Vinyl is booming, streaming services are more popular than ever, and were all depressed.
This means one thing and one thing only: its time to reassess CDs.
Yes, friends, you read that correctly.
The humble compact disc has been unloved for far too long.
And Im here to change that.
After this youll no longer view CDs as a boring bit of old technology.
Instead, youll view them as a medium we should all value and throw ourselves at the feet of.
Im not in control of your mind.
Anyway, Ive gone in so hard on CDs Ive even made a video about it.
Which you could watch above and I implore you to do just that.
We put a lot of effort into making that.
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Maybe moving pictures get you really riled up?
For those people, we also have a whole article for you.
And, believe me, it is a beefy one.
In this first part of the article, were going to concentrate on what that actually means.
This will help us understand where CDs fit in the ecosystem.
In other words, an overview of how digital music works, rather than a precise, granular analysis.
Yeahhh, were good.
Okay, uh, good.
These are:
First up…
What is sampling rate?
In digital music, sampling rate is the number of samples taken per second.
It takes the analog sound wave and turns it digital by recreating those points.
The most common sampling rate is that of CDs or FLAC, which comes in at 44.1kHz.
The higher the sample rate, the higher the quality up to a point.
The reason its this and not 44.1kHz is down to the Nyquist theorem.
Now, the limits of human hearing go from about20Hz to 20kHz.
Well return to that later.
On top of that, it also controls the frequency range of the sounds we hear.
What is bit depth?
In this way, bit depth is effectively how detailed each sound is.
Bit depth has a direct relationship to sampling rate.
Lets take the CD standard bit depth of 16-bits.
What this means if you have 16 bits of informationper sample.
Now, something that bit depth does is control the dynamic range of a sound.
What this means is the difference between how loud and quiet respective parts of the music are.
The use of those higher bit depths is more important for recording and mastering than it is for listeners.
The most important thing to remember about bit depth is it describeshow much information is taken per sample.
Thats because no (or very, very little) information is thrown away.
Lossy files, on the other hand, are compressed.
Its literally lost and I mean literally, not figuratively because some information is lost in this process.
Basically, its how MP3 and AAC files are so small.
Its important to note though that this compression isnt random.
Quite the opposite, especially these days.
But MP3 compressionincludes techniques that take advantage of other psychoacoustic principles, such astemporalandsimultaneous masking.
Its incredibly smart and has resulted in a truly breathtaking file size to quality ratio.
Well get onto what that means shortly, but before then… A ROUND-UP IMAGE.
This is why quality in these sort of files is expressed with something called bitrate.
What is bitrate?
Effectively, this is an expression of the amount of data a file is producing per second.
Ergo, 320kbps or, to give it its full title, 320 kilobits per second.
We covered above why this is: CDs are lossless, and MP3s are lossy.
A short disclaimer though: quality is subjective.
There are people who will prefer the sound of compressed files.
If you dont have good gear, you wont hear the subtle details.
WOULD BE A SHAME IF SOMEONE MADE A DIAGRAM OF IT.
What Im getting at is simple: lossless audio isnta big of a deal for most people.
And thats totally cool.
If youre interested in exploring this topic further,Id recommend you go and read this excellent article.
No, theyre wonderful and Im gonna tell you why.
This is how I see the lossless argument.
I dont think lossless makes much of a difference when youre listening to new music.
You really have to listen in a critical and quite unnatural way to hear any difference.
Where I do find joy with lossless audio is with music I know intimately.
And CDs deliver that.
Well, to reiterate,this is the quality of CDs.
And thats no coincidence.
CDs were literally designed to outstrip your ears.
Some people claim you’re able to hear the difference, others that you physically cannot.
Basically, if hi-res music makes you happy, thats great.
No need to get angry with us about it).
What this all amounts to is that CDs deliver some of the finest audio you might buy.
And, on a fundamental level, I love it.
But lets be as balanced as we can here.
CDs arent the only place you might get music of this quality.
Streaming services like TIDAL (and soon Spotify) offer it too which is a fantastic option to have.
It can be changed or taken away at any time.
With CDs this isnt the case you’re free to do what you damn like with those tunes.
And that control is both intoxicating and freeing.
There is a glaring issue with CDs though: cost.
TIDAL HiFi clocks in at $20 a month.
And I can tell you one thing: youre not gonna get many CDs for that.
Still, the counter balance to that is how much you value having full control over your music.
Lets erase the elephant from the room: brand new CDs arent actually that cheap.
In fact, theyre still weirdly pricey, with many of them hovering around $10 to $15.
The real value of CDs though?
Thats in the second-hand market.
Which and Ill be honest isnt my favorite thing in the world.
CDs though are in the sweet spot.
In other words, its bargain city out there, people, an under-appreciated, bargain city.
Im primarily a vinyl collector.
I grew up buying CDs and splashed a lot of cash on them during my teens.
I prefer the feel and sound of them over every other music medium.
The sound is rich and warm, the playing experience joyous the whole process is simply magnificent.
Despite all this, CDs are better.
God, I cant believe I just typed that.
Let me explain that horrendous statement using… facts.
First off, vinyl is far more temperamental than CDs.
Records are pretty easy to warp, break, and damage over time CDs are a lot hardier.
Secondly, theres so much that can go wrong with actuallyplayinga record.
With CDs you just plug in the player.
Another benefit compact discs have is how they bridge the divide between the physical and digital.
you might rip a CD in any file format you desire.
Then we bump into the storage situation.
Try doing that with vinyl.
CDs are under-appreciated: the summary
Look, compact discs arent perfect.
Basically, what Im saying is that CDs are under-appreciated, especially by the younger generations.
(At 32 I can no longer be considered young).
Whats not to like?
And, Ill tell you this: CDs will rise again.
Come on, young people, Im relying on you to make me look smart.
How can we truly appreciate the humble CD?
In the section about quality, I mentioned a few times the importance of good equipment.
Thats what this is about.
Were going to mainly talk about the former.
First though, some personal bullshit.
And what really got me excited about the format was how fresh this experience felt.
As a kid, I had a few different ways of playing CDs.
While these ranged from kinda crappy to actually pretty solid, they werent really audiophile-quality.
The whole thing is solid, reeks of quality, and is well-constructed.
And, friends, what a sound.
Using it is a joy and Ill throw down if someone tries to pry it out of my hands.
Honestly, fight me.
This is what we callsynergy, people.
Its not all gravy, as the hardware doesnt come cheap.
It retails at $500, which is an awful lot of money.
Despite this, its a gorgeous piece of equipment that I have great affection for.
With all this in mind… should you start collecting CDs?
To me, all this hinges on one simple question: do you have a separates Hi-Fi set-up already?
If you dont, go and get this sorted.
I truly believe that any music lover should strive towards a having a full separates system.
Personally, I still have around 600 CDs at my folks house.
This is something you should think long and hard about if youre starting from ground zero.
Theres no point in spending a chunk of cash on CDs only to wish you began collecting vinyl instead.
If yourethat guywho buys full albums on Amazon, then move into getting CDs.
So, should you start collecting CDs?
I dunno thats gotta be a decisionyoumake.
And that means you have to ask…
How do CDs fit in your listening habits?
This is the biggest consideration you have to make before getting into CDs.
Also, I really want to talk about it because its something that occupies my monkey brain.
Firstly, Im the owner of a range of different music-playing hardware.
Over the past few years, each of these bits of audio kit have found their niche.
For example, during work Ill use something like Spotify.
If Im out walking or moving around or doing tasks, Ill revert to my own digital music library.
And, to be honest, this forms the meat of my active listening.
When it comes to physical formats, Ill often put on records in the evening, especially while cooking.
Weekends are also a prime time for vinyl.
This also tends to be the format I use when I buy new music.
Where Ive found the CD player sits in my life is with classical music.
Its supremely pleasant to whack on a violin concerto with a pair of wonderful headphones and get lost.
Damn, rona).
This is just howIbalance using the different hardware and music formats.
Oh, and I also just really wanted to talk about CDs.
Lets not forget that.
The big old conclusion
Phew were finally coming to the end of this piece.
But lets take stock: for the large majority of people, streaming is perfect.
The quality drop-off between lossy and lossless is minimal, plus shit like Apple Music is so damn convenient.
But… if you had to choose between collecting vinyl or CD?
It might not be logical but its what my heart says.
That doesnt mean I dont love CDs.
In regards to physical music, they deliver the best price to sound quality to flexibility ratio.
I expect this is going to switch around in the coming years though.
Whether its nostalgia, fragmentation of streaming services, or something else, the compact disc resurgence will come.
Dont quote me on that.
But even if it doesnt, who cares?
No, of course not.
Far from it and weve gone through that above.
What is certain though is they dont get the respect they deserve.
So, CDs, if youre listening, I just want you to know that I respect you.
