Goodbye, CDs

[deadmoviestar]

I've made the decision. I am going completely digital, getting rid of all my CDs (except for the very best of the boxes, like that Charley Patton thing and the Jerry Lee Lewis complete Sun, and the Stax-Volt, etc.) and storing my music on computers and ipods. And why not? I have NEVER had an affection for the CD format; in fact, I felt utterly

Comments

[alanpartlow]

I need to do that.

[transistorblast]

I've considered this. There's a major drawback, though. MP3's are thinner sounding than CDs, as there's an information-loss. For some types of music, I wouldn't mind much. But I can't bear to sell off my jazz CDs in favor of vinyl rips. CD's aren't as good as analog, but they're better than mp3s.

[deadmoviestar]

You make a good point. I'm keeping all my vinyl because I like the sound. And when it comes to CD-v-MP3, I realize that everything you say is correct, but I just don't hear it. CDs sound thin to me and MP3s just don't sound that much worse. Basically, I see the days of 'displaying' my CDs as archaic. I'm freeing up the space!

[grubi]

You can rip at higher rates, including Lossless formats that provide no compression whatsoever. Then you can convert the lossless to higher-rate MP3s.

Truth is, I (or anyone; it's not a skill) can compress any song at a higher rate and your ears wouldn't be able to discern the difference between that and the original CD track.

[jonathangarrett]

I highly, highly recommend getting an auxilliary hard drive/storage drive to backup the collection in case your computer blows up. They don't cost too much to begin with, and most are quite compact.

PS: If you plan to sell back the CDs, I may want to purchase some and could pay better price than the stores. I'm always looking for good soul records, but I'm guessing you'll probably keep your favorite CDs from those genres!

[deadmoviestar]

Yes, I've been investigating. The plan is to sell my CDs and have that money cover the cost of everything else needed to make the switch (except my time, of course...that's gratis). I doubt I have too many soul CDs that you don't already have, but I'd be happy to shoot you a list at some point, if you'd like.

[grubi]

Be sure to rip them at a nice, hefty compression rate. Anything 192 kbps or less will disappoint your ears. And rock on, sir.

[flintridge]

yeah, CDs are an imperfect medium for sure. Fuckin jewel cases seem to break the instant you drop one, too. *AND* as far as burning to them, it seems like for each successful ripping, it takes two additional CDs that are deemed "corrupt" and thus useless.

What about the CDs that don't offer any track information regardless of whether you're online? You'll need to key those in too.

Happy trails dude.

[deadmoviestar]

There's a definite time investment, no doubt. But I'd rather be unable to sleep doing that than be unable to sleep watching some super-shitty movie on cable.