Are CDs dying?

[Silurian]

i've seen the cd rise and fall. damn, i'm getting old.

Well I have seen the rise and fall of the compact cassette tape.

I actually own more tapes than CDs.

 

[sav]

I said that producers used the expanded space of CD's to increase the overall volume of the recording, which tended to muddy the nuances of the original record. That has nothing to do with these "gold albums" of yours.

Lol, wut? Sorry, but this is completely and utterly wrong. You're comparing apples and oranges.

CDs hold more than vinyl because the Red Book audio standard is 16bit, 44.1khz in stereo - which allows about 74 min of music on a standard CD. To get that much on vinyl the grooves would have to be thinner, lowering the sound quality.

The volume issue has nothing at all to do with the amount of music on a CD - it does on vinyl, but not on CD. It's a completely different issue generally known as 'the loudness war'.

Because CDs have a much higher dynamic range than vinyl, they are in theory much better - but in the last 15 years, the use of audio compression and limiting has cut down this 70db or so in range to something like 4-8db or so, because they will then play back louder than other CDs, and superficially sound 'better', but actually sound worse.

The 'gold' CDs mastered by MSFL sound good because they've been mastered well, and has everything to do with the dynamic range. The amount of music a CD can hold has nothing to do with its audio quality, I'm afraid.

 

[Skwink]

I don't remember the last time I bought a CD. I only listen to MP3's and original vinyl.

 

[hoplitejoe]

I like CD's still.
It feels more of a commitment to some music to buy a CD and the very fact it is physical makes it feel much more important. I suppose there is no reason for me to prefer CD's to any other physical music thing but it is the most available.
Also itune gift cards make bad presents.