Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

BjorgenFjorgen said:
I completely missed mini-discs. Like it was a micro-generation or something.
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My tape induced PTSD meant I jumped early on that format. Bit of a waste of money in hindsight because mp3s exploded about a year later but they sounded miles better than tapes and didn’t tangle and were easier to listen to on the bus, and carry a few around, than CDs.

From what I gather they had an extended life in radio where they could effectively rip a 72 minute CD quality set list onto them pretty easily.
 
LiamGallagher’sBucketHat said:
I think that format doesn’t need a revival but my player is nice to look at. 😂
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Here’s the thing, I hope there is never a revival in cassettes the same way there was in vinyl (I think I am safe). What is fun about collecting tapes is going into a thrift store or goodwill and picking up a handful of tapes for like $5 or $6 bucks. I rarely get that with vinyl anymore. I appreciate the vinyl boom allowing me to be able to pick up almost anything on vinyl but I miss digging and find cheap and/or rare music. I assume much of the appeal is the same for CDs as it is for tapes and I doubt there will ever be a full blown CD or Tape revival. Sure, there are benefits to CDs/Tapes mainly dealing with portability and product consistency but you get those same benefits only better from digital files. So it’s ultimately a bit of a nostalgia play/half measure which is great and I am sure lots of internet think pieces will be written about Gen Z walking around with Discmans and whatnot but it’s likely just the ebbs and flows of trends of a niche market that collects music more than anything.
 
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Gavaxeman said:
I still buy CD’s , especially box sets , used CD’s are as cheap as chips , but are starting to creep up ...also CD’s take up way less space ..so I’m still keeping my (vast) CD collection and adding in gap fillers ...


And then I buy them on vinyl too!

#hopelesscase
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I actively buy CDs as well as vinyl. Sometimes, the vinyl is just too much to pay so I’ll get the CD for half the price, or less. However, used CDs prices have already started to creep up since 2020. More “homesteading” has likely increased demand for all formats.
 
LiamGallagher’sBucketHat said:
My current CD player probably needs to be upgraded. It’s a mid 90’s Sony player/recorder. One side doesn’t work properly, but them modern players can be pricey.
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A vintage CD player with a solid transport mechanism/laser and coax out, combined with an external DAC may be a better value than a new CD player for sound quality. I just purchased a new Integra CD changer with Wolfson DAC chip and I still found my $99 external desktop DAC to sound better. YMMV.
 
Angsty said:
A vintage CD player with a solid transport mechanism/laser and coax out, combined with an external DAC may be a better value than a new CD player for sound quality. I just purchased a new Integra CD changer with Wolfson DAC chip and I still found my $99 external desktop DAC to sound better. YMMV.
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I’ll keep that in mind when I’m ready to address that. I went to play a cd while I cooked dinner but my player wouldn’t recognize it.
 
Thackeraye said:
I have 1,000+ CD’s but never use them. They are currently sitting in the garage. I think if I bought CD’s now I’d just rip them as FLAC and store the physical media as a backup. I’m not convinced that there is a difference between FLAC through a streamer vs CD to make me get a player again.
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Honestly I hear no difference. I’d say the difference is likely more to do with the relative quality of the CD player v the streamer and any noise the hard drive/computer storing the files adds into the system. I think once you’re using a NAS or a network server away from the system and the streamer is of a decent quality it’s effectively the same.
 
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