example, people crying about how bad cassette was have never listened to it on a pro deck with Dolby NR. These tape formats were never stellar, but it's not as bad as they claim it to be, either! I hear people griping about VHS quality all the time, but they're never seen the tapes run into pro or broadcast setups. It's not something they've ever experienced. Their incorrect worldviews are limited by their experience. But you can't fault them for that (unless they argue), you can only correct them and hope to educate them.

Indeed, most music does NOT merit the effort.

[ZQX]

The quest for audio perfection is a fool's quest. Many of the quest'ers are deluded. Myths and idiocy, be it arguments over CD-R brands affecting quality ("I can hear the wobble!") or whatnot.

LOL I agree! Unless you have $50,000 equipment, I don't think it matters one bit. HQ mp3 (320 CBR) ROOLZ!!! ANYONE WHO SAYS DIFFERENTLY IS A FUCKTARD.

[samijubal]

CDs at home. MP3s away from home, in the yard, etc.