Are CD Player still relevant?

I...
Not only more popular, it is going to take over. I have no idea how long it will take (CDs will remain relevant to a lot of CD-playing people, long past the day on which the last one is sold) but it will take over as the main digital source, if it hasn't already, very soon.
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The coup is done and Mp3 and its other compressed cousins are already ruling !
the rulers are the portable devices and other than them all getting consolidated to the "one device to rule them all" we may not see much happening in that area. Computers themselves are getting embedded to to other devices and most of us may not have a dedicated computer and will move into a Smart TV which does everything. and mostly streaming Mp3 audio from mobility devices.

There is going to be that set of folks who have dedicated HTPC but would be a minority as compared to the above ;)

All this my view obviously..who knows what else is going be Disruptively Innovative ... Underwear which can sing perhaps (And not kidding we already have wearable tech infused into clothes)


I met a new 21 year old colleague who has just joined my company. I noticed he was listening to music on grado headphones so I asked him about it. He was super thrilled that I even asked him about his headphones and insisted that I at least listen to flac or high bitrate mp3 if I borrow his headphones.

My nephew is in college in the US and just bought a pair of decent sennheishers and an amp. Roughly 1 out of 5 young programmers in my office have decent headphones that I would consider as entry level high fidelity.

Not sure if the hobby and pursuit of high fidelity audio is dying. Probably changing form significantly. And at their price point - headphones just walk all over a regular setup. Their only drawback is that headphones are not for social listening or for creating an atmosphere.

And as far as quality recording is concerned, I do see that even among the really young crowd. BUT, only among those who have already taken the pains to research and buy a decent quality headphone setup.
its good see folks investing in higher end headphones and this is really great to hear. space might make a stereo rig infeasible but a good headphone rig is a great way to be in the hobby

That is indeed heartening to hear... there are young folks who still love music and are willing to spend on it.


....

Ah... at least I hope I will teach my kids better. Probably not, but hopefully yes.

Amen to that ! although this will also be a Niche area with a small %

The same is happening with books which is moving on from a physical storage to a digital storage.

Spot on..while i do have a large collection of books..have moved on exclusively to my kindle+ ipad for books/Mags.
 
Ahh... an interesting turn to the conversation. :)

Being lazy to quote from the last few posts....

About MP3, about portable players, and more especialy about phones...

Yes, it is all true. But about half-decent head/ear phones, that is true too. I'm not hoping for a majority hifi, ever, because the best is always going to have a high[er] price tag, and not everyone wants to pay.

I agree that the "phone" is the device of the future. I'm firmly outside the wall of Apple's garden, but their phone business grew out of their portable music player business, and I'm told that the sound from an iphone is quite good.

The sound from most devices is quite good these days. Rather late, it seems that Android are beginning to take audio seriously.

Look at the size of the head-fi forum. Yes, there are still vastly more people wearing a "b" on each ear, but there are still many who want better.

I don't think that hifi is going to die. I think that, for some time, since the demise of portable cassette and cheap earphones, even if a lot of kids are stuffing Gb of 32k-MP3 into their machines, it has been making its way into the trains and buses and planes and offices.
 
CD's still account for more than 80% of music sales in Japan, and 17% in the U.S. Few top artists are not giving rights for digital streaming services. So all in all this format might see a resurgence, and certainly no quick death.

PLS PLS PLS can we know source of your data ???
 
There is also the matter of convenience and cost.

In the past you had no option but to buy the entire CD , whereas today you can sample all the songs in the album. Most of the time 30% of the songs would be good and 70% just there to fill up the album. Why pay for what you don't want so just buy the individual tracks and save some money also in the bargain.
 
CD's still account for more than 80% of music sales in Japan, and 17% in the U.S. Few top artists are not giving rights for digital streaming services. So all in all this format might see a resurgence, and certainly no quick death.

PLS PLS PLS can we know source of your data ???

CD sales died even before the iPod, iTunes and streaming streaming services. That thing called the Internet and piracy killed it.

FWIW, here is a link to a news report from Forbes that does state that "85 Percent of Music Sales in Japan are CDs". A simple Google search revealed it.

85 Percent of Music Sales in Japan are CDs - Forbes

Then again I'd take this with a pinch of salt. Japanese are way advanced in terms of technology and have access to gadgets and technology that is 3 years away from the rest of the world and most of the time such technology does not even make it to the rest of the world as companies are not sure it will sell and don't want to spend millions in marketing something that might not be adopted.

More power to the Japanese and Koreans I say... probably should relocate there to enjoy the next gen ISP networks and next gen technology.
 
CD sales died even before the iPod, iTunes and streaming streaming services. That thing called the Internet and piracy killed it.

FWIW, here is a link to a news report from Forbes that does state that "85 Percent of Music Sales in Japan are CDs". A simple Google search revealed it.

85 Percent of Music Sales in Japan are CDs - Forbes

Then again I'd take this with a pinch of salt. Japanese are way advanced in terms of technology and have access to gadgets and technology that is 3 years away from the rest of the world and most of the time such technology does not even make it to the rest of the world as companies are not sure it will sell and don't want to spend millions in marketing something that might not be adopted.

More power to the Japanese and Koreans I say... probably should relocate there to enjoy the next gen ISP networks and next gen technology.

Where is msaab90 -- sir where is your explanation?

By the way musicbee how come you say CD sales DIED?

Can wee have your data proof?

By the way I found a source which has 2 respected names Neilson and Billboard ( I hope you know these entities

U.S. Music Industry Year-End Review: 2013

you can fill a form and download sales figures of 2013....

Due to possible copyright issues I am not attaching just a page

Now it shows CD is still significant in sales


also vinyl sale just 3.5 % of total physical sales.

Also if you convert Track sales to to CD sales you can see CD is still selling

NOW WHERE IS 17% data and CD's are Dead data?




 
Where is msaab90 -- sir where is your explanation?

By the way musicbee how come you say CD sales DIED?

Can wee have your data proof?

By the way I found a source which has 2 respected names Neilson and Billboard ( I hope you know these entities

Nielsen SoundScan figures of CD sales over the years (and this is real data as bought by the end consumer and not the numbers shipped to retailers). Maybe there has been an increase in 2013 and 2014, but I'm too lazy to dig so I just grabbed them from a website. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.

2012: 193.73 million
2011: 223.5 million
2010: 239.9 million
2009: 294.9 million
2008: 360.6 million
2007: 449.2 million
2006: 553.4 million
2005: 598.9 million
2004: 651.1 million
2003: 635.8 million
2002: 649.5 million
2001: 712.0 million
2000: 730.0 million
1999: 648.1 million
1998: 578 million
1997: 504.6 million
1996: 448.4 million
1995: 368 million

Consider the population, it has only grown, not decreased over the years. Similarly, the market reach has also increased. In the 80s and 90s we had to wait for years for a phone, today you can buy a phone and a number the same day... in other words there is more opportunity to sell today and if anything marketing is more evolved to sell more efficiently today.

Ok, maybe my use of the word "died" was wrong or at least premature... but neither is it alive and kicking or growing for that matter. Most of the sales are limited to the old guard who still prefer the medium they were brought up on. Give it another 20-30 years or so and the CD sales number will decline even more with the passing of the old guard. The youngsters today prefer the digital medium in the form of digital downloads and online streaming and in the years to come that will only grow.

Compare CD sales to say smartphone sales that cost 10 to 20 or even 30 times more. People are buying more smartphones if anything and that figure will only increase, but the same cannot be said of CD sales.

Of course one could attribute the decrease in sales to the quality of music, the best selling album of all time is from 1982 and other than Shania Twain (from the 90s) no artist or group has sold more than the music/artists from the 70s and 80s. Could be but probably not.

All said and done, the CD is "dying" a slow death... even when there are more people in the world today with more purchasing power and access to the medium of CDs, its the digital medium that is increasing in sales.

PS - Consider Vinyl sales, they are growing even in this day and age, but the same cannot be said of CD sales.

2012: 4.55 million
2011: 3.9 million
2010: 2.8 million
2009: 2.5 million
2008: 1,877,000
2007: 990,000
2006: 858,000
2005: 857,000
2004: 1,187,000
2003: 1,404,000
2002: 1,339,000
2001: 1,246,000
2000: 1,533,000
1999: 1,405,000
1998: 1,376,000
1997: 1,092,000
1996: 1,145,000
1995: 794,000
1994: 625,000

Also if you convert Track sales to to CD sales you can see CD is still selling

That is again the number of tracks downloaded, not bought in physical form. They count 10 downloads as 1 album sale. There again its the digital medium that is selling, not the physical medium of CDs. And that number in 2012 was 449.6 million, yes nearly 2.5 times the total number of CD sales.

So yes, maybe not "dead or died" but definitely "dying".
 
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Two articles stumbled upon the internet.
They try to make clear why the clock of the transport is equally important even though there is a high end external dac connected to it digitally.

Initially i used to think that since transmission is digital, it is the external dac which is the most important item since it takes digital data and converts to analog. However it seems the transport is equally important.

So my understanding is:

A) Cheap cd transport + high-end external dac
B) Better cd transport + same high end external dac

Option (B) is more high fidelity.



Link as below:

http://www.audiocraftersguild.com/AandE/npt.on.jitter2.htm
http://peufeu.free.fr/audio/extremist_dac/spdif.html
 
I feel the lowly old CD player is still very relevant in a system for those of us who kept our CD collection and didn't totally fall for the mp3 download/streaming "convenience" of background listening. If the CD player was dumped in favor of a DVD player, the resulting sound quality was likely a downgrade and forget about loading and playing a CD through a new Blu-ray player that doesn't even have stereo or ANY analog outputs at all! The only way to just load and listen is the old-school CD player that starts playing in seconds without the aid of a TV or require a AV receiver with a digital input, such as with the newer Blu-ray players. My 20 year Rotel CD player sounds better than most DVD or Blu-ray players, short of some of the expensive dedicated audio "universal" players available today. The only DVD player I use for music is the tank-built heavy Sony DVP-S7000 from 1997 which has a dedicated laser assembly and separate audio only circuitry for CD playback.
 

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I feel the lowly old CD player is still very relevant in a system for those of us who kept our CD collection and didn't totally fall for the mp3 download/streaming "convenience" of background listening. If the CD player was dumped in favor of a DVD player, the resulting sound quality was likely a downgrade and forget about loading and playing a CD through a new Blu-ray player that doesn't even have stereo or ANY analog outputs at all! The only way to just load and listen is the old-school CD player that starts playing in seconds without the aid of a TV or require a AV receiver with a digital input, such as with the newer Blu-ray players. My 20 year Rotel CD player sounds better than most DVD or Blu-ray players, short of some of the expensive dedicated audio "universal" players available today. The only DVD player I use for music is the tank-built heavy Sony DVP-S7000 from 1997 which has a dedicated laser assembly and separate audio only circuitry for CD playback.


Hmm..So may be that's why I dont enjoy listening to my original CDs collection played by my 3 yr old Sony Bluray player via HDMI which goes to YHT299 AVR , and then to my headphones. I am collecting original CDs now, but i rip them to FLAC and listen to these rips via my PC's sound card (SoundBlaster Z with hp amp)
 
Try looking for a CD player with a headphone jack and it's own level control, many of Sony's or Onkyo's older CD players tend to have this feature available more than some models & makes. Even the Sony DVD I have pictured is available for sale on eBay for $50 or even less! It's audio circuitry is equivalent to Sony's ES line of components and it has an awesome headphone amplifier, too. sony dvp-s7000 dvd player | eBay
 
I have a ton of CD's so the whole CD player thing is essential to me.
I prefer cartridge style CD changers to carousel.
But the best CD players are single CD players with musical DAC's in them. Like a TDA1541, I know there is supposedly more modern and better dac's and you can get better sound if you got a dedicated CD transport and a dedicated DAC, but honestly, I've long hit the law of diminishing returns. Seeing as the Rotel CD player I got with the 1541 came to me with a broken carriage and I paid $5 for it, and glued its carriage back and its been working for 3 years, I'd say a $2,000 transport/DAC combo will give me very very little more.
I have a old receiver, and old speakers. I'd almost say I'm going to have to plow 1000's into that to get any better.
Cool.
Srinath.
 
It depends on the datastream and the way it is converted. Flac and wav (cd) should sound almost the same, mp3 sounds bad to my ears (if you have a good sound reproduction system) I admit this is difficult to hear in a car stereo or a smaller hifi system. If you hear a good cd on a good hifi system (for eg : Marantz CD7, good speakers, good amplifier AND a technically good recorded CD) it will still beat most streaming and especially broadcasted streaming (except very high quality streaming)
 
I set my up system recently expecting to playback from my pc via dac to amp. After a couple of days I realized the difficulties in getting music online. I listen to tamil movie songs and there is no place that I am aware of from where I can just pick and download songs that I want in lossless format. So I ended up buying audio cds and ripping them to flac format and playing them from pc. I think it would make more sense if to get a CD player especially if one wants to listen to tamil music in lossless, not aware the options available in music of other languages.
 
For me Id much prefer to own an original cd than any file, be it flac, ape or any lossless format. I would never buy a file, not for the prices they are charging. Im a collector or Vinyl so I do prefer vinyl but after vinyl it would be cd and it would always be a physical disc no doubt about it. one thing a dac is good for is 24 bit 192khz files, but there are no albums I like available at that format, so id rather listen to the original LP if Im going to get higher dynamics anyway. if in the future they bring out a format of disc that supports 24 bit discs is another thing but until then I'll stick to physical cds, unless the cd is so rare you cant find it then thats the only other way Id find a dac handy.
 
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