The CD/Vinyl Debate Part 765

[jazzbo]

I've gotten mine from Dusty Groove, so I'm no help.

[erwbol]

CDJapan, that's right. You can make them send the items as a gift so you can put more CDs in one order/shipment (to avoid taxes).

Edited March 19, 2013 by erwbol

[J.A.W.]

Hey guys - speaking of off topic - where are you buying these LT series CDs? CDjapan? Dusty Groove adds tax for me, so if I can avoid that route and come out the same or ahead, that might be a good call.

CDJapan: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/search3.html?q=bnlt&media=cd&r=any&step=20&order=score

[Jay]

Thanks, guys - how does one tell them that it should be a gift?

[J.A.W.]

Thanks, guys - how does one tell them that it should be a gift?

When you check out.

[erwbol]

You have to do this every time you place a new order. Shipping methods are otherwise remembered except for this option. So if you forget, you're f-ed..

And check upfront what the limit for importing a gifted item is in your country. Because the total amount is correctly displayed on the customs declaration.

Edited March 19, 2013 by erwbol

[.:.impossible]

Best of luck with the move.

[Jay]

Cool. Thanks again for the advice. Trying to decide to pick up some of those Atlantic/Warner and Blue Note gems.

Back on topic - I feel very fortunate to have all of these options available to me. I suppose it depends on my mood - I love vinyl but a lot of times, I am just too lazy (I am a big fan of the Music Matters series, for example, and sometimes I don't want to get off my ass every 8 minutes). But, as I have purchased better equiptment, I'm not going to lie - it has the ability to make an already enjoyable recording a new experience (or worse, as my systems tend to not be very good at hiding problems). At the end of the day, though, I am happy as a clam to pop in some recording into my discman/"low-end" grado combo that I would have never thought I would be able to listen to in the days of my youth (70's).

But very interesting, Bev, in terms of the "pro-CD" movement. I suppose only time will tell before there is a CD resurgence.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Jay

[jazzbo]

Best of luck with the move.

Thanks Cary. It's a pain in the @%%. Anyone want to buy a house in central Austin?

Edited March 19, 2013 by jazzbo

[Clunky]

You have to do this every time you place a new order. Shipping methods are otherwise remembered except for this option. So if you forget, you're f-ed..

And check upfront what the limit for importing a gifted item is in your country. Because the total amount is correctly displayed on the customs declaration.

Oh well, I should have asked before ordering. Only order 3 LT's so the damage shouldn't be too bad.

[Scott Dolan]

Yes, moving to Bay Village, Ohio to help my parents stay living in their home, they're not doing that well, and as I'm retired, widowed, etc. here in Texas I feel it's time for me to do this.

I'd say I'm sorry to hear of this, but being there for your parents strikes me as being a rewarding experience.

Best wishes to you and the folks.

Back on topic, I'd encourage you to at least give some of the lossless technology (i.e. Apple Lossless, FLAC) a try if you haven't already. I used to be quite the audio snob, but the newer technology has brought me around.

Or, Maybe I just don't care as much anymore. Who knows?

[jazzbo]

I've tried the lossless stuff. I don't need digital files and just don't have to go there, don't want to go there at this time. I don't like computer audio, just not fun for me.

[Scott Dolan]

Fair enough, brother.

[jazzbo]

More and more computers just aren't fun for me. I practically lived inside my computer when i worked, and having not worked for most of five years I have played around on the internet a lot, but I'm less interested in that these days . . . . I think at the new place I'll not get internet and will set up my iMac at my parents and just use it when I'm there, that way I'll have my home free of a computer, going to try it, maybe then I'll enjoy the computer a bit more when I'm on.

As I don't use my iPod at all any longer, I don't use iTunes except to burn an occasional disc, and I'm not really adept at digital music file handling and that's mainly because I just don't have a lot of interest in it. I love my discs and records and that's enough for me.

[Scott Dolan]

No explanation needed, my friend.

What you are about to undertake is impressive and humble, from my standpoint.

I hope you find peace in doing so, and hope you stay in touch.

[jazzbo]

Thanks, appreciate the good wishes. I am sure it will all work out okay. I'm trying to look at it all in manageable bites.

[skeith]

Hey guys - speaking of off topic - where are you buying these LT series CDs? CDjapan? Dusty Groove adds tax for me, so if I can avoid that route and come out the same or ahead, that might be a good call.

I got mine from Amazon at $20.00 US. was that a mistake?

[Teasing the Korean]

We're in the age of digital downloads and people are still debating vinyl vs. CDs? Anyone who cares anymore already made of their minds years if not decades ago, and their hearing is probably no longer reliable enough to trust their opinion.

[Scott Dolan]

That's actually a valid point.

When cd's first hit the market it was supposed to be this major step backwards sonically, but cd's now sound lightyears better than first gens did and the difference between them and records are laughably negligible.

When digital music files first started popping up, they were supposedly a major step backwards sonically, but with newer technology like FLAC, Apple Lossless, hell even AAC they are FAR superior first gen mp3's. But, mp3's gained a reputation, and for many that reputation is carved in stone and it informs their perception.

Whatever makes people happy makes people happy, but some of the arguments seem a bit silly, IMO.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

When cd's first hit the market it was supposed to be this major step backwards sonically, but cd's now sound lightyears better than first gens did and the difference between them and records are laughably negligible.

When CDs first hit the market, *no one* was claiming it was any kind of "step backwards" much less a *major* step backwards. It has always been touted as an audiophile-level sound. And when done right, it can be audiophile sound, as mentioned in the initial post of this thread, quoting Ian Anderson, who has heard a master tape or two.

[jazzbo]

Everything is so relative because I hear far more than "laughingly negligible" differences between cds and lps in both my systems.

What I seem to have grown to realize is that there are differences in the formats and great sound is possible from all of them with effort. And listeners/music fans have differing interests in seeking the best sound possible. What is "good enough" for one is possibly way too involved for another and hardly sufficient to another. (And it's quite possible that we all have different hearing and ways of interpreting what we hear).

We're all different, and it's a shame that many or most seem to feel they have to be "right."

Edited March 21, 2013 by jazzbo

[Scott Dolan]

When CDs first hit the market, *no one* was claiming it was any kind of "step backwards" much less a *major* step backwards.

Man, this statement is so incorrect it seems tongue-in-cheek.

My buddy owned a digital studio in the late 90's, and there were TONS of arguments within the industry of digital vs. analog. Sampling rates could never reproduce sound as well as analog, and so forth...

That debate is about 30 years old right about now. And in order for it to be a debate...

[Dan Gould]

What seems tongue in cheek is applying an argument you heard about in the 'late 90s' when CDs hit the market in the mid-80s and had, by the late 90s, virtually completely displaced all vinyl sales.

Talk about arguments that have no basis in fact ...

[Scott Dolan]

The same argument has been going on for 30 years. I probably should have mentioned that before.

That was just when I was the most exposed to it.

It's all very confusing, I know.

Here, I'll let the founder of PS Audio speak for himself:

"There was a time when we could accurately say that most all digital was inferior to most all analog – the CD vs. vinyl debate."

How odd! "We"?

"We" must be what he refers to me as.

And concluding the article that piece came from:

"So, the next time someone tells you they only listen to vinyl or analog and they can’t stand the “sound” of digital, you can smile knowing full well the truth of the matter."

http://www.pstracks.com/pauls-posts/opening-age-debate/6238/

Edited March 21, 2013 by Scott Dolan

[Dan Gould]

You know you're 100% right. CDs sucked from the start and the only reason they caught on was false advertising and blah blah blah.

Except for the fact that I can still remember the first time I heard a CD, around 1985. It was Elton John's "Your Song" and the second the piano notes started I knew this new format sounded 1000% better than the analog vinyl I grew up with.

So whatever ....

BTW you have an impressive way of regularly aggravating people.