Rumours of a CD Revival...

I remember a BBC article claiming that a large majority of those buying vinyl today do not have or have any plans to get a turntable. 

I have about a thousand CDs ripped that are boxed and have no takers even for free. I suspect I shall soon have to pay for them to be taken away.

Any upticks probably are just blips by way of a temporary aberration, especially where CD players are concerned.

Purchased simply for decorative purposes then? Or to offer a firm level surface for rolling … er … cigarettes?

I hang on to my old vinyl, without owning a player,  in the off chance that they may be worth something some day.  I am still bitter that mama sold my star wars toys at a garage sale.

If I ran across some free or dirt cheap vinyl, then I might pick it up just to add to retirement investment portfolio.

As far as CDs vs streaming services, I will say that I am annoyed that Amazon, not sure who else, seems to drop tracks, possibly even record labels, for artists I like.  It most certainly doesn’t cover all of the different music and have/had with my old CDs.  That doesn’t mean I’ll start buying CDs, but I have considering buying digital music instead of, or in addition to just using a streaming service. 

There also is the chance that future tech could allow for independent artist to have a viable avenue to bring digital music to consumers without going through a streaming service, or even physical media...no middle man between artist and consumer.   That would solve distribution, but do nothing for marketing however, so couldn’t be an entire solution.

Thanks for the laugh, ratty. Although I will admit that there’s something more appealing regarding the size of the album cover art on Vinyl than there is on any CD sized release.

There always seems to be a report of an “older” format resurging, not sure that there’s a lot to those reports, I think there’s always a certain level of interest in those formats for some people, and a concurrent debate as to whether one format it “better” than the other.

The one I’ve not really seen in the reel to reel format resurging. I have fond memories of my father’s AKAI reel to reel system, and the quality of the music, mostly classical, that he maintained. There was something about the physical action of hooking up a tape to be listened to that was magical. 

It’s not just the size, but I think the cardboard material.   Additionally, when actually playing, you can see the vinyl and make manual adjustments.  CDs...you just slide into a black box….literally and figuratively

I dated a girl a while back, that had a reel to reel system.  It sounded good, but she was crazy.  

Oh dear. I had a 7” AKAI reel-to-reel back in my university days. Only a twin-head, mind. Along with a Thorens turntable of course. 

@amun 

Streams come in higher than CD quality now *Amazon “Ultra HD”, Tidal “High Res” and Apple “High Res Lossless” so the quality argument for CDs being the utmost in digital music quality doesn’t really exist anymore.  Plus CD’s are based on tech that was available 40 years ago.  Codecs and digital audio files/streaming has come a long way since then.

Frankly, Ive done A/B tests of high res music with my Port hooked up to a nice set of speakers and an amp and neither I nor anyone I play them for can tell the difference.  But the high res streams are still there is you want them.

None of this means that hooking up a turntable or CD player to a Sonos system can’t be fun.  But quality isn’t one of the reasons I would choose to do it.

@ratty my first turntable was Thorens (belt drive).  I bought it second hand from a record store that was closing in 79 or 80.  i always lived in places with bouncy wood floors so skipping was a nightmare with it.  I eventually upgraded to direct drive (which was probably a downgrade in actuality).  But I wish I had kept the Thorens.

Hooking up a reel to reel to a Sonos system would be totally badass :-P

Just got an ad from Crutchfield.com for their “Record Store Day” celebration and it was a good reminder of all the “fun” vinyl used to be.

https://www.crutchfield.com/m_358450/Turntables-Accessories.html

Many folks looking at vinyl have no clue about properly setting up a turntable or maintaining their albums, this isn’t the worst place to start looking. These two or similar at least.

Alignment: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_252ALINDS2/Pro-Ject-Align-it-DS2.html?tp=71638

Stylus Weight: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_252MSRITE/Pro-Ject-Measure-it-E.html?tp=71638