CDs vs. mp3s: Which do you buy?

TribunalRecords said:
I will say this, a big hurdle for me ever getting rid of my CDs is the fire i had a few years back that consumed THOUSANDS of my CDs and i have slowly rebuilt over the last 6 years. So it's hard for me to part with any of them even if i don't listen to them because i know what they have been through. Yes, i am a hoarder when it comes to my CDs. but at least there can be pleasure had from them if i choose to pull one off the shelf and air guitar to it. :) you cannot say that about a beer can collection. hahaha.
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"hoader" :lol: I remember how it was before the fire when CDs were everywhere. Now my apartment is like that. Come to think of it I have not seen my dog in a while.
 
dcowboys311 said:
As far as the whole 'backup/ripping' thing goes....do all of you have really fast computers or slow internet connections? At least for me, it's much much faster to just re-download an album than it is to rip it straight from the source. Quality is never an issue unless it's some obscure demo/EP. Is this just personal preference or what?

Plus, it's not like a natural disaster is only gonna affect someone's hard drive and not your physical media collection. Internet storage is cheap (free) and easily accessible. Not trying to step on any toes here -- as I said earlier in this topic, I really only buy vinyl which is much more outdated than CDs LOL, but just looking to satisfy my curiosity.
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I have a couple of fast computers, and I have a fast internet connection. By ripping them myself, I have complete control over what encoder is used, and what quality level I want. Certain people either don't care, or can't tell the difference, some can. I'm one of them. I'm not a hard core audiophile, but I have really good ears, apparently... A private forum I'm on actually has done a couple tests with different encoders, and it's surprising how much of a difference there is (at least to my ears) So yeah, I guess this falls under "personal preference" :Spin:

I don't trust "cloud storage", at all. I'm old school. I have literally BOXES of dvds/cds with MP3 files and lossless files on them, as well as a 2TB external HD that stuff get's archived onto DVD from. And I said "disaster" in my original post. Not natural disaster. Obviously with a flood, fire, tornado, meteor, comet, etc., you're screwed :) I was talking about a disaster like reloading your OS on your computer, and forgetting to scrape your ITunes library off of it, or accidentally deleting it in some other fashion. I'm an old IT dog, and one thing that has remained true over the years is "you're only as good as your last backup" :Smokedev:
 
nailz said:
I would like to try a blind listen experiment with those of you crying about lossy codecs. about 5% of the population can hear a difference between 128kbps and lossless, and less than 1% between 320k.
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Thing is, that isn't the reason why I want lossless files. I want it so that I can convert them to any format I need. With a lossy file, any conversion I do will hurt the quality.

You might ask, "When are you going to need anything other than MP3?" Well, you can never predict the future, or what I'll use the music for.
 
I am not so much a format snob that I would dismiss one format over another outright. With that, if available and can be easily obtained without spending a ton of money or having to wait half a lifetime for it to arrive in the mail, I will get the actual CD. After that, I really cannot dismiss the convenience of digital downloads. Both in the immediacy of the delivery medium plus the storage space. My 5+ terabytes of server space takes up much less room than the huge CD rack that I have (and I can store a shit-ton more music on that server than I'll ever be able to fit in the CD rack). I've dropped some pretty good money on the Mindawn site downloading albums in FLAC format. After that, I have also gotten pleny of music in MP3 format off of Amazon as well as eMusic. Actually, those MP3s, when uploaded to and upconverted through my expensive music server with those fancy DACs, actually sound pretty damn good.

TheLongshot said:
Thing is, that isn't the reason why I want lossless files. I want it so that I can convert them to any format I need. With a lossy file, any conversion I do will hurt the quality.

You might ask, "When are you going to need anything other than MP3?" Well, you can never predict the future, or what I'll use the music for.
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However, this right here is a very good point and exactly one of the main reasons why I also prefer getting the actual CDs or at least the lossless format (the associated sound quality of the lossless formats also play a large factor into it as well). Sometimes, you just don't know what the exact format you may need something to be in, so it is nice to know you have a pristine copy to start with if you do need to convert something into another format.
 
I buy CD's, period. The only way I will download an .mp3 is if I cannot get a hold of the CD. ESPECIALLY if that CD is out of print or was a self release eons ago that I really want to hear. Or, if the price is so exorbitant to import, that you are just better off d/l ing the .mp3. (No, I will NOT download a .mp3 if I can get the CD.)
 
Now that MP3's are coming with booklets... which look better and don't fade away over time... I am starting to migrate from CD's to the electronic format. I always considered myself a CD collector, but once I became aware of the inevitability of death, collecting anything seemed strange. ;)
 
nailz said:
I would like to try a blind listen experiment with those of you crying about lossy codecs. about 5% of the population can hear a difference between 128kbps and lossless, and less than 1% between 320k.

In fact, take the challenge!

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/mp3-sound-quality-test-128-320/

I failed.
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This is a fun game I play at parties and it has won me a great deal of money and free drinks... I have never loss at telling the difference. Now I understand that I am not the average user (I own and operate my own recording studio) but to a trained ear there is a difference.
 
I prefer to buy CDs, though I do have a rhapsody account. I've spent as much as $30 for an album as it was my favorite band who had this special package at that price and you could only get it from their webshop in the UK. If I'm seeing an artist live, I buy the cds there if its new or a debute.
 
Metal_Camden said:
I guess I'm in the < 1%. I guessed the right one!
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Your second statement is correct. Your first is not. :) This particular test gives you no way to know whether the reason you got the correct answer is because your ears are awesome, or simply because you guessed correctly. 50% of all deaf people will also get the answer correct, and it's not really impressive to say that your ears are as good as a deaf person's.

The only way to determine that you truly hear a difference, and didn't just make a lucky guess, is an ABX test. This involves repeating the test multiple times (like, 10) where the two samples are randomly switched for each test without your knowledge. Only when you are able to identify the correct sample 10-out-of-10 times can you be sure that you actually hear a difference.

The brain does an incredible job of fooling us. I've listened to clips where I was sure I heard a difference, but upon performing an ABX test, that difference suddenly disappeared.

And regardless of whether people here truly *can* hear the difference, the fact that there are currently more votes for the 128kbps sample than the 320kbps (40326 vs. 36430) proves that it's far from obvious that the 320kbps sounds better.

Neil
 
I couln't hear -much- of a difference in Nailz' link. Had to listen to each sample about 7 times to start hearing the differences. I did answer correctly, but the song used probably wasn't the best example. It would be better to use something with a bit more high-range sound - heavy cymbals, higher pitched vocals...that's usually where I can hear the compression artifacts.
 
MP3's for me thank you. I could hear a *slight* difference in the test, but not enough to make me care. I do rip my cd's at 320, but I'm very happy with Amazon cloud. I have about 80 albums there now. I like lots of different music, and when the average cd is well over 10 and the average mp3 album is 8.99, it's an easy choice to me. Easy math...100 albums, assume saving a buck each...that's ten more albums I can buy and listen to now. Plus the storage issues of physical media just suck, even though I don't plan to move again! And maybe this is just my declining eyes as I age, but I just got a bunch of cd's from Laser Edge's sale and I swear I can't read those little booklets without a magnifying glass anymore!
 
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