Another problem with streaming, at least for me, is the darn algorithm. Just because I want to listen to Joe Henderson and Kenny Burrell at this hour does not mean I want to listen to Vaughn Williams, Karajan’s Beethoven cycles, Nonesuch Explorer (I have on at this very moment CD of tantric Buddhist chanting recorded by David Lewiston), Phillip Glass keyboard music from the 1970s, slack key by Gabby Oahinui, Nick Drake, Pentangle, Brian Eno, King Crimson, Kinks - Arthur, Muddy Waters, Young Rascals- esp Peaceful World, Steve Miller Bsnd, and Dowland’s lute works. All of which I’ve listened to in the last 6 months from my CD collection. Newer artists include Tenorio (actually a new release of an old album), Luther Allison, Samara Joy. Truth be told, most modern stuff is not interesting. I’m finding it hard to wade among the stuff available.
Say what you will, but the old music business model tended to weed out a lot of dreck. And I miss “underground FM radio” from the late 60s and early 70s. That helped me open up my eyes to lots of interesting acts. And one got to rely on classical music reviews from fave reviewers to pinpoint the best in the classical world, and to turn me on to the then new concept of original instrument performances and period performing practices.
My friend streams with Tidal, and when I go over to listen, the sound quality can be absolutely amazing-better than CD. But the music/performances themselves? Mixed bag for newer stuff in all different fields: bluegrass and so-called roots music, classical and jazz. The plethora of choices and the “low cost” of streaming I think makes one less discriminating. When I was a high schooler 1970-1973 cost one album meant a lot of money, coming from my economic background. I had to carefully choose, because it was a significant investment. Even cost of cut-out albums was significant. I had to learn to choose between looking at label, producer, musicians-if they were credited, and quality if artwork. Yes, tried to judge a book by its cover!
Anyway, this rant is intended to explain why I choose not to stream. It is a personal decision and I am not saying anyone is a bad person for choosing streaming. There are good reasons for streaming, and some posters have mentioned them (space needed to store, hassle of moving them, etc). Nonetheless, for me the countervailing reasons lead me to CDs.
And a hint for CD hunters: thrift stores and library sales are good places to look for inexpensive CDs. You will find places with reasonable prices and where people drop off collections to be liquidated. I like the idea of virtually new CDs for .50 cents!
Say what you will, but the old music business model tended to weed out a lot of dreck. And I miss “underground FM radio” from the late 60s and early 70s. That helped me open up my eyes to lots of interesting acts. And one got to rely on classical music reviews from fave reviewers to pinpoint the best in the classical world, and to turn me on to the then new concept of original instrument performances and period performing practices.
My friend streams with Tidal, and when I go over to listen, the sound quality can be absolutely amazing-better than CD. But the music/performances themselves? Mixed bag for newer stuff in all different fields: bluegrass and so-called roots music, classical and jazz. The plethora of choices and the “low cost” of streaming I think makes one less discriminating. When I was a high schooler 1970-1973 cost one album meant a lot of money, coming from my economic background. I had to carefully choose, because it was a significant investment. Even cost of cut-out albums was significant. I had to learn to choose between looking at label, producer, musicians-if they were credited, and quality if artwork. Yes, tried to judge a book by its cover!
Anyway, this rant is intended to explain why I choose not to stream. It is a personal decision and I am not saying anyone is a bad person for choosing streaming. There are good reasons for streaming, and some posters have mentioned them (space needed to store, hassle of moving them, etc). Nonetheless, for me the countervailing reasons lead me to CDs.
And a hint for CD hunters: thrift stores and library sales are good places to look for inexpensive CDs. You will find places with reasonable prices and where people drop off collections to be liquidated. I like the idea of virtually new CDs for .50 cents!
Ripped my CDs with only my favourite tracks to FLAC and got rid of my CDs and players. Now stream my local library from NAS or USB plugged in a DLNA enabled modem which makes finding music so much easier. I do not use any streaming services on my 4 streamers. I have several backups of my music files and also on a USB flash drive on my keyring and in the car.
Navigation is so much easier via an App compared to finding the CD and then the tracks etc. This comes with a downside when the App goes missing in the future and all Apps are not created equal. The WiiM and MusicCast Apps work well but the Denon Remote and HEOS Apps leave a lot to be desired and lack stability. Been looking for an App that could replace the Denon Apps so maybe someone could suggest something. The only one I've spotted so far is BubbleUPnP but have yet to try it.
Navigation is so much easier via an App compared to finding the CD and then the tracks etc. This comes with a downside when the App goes missing in the future and all Apps are not created equal. The WiiM and MusicCast Apps work well but the Denon Remote and HEOS Apps leave a lot to be desired and lack stability. Been looking for an App that could replace the Denon Apps so maybe someone could suggest something. The only one I've spotted so far is BubbleUPnP but have yet to try it.
It might be a good idea to rip cd's anyway. As I realized one my old cds not reading anymore.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot
Attachments
I think the clock oscillator was LClock XO, which was left constantly powered up. I installed a separate little toroid transformer and voltage regulation board just for this clock. Great improvement. The original crap pulse transformer was replaced with Schott S22083. Another leap forward... especially when used with a Belden quad-shield RG59 S/PDIF 75ohm interconnect.
The original voltage regulators were removed, and the dedicated voltage regulators were tapped into the main PCB tracks. I also used my favourite BlackGate caps assortment, together with some Vishay film caps...
Denon DCD1650SR, used exclusively as a CD transport. It was praised at every demo I went to. I was threatened at gunpoint on a few occasions when I tried to take it back home 🙂 See the attached schematics for details.
Wow, so many people are missing out; Miles Smiles is a top 100 album for me, the second "great" quintet is absolute fire!
Others have mentioned it, but maybe for "statistics":
a. ripped 400/500 CDs to FLAC
b. all on SSD & Raspberry Pi + DAC server (Volumio). Very convenient & improved ergonomics compared to CD player / change disc. (helped me rediscover my music!)
c. only keep the disc itself+ cover in those CD sheets: space minimized to store them away.
d. now, using streaming service but not everything is there + sometimes Spotify goes haywire, so local SSD is the plan B.
a. ripped 400/500 CDs to FLAC
b. all on SSD & Raspberry Pi + DAC server (Volumio). Very convenient & improved ergonomics compared to CD player / change disc. (helped me rediscover my music!)
c. only keep the disc itself+ cover in those CD sheets: space minimized to store them away.
d. now, using streaming service but not everything is there + sometimes Spotify goes haywire, so local SSD is the plan B.
I ripped all to lossless, filed the discs and booklets in cd folders and put away in storage. Threw away the cases.
Almost never needed to get the discs out.
Time to step into the 21st century. A quarter of it is gone already!
Ripping would be a time investment. Use the time to rediscover your collection and as you rip create and gradually populate lots of playlists eg by mood.
Last edited:
I have them somewhere in some box in attics, untouched last 20 ish years, all ripped to waw and stored at hdd with copy on another..
Shud have thrown the plastics, no use anyway. Don't have CD player, neither optical disc on any computer... Even if I want have nothing to play them anymore..
Shud have thrown the plastics, no use anyway. Don't have CD player, neither optical disc on any computer... Even if I want have nothing to play them anymore..
Amazon have a 400 cd wallet, https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=cd+wallet&crid=5VV4N9L4FS5Q&sprefix=cd+wall,aps,128&ref=nb_sb_ss_mvt-t3-ranker_1_7 the case logic 320 cd wallets I have don't appear to be available.
And these are the bags I used for the sleeves. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07MZMWMVC?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title you can fit a ton of liners in them as well as the cardboard sleeves and the digipacks
Joel, I really like your storage so much, I'm going to steal the idea! Right now everything is in "Really Useful Box" storage. While these are great storage boxes, it is a pain to find anything. This just is easier, looks neat/better.
Besides 3-disk NAS storage at home I synchronise this NAS with another 5-disk NAS at an external location.
Regards, Gerrit
Regards, Gerrit
Rips are legal when the original CD is still there. Did not brake me to get rid of all this stuff 20 years ago. Never looked back. It is just clutter taking space. On the other hand the music was truly in possession unlike the streaming stuff that is only yours when you pay for that moment. So it may be personal but it can very well be that you appreciate ownership and/or own files. I understand, I do too. Being dependent on the profit model of a company combined with dependance of the web is not everyones cup of tea.
Just make sure you have backups of your rips/files. Many think all will be good but all media will go EOL one day.
Just make sure you have backups of your rips/files. Many think all will be good but all media will go EOL one day.
Last edited:
Altough i don't have a cd player anymore (only a laptop with a cd drive) i still got all my cd's in boxes on my attic. It's a backup of that music. I have ripped them all to my nas server and play them from there, but i'll keep that backup. I suggest you do the same as backup.
Please try to play them after 10 years when kept in an attic (or any other unconditioned room). Compare with rips kept on RAID NAS in conditioned room.