Continuing with CDs?

Thinking of buying some space-saving sleeves like the Jazz Loft ones Mike and Nick mention upthread.

Nick, did you go with those in the end? How are you getting on with them?

Has anyone found a more conveniently UK-orderable alternative?

What did you do with the old jewel cases in the end? Feels bad to throw the lot in landfill but I don't think they recycle and I don't expect anyone would want to take them off my hands.

(Jewel cases are a bit rubbish, aren't they? On the increasingly rare occasions I pull a CD out to listen to there's invariably dust and even dead thunderbugs inside the case, having come in through the holes)

I've reduced my basic still-in-case collection down to one very nice handmade CD case that holds about 800 or so, thus this photo of me looking bemused:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBLp7oVLasO/

Pretty much what's left are a slew of compilation series and then for solo artists they're non-jewel case packaging, highly rare, double disc reissues or CDRs for the most part. After some further adjusting I've got a couple of box sets on the top of the case that can't fit anywhere else -- Albert Ayler, This Mortal Coil box reissue, Dead Can Dance. Small enough box sets otherwise are in the case or if they're those tall/slim book style sets, I just grouped them directly in a bookshelf. Everything else is long since packed away into CaseLogic stuff that's tucked away into a closet, and the entirety was ripped/backed up several times over now.

as has been noted elsewhere,
cds are now cheaper than officially bought mp3s
picked up goldie/timeless, soulsides greatest bumps (2 cd), and a crystal method cd for £1.50 the other day - total price, not each.
so, i buy the cd, rip into the archive, and store the cd away.
outcome : best of both worlds.
if my NAS drive dies, then yes, it will be horrible, but i still have the hard copy to crack on with.

^^^ gets it

also: off site backup

Amazon Marketplace is like my guilty pleasure.

I continuously have a >1 £1 CD awaiting..

zoverstocks is the best thing ever.

I sold about 500 CDs. I got roughly $350 for them at Amoeba; and these wren't the bad stuff, this was basically all the good stuff I hadn't sold off (except for some really rare things that I did sell on discogs for a lot more money). they'd beenin my garage in shelves like Ned's above for 4 years, only a few ever coming out for car play or something. I don't miss them. If I had space in my house I might have kept them but why; I needed $350 more.

I think Zoverstocks is Music Magpie but not 100%. I reckon 60% of my marketplace purchases are from them.

That's not a good return. I'm pretty lucky in that Bullmoose gives me an excellent return. I sold around 75 last month and got over $200 in credit. There was definitely some good stuff in there that probably would fetch more on eBay but, hey, it's all taken care of and I have money for more!

I think Zoverstocks is Music Magpie but not 100%.

yeah, i have thought this.
along with the standard £1 stuff you get in uk poundland shops.

I bought 3 CDS from the 90s label Recycle or Die last week. All fantastic.

there's a record store near me that has horribly overpriced vinyl and incredibly underpriced CDs. i bought To Pimp a Butterfly there (sealed!) for $4. The Chris Stapleton album, also sealed, for $3. i'm usually stunned to find one there over $5.

I still love cds, def prefer them to vinyl

Love both equally tbh. Just have a recorded music habit..

what's the truth regarding blue note CDs, aren't many/most of the RVG remasters fucked up?

I've read that about the RVG remasters. I have a few -- Cecil Taylor, Kenny Dorham, Horace Silver -- but never found them to be unpleasant to listen to, nor have I been able to otherwise identify anything crapulent about how they sound.

That said, in most cases, I've only heard the RVG editions (aside from Cecil's Conquistador!, the RVG of which sounds great to me compared to previous issues). If someone could illuminate the problems, I'd be grateful.

Rows of CD cases are ugly as hell, look well manky when they get a bit of dust in them, and take up valuable shelf space that I could be using for books.

I'm past the point where I might have got into collecting vinyl, but CDs are just another digital storage device, except one that takes up a load of space.

some quotes from a stevehoffman thread

"Painfuly bright, razor sharp and unnatural"

"When RVG started doing this series, he did some bad ones with boosted treble and narrowed stereo"

"I guess what it comes down to is personal taste. If your system is bright, these may sound shrill. However, if your system has less high frequency output, these CDs should sound phenomenal."

probably from this same thread, yeah?

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/recommended-rvg-remasters.74266/

yup

actually, no, this one: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/rudy-van-gelder-blue-note-remasters.57135/

Thanks for that, brimstead...yeah, I guess my setup isn't super bright, because that's something that I usually notice immediately/can't stand about some CDs (the Miles Davis/Gil Evans box is bright/brittle to the point of being almost painful to listen to).

Haven't noticed the narrowed stereo. But I'm not a fan of super-wide stereo separation on recordings of this music, so I would prefer narrowed stereo.

ha, so if you have a great system the RVG CDs sound terrible and if you have a bad one they sound great? yeesh.
i have never had too much of a problem w/ the RVG CDs, but but for the most part that's the only way I've heard a lot of blue notes.

yeah, i don't really know but i mean... surely it's not inconceivable that music can sound ~better~ as opposed to ~not worse~??

just the whole attitude (not accusing anyone is this thread!) of music lovers going "good enough for me" is kind of a bummer... don't you ever wonder??

Sure! But there's also the issue of not having tons of cash to spend on equipment, much less pricey original blue note LPs

it shouldn't take big bucks, though! the universe is unfair

it just bugs me that certain catalogues get beautiful CD reissues, while others don't, and at this point i would assume the technology is good enough to significantly reduce the variability, but *loudness wars*, *deaf old dudes*, etc are ruining things.

time to seize the means of production i guess

like those byrds CD from the mid-90s sound amazing and they're cheap as fuck

I still love cds, def prefer them to vinyl

― marcos, Saturday, February 20, 2016 1:06 PM (52 minutes ago)

^ agreed. take up less space, weigh less, ... and now cheaper! Trying to remember the last time I actually played a vinyl record ... I have them. I acquire more from time to time. I have room to store the ones I have, though occasionally I think, "if I got rid of them, I'd have room in my bedroom for a dope comfortable chair to read in" ... but i haven't even investigated how much i could sell them for. i finally did box up most of the cd-r's of things i downloaded during the glorious years of blogs and mediafire.

i think a lot of people just thought his ears were too old. some are probably fine and some are probably not so fine. i haven't heard many of them though.

that was about the RVG CDs....

A smaller CD case's shelves collapsed in November. I've been lazy about replacing the damn thing. Should I?

"Sure! But there's also the issue of not having tons of cash to spend on equipment, much less pricey original blue note LPs"

most 70's and 80's vinyl blue note reissues sound really good. and are not that expensive. cheaper than a new cd in a lot of cases.

just the whole attitude (not accusing anyone is this thread!) of music lovers going "good enough for me" is kind of a bummer... don't you ever wonder??

― lute bro (brimstead), Saturday, February 20, 2016 4:58 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I do wonder. I made a major speaker upgrade a couple of years ago, and was floored at how much of a difference better speakers made. So I do get it -- "good enough" is a long way off from "THIS IS AMAZING."

That said, I don't want to spent a lot of time or money chasing The Ideal Master. My RVG copy of Hancock's Empyrean Isles sounds fine to me; it's also not a huge favorite, so a mastering upgrade wouldn't matter much to me.

Now, Cecil Taylor's Unit Structures (one of a handful of records I can honestly say changed my life) would need serious work -- the piano always sounded muffled to me, and I doubt that's something mastering would be able to fix. But if it could be done, I'd be all over it.

So yes, I totally get that some records could sound better, but it depends on the record. If it's something I just enjoy listening to, like Empyrean Isles, mediocre mastering won't bug me. If it's an all-time fave, sub-par mastering will definitely annoy me.

(I'm using "record" in the format-neutral sense, as in, "a record of these performances/these compositions.")

xposts for new/CD-era stuff, i absolutely prefer CDs. "underground" dance music still v much a vinyl game, though.

(i even like the late 60's/early 70's liberty pressings of old blue note stuff. they used good vinyl. sound great. but for real an 80's DMM pressing of 50's blue note stuff can be found for like 10 bucks online and they are sound super.)

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2051541.m570.l1313.TR2.TRC0.A0.H0.Xblue+note+dmm.TRS0&_nkw=blue+note+dmm&_sacat=11233

(okay those aren't all 10 bucks but they pop up all over the place on the web. lots of them still sealed. 20 or under is a good deal for most of them.)

(auctions are the way to go. nobody bids on them. this record sounds amazing. 8 bucks! http://www.ebay.com/itm/HANK-MOBLEY-Straight-No-Filter-LP-on-Blue-Note-VG-dmm-/331772638421?hash=item4d3f30b4d5:g:wwcAAOSwzhVWtRP2 )

Just on the issue of what to do with empty jewel cases... try your local record shop. We have to buy them to replace broken cases on secondhand cds and would very happily take a donation of decent ones for free, so maybe other shops would too, rather than simply chucking them out?

Thanks krakow, that's a good idea. Will try there and the Oxfam with the biggest music section.

(If I ever actually get round to ordering sleeves and so on...)

I still buy (crazy cheap 2nd hand) CDs and get the occasional new release, along with a slew of promos for work, but would rather have vinyl, for the sleeve artwork and the process of putting an album on (its a fetish, but its all fetish). But I still remember, in the late 80s, before my dad converted to CD (he was a late adopter), just being hypnotised and kind of in love with how shiny CDs were and the rainbow-like shimmer when they're in the sunshine.

I've recently rediscovered my love for CDs - partly due to how cheap they've become and partly due to mp3 ennui.

I've recently rediscovered my love for CDs - partly due to how cheap they've become and partly due to mp3 ennui.

― Poacher (Chinaski), Sunday, February 21, 2016 9:00 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^

I never really stopped buying CDs, but I've always chosen vinyl over CD when there was a choice. Now, it's usually the opposite. I can buy a Joanna Newsom LP for $25 with no download code, or I can buy the same Joanna Newsom album on CD, a new copy of Back in Black on CD, and a used copy of Tical on CD for the same price. And given that the pressing plants are backed up and vinyl isn't what it used to be and the same masters are being used and blah blah blah, why buy new vinyl when the CD sounds the same except that it eliminates those pops, ticks, and clicks? At that point, choosing vinyl becomes solely about visual aesthetics, and since I keep records in boxes (no room to display them despite owning two of those Ikea shelves), I don't give a shit about that.

Now, I don't have 'hi-fi' equipment, My receiver is an old Luxman and my speakers are JBL ES20s (I think they were a hundred bucks). I use the DVD player to play CDs and I have a Rega RP-1 for vinyl. I bet if I seriously upgraded (specifically my receiver and speakers), I might come around to vinyl again (at least old vinyl, which I still think sounds better), but that's not likely to happen anytime soon.

Rich man's 8 track tape forever!

i like CDs a lot. i tend to stay away from big label american stuff though cuz most of their CDs sound terrible. maria and the kids got the adele CD for christmas and i couldn't believe how bad it sounded. you turn it up and it's just mush. there is some seriously state of the art digital sound coming out now if you like experimental/electronic music though. and i have no need to own any of it on vinyl. i don't really care about new vinyl at all though there is certainly good stuff if you buy the right artists/labels.

also, if you buy a new record and it has "pops, ticks, and clicks" you should return it. unless you just treat records like crap then its on you.

I can buy a Joanna Newsom LP for $25 with no download code

fuck drag city in the eye for this bullshit

One recent major label CD I think sounds amazing: good kid maad city