Continuing with CDs?

Now I have fourth and fifth faulty cd releases to complain about.

Morgiana/Cremator soundtracks (Finders Keepers)
Frost - Day And Age (Inside Out/Sony)

I started to think maybe this is my CD player but I don't think it is. With the possible exception of Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight - Once In A Blue Moon (from 1996 but I heard this was a reissue, but there's no discogs record of that), all of these faulty cds have been from the last decade. They play fine until the last quarter, but not always, occasionally they play fine, but I'm reluctant to play them when I know they might start getting skippy.

It's making me a bit scared about buying recent cds. Especially when one was Inside Out/Sony, I'd be really pissed if this happened on one of those big expensive Jethro Tull releases.

I can't find out very much about this. I'm probably not the person who listens to the most CDs here, so I'm surprised nobody else has come across it. Seen a little discussion of it on Steve Hoffman forums, but not much at all.

I'll end up buying some of these on digital and I wish the labels wouldn't bother with CDs if they can't do them right. The Lush - Chorus box set is the only release I've seen a bunch of other people complaining about.

I know this is obvious, but have you actually tried playing them in a different CD player?

It's difficult to nail down, since a faulty CD will generally work in some percentage of CD players, just not ALL of them. I rip a ton of CDs and if you set aside the physically damaged ones, most of them can be ripped if you try a different drive. Are they faulty? Yes and no.

I can believe that CD manufacturing is getting sloppy too, since the demand is way down.

Any pressing info on those CD's? (i.e. the name of the pressing plant on the inner rim, if there is one listed)

I should try them on the bluray player, I don't have another cd player but I'm fairly confident standards are slipping

I can't see any common pressing details

And sometimes they play fine, the Morgiana/Cremator disc has only screwed up a couple of times.

I had major problems with the recent Sign O' The Times reissue (3 CD version.) Took it back to the store to replace it, same thing happened with the new one. And on the same song too (the title track.) Thing is, it eventually started playing fine, so who knows?

Got to think many releases now are just like indie cds, only in the hundreds pressed. Knock wood, on the two I pressed in the last decade, they turned out fine.

I think DVD players are kinda bonky in general for reading other discs. DVD players have data protection in them to read head when you play movies so you don't have flutter and distortions in the signal and I think it screws up other kinds of media sometimes. They burn these update discs where I work to update GPS software in field toughbooks and they run like SHITE in them as it seems to have to read the whole disk before the script will run to update the software. Same stuff copied to a thumb drive runs like nothing. I can't remember the name it's some 3 letter thing, but I found on some of the models if you went into the settings and turn off that read protection they ran better (for those update disks). These toughbooks that had burners seemed to work better odd enough... criminy the code on some of those devices has to be old as shit at this point as all of them pretty much auto-install from some generic driver in Windows.

Anyone fuck with 50-disc or 100-disc changers? Any particular downsides to them?

I have a 100-disc changer that I got in college about 25 years ago via an insanely cheap floor model deal. I used the hell out of it back in the day, but I rarely use that function these days and mostly just play 1 at a time. It was fun to put on "random" back before you could just do the same thing with your iPod or phone, but slow to change discs and the shifting mechanism was kind of loud.

Cool thanks!

I mean, it still works great, if that's a selling point! The model I had made it easy to also just play 1 CD at a time, without the changer function.

https://images.crutchfieldonline.com/ImageHandler/trim/620/378/products/2002/130/x130PDF908-f.jpeg

this is the one I have, fwiw

Hunting for a new player myself now as the drawer mechanism in the Sony MXD-400 I bought refurbished two years ago is failing. I realize it probably just needs a new belt, but I looked inside and the idea of taking everything apart to get to the belt gave me the heebie-jeebies.

I really like the Sonys c.2000-2005 because of the track access dial and CD-text display. Unfortunately for me, a lot of them are changers, whose clunky mechanism tends to take forever to load a disc. I'm thinking about getting one of those top loading CMT-EX bookshelf systems and using it as a transport, anticipating the joy of watching the disc spin (though I'm guessing it'll have maybe a year of life left in it before something goes wrong). Simple pleasures.

I inherited a Pioneer that had a six-disc changing cartridge. Someone else I know had it for several years before it broke, which is amazing because I played the shit out of mine and even though it was already old and used, it still worked perfectly until I sold it.

I've since streamlined everything to two universal players - one region-free player pre-dating UHD (4K Blu-rays) and one that plays them. Both are compatible with SACD (true DSD playback) and all DVD formats as well.

My car (a 2009 Nissan Versa) has a six-CD changer that I don't think I've ever put more than one CD in. I just plug my digital player into the aux port.

My 2012 Nissan has one of those dumb proprietary audio outlets that I think they only included for like one year, that doesn't connect to anything now.

When I worked at my college bookstore, they had a 100 CD changer. Off rush season, they only had one person running the store all day on Sundays, so I would come in with a garbage bag full of CDs and leave it on shuffle all day. The changer was incredibly loud, like you would hear it from the other end of the store when it changed discs if the store wasn't busy.

I guess it's kind of funny to think about how much work we used to put into what Spotify and other streamers now seem to want to do by default, eg. shuffle play a massive playlist

I had a two Sony CD changers in the late 90s--want to say they were 200 and 300 discs respectively, and could be daisy chained to shuffle together, with one queuing something up while the other was playing. I ran them via line-in to my desktop computer freshman year of college, to broadcast a 24/7 "radio station" (can't remember the name of the tech but it was built in to Winamp I think) that I later calculated was sometimes using up to 70% of my school's T1 line (nobody ever asked me to stop...).

So in a way, shuffling a lot of music has been part of my listening for a quarter century. Replaced those CD changers (gave them to a friend's record shop) with an mp3 player into which you inserted your own (100GB) laptop HDD, circa 2003 or so...

Now I don't even own an actual CD player of any kind--just a USB CD-R drive that I rip new CDs from. Keep my collection on multiple 1TB microSD cards--nearly 10,000 albums on a few fingernail-sized bits of plastic...

I finally reached the point where I have to de-jewel case all my CDs if I want to fit everything on my racks. I've wanted to do this for years but having to get rid of two racks to make way for a bathroom was the impetus I needed. It's a terribly tedious process, though. I can do about 100 in a sitting and then I have to uncurl after sitting on the floor and do something else for a while.

I'm using these: https://spacesavingsleeves.com/ and I like the minimalism. If I cram too many on a shelf, I do lose some of the spine readability though I have enough digipacks and unique packaged CDs to keep a good amount of identifiers.

I like how they give the discs a bit of an LP vibe too

Thanks for the inadvertent reminder to order some more of those. I like how, on their website, the photo shows a bunch of CDs by The Fall. That very much mirrors my situation.

Came across two other CD format defending things this past weekend - Super Deluxe Edition pointing out that the vast majority of Abba sales this past week have been CDs yet the press are just reporting on the record vinyl sales. And a critic on an Uproxx podcast suggesting that maybe indie fans (like me) should consider buying CDs rather than blaming Adele for the pressing plant delays. That is, if their favourite artist has even bothered to make their album available on CD.

i wonder how much of the "death of cds" is due to hardware, which is the chicken and which is the egg? laptops don't come with optical drives anymore, and i flicked (quickly) through this year's What HiFi awards edition and didn't see a cd player category.

(still my prefered format, cd and dvd, but am increasingly ok with digital music purchases)

(was also surprisingly hard to get a good-looking dvd/br player a few months ago when my old one gave up the ghost. none of the ones in a similar price range to the previous player came with displays or any niceties, the new one is just a black box with a tray, one led and like two buttons)

anecdotally it is quite difficult to find decent used CD players, I've been looking (not very hard but still) for at least a year

Fortunately any optical disc player can be used as a CD player. Before it was DVD players and video game consoles that made regular consumer CD players seem redundant, and now you've got universal players that support HD and UHD/4K. I like portable Discmans though - they're so light and small, they're nice to have anywhere.

lol yes I may just give up and buy a PS1 but I'm still holding out for now

I actually had a PS3 for a few years, which I never used for video games but there was a sale somewhere that made them ridiculously affordable, moreso than regular Blu-ray players (which were pretty new and much more expensive than now). It was kind of funny using a game controller for a remote.

xxxp I had a similar experience when my BD player gave up the ghost this year. Fortunately, the replacement (an LG) seems ok – despite this and every other available model getting “they don’t make these like they used to…” reviews.

I bought an Onkyo 7030 a couple years ago on Kijiji, so it’s still possible to get good players if you’re patient

It looks like Arcam and Naim are still making CD players. But their range is very limited these days. I hope someone stays in the game.

Crosley jumps in.

Just buy an SFF computer case with a 5-1/4" drive bay, an LG CD-ROM drive for $25, and a cheap ITX motherboard that has digital out. Slap Linux on it, and send the digital out to a nice DAC and you'll have a comparable and far cheaper CD player than an Arcam or a Naim.

f. hazel I would literally pay you to make that, my ilxmail works fwiw

i feel the reduced availability of optical drives is going to be (already is?) a factor in the inevitable (?) CD revival

a nice functioning 1980s silverface CD player hits right in the nostalgia zone aesthetics-wise, becomes a treasured flea market score rather than e-waste landfill

the last few times I've gone op/charity/thrift shopping there have been some suspiciously young men flicking through the CDs and ignoring the vinyl completely

plus of course there's definitely much better value/hitrate to he had in the used CDs

not to mention that (good) CDs sound really really good

my silver disc spinners of choice for the last 5-6 years have been old Denon universal players - D2910 - D2930 - D3910 - really good sound, play SACD and HDCD and DVD-A - nice models in their day that can be had for not much and also do a great job with DVDs!

NAD
Yamaha
Marantz
Cambridge Audio
Rotel

all still make CD players

plus any DVD player can serve as a CD player

I don't think they are on the brink of extinction by any means

I've long wanted a Technics 5 disc changer with spiral play feature (plays the first track of each CD, them moves on to track two, etc.) There's a nice one now on Craigslist for $50. I absolutely don't need it, but...

looks like my beloved onkyo cs-265 is awol now. glad i got another one before the panny, my 3rd. the first got stolen, the second suffered a horrible accident involving a glass of water in a vegas motel.

5 CD changers are all over Craigslist

Never heard of spiral play that's wild

I still get a little wistful thinking about the Sony 200 and 300 CD changers I had in the late 90s and early 2000s. I have roughly 9k CDs, but don't own a CD player (just a little USB CD-R I use to rip new CDs).

That said, a 1TB microSD card in a phone with a nice DAC with all 9k of those albums on it makes it hard to get *too* wistful...

koogs many of the current minimal bluray players with no display and 2 buttons, like yours, are multi-region in nature (all region DVD, blu-ray region is switchable from the menu) which might be useful. My local retail chain blew their stock out for $30 apiece so I bought 3 in prep for the optical drive famine ahead. Mind you, 4K players are still being pushed and have audio (generally only digital tho).
If you can get something to do optical or coax digital out, there are many USB-powered ultra minimal $10 boxes on eBay which will DAC that to stereo. Ironically the cheapness means the circuits are very simple and sound pretty good!

also! heat is the enemy of optical semiconductors so if you have a component system, make sure the amp is always at the top of the pile!

I'm thinking about getting one of those top loading CMT-EX bookshelf systems and using it as a transport, anticipating the joy of watching the disc spin (though I'm guessing it'll have maybe a year of life left in it before something goes wrong). Simple pleasures.

Gerald Mc-B-B and others with the sleeves: what did you do with all the jewel cases?

If you have polystyrene recycling in your area, you could recycle your jewel cases, but better still, I'd give them to someone who'd reuse them. (Hell, I always need jewel cases.)

If you have a library, Goodwill or something like Housing Works Cafe in NYC that sells or loans CD's and uses jewel cases, it may be worth asking if they'll take them and use them to replace any broken ones.

there was a major semiconductor plant in Japan that burned down last year, I’ve heard new CD players etc were hard to get as a result

(my new player is dvd multi region but single region for br - and i had to pay extra for that, but only a dozen or so quid. double what i paid would get me full multi region blu but i don't have any foreign brs)

I've had the same Technics cd player since the 90s. would like a NAD to go with my amp but i don't use it enough to justify.

oh, thinking about it, the new dvd player was also missing any kind of line out for audio, only had a single hdmi port, something else i thought was a backwards step

Gerald Mc-B-B and others with the sleeves: what did you do with all the jewel cases?

― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Tuesday, 16 November 2021 11:06 AM (three hours ago)

It certainly sucks that jewel cases are that hard plastic which isn't recyclable. But that shouldn't stop one getting rid of them (it should just stop artists & labels from using them anymore, come on!)

For new CDs and decent quality ones, I haul them down to my local second-hand record store and donate them to the cause - they can spend a bit less on replacement cases.
For the cracked and scuffed and sticker-smirched ones, I throw them in the rubbish, sadly.

The spacesavingsleeves are great and I've had a lot of them now for many years and they remain in good condition, not sticking to each other or the CDs or anything.
They are a bit inconsistent in their design though, in terms of the gap between the sides and suchlike, so some can be a challenge to fold the back under-tray art into.
That's the only complaint though. I have a huge collection, and other than jewel cases with printing on them, or the occasional coloured jewel case, everything else is now shrunk down into those sleeves.
It's the only way I can remotely fit onto my shelves!

https://uc9aa0d3a241ae7f7d4b87f09f44.previews.dropboxusercontent.com/p/thumb/ABUab0pgc8Q-UD0C4ROW7mAsqh2kXK4DDFybtgL5t8C99fuNB0c4KKAYu5H3CdtVFK66U1TwMeZpM6qqYcrZFT6vwlqBlGxShAiz6E8todNSxB3Ln4Sfq8utDK3Tw8B0ardRaj55fhmXEd150aD9XLJDPIKxmg77b_N6rO0l5617aoNDj4k5A9UbG-sdZgs1jm_ulwP-aD4h--KJIf3UFq5fwg884G105FubDUdkl4oTG4mbIGM-RwdJYvCz5_04w9qMLO2j4jV-nBzhKhYxqUNBH3jeBnt9t5c_d4vnIzLVlHieR1XnF_0gG-eeKyBaeg1GYWtFslzPPMW2eAjCA876pJujL_QMXlrLMJDxh4zt8nt0e72Cp8953Vw0FkDvIFbyQomO6JREmgsSGQcNICBj8hrl9AkmO_smKvBSDM5NSBCT9uP2NCI5COhEGgz1kt1tgb4_ysPTl70eC7uf4qe6/p.jpeg?size=2048x1536&size_mode=3
https://uc95cbc861219dfac99ff209ca91.previews.dropboxusercontent.com/p/thumb/ABW1f_c2KCZMQhsMpUq8zxISXnIw2_-DkfdaadQUxe4rmN19JfLg4M8lsMu3FU7xAqc2vN99I5GWButqvSsi1CM4JyjN43JSEFOiStn9hKnQrd-K96dohgDhZrTiQdbDDKbuYpRpynpr8VKqs_mfDaZKKeTBUMh3oP3552Mc_4kWNDBPcXpLp9BRQJdqVc1RGO9nplzQ06VCBclWhKKeVPu0o9mT5pzO-4tzuLyVQSqWHwArHtDNVnYcQH9GOIUAVlinrMIPevV1vmNK2QI-9HJQ6XoOt-RU4uQwAwWbp0ThBUzGgaRRA6Y6qxgQhCxb5HQfrFqFnn6mzupE5bKOq02CcZIoHbS_H28nvNR_b-ivePXnlTBw5-RkXvD1n2viwq6YN5xQJmBIA7tqVXuKu6q4/p.jpeg?size=2048x1536&size_mode=3
https://uc224f70a6e269930e405bda84f3.previews.dropboxusercontent.com/p/thumb/ABUxovmMdDtIy_SrPngGf-d1BXZjBQP8e_W1KmcW67kxH61z--YDldcF3uW2OQmKKhFVdiDtu1eP9jQze8od4t8DEIOvMeKp2avztdsiP_4vz6OttXZBCEPnjphxNjJabGuUVhf2Xpz3LlSd_V6bRII77V2eMxkkHmOMBrSNFTGXth2ZL8377UADdOVuNkirTM39ZD-dR5WQiMxthuYloZ7QUpCCXHRzfm5AcmHZU_UkAMfP4qHjjBp_1sM9ATVVWXFucYCuq_Cu5zRLSS0r7sxSVePveR-KOSdgzEmT7qwAZammvv0CYgyqWUtYPWkasRGr8P21MZlLLWM22YVepWd7uq_SIWNEAp9P0xnVUHtKLFvlTS5VlxgCE44Aw3XK6PhqVSH8lE1XebPi60D4Uc_vMGNX-ljx9AskBuT484_JKQptMuCLiXGE55TI8VvkgHQwnBS2Fysjejf8RqHRHlwY/p.jpeg?size=2048x1536&size_mode=3

Wow, that's a sight to behold!

I'm going to put some bags of jewel cases on the curb and see if they're adopted. If not, I'll call some of my local stores to see if they want them. I've already asked a couple of libraries who weren't interested. I didn't know they weren't recyclable!