What will become of my beloved CDs?


I have nearly 2000 CDs (DVDA, SACD, etc) and am very fond of them, or at least the music that is on them. However, it seems that music distribution is going to someday soon be totally on-line through downloads (True? When?). So, when most all of the music on my CDs is available in higher-quality on-line downloads (with artwork, I'm sure), what will become of my CDs? Will they be the shiny-silver equivalent to 8-Track tapes? Or, will they become a novelty and collectable? Should I seel them ASAP?? Any economists here???
bday0000

glupson:

Have a like-new Minidisc player in the garage where it has been for years. My entire collection of minidisks consists of the Brandenburg concertos.

It was another of Sony's high quality efforts that had uncorrected design issues and was allowed to perish.

Tant pis!

elizabeth,

I, by putting turntable in a different state (geographically), managed to resist having 37 different vinyl versions of Blood On The Tracks but would have probably collected them over time, had I only had something to play them on. You surely beat me to that one. However, I do have two Blonde On Blonde SACDs. One is single layer and on one disc and one is hybrid and that one is on two discs. And I do not even like that album.

Have you ever read a short book by Nick Hornby named Songbook? It is an interesting and unexpected read. If you come across that book, see chapter about one Bob Dylan’s song. First few sentences describe just what we are talking about.

https://books.google.com/books?id=eZ8q0jS2oskC&pg=PA39&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&...

Elizabeth:

As someone who has 25 or so music blu-rays, can second your assessment of their marginal value. In the classical field they have perished a quick death because of high production costs and low sales. The best I have are the Chailly Mahler symphonies that are memorable because of their sound engineering -- which is the best I have heard for orchestral music.

Naxos tried to offer blu-rays that could be played without a tv connection and I tried several of their offerings -- they are awful.

Have been told that Sony abandoned the SACD format after reputable articles appeared showing it had inherent noise/distortion faults in the 1-bit design.

So, this last week, bought some new Sony CD releases made after they moved to the high-res PCM format. They are incredibly accurate for orchestral textures and far superior to any of the SACDs I have gotten.

As I have stated many times, think the death of the CD was prematurely announced and that it will survive more emphatically than many streamers believe.

craigl59,

That Bob Dylan is my whole pre-recorded MiniDisc library. I have a few more that someone else recorded for me, but have not had a MiniDisc player until a few years ago when I did not really need it anymore. I bought a portable Sharp player just to hear what was on those MiniDiscs.

Speaking of moderately-failed SONY attempts, a friend of mine has their aftermarket car unit with SACD.

At the same time, and still speaking of similarly-fated formats, I find pleasure in reminding every member of Audiogon that first, and maybe even only, universal SACD/DVD-Audio car player was made by.....BOSE. It was standard in 612 (Scaglietti).

glupson:

Speaking of Bose, I also have a pair of fairly new 901s in the garage and I'm not getting rid of them, either. They are the most hated speaker in the world while, at the same time, having the longest production run. I know many classical musicians (and especially composers) that love them.

Just like Sony, it is a mystery to me why Bose won't update the 901s with computer technology and EQ and produce a state of the art result with their holographic soundstage capabilities. Wrote to them and suggested a specific plan; they said they'd get back to me (3 years ago).