Why do use a CD player?

Is it for sound quality, convenience for the fact you can't get a lot of stuff on vinyl these days?

I own a CD player for convenience and record avalability but it certainly is not for sound quality.

I guess some people hate any crackles so CD or digital media would win but it dosn't bother me at all.

My CD player is probably still the main source and always will be but I just seem to find turntable so much more fun and enjoyable.

 

I do hate crackles/hiss on recordings, since they make it impossible to ignore the fact that you are actually listening to a recording. I'm not saying things sound exactly lifelike, but it is much easier to fool yourself that they're real. I've yet to hear a vinyl based system that didn't have this problem, but possibly a high end system with really clean records avoids this?

 

I'm with Martin. The thing I hated about vinyl was that, no matter how much care you took with your records, there'd inevitably come a click or a pop, and then, when you listened to your favourite record, you spent much of your time not enjoying listening to the music but waiting anxiously for that click, which was going to come right here. Thus, a medium that offered freedom from this, plus equivalent sound quality, plus convenience of operation was always going to get my vote.

I still have my vinyl and my LP12, but I'll buy no more vinyl. In addition, the convenient size of CD makes for fewer storage problems. If I had my CD collection in vinyl, there's be no room in the room for me!

 

On most my records there is hardly any hiss or pops/cracks. I think the preamp on my Marantz amp does a good job of hidingthem though.

Also my records are in very good condition. It depends what type of music you listen to as well I think. Softer ballad type stuff probably sounds better on CD but heavier and dance type music to me sounds better on vynil. I think stuff like Simon and Garfunkel is better on CD.

 

I think for me its all of them!

I can not buy the music I like on vinyl, 'I don't like the pops and clicks and the sound quality seems worse. Or at least... you have to work a damn sight harder to maintain that quality.

Yes vinyl has damn good quality too, but for the money you have to spend on a TT to get it at a really high level, if you spent that much on a CD player and choose it carefully I personally feel that the quality and even the 'analog-ness' can be there in a CD.

I know there will be a lot of people who feel otherwise on the quality issue, but I understand that and this is just how I feel. So please do not flame me or anything!

TT do look nicer though

Cheers,

 

Cos new releases on CD are cheaper (cdwow.com etc)
Cos I can hit repeat/random and then fart about the house without thinking about it.
Cos I cant always get the album on vinyl.
Cos they play on my PC and in my car.

If I love an album I'll bend over backwards to get it on vinyl, ordering from abroad or whatever. Back catalogue stuff, vinyl every time if I can find it cheap enough second hand.

price and availability are the factors really for me.

 

Erm...because I have 500+ CDs and no LPs?

I never amassed a collection of more than about 10 LPs (early student days) and quickly decided to jump on the CD bandwagon. In fact, I taped my LPs to cassette and sold them before I even had a CD player

If I had to choose now the convenience and (IMO) comparable sound quality would easily tip it in favour of CDs. I have considered getting a TT but only to access a load of cheap s/h vinyl of 50s/60s/70s classical and jazz. Living in Portugal I'm still assessing whether I realistically have access to that s/h market or not. I think the answer is probably no.

When I consider what it would cost me to get a TT that compares to my DAC64 (at least £1K) and then how many CDs I could buy for that money things don't look promising.

Michael.

 

put disc in press play music comes out, simple really, track indexing also, is some what simplier. Wm

 

I know just what Tones means. After years now, of CD being my main source, there are still recordings (now on CD) where I wait for that big pop, even though I know it's not coming any more! Talk about conditioning.

 

Me too – I think they are a necessary evil, there is too much music that is either too hard to find or simply not available on vinyl (the reverse is also true so you need both if you are serious about music!). I do like the convenience of CD too, though tend to use it more as background music for when I can't be arsed changing a record over every 20 minutes or so. I'd say I've got about 4 records for every CD (probably about 3500 records to 900 or so CDs).

Tony.

 

Because I am into indie having a turntbale a essential because a lot of the older and rarer indie stuff is not availible on CD.

The other thing I find about my CD player is it sounds very cold when its first switched on but its fine afterwards.

As for storage I am begenning to run out of places to store my records and I only have 200 CDs and 50 Lps.

I've been buying a lot of music lately as I have found spending £20 on a new cable etc dosn't really do that much and much is so much more fun.

My CD player dosn't really sound that bad anyway its just a case of poor quality CDs rather than the CD player itself.

 

Agree - some CDs are terribly produced compared to others. I always thought it was down to the CD player, but it's noticeable even on a decent budget CD player (the NAD C521BEE) with some discs more than others.

 

I just bought myself a Dutch magazine with a vinyl-special inside...

So, yes...I do have a love for vinyl, but still.... I can't pull myself to buy a TT.

Why not ?

Because:

1. My CDX already sounds wonderful imho.
2. My kinda music rarely comes out on new vinyl.
(and if it does, it's only for a short time available)
3. New vinyl is (mostly) a lot more expensive than the same title on CD.
4. I do hate the crack/pop's, although I can't be bothered with the hiss.
5. The storage problem.
6. I'll have to wait till LP/CD-fairs come along, or travel to the nearest city by train, to find some s/h LP's.
(and I can order my CD's online, and they get delivered free within 3 days. (well, most of 'em)
7. Because I have a CDX, I guess that I'd have to spent quite a serious amount on a TT to get an equal partner.
8. I only have about 15LP's left...
9. There are no analog-specialist dealers left in my area, so It'll be pretty hard to demo a TT at home first.
10. mint s/h LP's seem to get more and more expensive nowadays, since that vinyl revival is still going.

I recently went into a big store that's specialized in s/h LP's/CD's.
Browsing through the titles I was kinda shocked at the prices, of mint s/h vinyl.

(example: a mint s/h copy of Talk Talk's "Colour of spring" costed 10,- euro, while the same title on a new CD's is only about 7,99 euro overhere... )

So, to make a long story short(er)
The 3 main reasons why I (still) don't have a TT is:

Money
Hardly any new interesting titles out on vinyl.
Only have about 15LPs left.

regards,
Alco

 

Although I use both I must say the stuff I actually listen to is primarily on CD. Don't get me wrong I like vinyl but most of it I buy because I like to collect certain items by certain bands, or because I just like knowing that I own it and can listen to it whenever I like. A lot of my vinyl has been bought on some beautiful sunny days spent rummaging around in boxes at my local car boot sales. Getting a tan while shopping for your favourite music at 50p per album, does it get much better?

I don't so much hate the craclkes and pops, more that I notice them. I also have to admit, there are very few albums of which I like every single song, as such the convenience of just being able to skip the ones I don't like can only go to CD.

As for sound quality, well yes, the vinyl I've heard does offer a slightly more natural sound, but theres not much in it to my ears. For me then I'm sorry to say that vinyl looses out to CD on convenience :shame:

Anyway thats my 2p worth....

 

Someone after my own heart, although I find the sellers are often willing to give you the boxes of vinyl when it starts to rain....

I have a CD player too, and would say that it's pretty much a 50/50 split between formats when playing music at home. I've said it in another thread already today, so I apologise for duplication, but IMHO the format is the means, not the end.

 

'simplier' but slower.

Paul

 

I'd say i'm probably about 90% CD 10 Vinyl%

MOstly down to conveniance.

I used to buy a few proMOs, white labels etc... which probably weren't available on CD.

 

i have 600+ cds and about 10 bits of vinyl. so it would be foolish of me to sink the hbundreds of pounds necessary to get decent replay into vinyl rather than cd. if i had the grand i reckon it'd take i'd upgrade my cdp or just buy more cd's.
i have a theory, enjoyment of music is a very emotive experience, it can also recall good memories of listening to a bit of music with friends, whilst monged on the drug of your choice, while getting it on with a particularly memorable partner or perhaps breaking up with one. if you have a strong emotional reaction after removing a record from it's sleeve, dusting it, puting it on the steel wheel and then cuing it up then you are going to get used to having an emotional response to those actions in other words a mild addiction. there is a similar situation with heroin addicts where if they are on methadone they don;t miss the heroin, they miss cooking up and sticking a needle in their arm... see any sort of similarity?
cheers


julian

 

I would have to say that if you hear the clicks and pops, then really you have missed the whole point.

 

But with the right kind of music you do not hear any clicks or pops. Most my records are virtualy silent in terms of clicks and pops.

Its only slowly more folky songs where this would be noticable and really distract from the music.