Can any format ever replace CD? (1 Viewer)

[Michael St. Clair]

Depends on what you listen to. Classic rock, especially bands that came about during the 'AOR' years, is generally pretty solid. It's the more pop/top40/single oriented contemporarly bands, r&b, motown, classic country, and some others where the whole concept is about a couple of hits and a bunch of filler. Look at the Billboard top 10 today, and talk to some teenagers. You'll find they are more interested in 'songs' than 'albums'.

Keith Richards said that before the Beatles, albums were two hits and ten tracks of crap (paraphrased, but almost exact quote). It's back. Not every artist, and more constrained to 'pop' or 'bubblegum', but it is certainly enough to bring down total sales dollars as the industry shifts.

 

[Jack Briggs]

In case anyone's puzzled by Chu's reference to "TAS," he speaks of The Absolute Sound magazine.

 

[Angelo.M]

I'll stand in that line.

The only hi-rez titles I own are selections from the recent Dylan remaster hybrids, and I bought them for the remastered Redbook layer only.

I've been collecting and enjoying music for 20+ years, and the Rebook CD format and vinyl suit me just fine. I have no real interest in multi-channel music, and I haven't been so blown away by high-rez 2-channel stuff to invest in the formats. Luddite? Nope. I'm interested most in the emotional response I get from playing and listening to music, and my current formats, including compressed digital formats in appropriate cases (e.g., running), are sufficient.

And that's the same reason that I gave up on my "audiophile" ways a decade ago. In search of the optimal gear in my stereo rig, I lost sight of what I was really after, the pure experience of music.

Sorry about the rant. We recovering audiophiles are mouthy when we forget our medication...

 

[Chu Gai]

Definitely Michael. A one or two hit album in whatever format, is going to make it difficult for me to justify dropping cash on either the medium that it's played on (Super Duper Ultra whatever) or the album itself. I guess I'd have to cherry pick and the easiest way to do that is just download it. I'd like to see/hear more albums with a greater overall quality especially with mainstream music. However that's not the way things are being driven by the industry.
Recycling old stuff, Stones, Dylan, Beatles, Floyd, Zeppelin over and over doesn't do it for me. Given the original old recordings have their own limitations and hence can't easily be put into a good multichannel format bodes poorly for any new technology. I want new stuff and I want more than one tune that's worth it.

Amen to that. When music was really good, it didn't matter what you listened to. A table radio was enough to evoke an emotional response. Anybody remember the King Biscuit Flour Hour from the 70's? Nowadays, to get that emotional response you need to watch Janet Jackson showing a breast. Hell, for that I'll go into a gentlemen's establishment and for a few dollars I'll have a beer and listen to some Brown Sugar. If I need it more Hi-Rez, there's always the Champagne Room!

I'll now put on my Jimmy Sturr "Blu-Ray Subway Oy-Vey Polka". That kicks ass.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I still request my dad to play LP's from time to time. Otherwise, I'm hardpressed to find a reason to replace CD's. I really can't tell much of a difference.

Otherwise, I'm too busy pursuing music I had from a tourney long time ago. The Who, The Band, and I just heard Radiohead for the first time. I just finished sampling some Led Zeppelin.

But I still stick to old time rock and roll.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Yeah, I see no reason to want to replace CDs. While some "purists" continue to bitch about how they don't sound as good as records, I think most of us can easily think of scores of CDs that are done right and sound excellent. Hi-res and superior quality is only of interest to hobbyists and always has been (something that some format pushers lose sight of).

The only way to make CDs better, that I can tell, is to make them smaller, which they tried, and it failed (maybe just because very few titles were actually released); and this would only be true if they'd find a way to make it backwards compatible, or to sell players or "adaptors" real cheap.

 

[Chu Gai]

Hell, if I want to make CD's sound like records, I'll burn them and run them through software that mimics what vinyl does, then burn them back to CD.

 

[Rachael B]

Mike, I don't think I'd want CD's smaller. It's hard enough to read much of the microprint on the boxes now, especially when the colours have poor contrast! Mike, I don't think I'm a purist, more like a Multi-nist, but I stille think purr-fect records, that have short to medium sides sound better than most CD's.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

We all can agree on one thing: live music kicks ass.....unless you're some fuddy duddy that yells, "sit down, you're ruining it for everybody!"

 

[Chu Gai]

Indeed it does.

 

[Rachael B]

I wish I could have Derek Truks over a few nights a week to play for me.

 

[Angelo.M]

I dig vinyl as much as, but not more so, than I dig the CD. And not because I'm some kind of purist, or because I want to convince anyone that good vinyl is better than good Redbook CD (YMMV), but rather because the experience of buying vinyl was so integral to my musical education.

I love the big, bad gatefold album covers. I love reading the lyrics to Born to Run in that really difficult silver/grey on white type. I love the Beatles smeared in animal parts, examining the clues to Paul's death on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's and the rare blue and red vinyl of those greatest hits compilations. I love the smell of new vinyl, and the memories of hanging around the record store.

I feel a bit sorry for the downloaders who really haven't had the experience of an album, of Side A and Side B.

Anyone here miss reel-to-reel?

[/late night nostalgia]

 

[Rachael B]

Angelo, I miss reel to reel. I sold my last one, a really nice Akai about 4 years ago. Now that I live in larger digs I wish I had it back. Hi-rez would make sweet tapes, me thinks.

 

[Chu Gai]

Ummmm...no.

 

[Yee-Ming]

When I saw the title of the thread, I thought you guys were discussing the physical medium, rather than the recording/encoding format. Anyway, as previously said, probably not in the next 15-20 years.

But during that period, someone's going to come up with the music equivalent of a thumb-drive, encoded in some hi-res format (whether current SACD/DVD-A, or some new future format), with re-recordable versions available, and with portable players incorporated into small devices such as mobile phones. At that time, the attraction will be that you can have your album -- or should that be your favourite two dozen albums or so -- on one tiny chip that slots into your mobile phone, playing back hi-res quality music while on the go, or you plug the same chip into your tricked-out hifi system for absolute maximum sonic quality that replicates "being there".

An entire collection taking up several bookcases would now fit into one shoebox.

Oh well. Who knows?

 

[Rachael B]

Yee-Ming, it's not that the kind of things that you mention can't happen. The thing is that the public is locked into a power struggle against the bIG 5 muszak kompanies. It's likely that the natural evolution of the market will be retarded, atleast some, maybe alot. There are alot of great comments on this thread, including your's, but the muzak companies will try to negate progress if it suits their desires...their desire to hamper home/self recording. As more musicans go independent, that could change things? Then the market could go around the obsolete kompanies. However, they control an awful lot of very popular stuff. That's how I see it anyway.

 

[Thomas Newton]

There are already music players that are enhanced USB keychain flash drives. Their capacity isn't anywhere near the 512 MB required to hold 12 albums in even a lossy, compressed (128 Kbps MP3) format, but it's getting there.

The thing is, even if a tiny chip held a few thousand gigabytes (enough for a moderate-size collection encoded as CD/DVD-A/SACD style digital audio), I would not want to have only a single tiny chip that held all of my purchased albums. It would be WAY too easy to lose that chip, and the collection.

I think I'd rather have three or four "standard-form-factor" flash drives: one for the home stereo, one for the car, one for a Walkman-style device, etc. I don't see any real incompatibility between listening to music on a flash / HD player (for increased portability), and buying it on a harder-to-lose medium such as a CD or a DVD-ROM.