Comments on: Forget vinyl, CDs are making a comeback

By: Mike Leahy

Mike Leahy — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 16:40:28 +0000

In reply to Johan.

Yes and no. The VAST bulk of digital music (Spotify, for example) is compressed and sounds distinctly inferior to CD. You are right about the “loudness wars” that have damaged the dynamic range of recorded music, even on CD. The problem is that most listeners play back on 1/2″ speakers and cannot tell the difference anyway. My audio system feature eight-foot tall electrostatic loudspeakers and the electronics to back them up. Trust me, if you came over to my house for a A/B test, you’ll never want to listen to Spotify again.
PLAY IT LOUD

By: Mike Leahy

Mike Leahy — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 16:36:39 +0000

CDs are a high-quality and very durable format. I buy my music exclusively on CD and copy it into the digital Master Library in native AIFF format. You need to buy a quality DAC; mine is an Arcam. Sounds great.

By: Johan

Johan — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 02:08:10 +0000

The biggest BS sentence I have read in a long time “There’s also a consensus that, unlike physical music formats, digital music files are inferior in sound quality – hence some audiophiles preferring music on CD.”

CDs are digital. *Compression* used to be a problem on streaming audio but these days you can get higher quality streaming than was ever possible on CD. And CD’s suffered from distortion because publishers boosted volume at the expense of dynamic range…