No nostalgia (or only a little, anyway) but used CDs are the best. I've bought so many used CDs for next to nothing. Buying used records is fun, but CDs dont get dust in the grooves, etc, and basically never wear out. "Perfect sound forever."

I'm 23 and recently got into HiFi with a used equipment from Goodwill. I picked up a $20 Denon CD player to revive my collection that I had from when I was a teenager. Right now I buy more CDs and records. Vinyl is expensive to buy and keep clean. Once I have a little more money I'll grow my vinyl collection and be able to clean them regularly. For now I enjoy going to Goodwill and picking up favorites for $2. Also, Best Buy and Walmart are clearing out their inventories on CDs. It's a great time to buy sealed CDs on the cheap.

I have no problem paying £20 for a vinyl, £10 for a CD but do have a HUGE issue giving £10/month to Spotify for a "streaming" service. Probably just me :)

I have actually also become slightly nostalgic to CD - but only because vinyl taught me to listen to albums in their entirety. So if anything listening to a CD from A to Z is a new experience for me, which means the nostalgia is not fully nostalgia. Streaming a full album is also due to that lesson from vinyl for me. I think what keeps CD exciting to me is the same reason I love vinyl: it’s YOUR copy. It’s that specific copy. With all of its tiny idiosyncrasies. Streaming and downloads just don’t get near that.

Andrew, what if someone made a purely manual CD player? One that has an open platter that you can see spinning. One that requires you to manually queue up the laser in order to start it or select the track. (somehow) . And what if CDs came with album-sized artwork complete with lyrics, photos and interesting information about the artist? Maybe the ritual and ceremony could become a part of CD playback. One can only hope.

Just buy a top loader or a vertical cd player so you can see the disc spinning and throw away the remote control so you you won’t be able to skip records when on your couch ;) I started collecting and listening to cd’s again a while back also, but I do very much enjoy it in a similar way to vinyl.

I still buy physical media (both records and CDs) because I enjoy the treasure hunt of searching not knowing what Im going to find at a given store. Plus, I love the packaging and art. I buy downloads as a replacement for the way we used to buy singles. I get the immediate satisfaction of getting what I want right away, and if I like it enough I will look for physical media to add to my collection. As far as sound quality goes, it's all over the map with no consistency regardless of format. I have records that sound great and one that sound like crap, and the same is true for my CD collection. I have even bought HD downloads that sound terrible.

CDs are perfect for everything I want. You don't have to fumble with your phone while driving, they sound good as hell (of course depending on the album's mix) and they're cheap as hell now. The only flaw imo is that they're pretty fragile like vinyl but unlike streaming or cassettes but if you take care of them it won't matter. For physical media it's probably the best entry point relative to Vinyl.

I started buying CDs again too. I miss it a lot. Barnes and Noble is still a good place to find a decent amount of new media.

Andrew, you spend hours shopping for CDs but when you get home you don't want them? This baffles me - you clearly like the music or you wouldn't have purchased it. CDs that i've purchased over the years and haven't listened to in some time - take one out of the CD rack, put it in the player, pour a drink and it's like snuggling up with an old friend, a friend for life.

It's really just fun to shop for music. Whether vinyl, cassette, or CDs; it's a thrill to shop for music in a physical format. Over 95% of the music I own is in the CD format. That was the dominant means of acquiring music when I was younger (the 1990s). I love vinyl, it's the format I buy most now. But my CDs are all ripped to FLAC resolution and I still play them through the much hyped KickStarter purchase; the Pono Player. Which still sounds AMAZING to this day; especially with 24-bit high res audio. I'll never get rid of my CDs though. Nothing beats a physical back-up copy if my computer/external hard drive crashes.

I haunt the Salvation Army's and Good will stores plus thrift stores in my area. Almost always $1 each. I recently walked out of one store with 20 CD's. 20 dollars! What's not to love. Actually they sound so much better than they did back in the mid 80's when I first bought CD's because now I own a killer CD transport and good DAC. Good times.

For me, it is comparable to owning a 30-year-old car, compared to a modern electric wonder. The smell of a hot gasoline engine versus no smell at all. The roar of 8 cylinders with exhaust system versus total silence. The mechanical production of energy from an explosion engine versus a battery. Excellent channel by the way, with a friendly and intelligent approach with a touch of philosophical reflection.

Second hand CDs are such a great value right now. I was looking for a certain album on vinyl and the prices were well beyond what I was willing to spend. I ended up buying it on CD instead for $3.80! And yes, it sounds great.

When i was younger i use to listen to new LPs and CDs with school friends who would come over and we would spend all hours listening to music everyday . 30 years later i listen alone and that i think is whats missing is the company that i had around me but the music still triggers those great days and times .

CDs are great for archival releases of albums. I just ordered the 4disc Abbey Road 50th anniverary super deluxe edition today. Of course I ordered the vinyl version as well. I think CDs, in general, are too long. They turned every album into what used to be a double album length, when most artists don't have a double album in them. I confess, I have bought a lot of cds that I haven't played or hardly played. I think in most cases they were artists I was familiar with, so I bought them just to have them, but vinyl and it's interaction is where I usually go back too. CDs I play when I'm multitasking.

I think most of my nostalgia stems from the fact that back in the day you actually had to put some effort into getting your hands on some music. The effort makes everything sound better. Nowadays with youtube, streaming services, discogs that gives you the possibility to buy everything you desire, amazon that delivers at your door five minutes after you have put the order...you virtually have any music thar ever existed in the universe at your fingertips in one format or another. When I was 14 I took three buses to get to a record shop on the other side of the city (a two hour drive with traffic) just to order a Rolling Stones album, which arrived a month later - I then went there again, brought it home, played it and it was glorious through my cranky speakers. I bet if it had been delivered at my door or downloaded onto my mobile phone, even if I could play it on an infinitely better hi fi today, I wouldnt think much of it nowadays.

Put the disc, sit back, listen and read the sleeve notes. That's something tidal doesn't have.

You see the vynyl record spin through the listening. The CD just dissapears in a tray. The visual/mechanical experience is gone. I think this is the thing.

I'm old school, not nostalgic. My CDs sound every bit as good as streaming (if not better in some cases) so I can't see giving money to a streaming service and having nothing to show for it at the end of the month. Ya, I don't have as big of a collection as the streaming service, but I can live with that. I'm rather amazed at times at how quickly people are willing to dump an existing technology for something new just because it's not the latest and greatest, even though it works just fine.

Not nostalgia, just convenience and practicality. With CDs, all I need to do is handle them well, return them to the tray when done and seal the entire CD case in a plastic sleeve to keep out dust and the CD could be used for life without cleaning them even once. Records however need to be cleaned before playing, even if a record is brand new... do we need to clean a record after playing it? The unnecessary time spent cleaning records could be better spent looking through the collection and picking which batch of discs to listen to next. Then there's the amount of music CDs can store, which I presume is at least 80-90% more than records. This means that for a given storage space, I can have almost twice as much music on CD than if they were on records. In my case, I have over 75,000 songs just from the 1910s to 1940s on about 3,000 CDs - it's impossible to have a decent collection of such songs on records (over 80% of these songs have never been reissued on records since their original releases, some are ultra rare and in the hands of private collectors, a few songs were on cylinders). As for sound, I can't compare the two media, but will say that I LISTEN TO THE MUSIC rather than obsess with sound quality or how certain instruments should/must sound.

I too never got rid of LP’s, always had a turntable, and in 1985 got my first CD player. I was awestruck by the absence of noise and the visceral impact of percussion on Dire Straits’ “Brothers in Arms” when it came out. We used to demo it when selling speakers etc in the stereo shop I worked in then, in a small Nova Scotia town. Like so many who watch your videos I rediscovered vinyl as a much more tactile and involving format, coupled with nostalgia that the pops and clicks of needle in groove evokes that the scrubbed clean sound of CD does not. The memories of my formative years come back with vinyl, more than on any digital platform. I don’t buy vinyl of new bands so for me vinyl is nostalgia. Any new music I like I’ll get on CD (more so than from mp3, unless I’m at work or in the car). Oh, one thing I like about CD is I don’t have to get up every twenty minutes to flip the disc, and nor do I add to the cumulative damage I do every time I reinsert an LP I its sleeve.

I agree with you man. I do miss the store experience. On the technical side they do crank the volume up now on the records, and that sucks. But I think the main nostalgia factor is the entire physical experience, going to the store, then open the case, check the art and the texture of the printings. That’s missing now!. But i do purchase CDs from time to time from artists I really love.

I am mostly cuz my cd player sounds better Than a computer playing the same soundquality file

Hello andrew, i think with vinyl it is not only the sound, but the interaction what gives you the better experience. More of your senses can participate. While playing a record you can hear it and see it spinning. Cd's i hear sometimes as backgroung music while doing something else, for vinyl I sit down and take my time to really enjoy the musik. Greetings fom Stuttgart in germany

I still love CDs and buy them regularly. I like that they’re tactile, and that I have ownership! Think of the difference between renting a house, or owning your home.....is there a difference?? I think so. When I listen to streaming music I really seem to change music quickly, sometimes skipping to the next song before it’s even finished, it’s all too easy! I don’t do that with records.....I listen to the whole side......at least. In streaming I think that’s about the sheer volume of choice! Can you imaging how hard it would be to buy your breakfast cereal if the whole supermarket only sold that.....your brain would probably explode!😬 At least if I own it I’ve narrowed down the field. And recently my internet was down, and I couldn’t play Spotify, but I could still play my CDs! I know if the power is out, then even the ability to play CDs is gone....but so is the internet and my Bluetooth speaker!! Anyway..... One comment you said was going out of your way to buy a CD, that seems like saying I went out of my way to go snorkelling in the Bahamas, because after my holiday I ended up back at home🤷‍♂️.....it’s not out of my way, that’s the good bit! The adventure of finding something you like but don’t have 😁👍👍 Anyway, having rambled on long enough, I’ve got to swap my cd over......🤔 now, what should I put on😂😉🖖

I gave up vinyl years ago and strictly CD and streaming. While I don't miss the record "dance" there is a certain zen to the whole prep and handling of a record that can be soothing and gives a sense of a sacred ritual. Back in the day, when one of our friends got a new record we made a whole evening about it. Records were expensive and getting a brand new one was a special event. We pored over the album art and liner notes. Otherwise, all you had was the radio so the ability to control your listening was a great advance. And we listened...really listened to music. Today, music is more the background to life rather than something to savor. Frankly, now is the time to get into CDs. I pick up nearly new examples for a couple of dollars and while no big "ritual" to play them, I still get album art and liner notes...and great sound quality. I'm still listening, really listening. That's what's important to me.

Speaking of experience, with many CD box sets (and even single CDs) you get highly informative booklets/books with plenty of information on the musicians, the recordings including song by song analysis, commentary by music experts/critics and musicians in addition to many photos, various album cover reprints etc. I doubt if too many records have such detailed information on the music (I may be wrong on this?).

Next episode nostalgic for cassette tapes, that would be interesting.

I’ve been collecting CDs since they came out in the early 80’s. My collection (about 400) is on the wall in my office. The nostalgia for me isn’t about the format, it’s about scanning my collection and seeing a disk I haven’t listened to in years. The same is true for my vinyl collection, but loading a CD into my Onkyo 7030 is so much easier.

Used CDs are about 1 to 2 dollars everywhere. Thank you Vinyl. LoL. I do not buy vinyl made after the 80s. Nearly all are digital master, so, no point in buying a CD on vinyl (Unless the LP is advertised as AAA) I only buy pre 80s LPs unless a new remaster that I know is made from analog. I still love CDs.. even better is how cheap a used on is. Best part is a used CD sounds as good as a new one.

I grew up buying LPs and then CDs and never got rid of them (you'd have to kill me). Now that I own a Pro-Ject Debut with a Sumiko Pearl cartridge, a Marantz CD 6006 and a Cambridge AXA-35 powering a pair of Dali Oberon 5 speakers, I'm enjoying my collection more than I have ever had. Moreover, said collection has been growing thanks to great CDs I find for 2 or 3 euros in flea markets or thrift shops. I've never ever used a streaming service and I think I never will. Not as long as there's physical media to get a hold of.

My criteria: 1.) Getting music without artifacts (surface noise, ticks, pops) - an album would be completely ruined for me if I would hear a pop, or sibilance, during playback - especially if the track was one of my favorites. 2.) Longevity - because of the physical contact between the groove and the stylus, LP's are doomed to wear. You can minimize the damage by getting a cartridge/stylus combination that accurately tracks the groove at a lower tracking weight, but there will still be some wear. And the added chore of the constant need for cleaning and treating the LP and stylus is something I can do without. 3.) Convenience - I prefer being able to program a large number of tracks without having to interrupt my enjoyment of the music to attend to the turntable. At this time, I have converted my entire music collection to FLAC. I can't imagine it getting any better.

Vinyl and CDS with good inserts/notes are an experience all by itself. I hate it when a physical format does not have anything "significant" to read while you are playing it. CDS or vinyls with good photos, inserts, stickers - memorabilia that makes the physical format worth it to keep and collect.

I'm still happy enough to buy a CD, rip it to flac, and put it on a PLEX server. It's not less ritualistic, to me, to sit down and play an album through that way. IMHO The only bottom line is the sonics- enjoying immersion in the music more so than getting tethered to reality by fiddling with gear and media.

Vinyls fun and all but cds have the superior sound and experience

I am extremely busy and often not enjoying things as I had in past. Vinyl requires me to slow down and focus on the music. I like cds when I'm driving and I don't skip tracks because it is the order that I orginally heard them. I use downloads when I'm working out. I enjoy each of them for different reasons. I enjoy most of all the experience of being in a record store, going through the bins and talking to others.

For me, buying is all about the hunt. I came to a realization last year that I love collecting but hate collections. The internet made collecting too easy. So now I buy nice LPs and CDs in second hand stores, but I have to hunt, engage, seek, curate. By making it hard, I've made it fun and engaging. I literally never know what I'm going to get or find.

Great point, Having the physical media either CD or Vinyl and the hunt for the media is a big part of it of the romance. Shopping for media builds up an excitement/energy that doesn't exist while swiping through millions of songs on my IPhone. More often than not, I will listen to a whole album if it is on CD/Vinyl rather than streaming. I love the technology of streaming but it does become options paralysis and I will end up spending less time listening and more time searching for the perfect song or album.

There are many CDs not available for streaming. There are also times when perhaps you don't have Wi-Fi. So records and CDs can be very helpful. Looking at the jacket, reading info in the recording while listening makes it more fun

I couldn't imagine NOT buying CD's ...

I never stopped buying CDs though I now buy most of them through Amazon and other online sites which takes away the "thrill of the hunt". I primarily listen to classical music and like discovering lesser known composers so streaming services don't appeal to me. Another disadvantage of streaming services is that while they have countless genres and sub-genres of popular music they don't make any attempt to differentiate various styles of classical music; 400 years of music is all defined as "classical".

Regardless of the medium, what interests me the most is THE MUSIC!! I like all formats. However I can get THE MUSIC!!

If you have the Real discs you have the power to do what you want, listen on sound systems, produce digital files and take to wherever you want, you have the real feeling of owning the music, it's not the same thing to download paid files from the internet or pay the subscription of a streaming, this has to do with passion for music, a lot of people who consume music in the 21st century will never understand this, I'm a CD collector and i understand that perfectly.

I listen mostly on Spotify, however the records I get to love I purchased them on CD, I ripped them into ITunes, then to my iPod classic that I still use with a set of headphones, and I go to Vynil stores to purchase old releases of albums that I enjoy. I belive CD and Vynil have their own use case scenario, and both are very gratifying, at the end of the day, is about listening to music.

I still love the Minidisc :p

Interesting, speaking as someone of a slightly younger age I'm now 28 so when I was a teenager most other teenagers got there music from illegal downloading but I still wanted the physical format. It was before the vinyl renaissance so I only really knew about CDs. I used to get £10 a month pocket money and would go and buy a cd spending ages browsing music channels and looking at websites making sure the CD I bought that month I would enjoy. Now I'm older and have a job I got into vinyl and do stream on tidal but I still buy CDs and rip them in the best format. Maybe my previous experience have now made me nostalgic for it but I still enjoy CDs they are the best way to get cheap physical format and I like to look at the little booklet and go through it.

I still play CD’s, besides streaming. But for me it has nothing to do with nostalgia. The sound quality is still outstanding and as good or better than streaming. But yes, streaming is more convenient. Somebody should put up a video how the process works from the record company providing a record to a streaming provider and hoe they proces the record to be prepared for streaming. 😉

I like the experience of buying CDs and then ripping them. I get the buying experience in the shop and also the convenience for playback.

I got into vinyl because it was a very cheap way to discover music before the internet sharing took off. This was at a time when even used CDs required a sum of money I couldn't afford to spend, so vinyl gave me the best bang for the buck. Eventually the hipsters took over and the scene completely flipped upside down. Now it's vinyl that's constantly picked over and overpriced, and CDs that are neglected and in the bargain bin. I have no nostalgia for either format, only a financially-driven mindset. Right now CDs are the best bang for the buck. The fact I don't have to constantly worry about keeping it clean or flipping it over or changing belts is just a bonus for me because I'm not interested in the ceremony, only interested in the music itself. If you're really into the music, then as long as sonic fidelity is good enough to not pull you out of the listening experience, it shouldn't matter what format you're using. The gravitation towards a singular format as the superior is too much of an emotional investment that seeks social validation.

I should be old school here since I started in quality audio from the 1960's. I like vinyl but my reason for listening is to get closer to the original recorded sound. Yes, it was fun to buy the latest release of a record, opening and looking at liner notes as well as the art. The CD certainly created a more rugged and quiet background with more dynamics. It wasn't the same as the LP. It became a more sterile format. What ruins many CD's are the original recordings are greatly compressed. All of the dynamics are eliminated in the control room. For those exceptional CD's, I prefer the format because it's not going to click & pop, or deteriorate over time. The potential for excellent performance is there. The lossless streams are great for sound quality but if you don't own and store it, what happens if the service is eliminated? What if you have it on a disk drive and it fails? Yes, hopefully you have a backup, but if you can't recover it, then it's lost until another source can be found. The thing about vinyl or CD's, you have them in your possession. You can play them at any time. I prefer the hard format and most especially the much maligned CD.

It's all that and more. once upon a time, buying music, be it Rock, R&B, Classical, Country, whatever, was a communal activity. Virtually everyone shopping looked over to see what a fellow consumer was holding in their hand to buy, or flipping through or you'd engage in conversation about a recording artist. It was a social event whether with friends or strangers. Discussing the pressing or recording quality, the "undiscovered" artists or albums, etc., was the event. The CD closed all that down because it became more "personal" . Who needs to go out and spend an evening browsing the bins and socializing when you can sit, nose to your device and not interact at all. I have All medis collection. Until you brought up the subject, I had't realized how disconnected I've become from that involvement when I put in a CD and walk away not having to "flip" to "Side Two"! Looking forward to more on this new channel of yours. Always great discussion, Andrew!

Andrew your spot on!!! I am caught between a rock & a hard place... I own well over 12.000 Cd`s and over 14.000 Lp`s I am a vinyl addict. I will always buy an lp over a cd. I love the needle drop on my turntable as it hits a new record that I have just purchased,being from the 1960`s or 70`s Our new generation today has no idea at all as to what we are talking about tonight. So be it.

That was harsh ditching CDs, DVD & Blu Rays, Wow! Are you a minimalist? One big advantage of hard media is ownership & no subscription fees. Esp. when content gets pulled. I have about 240 CDs and put them all on iTunes for my iPod Classic. Even buying songs on iTunes, you own them. I have about 20 mixed in. Having enough variety with no commercials or subscription fees. I even have about 20 Christmas CDs, I'm good there too.

As a collector for fifty years, my house is filled with CDs, DVDs, BluRays, VHS Tapes, and Vinyl Records.

I had a CD Walkman when I was in school but until recently had never owned a full-size dedicated CD player. I still have CDs, because I like the physical medium that isn't dependent on internet service and I like to archive them; plus there are better versions/pressings of certain albums that can only be acquired through used or out of print CDs. I just recently acquired a Tascam CD-200BT that I use as a transport to a Schiit Modi/Magni stack, and I love this thing. It has a very 90s vibe and a professional build. The buttons feel great and even powering it on and off is very satisfying. And even though it has search buttons on the unit and on the remote, I find myself more often just listening to an album straight through rather than picking through songs like I do with my DAP. And now my CD collecting has sped up a bit :)

Great episode Andrew. I think the bitPERFECT series sounds like a great idea. Nostalgia for me linked to an experience with a song, or an album. For example in 1978 I was a huge Yes fan, I was at my local shop picking up the newly released Tormato album, when a fellow shopper came up to me with a copy of ELP's Brain Salad Surgery. He told me since I liked Yes I might like ELP. The rest is history, I purchased the suggested album, and have been a fan of both the band and, the album since. Through the 80's to the early 2000's when Tower records disappeared, I had many similar experiences. I am really not format nostalgic, I have never really broken away from any of my formats. Just continuing to add different types of formats to my system. Nostalgia for me is memories of socializing with fellow shoppers at the local music shop.

Awesome. I was looking forward to this. I remember the many reasons why we all stopped buying vinyl and went on to cassettes, CDs, mp3, and now streaming. The music industry has always been about the delivery format.

I've gone back to cds, I just love owning my music and having that collection on the shelf, I grew up with vinyl and apart from the artwork never really saw what all the fuss was about, everyone ditched vinyl for cds for a reason, they sound amazing, now it seems everyone has chose to forget that. You can keep your cracking and popping all over your music.

I like CDs for simplicity, convenience and its ability to keep music intact even when scratched. Not all CDs, like vinyl offer the best sound, but more of what I like is more readily available. Also, with so many chasing vinyl, CD prices are lower, often much lower. I can purchase more music, buy dacs and still have more resources for future purchases. For me, listening to music is experiencing beauty, aural art, whatever one wants to call it. It evokes emotion and paints a picture in one's mind. I don't need, or get anything out of the ritual of maintaining and utilizing vinyl. For me it's amp-dac-player-CD/streaming. Simple and effective. I do buy vinyl though...it helps finance what I want.

I have to agree with you about this. I collect CDs for the most part and LPs for fun. However I find myself enjoying listen to LPs more not because of sound quality. I like watching the record spin and to me its amazing that music carved into a piece of plastic can sound so good. For obvious reasons I enjoy CDs because I can rip them and listen to them on portable devices. Its funny when I listen to a record and I hear something new in it, or some part of the mix that sound amazing and I think to myself, the CD wont sound this good or what ever. Then I grab one, put it on and guess what, its the same. If you want to make CDs sound better, just put a record on, any record and let it spin while listening to CD lol.

l remember the nostalgic feeling of rushing out to buy the latest CD from favorite band. Now I love finding $1 CDs at thrift stores. I have a tube buffer between my CD player and receiver. Adds a little bit of warmth to the sound. I listen to 50 to 75% of my music on vinyl and the rest through streaming/CDs.

I miss the hell out of Tower Records.

I think what makes vinyl more appealing to me is the fact that it is imperfect and that to me demands more attention. Today a lot of people put music on in the background and it isn't really so much an experience as it is just there. With vinyl, I am more engaged in the music, the imperfections in playback, the possibility for a record to skip. It all makes vinyl more exciting to listen to because you almost have no idea exactly how it will sound because each play will change the way a record sounds in a subtle way. Another thing with vinyl is that I almost find comfort in the fact that the grooves won't last forever through repeated playback, it reminds me that it's better to focus on the things that bring joy and happiness because nothing will be here forever. I collect CDs because I like to have digital backups of my library and it is easier to get a lot of music on CD as opposed to vinyl which can sometimes be expensive. To me, a CD is almost a backup medium, while a record is something I spend time listening to.

I saw a Metallica interview a while ago in which Lars explains that whenever James comes up with a riff, they have to record it, otherwise it will disipate and be forgotten forever. Just like this, I feel the satisfaction I get from phisical media is the possibility of seeing the music I like, materialized and organized or present. Not in a screen, my memory or a playlist, but in the real world. Disc cover and booklet to check while listening also. I can always go back and remember that this is the music that I like.

I was watching some of your “old” episodes and came across this one and it reminded me of something. I have vivid memories of 8th grade or high school going to the record store and rushing home to play my new discoveries. I skeptical this up through college and after a few years ending up with quite a record collection. It survived college and quite a few jobs. It survived my second stint at college until 1989 or so when I bought my first CD player. I have a super vivid memory of playing those first few CDs I had bought at the same time and thinking that I had died and gone to heaven. To me, at that time, they sounded so much better than vinyl. And it was simple and easy to play them. They didn’t require cleaning. We lived in an old house with wooden floors and I spent much time and energy coming up with a system that was stable when the floors vibrated. That issue was resolved. I loved CDs. I remember exactly where I was sitting and everything that I listened to that first afternoon. I remember the weather and the view out of the windows. We moved to Austin a few months later and my record collection was stolen and I gave up on CDs in 2011 after a flood got my collection. I could have cleaned and kept the disks I suppose but I didn’t. I am happy with streaming. I enjoy the deep dives for music I never would have purchased but have ended up really enjoying after I heard it. I am a little nostalgic for vinyl and have recently been interested again, but I am also have a bit of nostalgia for CDs and really happy that I have so many options for music listening these days.

Fascinating this. I sort of morphed into CDs as they became available but when I reverted back to vinyl I kept them. All 300 of them! Sure I listen to vinyl, but sometimes when you’re prepping dinner or something, putting a disc into the player is more convenient. For me who’s a non-streamer playing a CD is a little tactile like an LP. So for me they’re another source, not quite as exciting and warm as vinyl but hey, it’s music...

Just bought a natural sound yamaha cd player mint for $10 from goodwill. Van Morrison Healing Game, Stones Dirty Work, Boz Scaggs Dig cds for 3 for 5 from my indie record shop. I was surprised how much better the cd player sounded than the sony dvd/cd hdmi player I had been using for years, based upon the idea that cd player plays better b/c it is just for cds. I still buy cds online, in stores, yard sales, etc. Prices range from $1-5 usually mint condition or new. But I will go as high as $12-15 for something special. But I get it. If you are nomadic and have small space to live in based on rent, streaming makes a lot of sense. No crap to haul around. I like books and cds as part of my interior design. I buy cds with timeless sound that does not sound dated, blues, rock, jazz. The price point has allowed me to build a library of sound and I can resell them and recoup some of my money back in future. Also, they seem to be all going out of print. I can't believe some of the stuff I missed like the deluxe Marvin Gaye Trouble Man release.

Something about vinyl records: As soon as I drop the needle on to it, alpha waves starts to come out in my brain. I don't know why, but it's unique, and I love it.

Bingo, that's why I feel bad for the generation these days that everything is at there finger tips and when they want something, they order it or down loaded but don't spend a Saturday morning out with there friends going through records or CD's or what ever there into like we use to and that's what makes memories. It takes me back to a simpler time as a kid.

SA-CD is the best digital audio disc sound format, it's has digital vinyl warmth. I bought them way back in 1999. Stereo DSD 1 bit audio is easy on the ears. For me it's a tangible physical format, shiny disc, colour booklet. Streaming lacks any feeling of ownership

Still buy CD's and BD's, just don't want to rely on such a fragile thing like the internet only for my music ... I don't need my music everywhere available as long as I know all my stuff waits at home for me. Lately also started buying records again, different procedure to play them, but gives me the same feel of happiness as CD's, just in a more calmer way ...

What an amazing story. That is super interesting that your enjoyment faded the moment you pressed play. Our brains work in mysterious ways. I think you hit on many deep subjects there. The sociological act of shopping (the hunt); the relationship of physical size to assigned value (CD jewel case compared to 12" album art) and ingroup vs outgroup dynamics (bragging rights are lower on a CD purchase compared to vinyl). So much of what goes into our enjoyment of music has nothing to do with the music.

in the 80s there were fully automatic turntables that you could also change tracks by pressing a button. Well I'm talking about vinyl record players. there were even turntables that looked like laser disc players

I never grew up with vinyl. It’s been my choice to dive into it(so glad I did). But for me, I love owning music because it’s history. My history or history of a certain era with that music. I’m more precious with vinyl because of its fragile state and cost to acquire.

Hi Andrew, the CD is new Vinyl! Happy 2022 for you!

Hmm, just for context here, I was born in 1957 so, there is a lot of tech change in my life. Probably my earliest music memories are the Seekers and Carpenters. Of course there was other boring stuff on the radio at the time, but for me, these were the most engaging as a small child. I have experienced gramophone, valve radio, transistor radio, reel to reel, eight track, cassette, LP, 45 singles, CD, DVD, BD, streaming, lossy, losless &, HRA. Anyway, my road into HiFi has been long and slow and it is probably only in the last decade that I have overcome the last stumbling blocks to finally achieved really nice high quality audio in the home. So I am really appreciating the shear clarity naturalness, sound stage etc and am completely enthralled with expression and musicality lifting and filling my soul these days. In the 70s, I like many bought into the idea that records were the highest fidelity playback. So, this is what we bought and we recorded them on cassette for the car etc. How wrong we were..... However, tape was actually the superior media type, that is it was used for commercial mastering. True that master tape was a different product than cassette tape. The problem with commercial cassettes was as much the players and there general lack of maintenance as the inferior tape material itself. Tapes got stretched and chewed, the coating wore off fast, the player take up clutch either applied too much tension or too little causing stretching or tangles, motor governor faults caused speed issues... the list goes on, but the potential of the media itself was very high as proved by the long production life of chrome master tapes. Records on the other hand lack useful dynamic range partially due to the noise floor of physically scraping a needle through a groove and partially the physical limitations of maintaining accurate tracking in a groove. Then off course, the performance limitations of affordable audio reproduction for most people in the 60s & 70s was, well not high. The latter began to change significantly in the 80s and 90s, particularly with speaker design. This was the real boom period for home audio reproduction quality. I largely missed it though as it was the time for raising kids and so it took a while to catch up and particularly to come to realize the difference decent speaker cables can make. What an absolute revelation decent 12 ga wire was.... Probably the single most significant audio upgrade ever (dam those speaker cable charts, and Ethan Winer comments not helpful man!). Not that I buy into every audiophile theory on cables, but IME they can make a huge difference. I guess one can say the answer to most audio questions is, "well it depends". Anyway, these days, I am finding that the best commonly available media is CD. Yes, some DVD and BDs have higher resolution and can sound great but often, it's just up-sampled for 44.1, then there is SACD and audiophile high res etc but the market choice in limited. So, the just leaves CD as the most available decent resolution physical media. There are comments I could make about the quality of mastering these days, over compression and tampering with timing killing the artistic expression. A lot of it is just very badly done by people who seem to have no art or soul. One has to be judicious in their purchases. Sure, you can get the same resolution or higher from some streaming services and yes, I can accurately rip CDs. However, at the end of the day, none of this gets the some dynamics and expression as my old AMC CD8a CD player. I just love that player. I listened to every player in the shop at the time. Some were flat accurate, some where very expressive in the low end, others in high end, but the CD8a was simply expressive, dynamic and engaging through the whole audio spectrum and for me, that's the whole point of music. So the upshot is that while I do stream or play ripped files on the PC or DAP, I still buy CDs and the CD player rules in my system. I have been replacing LPs with CDs but I try to get early CD releases taken directly from the original master tapes because these honor the original mix. Almost invariably, remastered versions raise every source to the same level which swamps out the vocals and compresses every shred of artistic expression out of the product rendering it worthless non noise. There are a few independent production artists worth listening too though. I suppose the big labels main focus these days in portable music for the car and I phone and their crappy industrial mixing shows it. In all this, I want to make it clear that I can certainly hear differences between lossless and HRA. A mate of mine did an experiment where he digitized a chrome master tape into various resolution, both sample rates and bit depths. This was all done from the same source, using the same equipment and software. We then listened to the results using the same equipment. I have to say that most sounds were pretty similar but there were some startlingly obvious differences. Like a completely different type of sound. Our conclusion is that the higher resolution sounds most like the original recording and Nyquist is broken. That being said, if you can only listen to a 44.1K recording, you would never know. It is only by listening to the origin that you can know what it should sound like. Therefore I have to say that while I would prefer HRA, it just doesn't appear practical in today's market due to lack of diverse content. Also, I have listened to HRA recording down scaled to 44.1K and they still sound really really nice, expressive and engaging. So I tend to think that a lot of what you hear in HRA just comes down to superior mixing because the people involved in doing this have art, and talent (experience and personally hold high production values). To me that is eminently more important than tech specs.

I think this is your most insightful video. As I see it, we tend to value more that which is harder to acquire... Whatever is easy for us to get we take for granted..! Nowadays, this translates to people not valuing "owning music" as much as they did in the past, since in the past you had to go out of your way to go to the store, spend the money, come home, go thru the whole process of popping the CD (or vinyl) in the player and playing it, or creating a mix on a cassette tape. Nowadays you just type in the name of the song and in a couple of seconds you're listening to it. There is no challenge anymore. There is no reward to get once you have "climbed a mountain"... Well, that's just my opinion. Be well, R.

Interesting. My experience is very different. I don't miss vinyl even though I grew up with it. Good riddance to it. But I came back to collecting CDs, only old second hand ones, and I'm enjoying them a lot!

The act of being amongst one another. Yep, that's what is missing from streaming. The tribal connection of being among other people with a similar interest as you, digging through used records or CD's, is definitely an emotional link. Records do have a more physical connection to me though, like driving a manual transmission car.

I love vinyl and cds. The interaction that vinyl gives me to the music is unmatched but there are times when I don't feel like going through all the trouble of playing a record. Now I could stream, but there are also times when i don't want to be constantly attached to my mobile devices. I'm the kind of guy who likes to disconnect for a few hours and when I'm streaming music I'm forced to keep my phone or tablet or laptop on. CDs are a nice easy middle when I don't want to deal with the tedium of vinyl or the addiction to my phone.

What about the discman experience? I feel that listening to music is only engaging in one sense, it’s when the other senses are engages when the nostalgia kicks in. What are the smells, tastes, feels and sights of what’s happening while listening to the cd? Holding the discman as the cd is playing, feeling the vibration of the disc spinning, the foam covers on the cheap headphones because that’s what you could afford. There are different levels of listening to a cd. What about the “mix tape” cd made for summer vacation, road trips, the music from a former ralationship.

I'm a vinyl collector since 20 years. Never had the thought vinyls superior to other formats. It is simply a passion for me. If music I'm into doesn't come in vinyl I rarely buy it in CD. Most of the times I go for the digital release from Bandcamp: better sound quality and direct support to artists. Only my two cents

I guess what you're saying CD's are making a come back? Whenever i bought vinyl back in the day(60's and 70's ) was because if i never heard of the artist. Cassettes are still my favorite medium.

I'm buying cds for $1.99 at local thrift shop "savers" that's literally an 8 minute walk for me . I purchase great artists , cds in generally are in new condition . I own 8 NIN Downward Spirals so far for example . Just a matter of time until nostalgia makes them profitable for me. Even get the occasional Vinyl for 3.99 , I stop in almost every day.

I understand about the lack of interaction with the CD when it gets swallowed up by the player. But I do miss the booklets with lyrics, credits and photos. I miss the ritual of removing the plastic wrapper and the smell of the fresh ink. Now we have nearly every album ever released available for free on Spotify. I enjoy viewing Andrew's channel to see what other music lovers are listening to.

I've been finding the same thing with digital music. I'm finding that I much more enjoy going and getting digital albums deliberately rather than just streaming endless radios all the time.

I believe that the reason audiophiles like vinyl is touchy-feely.

It’s the thrill of the chase.

CDs are fun and cheap. You can get a nice cd player for kinda cheap, hook that up to an external dac, good to go. As to vinyl, it's tricky because getting good sound from a turntable takes real purpose. It really isn't for everyone. But there is no doubt that a nice tt (not necessarily expensive) setup engages my ear/brain better than any other source. Also agree that shopping for cds is more satisfying than owning them. I just donate cds to charity thrifts when I'm done.

The experiencie isn’t only the buying... it’s also the fact to have a colections, go to them select the one you want to listen to and put in the player...keep the case in your hands... In that case, the perception followoing being a pleassure. In my case I love to use all my formats> vynil. CD, Minidisc, cassette... I love to isten my cassettes or my MD... to check the same song in different formats... but I decided, as you,m time ago no buy some of them. I don’t buy vynils and cassettes, I love to use the ones I have, but I don’t by new ones. Because I preffer he CD, or SACD or DVD/Audio as phisical formats, because at the end what I listen to more is my digital files collections and the streaming... but the phisical formats, all of them are special. And it’s true that as more phisical it is, more rich experience... what for me is more atractive is a reel to reel , I haven’t it but it’s my favorite to see, also the vynil and the cassette... but if I buy something new... it will be a CD

I love CDs

I guess you'll have to go back to streaming and hoping the carrier renews all the licensing of the titles you need. If you have a MP3 library on a computer, the software could jumble the titles. I have no fond memories of tapes or records that deteriorate with each play, have groove damage, and minor warping. This ship sailed in the 90's and honestly don't get why collectors are going back to records. The whole music industry has been destabilized by the 'trend setters' who stole using Napster 20 years ago and now joyfully pay $40 for a defective vinyl copy that somehow never gets opened.

I grew up with casette tapes until the early 90s we got a big Sony rack system from Sears that had a 5 disc changer. Middle school and high school years I enjoyed cd hunting with friends and on occasion when the family went to the mall my dad and I would go to Sam Goody music shop and get a few CDs. I remembe most CDs being around $15 to $20 then which was a bit expensive but they were so much better than casette and just cool. For me the excitement doesn't end after the hunt, especially with new artists I haven't heard. My friend and I would get a new CD every few weeks, we would hang out and listen to the whole CD usually while playing Mortal Kombat on Super Nintendo. Some CDs were disappointing with only one good song while others were stellar and we'd listen to the whole thing over and over. I gave away most of my CDs years ago but I'm hitting thrift stores again when I have time slowely rebuilding my collection. Also picked up a super nice Sony DVP-7700 DVD/CD player for $15 while hunting. This was a sweet deal considering this player cost $1399.99 in 1999. I stick with CDs and streaming on Tidal most of the time. I don't have much free time these days so vinyl doesn't happen often for me. Couple weeks ago I brought home a used Barry White Greatest Hits CD, late one night I loaded it up hit play then went back to work at my desk. Ended up finishing my work and listening to the rest of the CD till 2am. It one of my favorites now and love llaying it while Im up working late. Im ok with using streaming services for music convince but I'm old enough I also like to own the things that make me happy and not just subscribe to them.

I do Half Price as well. Excellent source for a classic and jazz collector like myself. The Mercury and Verve reissues are stunning. I collect vinyl and high quality 78's as well and you are right, it's a bit more involving. But my Pioneer CD player has no remote, so I have to stay a part of the playback process.

a good mastered cd>> vinyl. so the audiophiles buy a 40k system to defy that..did it work?

I have a single disk Sony CDP-550 Vintage CD player from 1987 that I have to get up and put in a disk and push a button and I love it because I like to own my music on a physical format, something I can hold in my hand and will never degrade over time. I grew up with vinyl in the 70's and it is nothing but a pain in the ass😒

Kids today don't know how lucky they are, when I was a teen and heard Green Day on Kerrang I had to get my dad to drive me an hour to a record store, ask for the song and be told it's not out yet and every week checking for it until I finally got it. Then getting home and putting that single on and it was just OMG yesssss... Kids now here a song and 20 seconds later download it. The magic is gone.

Sometimes I think there may be a conspiracy or war going on behind the scenes to completely get rid of cds b/c they are the perfect medium re copies and storage, and that vinyl resurgence and streaming are part of it...I know, ominous, right?? lol.

Excellent insight. We think that discs also looked really high tech and cool, especially in comparison with vinyls, which are also cool but have an inescapable old school feel.