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renfield

Lifer
Oct 16, 2011
5,191
42,644
Kansas
Gotta have physical media. While I miss the large cover art and liner notes of LPs I love the (for all practical purposes) non-degrading nature and sound quality of CDs. Stuff living on someone else’s server can and sometimes does disappear.

All of my several thousand CDs are ripped and stored in a lossless format on my server with double backups. Best of both worlds. Digital convenience and physical backup and ownership.

Having the physical media is also one way of avoiding the all too common situation where an album is poorly remastered and/or remixed. Streaming services usually have the most recent version of albums for better or worse.
 

shermnatman

Lifer
Jan 25, 2019
1,030
4,869
Philadelphia Suburbs, Pennsylvania
Way back in the early/mid-80s, I worked for Shulman Record Company of Cinnaminson, Nj - these folks owned/operated the Listening Booth and the Wall-To-Wall Sound stores in nearly every mall in our region.

When I first started with them as a High School job, the stores offered a massive inventory of LPs, Cassettes, 45s, and even small stock of 8-Track tapes.

HOWEVER, when the first CDs began to appear - I remember when our initial store stock consisted of a mere 8 - count them, EIGHT CDs - available to the customers; and then, that number "jumped up" to the high-thirties in over the next month or so.

Then ONE DAY... These men with specialty hand-trucks came into the store through the rear of the store. The had a large Shulman company truck parked out back; and, they began REMOVING ALL THE LPs - with the exception of the top 30 current hot-sellers FROM THE STORE, en mass!

I was stunned, to say the least.

It was like an Invasion from Hell.

I asked the store manager why these men were taking the LP inventory away, and where was it going?

She told me that because CDs "are the new thing", a directive came down that all the stores would surrender their inventories of LPs for what was essentially amounted to a "confiscation" and the LPs would be taken back to Shulman's huge warehouse... or possibly, the dump.

I was informed that the mass-production problems which made titles on CD limited and sporadic in the beginning had been solved/eliminated, and "very very soon EVERYTHING will be available on CD".

So, the LPs HAD to go.

I asked, "... but, what of our loyal customers who have LPs, want LPs, do not want CDs - which had a crappy sampling-rate in the early days - and, do not own a CD player?!?! Where is our customer's right to a choice?!?!"

To which "Irv", the District Manager - a particularly odious personality I still shutter to think of 40 years later and can never forget - excitedly rubbed his fat little sweaty hands together, and with a big smile on his face, replied while laughing: "Well... they are all just going to have to buy one.. and, they get to choose which one!".

He thought that 'choice of model CD Player' was particularly clever.

And with that, I then watched the workmen start carting in a huge inventory of new CD players.

It was absolutely the grossest display of market manipulation and orchestrated customer abuse for profit I have ever witnessed in my life.

The whole thing still makes me sick to my stomach to think about to this day.

The ending of the story?

The once pervasive and ubiquitous Listening Booth stores and Wall-To-Wall Sound stores, eventually vanished from the Mall landscape over time.

Serves them right. - Sherm Natman
 

Andriko

Can't Leave
Nov 8, 2021
384
945
London
I'm glad I kept all of my old CDs and a fair amount of DVDs and VHS (I through a lot away which I regret now). For all the 'joys' of streaming, there are some versions that are now unavailable, like 'The Good, The Bad & The Ugly' - all the streaming choices offer the crappy 'director's cut', with dumb new scenes added in. Or 'Star Wars' - if you want to see the original versions now, you have to go through some huge pain in the ass to get the Unremastered editions someone has put together.

Online only just means record labels and studios can just force the 'new ultimate master' on you even if it's a load of shit.
 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
10,058
16,133
For all the 'joys' of streaming, there are some versions that are now unavailable, like 'The Good, The Bad & The Ugly' - all the streaming choices offer the crappy 'director's cut', with dumb new scenes added in.
I've been saying this for a long time now. Eventually old physical copies will be priceless to those who care about such things. Books, CDs, DVDs. The past will be digitally erased or rewritten. All part of the Marxist Woke Jacobin New World Order.

We were just discussing this in the Fawlty Towers thread. The digital version of that series has already cut out one of the episodes that is unacceptable to the new cultural psychopathy. I'm so glad I have the original series on DVD.

And you're so right about TG,TB,&TU...the extended version is a vivid lesson in why some scenes really need to be left on the cutting room floor. I'm so glad I still have my theatrical version DVD.
 

mawnansmiff

Lifer
Oct 14, 2015
7,822
8,632
Sunny Cornwall, UK.
I have a pretty large CD (and vinyl) collection that is still added to as and when I hear something I like.

Streaming is all well and good but statistically most 'streamers' listen to their music on their phones which I just couldn't bear to do or rather couldn't do as I don't have one!

I play my music through a reasonably high end hi-fi system consisting of 2 tape decks, 2 turntables, 1 SACD player and a pretty powerful amp along with 7 speaker cabinets. The wall of sound all that reproduces could never happen on a phone, simple as that. I will concede that there is an input on the front of my amp for connecting a phone (I think) presumably for streaming purposes, but I've never used it.

I take my music listening seriously and set aside time to have say a Pink Floyd evening or a Led Zeppelin evening playing either vinyl or CD. The quality and depth of sound played from a good source simply cannot be matched by ANY streamed music.
Long live vinyl and long live CDs I say :col:.

Regards,

Jay.
 

haebar

Can't Leave
Nov 10, 2014
348
6,245
East Tennessee
I have a few hundred CDs, DVDs, cassettes, and vinyl records that I have collected over the years. I remember what I paid for them and am not getting rid of them. Many of them are very hard to find like my Jim and Jesse, Eddie Arnold, and The Ventures recordings (dating myself here).
 
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karam

Lifer
Feb 2, 2019
2,605
9,931
Basel, Switzerland
My mother’s second husband was a jazz producer, radio presenter and music writer. We had about 60,000 LPs and as many CDs, as well as a whole room with master tapes, and another with magazines and books. Literally the whole house was a record shop, wall to wall, every wall, filled with jazz and classical music records. A few soul, funks and rock shelves. He got to meet people like Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Zappa, Rollins and others from Europe. When he died in 1997 some were sold, a lot were donated. He had professional monitor speakers for his working office and yamaha ns2000 with pioneer c90+m90 amps for the living room. This stuff is now mine but in storage and in need of servicing :(

My own collection is mostly heavy metal CDs, thousands of kilometres from where I live now. Unfortunately although music is a huge deal in my life I do all my listening via spotify or youtube, and headphones.
 

ssjones

Moderator
Staff member
May 11, 2011
19,051
13,201
Covington, Louisiana
postimg.cc
We have just over 1,000 CD's and a couple hundred DVD's. I can't remember the last time I bought or played either, but we also can't seem to move them. With retirement, we'll be moving South to be with our daughters, I suppose thats the time I'll have to sell, er, give them away. Most were ripped to FLAC files a few years ago, stored on an external harddrive. I have XM in both cars, and play any music files off my phone. We still have a blue-tooth audio home theater receiver and IBIC tower speakers, and that gets used regularly. But, even in my age group, none of our friends have "Stereo systems" any more, certainly not my children. It's somewhat sad

My first CD was Eric Claptons renaissance release "Journeyman", released in 1989. A few years ago, when I went to rip it to digital, the file system was so old, my windows drive didn't recognize it! I found a work around.
 
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UB 40

Lifer
Jul 7, 2022
1,349
9,800
62
Cologne/ Germany
nahbesprechung.net
I have a pretty large CD (and vinyl) collection that is still added to as and when I hear something I like.

Streaming is all well and good but statistically most 'streamers' listen to their music on their phones which I just couldn't bear to do or rather couldn't do as I don't have one!

I play my music through a reasonably high end hi-fi system consisting of 2 tape decks, 2 turntables, 1 SACD player and a pretty powerful amp along with 7 speaker cabinets. The wall of sound all that reproduces could never happen on a phone, simple as that. I will concede that there is an input on the front of my amp for connecting a phone (I think) presumably for streaming purposes, but I've never used it.

I take my music listening seriously and set aside time to have say a Pink Floyd evening or a Led Zeppelin evening playing either vinyl or CD. The quality and depth of sound played from a good source simply cannot be matched by ANY streamed music.
Long live vinyl and long live CDs I say :col:.

Regards,

Jay.
You hit the spot!
 
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Zack Miller

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 13, 2020
645
1,961
Fort Worth, Texas
When I was in high school I worked at a radio station and learned to handle vinyl without damaging It. As a consequence, I have very few records with scratches.
Of all the media, tapes are the worst as they are the easiest to damage or to wear out.

I have loaded almost all of my CDs and vinyl on to my iPod which I can connect into various systems around the house for convenience sake.

I‘m not into streaming services for audio.