It's official: Audiophiles are over CDs

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

The end is near, another war seems imminent, oil prices continue to rise, the dollar is in free fall, and now audiophiles have abandoned the CD.

Don't get the wrong idea: they haven't all dumped their CD players for turntables (I wish). Instead, they've bought music servers of some kind or another. How can this be happening?

I read the sad news on the Stereophile July 6 voting feature (scroll down to see results).

That week's question: how do you listen to digital music? The poll says 34 percent still use CD players as their primary digital source. Yikes, I would have guessed much higher, more like 70 percent. Thirty-six percent use a computer-based server, and 10 percent use dedicated servers such as Sonos or Squeezebox. Another 4 percent use iPods! I felt a little better that 11 percent use a SACD or DVD-Audio player. Another 3 percent voted "other."

Mind you, these are the Stereophile online readers, presumably the print readership would skew towards CD players. Or not.

Regardless, something's going on. Audiophiles tend to be a conservative bunch, or at least I thought they were. Me? I listen primarily to CDs and maybe 20 percent of the time to LPs. I cannot imagine using a music server anytime soon, and sound quality issues have nothing to do with that. I like picking music from my collection. It's a touchy-feely, organic process. One album leads to the next, or I accidentally find something I haven't listened to in years.

What about you? What are you listening with?

[blusky08]

The music companies have ruined what should be a joyous and shared human experience with greed and control, so I no longer listen to new music.

[henebry]

There's also something wonderful about a hands-off computer-based system that allows you access to your whole collection, doesn't clutter your bookshelves with jewel cases, and which can be set to choose songs randomly from a playlist.

And, with the cost of storage space low as it is, the digital music files on the server can be CD-quality.

[andrewrm]

I've completely converted 200+ CDs to MP3. Now that Amazon sells higher bit rate DRM free tracks I've started to buy my music with them Before I'd buy the CD, rip it and then it would go into my basement with the rest of my CDs probably never to be used again. The difference in sound quality is comparatively small particularly when listening to my iPhone in noisy environments such as the subway

[oce.net]

Born after the era of records ended- my collection consists of half CDs and half purely digital files of varying qualities. I worked in a record store- where I began my CD collection- gobbling up many a album- bringing them home to listen to on the best CD player I could find. I'd sit there- soaking in the sound of the entire album. I had already bought a fair amount of purely digital tracks- but listening to CDs introduced me to the album experience- which I enjoyed greatly. I've stopped buying as many CDs since then- the new Viva La Vida pushing me towards the belief that the artists don't seem to care as much as they used to about their CD releases. Now I purchase most of my new music via Amazon or eMusic- landing me out of the land of the fidelity obsessed audiophile- and into the land of the all out music lover. I don't really pull my CDs out- leaving them as well organized and taken care of back ups. My hard drive is instead filled with 320 kbps MP3s (for space reasons) and Apple Lossless files. I will always keep my CDs- both for backup of their experience- and for their album art and components.

[the Otter]

I?ve got an old Power Mac G3 sitting in my ?server room? (the closet in my home office) serving up my 11,000-plus?track audio collection. It?s got a 160GB mirrored PATA RAID for the system disks and a 500GB mirrored SATA RAID for the music. It runs iTunes quite nicely, is easily accessible via Screen Sharing, and can send music to any or all of the six AirPort Expresses around the house (one in each bedroom, one in the family room, one in the living room, and one in the game room).

In short: s-weet!

[dannynono]

I've found myself buying less and less CDs over the past couple years and moving toward online DRM files. Similar to previous poster, the CDs I do purchase get ripped to AAC lossless and shared throughout the home. I'm down to a handful (both hands) of CD purchases per year.

[cruiseliner]

Modern Audiophiles make or get digital copies of LP's.
Your collection can grow with quality non-lossy rips of classic LP's.

The fact the computer server number is so low is disheartening.

That being said LP's aren't always the best (oh sacrilege), take for example the remastered Boston CD's from last year.. amazing! Or the hunt in used CD shops for those Steve Hoffman mastered classics.

I just feel for those that won't listen to some incredible music created in the recent 10-20 years because its not up to snuff for their ears and they would rather listen to an artist that they can't stand (say a limited pressing of 100 LP's for a Japan Harvest like quality release of some Eddie Rabbit LP.. one that doesn't have 'I love a rainy night'.

[ballssalty]

The source of my music is CD's. I'll first listen to them in my car stereo, then rip them to MP3's for my media server and listen from there. While I mostly listen from a media server I still buy CD's. I want my source material to be the best when I convert to high quality MP3's.

[minimalist]

I am strictly using iTunes filled with high bit rate files to stream music all over the house. I control it all wirelessly from my iPhone. I would never go back to my CD's or vinyl other than for a nostalgia trip.

You are correct that audiophiles are a conservative bunch, hence my hesitancy to call myself one. But I do care about getting decent sound out of my system. For some audiophiles the sky is always falling (remember when CD's were a sign of the end of hi fidelity in the early 80's?). Why can't they just look at all the positives of digital music?

Take cover art and liner notes for instance, Why lament the demise of these traditions when you have the the wide open possibilities of the web to find out more about a band or their influences? I'll take a laptop anyday over some 6 page booklet in a jewel case.

[FrquencyModulator]

Being the Luddite that I am, I was one of the last to convert from tube to solid state, vinyl LP to CD, VHS to DVD. Now I'm looking to retrograde to tube amps, preamps, and receivers. I may die before ever going to servers. My 1972 Cerwin Vega speakers are still going strong and sound far better than any contemporary units while powered by my old Marantz receiver. Guess I'm just an old analogue guy living in a scary new digital world.

[minimalist]

I am strictly using iTunes filled with high bit rate files to stream music all over the house. I control it all wirelessly from my iPhone. I would never go back to my CD's or vinyl other than for a nostalgia trip.

You are correct that audiophiles are a conservative bunch, hence my hesitancy to call myself one. But I do care about getting decent sound out of my system. For some audiophiles the sky is always falling (remember when CD's were a sign of the end of hi fidelity in the early 80's?). Why can't they just look at all the positives of digital music?

Take cover art and liner notes for instance, Why lament the demise of these traditions when you have the the wide open possibilities of the web to find out more about a band or their influences? I'll take a laptop anyday over some 6 page booklet in a jewel case.

[daschenbrener]

I agree this is the way the market has gone. What programs are people using to manage their music or what are you running as software for a music server??

[soundman45]

As long as they are capturing and storing their audio at 24/96k on their hard drives, I guess we can still call them audiophiles.

[dannveld]

I am in the process of moving towards a computer-based musical server, but this is not limiting my purchase of CDs. My current collection of CD's is just over 1,000 and it is taking me months using EAC and Media Monkey to encode them into lossless FLAC format and then get all the tags rights. But, once I am done I will have full access to my library in a number of different ways. Right now, I am streaming the FLAC files to my PS3 using Tversity. I now that the quality is exactly the same as if I was playing the WAV files directly from the CD.

I also have the option of converting the music to high-bit-rate compressed files for use on my MP3 player. It's amazing how much music you can carry around, even at a high bit rate, on just 4MB.

I will admit, that I do miss the browsing of the physical CDs, but I think the trade-off is worth it over the long run. And, as I said in the beginning, I am still buying CDs and will be as long as they are offered. I want the liner notes, the physical media and the qualty that will never be available from MP3 downloads.

[kg4zxk]

Well I remember LP's, 45's, 8 track and cassette. Anymore I have a ton of CD's that I have not listened to in years. I have been loading them onto my iPod where some of these are finding new life. I like being able to take all my music with me and being able to select any song in my collection.

[smokified]

It is obvious that if there is a less expensive, less space consuming, more convenient way to do things, people are going to go that route. With CDs you have a whole lot of songs but you really probably only like 2-4 songs per CD on average. With digital downloads you get to pick and choose which songs to add to your library. I think the choice is a no brainer.

[El_Mikee]

My only worry is that sometimes, one can forget to back up all your music; sure you can rip it again from a cd, but what about purchased files... worse, DRM´d files!!!... i Guess there will always be pros and cons about music. What really matters is the experience. Oh, and i love my iPod.

[MadLyb]

There are a lot of details missing from this article.

People may be using music servers (I have for almost a decade), but where did they source the digital files? In my case, it is still CD that are ripped to WAV (Hey, it was the only option when I started and I had access to lot's of disk) and indexed strictly by file location and name. I just started my third TB of storage (which has fortumately gotten very cheap),

I keep trying to move to a Lossless format, but none have gained a universal traction across devices. When one does, I will start the arduous task of transcoding and attaching Metadata, but in terms of source I don't see a solution beyond CD until mainstream adopts a lossless format.

[ndurantz]

For myself, it is an aspiration to become an audiophile. I love music and want to enjoy it at the optimum level possible, but money hasn't allowed me to get there..........yet. I have a plan, though! :o) But that is really a statement regarding my hardware.

As far as the tunes themselves go, the value of the music dictates what format I buy. A artist I love? CD or (SACD/DVD Audio if I can find it). An artist I am interested in? 192 or better digital file. A single that is the passing fad of the moment? 128 or better.

That being said, I am trying to get my entire collection of CD's on my Mac in lossless format, so I will always have them. Off of my hard drive and iPod are my current listening methods. What can I say? I am a father of a 1 year old, pursuing my MBA and work 40+ hours a week. My time to sit and enjoy a CD is limited at best.

[nachurboy]

I switched to a server-based platform a long time ago when I got tired of my CD's getting scratched by the slightest touch. To me, going server-based is equivalent to the transition between a cassette tape to CD. I'm no longer bound by a linear action. In the case of the Tape to CD, I could now freely go from one song to another without REW/FF. With the move to a server-based platform, I can now go from one album to another without ejecting and inserting a new CD. As far as perusing the collection, I see no difference between physically thumbing through a stack of cases and flipping between album cover artwork.