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    Posted: October 02 2022 at 09:33
Yes, that's right! Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the first commercially available albums on Compact Disc Digital Audio! On October 1st 1982, Japanese music-lovers could walk into their music store of choice to purchase Sony's first CD player, and any one of 50 titles to go along with it. 

With the possibility to cram nearly 80 minutes of audio on them, perfect fidelity, and a much better damage resistance, they're quite a huge upgrade over vinyl, though you lose the nice big artwork. Of course, they were also quite expensive when they launched, and it took a good decade or so before CD packaging started to look a bit nicer. Over the years, digital downloads and streaming have replaced CDs, and a lot of the more recent attempts to pump new life into the format has been through scams like SACD and HDCD which supposedly sound better (I'm sure most people on here are already aware they do not). CDs are now in that awkward era where they're old enough to be obsolete to most people, but not old enough to be nostalgic yet. Will CDs ever become big again? Time will tell...

So, do we have any people here who remember the dawn of the CD era? Or people who still use them? For me, they're still my primary way of getting music. Digital downloads and streaming usually restrict you to the most recent remaster of an album, and in too many cases, that'll be a brickwalled one. Plus, I like to actually own the music in my collection, and CDs are relatively cheap, and have better audio quality than vinyl (and can easily be ripped to a computer). I'd say, long live the CD!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jared Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2022 at 10:39
Great post, Ian!

Amazing that it had been released onto the market, a full decade before I got my first CD player, back in the autumn of 1992. I think it was a Sony player and we could only afford it because we had the display model at a 20% discount, IIRC. Of course to help us, it also played cassettes, but I was really proud of it. I even remember the first two CDs I purchased (they were quite expensive then, with no second hand ones around)... but I might get thrown off PA for admitting  Embarrassed

Before I went on a gradual splurge, replacing my Rush, Yes & Genesis onto CD, my first two purchases from ST Records in Dudley were: Journey - Infinity & Toto - Turn Back.

To answer your other question, CDs remain my preference for owning music today. I don't download at all, and don't use Spotify much. I prefer to trawl eBay and MusicMagpie for Prog bargains as I get as much joy out of the physical product today as I did as a 24 year old.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chopper Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2022 at 10:42
I do remember when I bought my first CD player, someone at work said I must be rich but I don't remember it being that expensive. I do remember being impressed with the sound compared to my vinyl records.

I often read about CDs being obsolete, but I don't do vinyl and I do like do have something tangible when I buy an album. If I buy a download only, I tend to store it on my PC and then forget I have it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Grumpyprogfan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2022 at 10:49
I remember the dawn of the CD era. They came in a large rectangular box to be able to fit in the record bins. As soon as CD'S came out I never bought vinyl again, and never missed the pops, skips, scratches. The best thing about vinyl was the posters, artwork, and using the gatefold to de-seed weed. I also remember, record stores would give you next to nothing for vinyl in the late 80's... not so now. I am a huge fan of CD'S when the mixing/mastering is done correctly. I have about 1000 currently. They also take up less space than vinyl, and you don't have to get up and turn the record over. Long live CD's.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote JD Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2022 at 12:30
Happened to stop into a high end audio shop in Vaughan (Ontario) back in '86. Gabriel's So had just dropped. I'd been reading about the format although I was firmly an LP collector with around 1200 in my collection at that time
 So I ask one of the sales guys if I could listen to a CD set up since I was also thinking..."no scratches or tick...F'ing Ah Bubba" He asks what =kind of music I'm into and I say ELP, Yes, King Crimson that sort of thing and he says "Peter Gabriel?" Hell Ya ! I respond.
He puts me in the sweet spot and let's 'er rip. To say I was stunned would be an understatement.  I told my girlfriend (my now wife) I was going to start saving for a player. A good model Sony was around $600 at Bay Bloor Radio back then. Well about a month later my 'wife' buys me the PG So CD for my birthday. Well that left me no option but to go out and buy a player that weekend.
I made the same mistake most LP collectors made back then by trading in the LP's that I had bought CD's of, but only if the packaging contained everything the LP had (photos, lyrics etc.) I stopped after I had 'lost' about 150 LP's.
I have 1301 store bought CD's in my collection currently, but I'm in the process of rebuying copies of my lost vinyls having recouped about 100 of them so far. The last 50 are the pricey ones and I'm only willing to invest that kind of cash if I know they are mint condition. I listened to 4 CD's on my AKG 240's yesterday. That's where I get my moneys worth out of them.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BrufordFreak Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2022 at 12:50
I was working in a Waxie-Maxie's in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in 1983 when the first Sony-Phillips CD players (Sony CDP 101) came out in America. When I bought my first CD player (a Sony 200) there were only six CDs available to purchase in the store. (I bought them all). I believe they included Talking Heads Remain in Light, Fleetwood Mac Rumors, Supertramp Crime of the Century, and Herbert Von Karajan's Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, and either Billy Joel's 52nd Street or Roxy Music's Avalon.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Gentle and Giant Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2022 at 13:54
I remember getting my first CD player - must have been '86 or '87. Choice of discs was poor where I lived at the time and my first one was The Eurythmics - Be Yourself Tonight. Unlike others here I stuck mainly to Vinyl stiil, but buying the odd CD here and there and by about 2005 I had about 100-120, which I eventually sold in bulk to Musicmagpie. Thankfully I kept all my treasured vinyl, but more recently I started to buy the odd CD again and even bought a CD player separate to fit in with my hi-fi.

Edited by Gentle and Giant - October 02 2022 at 13:56
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Atavachron Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2022 at 14:20
Hmm, they're still my phyz/meed of choice though I do get why people love good-sounding vinyl.   The early transfers were not good and there were quite a few flaws you had to watch out for.   That's all in the past though and I haven't had a flawed disc in decades.

I will never give my music to my computer or the Cloud or any other internal & intangible storage system.   For my generation music was as physical an experience as it was an acoustic one.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sean Trane Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2022 at 17:08
I guess CD is only 30 yo for me, as I never bought one in Canada, and didn't bring back into the old world my vinyls - sold many of them, but stored some 4/500 at a buddy's attic...

I bought a used Panasonic deck, because money was tight in for me Europe at first.
 
So amongst my first CDs were Hybris, Aeionl, Vemod,  RHCP, RATM, Spin Doctors, Ozric, Laughing Stock, Achtung Baby, Amused To Death, Rigtik... I only started rebuying the 70's classic albums a few years later, but in CD, this time.


I still buy CDs nowadays, as I don't download and TBH, have never bought into the vinyl revival, as I find it a pain next to the CD's user-friendliness.

.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote someone_else Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 03 2022 at 00:37
I became aware of the existence of CD's sometime in '85, when my father got a CD player and some 20 CD's with it. One of these was more or less interesting to me: Saga's live album, In Transit, which I played now and then. I bought my first CD player three years later. The first CD's that I bought were compilations by Marillion and BJH.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HolyMoly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 03 2022 at 09:16
I was a teenager when CDs first came out, and already had a growing record collection in progress. My dad was/is a music consumer as well, and bought our first CD player in spring of 1985. I remember his first CD was Avalon by Roxy Music. Soon thereafter, my first CD purchase was Candy-O by the Cars. It’s amusing to recall how everyone was agog at the superiority of digital vs analog, whereas now audiophiles seem to feel the reverse is true (“DDD” on the back of CDs, meaning the recording, mixing, and mastering were all done digitally, was once something to get excited about).
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Catcher10 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 03 2022 at 16:13
Bought my first CD player around '84 it was a Sony CDP-302, paid like US$599 for it and bought a few CDs. One was Journey Escape, God that sounded bad!! Totally veiled with no resolution.....Other CDs I bought sounded better. Especially Saga Behaviour, that one blew me away, I did not get the LP till a few yrs later. Blows me away today as my turntable and setup is light years better than what I had back then.

I never traded my LPs or sold them, but I did buy a lot of CDs during late 80's to mid 90's then stopped, main reason was raising a family no disposable income for me....but also the sound was not to my liking, especially once the loudness wars came into play. Which still exists today in spades, unfortunately. Then you had that period where everything on a CD was a needle drop.

I don't buy CDs on purpose unless they are $1 ea.....new CDs at $15-$20, I pass. I only get them to add to my digital media player for planes, trains, busses and the space shuttle trips.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Stressed Cheese Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 04 2022 at 08:58
Thanks for the replies, everyone. I've heard about some of the issues with earlier CDs and DACs. I guess with new technology like this you're going to have some growing pains to endure as early adopters. I still think it's astonishing that they achieved the kind of sound quality we're still listening to today back in that era. Especially if you look at the state of computing at the time.

Originally posted by HolyMoly HolyMoly wrote:

It’s amusing to recall how everyone was agog at the superiority of digital vs analog, whereas now audiophiles seem to feel the reverse is true (“DDD” on the back of CDs, meaning the recording, mixing, and mastering were all done digitally, was once something to get excited about).

There's basically 2 reasons for that. First is that vinyl sounds warmer. I prefer the crisp sound of digital, but that's fine if people like that.

But there's also a lot of misinformation about vinyl vs CDs. And it's very widespread. For example, if you ask google "why does vinyl sound warmer", you get this completely wrong answer:

Quote  Why Does Vinyl Sound Warmer? The reason your vinyl sounds warmer is the analog format of the record. The sound is not converted to a digital format, so you gain the full experience of the song rather than hearing a compressed version of the music.

I feel like at this point there's probably more people who think vinyl has higher fidelity than CDs. Plus, audiophiles will often believe the dumbest, most easily debunked nonsense anyway.

Again, it's fine if people like the warmth of vinyl (or the big sleeves), but it does annoy me how widespread the misinformation is. I wonder if the vinyl revival would've even happened if people actually knew a little bit about the basics of (digital) audio. I mean, most LPs after 1980 are just digital masters pressed onto an LP!

I guess it's hard for some people to accept that something consisting of a bunch of ones and zeroes can sound as good or better than 'analog', even though the word analog doesn't imply a one-to-one copy of something in the first place.

Originally posted by Catcher10 Catcher10 wrote:

I never traded my LPs or sold them, but I did buy a lot of CDs during late 80's to mid 90's then stopped, main reason was raising a family no disposable income for me....but also the sound was not to my liking, especially once the loudness wars came into play. Which still exists today in spades, unfortunately.

Yes, the loudness wars has pretty much been the biggest problem in the music industry for the last 20+ years. But that doesn't really have anything to do with CDs per se, as LPs will have that just as much these days (and downloads/streaming). There's a very useful site I always check when I buy a CD where you can compare the dynamic range of different masters of albums. It's not the only thing to consider when comparing remasters, but it's still very useful.


Edited by Stressed Cheese - October 04 2022 at 08:59
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 04 2022 at 10:00

Except from about 15 mostly-cassette years in the 70's and 80's, I've been always mostly into LPs. Today, about 
30% of my collection are CD's though, and I find it very useful and quite enjoyable with the extra possibilities 
CD-medium - with a programmable CD-player - possesses comparing to vinyl. Still, I surely like best the analog 
sound and the look and feel of LPs and their covers. Tongue





Edited by David_D - October 05 2022 at 06:15
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Catcher10 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 04 2022 at 11:49
Originally posted by Stressed Cheese Stressed Cheese wrote:

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I've heard about some of the issues with earlier CDs and DACs. I guess with new technology like this you're going to have some growing pains to endure as early adopters. I still think it's astonishing that they achieved the kind of sound quality we're still listening to today back in that era. Especially if you look at the state of computing at the time.

Originally posted by HolyMoly HolyMoly wrote:

It’s amusing to recall how everyone was agog at the superiority of digital vs analog, whereas now audiophiles seem to feel the reverse is true (“DDD” on the back of CDs, meaning the recording, mixing, and mastering were all done digitally, was once something to get excited about).

There's basically 2 reasons for that. First is that vinyl sounds warmer. I prefer the crisp sound of digital, but that's fine if people like that.

But there's also a lot of misinformation about vinyl vs CDs. And it's very widespread. For example, if you ask google "why does vinyl sound warmer", you get this completely wrong answer:

Quote  Why Does Vinyl Sound Warmer? The reason your vinyl sounds warmer is the analog format of the record. The sound is not converted to a digital format, so you gain the full experience of the song rather than hearing a compressed version of the music.

I feel like at this point there's probably more people who think vinyl has higher fidelity than CDs. Plus, audiophiles will often believe the dumbest, most easily debunked nonsense anyway.

Again, it's fine if people like the warmth of vinyl (or the big sleeves), but it does annoy me how widespread the misinformation is. I wonder if the vinyl revival would've even happened if people actually knew a little bit about the basics of (digital) audio. I mean, most LPs after 1980 are just digital masters pressed onto an LP!

I guess it's hard for some people to accept that something consisting of a bunch of ones and zeroes can sound as good or better than 'analog', even though the word analog doesn't imply a one-to-one copy of something in the first place.

Originally posted by Catcher10 Catcher10 wrote:

I never traded my LPs or sold them, but I did buy a lot of CDs during late 80's to mid 90's then stopped, main reason was raising a family no disposable income for me....but also the sound was not to my liking, especially once the loudness wars came into play. Which still exists today in spades, unfortunately.

Yes, the loudness wars has pretty much been the biggest problem in the music industry for the last 20+ years. But that doesn't really have anything to do with CDs per se, as LPs will have that just as much these days (and downloads/streaming). There's a very useful site I always check when I buy a CD where you can compare the dynamic range of different masters of albums. It's not the only thing to consider when comparing remasters, but it's still very useful.

Respectfully your not gonna like my responses regarding the CD....but I'll give it a shot. LOL

-I don't know what you mean about issue with DACs? A DAC is like any other electronic pc of gear, it has a lifespan regarding newer design and improvements. A DAC from 1980 works fine but a DAC from 2022 is much improved, so you get a better result of sound when comparing the two, that's not arguable. 

-In the 80/90s we were all thrilled about DDD, it was touted as the "ultimate in sound quality..." due to the all digital chain. Hogwash, we don't hear in digital, we hear in analog. In many cases CDs I have that are ADA even ADD sound much better than DDD. People raved about Dire Straits Brothers In Arms as a DDD CD sounds very nice, I liked it for sure. But it is extremely too clinical and lacking low end in spades, sounds great with headphones or earplugs...Since you like that crispy digital sound, this will not resonate with you, but 100% fine, simply enjoy the music!! Clap

-The statement that "vinyl sounds warmer" is a misinformed as you state. The CD is rolled off at about 20KHz as well bottoms out at 20Hz, due to redbook the CD cannot be mastered to replicate anymore of the frequency band of music. Yes we as humans can generally only hear 20-20k but music has much more than that. The LP has been pressed with frequency as low as about 5Hz and as high as 80KHz, IIRC it has been pressed with 100KHz....so what you get is the whole frequency range of music on the LP. The cymbal crash can exceed 40KHz easily and the standup bass around 30Hz, electronic taurus bass pedals and synths will go well below 20Hz, sub bass range so you'll need subwoofers to "feel the music".....What you are missing with the CD is the decay/sustain of notes, that long bass note or high pitch flute note that the CD cuts off.
It's not that the LP sounds warmer, it's that you are hearing more of the freq range than the CD can give you...Assuming the music has it, remember everything starts with the recording. A $hit recording is always going to be a $sh*t recording, no matter the final media.

-By definition the LP does have a higher fidelity than the CD, what the CD does have is a wider dynamic range ability. The LP is around 75-80dB and the CD is about 95dB, but 24bit hi-rez pushes a dynamic range of 125-130dB, which is ridiculous since we don't hear that way, it's like the difference between a quiet room and standing next to a jet engine Confused. The main issue with mastering in digital is all the filters that are used, if done wrong will remove musical bits, analog is analog what's on the tape is what came out of the studio.

-You are missing a big point.....One of the main reasons of the LP resurgence is due to the sound that people are now wanting. They equate the LP to a more natural sound of music versus the CD/Digital that is too clinical and clean, music/sounds are not supposed to be clean, there is distortion in the music, in the studio...Another big reason is people want to own physical media, when you download a song file what is it?? What does it look like?? What are you paying for?? if you lose it have you actually lost anything?? At least the CD is a physical media and you own something....Clap Consumers are also starting to understand how music is created, emotions come from recording as a band in a studio so the records from the 60s-80s are what people want to explore...Listen to a BlueNote LP from the 1950s and tell me you can't feel and hear the musicians and feel their emotions, if not you need to see a doctor LOL.

-The loudness wars were 100% due to the CD, labels wanted the music to sound LOUD on the radio so people would notice it and buy it. Compression has been around forever, yes, but it was made a household name by the CD in the 90s. This is why so many recordings are being remastered now as people know it exists and don't like it, it is terrible sounding on vinyl for sure. So many engineers are trying to go back to the original digital master recordings and master with little compression, some of these reissues do sound so much better because the dynamics are back....(Rush~Vapor Trails).

I have tons of records cut from 24/32bit and DSD files of digital studio recordings and they sound amazing, as well all analog records from the 70s that sound cra-cra insanely good still......but the CD will never be in the same category as either of these, to me it is a low-rez media that sounds good because it will never be full range audio. I don't care what someone uses to listen to music, just listen to music. I have always been an LP/vinyl consumer since a teen in the 70s and today my analog setup is lightyears better than anything I ever had, so my LPs sound amazing and blows me away every time I sit down and listen. I have always stated that digital should be the best way to capture a live recording in the studio, although it's not a whole lot better than analog tape, and in some cases can't hold a candle to it. What we hear is a result of the mix and mastering, and if the engineer is a dunce then it's gonna sound like krapp. Just pick your poison and listen to music........Clap

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveG Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 04 2022 at 11:54
I absolutely love CDs. I made a lot of money off of Sony stock with them! Happy 40th, you beauties!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Stressed Cheese Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 04 2022 at 15:39
Originally posted by Catcher10 Catcher10 wrote:

Respectfully your not gonna like my responses regarding the CD....but I'll give it a shot. LOL

-I don't know what you mean about issue with DACs? A DAC is like any other electronic pc of gear, it has a lifespan regarding newer design and improvements. A DAC from 1980 works fine but a DAC from 2022 is much improved, so you get a better result of sound when comparing the two, that's not arguable.

It's true that DACs have improved - that was in fact the point I was trying to make. From what I gather, they haven't really improved in the last 25-30 years, and even cheap ones perform perfectly these days, but I know that that wasn't quite the case back in the really early days of CDs.

Quote -In the 80/90s we were all thrilled about DDD, it was touted as the "ultimate in sound quality..." due to the all digital chain. Hogwash, we don't hear in digital, we hear in analog.
We don't hear in digital, but we don't hear in analog either. The representation is analog. We hear soundwaves, and digital audio results in the same soundwaves as analog formats.

Quote -The statement that "vinyl sounds warmer" is a misinformed as you state. The CD is rolled off at about 20KHz as well bottoms out at 20Hz, due to redbook the CD cannot be mastered to replicate anymore of the frequency band of music. Yes we as humans can generally only hear 20-20k but music has much more than that. The LP has been pressed with frequency as low as about 5Hz and as high as 80KHz, IIRC it has been pressed with 100KHz....so what you get is the whole frequency range of music on the LP. The cymbal crash can exceed 40KHz easily and the standup bass around 30Hz, electronic taurus bass pedals and synths will go well below 20Hz, sub bass range so you'll need subwoofers to "feel the music".....What you are missing with the CD is the decay/sustain of notes, that long bass note or high pitch flute note that the CD cuts off.

Ok, so this is an interesting topic I didn't think of before. Normal people won't be able to hear under 20hz, but you should be able to feel it, maybe? I'm not really finding anything on this online...I'd be interested if you can point me to some source here, as I'm interested to find out about it. But you definitely won't hear the high pitched flute note, since it falls outside of the audible range.

Quote It's not that the LP sounds warmer, it's that you are hearing more of the freq range than the CD can give you...
How can you hear something outside of the audible range? Both the CD and the LP capture the audible range.

Quote -By definition the LP does have a higher fidelity than the CD, what the CD does have is a wider dynamic range ability. The LP is around 75-80dB and the CD is about 95dB, but 24bit hi-rez pushes a dynamic range of 125-130dB, which is ridiculous since we don't hear that way, it's like the difference between a quiet room and standing next to a jet engine Confused. The main issue with mastering in digital is all the filters that are used, if done wrong will remove musical bits, analog is analog what's on the tape is what came out of the studio.
Things can always go wrong in the mastering process, but that goes for analog too.

Quote -You are missing a big point.....One of the main reasons of the LP resurgence is due to the sound that people are now wanting. They equate the LP to a more natural sound of music versus the CD/Digital that is too clinical and clean,
An LP is less accurate to the source than digital (and thus by definition has lower fidelity), so if anything it'd be less "natural". The vinyl revival IMO is due to the novelty/cool-ness of owning a big nice sleeve, and people not knowing the difference between vinyl/CD, or the basics of digital audio. Again, if people prefer the sound of LPs, that's fine by me (hell, I like the sound of vinyl myself), but it's because of its imperfections that it sounds like that.

Quote music/sounds are not supposed to be clean, there is distortion in the music,
 
And a digital file has no trouble capturing this distortion. And I think most recording artists beg to differ. They'd want it to sound as they played it, which is why artists flocked to digital as soon as they could and why even vinyl albums are digitally mastered for the past 40 years. If analog was better, it'd be the industry standard.

Quote -The loudness wars were 100% due to the CD, labels wanted the music to sound LOUD on the radio so people would notice it and buy it.
So how is that because of CDs? It happened in the CD era, but not because of the CD format. By the time the loudness wars started, CDs were already the market standard, so they didn't need to sell people on the CD anymore.

Quote I have tons of records cut from 24/32bit and DSD files of digital studio recordings and they sound amazing, as well all analog records from the 70s that sound cra-cra insanely good still......but the CD will never be in the same category as either of these, to me it is a low-rez media that sounds good because it will never be full range audio.
There's nothing audible that CDs can't capture but higher-rez digital or vinyl can. Higher bit-rates sounding better has been debunked time and time again. It's a way for record labels to make more money from audiophiles (or in the case of digital downloads, it just takes up extra space without any benefit). 24-bit has some benefits during the mastering or recording process or something, but your files don't need to go that high.

Quote I don't care what someone uses to listen to music, just listen to music.
I agree in spirit. And in the end it's the mastering/recording that makes the end product enjoyable or crap. But you can record a vinyl record digitally, put it on a CD, and it'll sound exactly the same. Even that Bluenote LP from the 50's.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Stressed Cheese Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 04 2022 at 16:23
Originally posted by David_D David_D wrote:

You surely got this wrong, and I can only recommend you to read this article in Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio
Smile
In the end, a CD player (or a PC or a phone or a whatever) or a record player both send electrical signals to make whatever speaker is connected to it/built into it vibrate, an action which in turn sends soundwaves to your ears. The electrical signal is an analog representation, even if the format is digital. Yes, technically the waves themselves too since they're technically not a direct replication, but that has more to do with semantics, and the point I was trying to make was more about the fact that digital 'audio', as in the audible end-result, isn't a thing per se. That's why there's something called a Digital to Analog Converter in digital audio devices.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 04 2022 at 16:30
Originally posted by Stressed Cheese Stressed Cheese wrote:

We don't hear in digital, but we don't hear in analog either. The representation is analog. We hear soundwaves, and digital audio results in the same soundwaves as analog formats.

No, there's a big difference between analog and digital audio. "Analog" means "similar", and this kind of audio is called that because as a principle, we get all the original sound information, it has just been transformed into electrical and other forms and back again. In digital audio on the contrary, the original sound waves are in their electrical form "read" by a certain frequency and converted to digits. But only a part of the original sound information is "read" and converted to digits, and when converted back to sound, it's only an approximation of the original sound information.


Edited by David_D - October 05 2022 at 01:50
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