'Do you still own a CD player?'

Subject: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: Johnny J
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 05:33 AM

'Do you still own a CD player(Or insert turn table, cassette player etc)?'

Actually, I'm not specifically asking for an answer to the above question although, please, free to give one if you wish.

The purpose of this thread is to question the notion and assumption that people don't own such items any more or should have *dispensed with them* by now.

Of course, most the younger people don't use this technology and that's maybe to be expected. However, I find it irritating when I visit my local folk club or go to a concert where most of the audience are of a "certain age"(Gregg Wallace) and the compere or artists comes out with a naff comment such as "Do any of you still have a CD player?"!

I always reply, "Of course, why wouldn't I?"

After all, I'm not going to throw out my several hundred(minimum estimate) CDs and vinyl records (I still have few 78s too and a turntable to play them on) just because they have gone out of fashion. It would be an endless task to digitise them all too although I usually take copies of any new CD etc recordings I buy these days.

Yet, many people don't seem to have them now or hold on to such things. Indeed the trend seems to be towards "Minimalism" for many people. I see that when I visit other houses, bars, restaurants etc.
In my case, it's always been just short of "clutter" but not quite.
I do, of course, have "clear outs" from time to time but my music collection, "equipment", and instruments will be the last to go.

How do you all feel about this?

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 06:41 AM

All three.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 06:56 AM

I find it particularly annoying.

Some twenty years ago I released a CD with a friend. Even then 'some people on the internet' were whining 'nobody buys CDs anymore'. Well people did then (thousands of them, actually) and here in Ireland CDs are still very much current: I picked up one last week in Custy's and they are doing good trade in the shop.

I don't like music downloads, never bought one. I find of the music I have sitting on the computer, I listen to very little of it, it's effectively just sitting there.

I have a large collection of lps and other vinyl sitting here and still occasionally add to it, mostly second hand finds. A box of 78 rpms too and most recently added a Gael Linn Willie Clancy and Joe Heaney one to that.

I am sure there's different strokes for different people but I am sticking with it.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,Charles Macfarlane
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 06:57 AM

I still own at least one CD player - possibly two but I'm not sure of the working status of the second, and I did have a 3rd until the CD player module on a midi HiFi stack broke some years ago, which I've not replaced, for reasons that will become self-explanatory. However, I rarely need to use a physical player now, not even the CD player, let alone the still working midi audio-cassette and MiniDisk decks that I have - the latter are still there in the stack but are not connected to it to save the electricity that would be wasted on them every time the stack is powered up - and I no longer even have vinyls, a record deck, VHS deck, etc.

I moved from my old home in the south to a remote Highland area over a decade ago, but had not bought a new house before selling the old one, consequently I had several months to survive living out of a suitcase, well, the car at any rate. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to take my music and other entertainment ...

    150 45 rpms
    450 LPs (mine)
    150 LPs (inherited from my mother)
    15 78 rpms (gaelic singing; sadly, too far gone to save)
    60 MDs
    200 CDs
    50 VHS/DVD-Rs of TV programs
    30 Commercial DVDs

... in physical form with me, over the preceding year I digitised all of it that I wanted to keep, including scanning the covers, and duplicated it all on two small server boxes, one of which I took with me so I could play stuff on my PC when I rented a room - hardly HiFi quality, but better than nothing.

All that work has really paid off now, because in my new home I get HiFi quality by plugging the PC into a USB soundcard connected to my stereo, and that's how I play all my music now. I just click things on my PC, I don't have to find physical media, I don't have to clean dust off the stylus and the vinyl surface, I don't have to listen to the mains hum that was the curse of record decks (except a Derek Brimstone recording where it was actually recorded onto the tape, nothing I can do about that), etc, etc, and best of all the recordings don't deteriorate over time by wearing out physically with each playing.

I recommend going completely digital, initially it's a lot of investment in time, but not very much money, to do it well, particularly digitising analogue media in real time such as vinyls, audio-cassettes, and VHS, but a huge improvement in reliability and convenience ever after.

Of course, not everyone will be like myself and have a PC, even just a laptop, on most of the day, but all the PC does is control the playback process, and there are always things like tablets that probably could be set up to do that.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: Johnny J
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 07:22 AM

I've digitised some of my old albums and, as I say, usually make copies of new purchases.
However, I've just got too many old ones and I gave up copying these long since.

Also, when I've purchased music downloads, I've also tended to make physical CD copies although less so these days.

While the opportunities for streaming are almost unlimited these days(I have an account with Amazon and also a free spotify with Ads), I still like to purchase those albums which I really want and/or to help support the artists.

I listen to streams a lot but it's a bit like how I used the radio in the old days... i.e. to check out new music and what's going on as opposed to an alternative to making actual purchases.

It's unfair that artists get paid such low royalties for their streams BUT it's not always the case that we would have necessarily purchased their music anyway nor have listened to particular tracks etc more than one or two times.

Maybe an ideal solution might be to impose a limit of the number of "listens" to a particular track or album...say a maximum of ten and if we really wanted to hear more, we should be made to purchase the album or individual track. Or pay an additional cost which could go directly to the artist?

The above may be quite complicated to do, of course, but in the meantime my conscience dictates that I should make an effort to support the artists if I'm going to continue enjoying and listening to their music in a serious fashion.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 07:33 AM

Pressed CDs don't suffer bit rot or whole-collection catastrophic failure. In my old incarnation as tech support, I've seen far too many instances of users' only copy of vital data being eaten by hard-drive failure or accidental erasure; stuff on flash drives is even more vulnerable, as the first failure will be catastrophic. Even burn-your-own CDs tend to die slowly.

Techie's Advice: never underestimate the resilience of dead trees, or dents in hard plastic. The failure mechanisms are different, but better understood.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 07:51 AM

We have several hundred CDs, but only one CD-player to play them on (a Bose radio/CD player that was a retirement gift from my colleagues in 2012. Our other CD-players have long-since given up the ghost.

I ripped a large percentage of our CDs to my laptop but, when I ‘upgraded’ to Win-11, at least 50% of the files disappeared - they were supposed to have been saved in the Cloud, but they’ve disappeared completely. I might at some point try ripping them again, but it’s so damn time-consuming I really can’t be arsed at this moment.

I don’t share others’ enthusiasm for vinyl - always sounded crackly and crappy to my ears. What bit of vinyl I used to have was dumped years ago, and I’m not going down that crap road again.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 07:59 AM

All three, plus 2 mini-disc recorders and a DAT recorder and a couple of reel to reel recorders and a 4 track cassette recorder. Anything else?

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 08:01 AM

It's true that any digital data can be lost, but so can physical data ...

Once I opened a trunkful of my books that had lain unopened in a damp part of my house for some years, and they had all rotted, and had to be burnt. In the list I gave above, there is a similar story regarding my mother's Gaelic 78s. When I was about 6 or 7 I had a favourite which I wanted to put on our record player, but one of my older brothers pushed me aside wanting to put on a different record, the 78 fell to the floor and smashed, I wailed, Ma came in and retrieved the pieces and all the other 78s and hid them away somewhere. I never saw them again until after she died, when I went around her house systematically checking every room ensuring that nothing had been left behind. Looking under her bed, I found a case, a record case, and in it were all her Gaelic 78s, but it had been against a damp wall of the house where a gutter had leaked and hadn't been fixed, so they, too, had all rotted away, and I had to bin the lot - it's probably the only time in my life that I've laughed and cried in the same breath.

Yes, digital data can be lost, but it's a lot easier to make copies of it against that happening than it is for physical media. I did the digitising getting on for 15 years ago now, but despite hard disk failures in the servers, etc, I've not lost any significant work, because I keep copies of everything - note that in my original description above I said I DUPLICATED the recordings onto two small server boxes, one of which I took with me, the rest stayed with my stuff in storage. Yes, I could lose everything to a catastrophic fire, but likely that would burn all my books and CDs as well.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,cnd
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 08:13 AM

> I find it irritating when I visit my local folk club or go to a concert where most of the audience are of a "certain age"(Gregg Wallace) and the compere or artists comes out with a naff comment such as "Do any of you still have a CD player?"!

I've experienced this as well many times in the US, and in my opinion, many artists who come out with mildly insufferable takes like this do so in an effort to be 'quirky' or bohemian. Or similarly, when they proudly announce -- "I started releasing music back in the paleolithic days, when we released music on cassettes -- do any of you even know what that is anymore?!?!" No fans actually ever find it funny. It's a very weak and cringeworthy way of trying to get the crowd involved at best. It makes you look like an annoying contrarian at worst.

If you are selling CDs, why denigrate the media you're actively staking a portion of your livelihood to? Or if people are buying them, why put down your own listeners are anachronistic? Maybe there's a small chance it enlivens a person in the audience to make a stand, say: "You know what? I still purchase physical media and will do so because of those comments!" But minus that likely edge case, it makes no sense to me.

Like others above, I have over a thousand CDs, vinyls (mostly LPs, though I do have a smattering of 45s and 78s), and cassettes. No 8-tracks or reel-to-reels, though. In general, physical media is king for a reason, and I am particularly taken by MaJoC's quote about the resilience of dead trees.

Two final rambling thoughts to end my wandering message:

One: a local college-aged band several of my friends quite enjoyed and saw live many times recently broke up. The band did release several albums, but they were all online-only, with no known physical CDs. When they dissolved, they removed all of their songs from streaming services. While some music is meant to be ephemeral in nature, their fans sure do miss that there's now no way to ever again hear the band they supported live for a half-dozen years.

Two: I've recently started getting ads on several of the social media sites (though mainly Instagram -- I may be outing my age a bit here) for CD-exclusive non-streaming releases by smaller bands. It's particularly pumped up for Christmas, I suspect as an attempt to create a neat selling point for your musically-inclined friend, but I do hope the trend maintains itself.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: meself
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 11:23 AM

I made a couple of CDs many years ago, and sold enough to recoup the cost of making them - but I'm left with boxes full in basement. I've taken on some serious de-cluttering recently, and yesterday, for the first time, the thought came into my head that I may have to simply throw out hundreds of my own 'brand new', sealed in plastic wrap, CDs ....

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 11:49 AM

Meanwhile, back at the OP: The only known-working CD player in our house doubles up as the DVD player attached to the TV. Herself won't let me do cable runs to wire it up to the (limping) stereo kit, so I have to put up with the total lack of bass from the telly. *Sigh*.

--- A*ha*: I've just checked, and found that the CD/DVD player on the obsolete computer has a headphone socket on the front, which suggests that it can do audio playback. (More recent drives don't, and can't.) I feel a retirement project coming on. Wish me luck :-) .

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 11:51 AM

Of course I do, but only 5.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 12:24 PM

I think I don't own a CD player anymore. I have a CD drive on my computer and two Blu-Ray players, so I can play CDs if I want to - but I usually play CDs only to rip them onto my computer. And even then , I think I mostly listen to music on streaming services.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 12:40 PM

If we’re including DVD, I have at least 5 hard disc recorders with built in DVD/CD drives. And I originally forgot to include the 2 Brennan CD archiving devices - both with their own drives and there’s a CD player in the car and a portable in the motorhome and CD/Radio/Bluetooth player in the hall which I took out of the last motorhome but hasn’t made it to the new one.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: Chris_S
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 03:51 PM

I decided a few years ago to digitize my considerable vinyl collection using my PC hooked up to an amp and turntable. It was a daunting task but immensely rewarding. I aimed to do 1 LP each day and rediscovered so many albums I had once loved and many that I had only played once or twice. So while I worked on the PC, I could listen and enjoy as they recored. It took over a year and I now have all the music in Itunes to listen to whenever I wish. Many great folk albums came to light.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 06:12 PM

I can play CDs on my PC using several different programs.(not "apps")
and also on an original SONY battery powered player... and in my car.
I can also play them on either of two LP recoard players that will convert them to MP3s.
I even have a mini-disc player/recorder with many discs both used and blank.
   Just because some media seems to be outdated, don't make bets... LPs are making a comeback. (well, 8-track IS pretty well gone)

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: rich-joy
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 06:59 PM

I still have all the equipment and media and will continue to retain it. What I don't seem to have is much time .....

Reckon you can relate the above issue to books too. Despite a certain lack of space, I have a huge, wide-ranging personal collection. People say unbelievably stupid things to me like "You should toss 'em; you can get all the knowledge you need on the internet" OR "You don't need them; you can borrow whatever you need from the library".
Complete Dickheads.

And ever notice how housing for sale, whether via online pics or visiting them, is mostly too ashamed to display bookshelves, unless it's a row or two of airport lounge paperbacks???

No bloody wonder the world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket!!!
Just my 2 cent's worth.

Over 70 rant over (for now) :)
R-J

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 02 Dec 24 - 07:18 PM

RCA upright Crank 78 with one sided records

Standard 33/45/78 electric(16.5 adaptor for blind Bible)

Reel to Reel full size
Reel to Reel ultra miniture
Several cassette types

2 & 4 & 8 track

Automobile 45 that holds 8 and rests on the gear-shift hump.

CD and Bluetooth and Buds and flash

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Only thing missing is a dictaphone.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: DaveRo
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 02:55 AM

MaJoC the Filk wrote: ...found that the CD/DVD player on the obsolete computer has a headphone socket on the front, which suggests that it can do audio playback... I feel a retirement project coming on....

How about this?

"I love the pure nerdiness of this. Almost entirely useless but a brilliant hack."

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,Acorn4
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 03:54 AM

Minimalism -no!

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,Roderick A Warner
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 06:23 AM

I have a powerful amp and speakers that has connections for my two vinyl decks as I started buying records again some years back. One deck for brand new/ vgc the other for, well, everything else. Bluetooth connection so I can stream whatever I want from laptop/ipad/phone through Spotify or Bandcamp and various Internet shows. Have a few cassettes and I still buy the occasional one so a cassette plugged in amp as well. Cassettes still thrive in various underground subcultures. And a cd player: still have cds although I tend to play the vinyl more. I still love the adventure of finding new musics and discovering forgotten ones and have a very good source for vinyl at our Friday vintage market. A guy I’ve been dealing with for some years now… music in general at an interesting historic place across the world. Exciting, rather than doom and gloom.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 08:45 AM

I sympathise, rich-joy (from deep inside my bunker of books). As a counterexample to "you can get all the knowledge you need on the internet", I offer the following:

Amazon bought the rights to distribute certain titles, only to find later that they'd bought them from someone who didn't have the rights to sell said rights. They then reached out through L-Space, and remotely deleted copies of the titles in question from users' Kindles. One of said titles was 1984, which was thought appropriately ironic at the time. Hence the second verse of my filk Turn the Page Over, and the expression "Shrödinger's paperback". (For completeness, our daughter's now become a hardcopy hoarder in her own right. The fight goes on.)

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: Bearheart
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 02:20 PM

OF COURSE!

We have one in the kitchen; one in my office (though it is older and seems to be dying- the eject feature is not working well, so I only play CDs I have duplicates of in it); one in the bedroom, and one in my art studio which is a small Amish-built building, so not attached to the house); also my husband has a small portable that moves between the basement and our glassed in porch where we do potting up etc for the garden. Most of these actually are not fancy items, and will will probably eventually fail. I back up all of my CDs on my computer using ITUNES, and then I make "Working" copies to listen to- many of these are compilations of my favorite tunes either from favorite musicians or in a specific genre (Silly Wizard, Bothy Band, Ossian, Karan Casey, ETC or Scottish Gents or Child Ballads-various artists or Robbie Burns, that sort of thing). I would not be without a CD burner. And I will always maintain an archive on my computer.

We are giving our great nieces a decent but inexpensive CD player and CDs this Christmas. It is really annoying to go home for visits and they are glued to their IPhones because they don't have recordings to listen to and so they have not learned the words by heart, even to their favorite songs. We're a singing family , and we all look forward to these times together. I will be making a copy of my personal songbook for them as well, so they have hard copy to look at.

We are fortunate that the Friends of the Library here in Ithaca NY has a gigantic book sale twice a year, and they always have loads of CDs. I scored extra copies of 2 of Archie Fisher's CDs, 2 of Magpie's CDs and 3 Varttina CDs at the last sale-the extras will be Christmas presents. Also David Francey. Also I regularly buy gently used CDs on line at Alibris (where they are often quite cheap), and Discogs. I don't have a huge budget for music, but at this time in my life books and music are my main indulgences. I won't pay outrageous sums. Not doable.

I almost always buy CDs when musical acts I like come to town. I am still replacing old LPs from the past that are too warn to play any more. My collection of most of my old favorites is mostly complete. I was able to buy a couple of George Duff's "The Collier Laddie" on line from him recently. I fell in love with his singing through the Robert Burns collection that was done back in the day but didn't realize he had recorded this. I HIGHLY recommend. My sister will be getting the other copy for the holidays.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 03:37 PM

BBC - Why is vintage audio equipment booming?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyjvn658n6o

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 03:40 PM

Was going to add that we have a CD player in the car (12 years old). The eject doesn't work so it needs tweezers to change the CD. It's had a collection of Scottish Fiddle albums as mp3 in it for months.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 04:43 PM

When I bought my current used car, I made sure
to buy one that was old enough to have a CD player.
It also has the dials and buttons,
rather than the smartscreen dashboard which frightens me to death.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: robomatic
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 05:28 PM

I have several CD players although they are somewhat decaying with age. I have a couple of laptops than can read/ write CDs and DVDs. I try to keep a collection of converter cords and adapters. I have a VCR machine which may work if I hit it in the right place. I had a reel to reel machine which I am positive will not work.
My confidence in the permanence of digital media is nonexistent. My confidence in neural media is imaginary.

what were we talking about?

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 06:20 PM

All three, plus a Bose Wave Radio/CD player in the kitchen and a CD player in the car.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: pattyClink
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 07:35 PM

Two very best things about CDs.

You can directly support the people quietly doing great stuff with music genres you like, striving and performing in a way you love.

You can sample artists you have never heard of, and be enriched by them, and follow them into new directions.

CDs are great, as were albums and tapes. Streaming is nice in its own way, but gee you are subject to a lot of filtering along the way.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: Charmion
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 07:42 PM

Yes. Two of them, in fact, and there’s an old Discman stashed in a drawer somewhere.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: Bearheart
Date: 03 Dec 24 - 09:41 PM

Oh yes and in addition to the above- a CD player in the car-something we both insist on- though it also is set up to read flash drives loaded with many CDs, and my techie husband who loves gadgets has managed to put a lot of stuff on those. Of course he hasn't actually got to loading some of my favorites, so I play those on the player. Can't go anywhere without the music, esp since Trump got elected. Can't listen to news while I'm driving!!!! And of course Terry Pratchett audio books for the long drives.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 04 Dec 24 - 03:59 AM

I blame the car manufacturers. I was quite happy for some years buying and listening to cassettes in my car (and vinyl at home), until my new car had a CD player. I then got wedded to CDs for years, which could also be played at home. Now cars don’t have CD players fitted, so I have to record my vinyl, CDs or even cassettes onto a memory stick to be able to listen to them when driving, which is like reverting to the old days of laboriously compiling cassette tapes of your own favourites. I know you can do that digitally with iPods now, but the car manufacturers assume we all just want to listen to new freely available mainstream stuff all the time, and never revisit older music we might have collected, or indeed explore older or non-mainstream music.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: Johnny J
Date: 04 Dec 24 - 04:50 AM

I remember when they made special turntables so that you could listen to vinyl "on the move". They had them in vehicles and also portable gadgets you could carry around.

They didn't catch on. Either they weren't very reliable or superseded by better technology, I guess.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 04 Dec 24 - 05:21 AM

Clearly there is a generational issue: older people tend to collect things, such as photographs, books, recordings, sheet music, maps,etc. whereas younger people don’t need to, because all of these things can be sourced digitally now, and either stored or deleted after use. The sad part of the disposable culture is that there is no incentive to revere, treasure or revisit such stuff, and once deleted it tends to be forgotten and regarded as of no value. I’m a hopeless collector of all those things, but I can understand the modern view - why bother, when it all ends up in a skip bound for landfill when you die? I guess it’s my cheerfulness that keeps me going.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 04 Dec 24 - 12:44 PM

friend of mine used to put out an annual appeal for music-related photos with a connection to an Irish village.

It worked well until about ten years ago when the regular supply began to dwindle seriously.

Because of course, paper photos have given way to digital ones & OK it's simple to print them off, but in reality people don't do it & it needs a lot of imagination & effort to assemble the calendar nowadays

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,Rob Mad Jock Wright
Date: 08 Dec 24 - 07:32 AM

Yes of course I have a CD player infact several. I am not sure how many ,plus a Sony Walkman, a record player for all my vinyl, a VHS re order for my videos. And a rather large boxy TV withVHS recorder , just in case.

The problem is there are also several hundred copies of several C D s under the bed that no one wants to buy.

So every now and then I donate them to a charity raffle or give them out for free at the odd gig. I ask politely that they donate something for the Scottish Mental Health Charity SAMH.

20% of all Angie Wright’s performance fees and sales go to SAMH

Also available on Spotify.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: Mark Ross
Date: 08 Dec 24 - 03:02 PM

I just bought on of those contraptions, CD player, cassette palayer, radio, and vinyl record player. I have all those, CD's, records, cassettes. Mostly I use it to listen to NPR.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 08 Dec 24 - 05:01 PM

Beware of multi-function thingamibobs. One of the selling points for the TV we got was that it had a DVD/CD player built in, which was fine for a while; then it swallowed a DVD without either fully engaging it or permitting it to be ejected.* We've now got a freestanding CD/DVD player, and the TV has forgiven me for attacking it with screwdrivers to liberate the DVD.

* And of course the TV was way out of warranty, and the shop had evaporated.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,John from Kemsing
Date: 09 Dec 24 - 06:28 AM

Yes. "In"doors, In the car, "In"valuable.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: DaveRo
Date: 10 Dec 24 - 05:11 AM

My first CD player in the '90s, a big black Philips box, had an 'index' button on the front. It allows you to jump to a position within a track, rather like having tracks within tracks, and is aimed at long classical works.

Please explain what INDEX is on a CD

I remember thinking, when I started copying vinyl LPs to CD and mp3 that it might be easier to record eack side as one track, and then add indexes at the start of each song using the timings on the sleeve. I'm glad I didn't because nearly all my subsequent players didn't support it - though my current 'hifi' player does.

Back then I didn't have any classical CDs. How I have quite a few and I've never seen one that used indexes - though I'm not sure how I'd know.

Has anybody ever had a CD that used this feature?

'a-b repeat' OTOH I used a lot when learning sings. Even my portable players could do that.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,Charles Macfarlane
Date: 10 Dec 24 - 06:07 AM

"Please explain what INDEX is on a CD"

Audio CDs are written in the so-called 'red book' format, of which a very brief technical overview is given here. However, indexes are barely mentioned:

https://www.travsonic.com/red-book-cd-format/

AFAIAA, most CDs don't use indexes, so to my conscious knowledge I've never encountered them personally, despite owning a number of classical CDs, all of which have been backed up onto my servers. Consequently, I can only suggest that, if a search for 'CD format' doesn't find a good enough answer for you, you try searching for something like 'red book CD format' instead.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: DaveRo
Date: 10 Dec 24 - 06:35 AM

Yes, I know what CD track indexes are. I was wondering if anybody had ever seen a CD with indexed tracks.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: maire-aine
Date: 15 Dec 24 - 07:10 PM

Absolutely! I have all three. Two turntables, two CD players, and even two cassette players. And I still buy CDs. I just wish more movies were available on DVDs instead of streaming.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 16 Dec 24 - 06:22 AM

I have a CD player. Also a turntable and cassette player. I also have a CD player in my car, although when I next change the car that feature will probably be lost.

I prefer to buy a physical product, with its artwork and sleeve notes, even if these are sadly diminished since the days of LPs. I often copy these to the computer as well (and most CD sales now also come with a download), but on the whole I actually find downloads are less convenient, since modern software seems to be designed to play randomised playlists and has to be bullied into playing complete albums.

I hardly ever stream music. I'll occasionally use Spotify to explore new music, but if I like it I'll then buy it, preferably direct from the artist. Streamers pay a pittance to the artists, and Spotify is now quite brazenly withholding payments from small artists whose tracks don't get enough streams.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 16 Dec 24 - 09:20 AM

Going back to DaveRo's question regarding the 'index' feature, the only CD I've seen it on is a best of Steeleye Span compilation.

On the track Bach Goes to Limerick, there is an index point where the tune proper starts (about 1 minute in). That's the only one on the entire CD though.

As far as I remember, my late '80s CD player displayed the information, but didn't allow me to do anything with it.

Subject: RE: 'Do you still own a CD player?'
From: DaveRo
Date: 16 Dec 24 - 10:32 AM

The remote control of my CD player has a single button INDEX. I think that skips forward to the next index point but without a CD to test with I'm not sure. If I press it, the player appears to seek for several seconds, before starting again at the beginning of the track. So I guess an index is like a tape mark on magnetic tape.

I have several CDs where a track comprises several tunes run together (an example is in this thread.) It might be (slightly) useful in such cases.