Used music CD's

[brutal]

Reel - Reel here, son.

All the good stuff was once laid down and mastered on tape. Just saying.

[TheGrey]

Tradesmart does, too. Actually, there are a bunch of places on Broadway that deal in used CDs. I think there's a place in Aurora, next to the "Unique" second-hand shop that also will buy used CDs.

We burn them, digitally store them, but still hang onto them. Because they are ours, Preciousssss.

[Skip]

As USMC88-93 points out, make sure you choose the format you want before getting rid of the CDs. I keep mine so I have the option of changing formats or recording density -- when I first began ripping my CDs so I could carry my music more easily, I used 128 kbps, sometimes 160 for "high" resolution in order to keep file sizes manageable. Nowadays, I'd want 192 kbps for the car and 256+ for home use.

I won't get into "fair use" defense since I detest the DMCA and RIAA but from an ethical standpoint, selling or giving away your CD but keeping the digital copy is depriving the artist of his/her cut on that album. If you keep or trash the CD, all you've done is change formats, much like those of us that taped record albums so we could carry more music on cassette tapes (yes, I'm old as fsck).

^ This is best advice!

I keep mine as well. I also try to buy anything new I like on CD even if I have to pick up extra tracks from iTunes.

CDs are a near lossless perfect representation of the master--took us 100 years to figure this out. Every other format features some kind of compression. As storage costs decrease, this is less necessary but it's the tech we have. And I have yet to meet anyone that rips to RAW.

Will that matter for most people? Probably not. But I do hear a difference on my Sony system when I play a CD vs streaming from iTunes via Airport Express or an iThingy. YMMV.

[brutal]

^ This is best advice!

I keep mine as well. I also try to buy anything new I like on CD even if I have to pick up extra tracks from iTunes.

CDs are a near lossless perfect representation of the master--took us 100 years to figure this out. Only master tape to Vinyl avoids some form of compression. Every other format features some kind of compression. As storage costs decrease, this is less necessary but it's the tech we have. And I have yet to meet anyone that rips to RAW.

Will that matter for most people? Probably not. But I do hear a difference on my Sony system when I play a CD vs streaming from iTunes via Airport Express or an iThingy. YMMV.

FIFY

Another way to say that would be "Every other DIGITAL format features some kind of compression."

Are studios recording in lossless digital formats now?

[izzy]

I rip everything to flac, that's lossless and doesn't use compression but results in larger files.

edit: turns out flac does use compression but is losless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAC

[blacklabel]

I ripped all of my CDs in 2006 and got maybe $250-$300 for 500+ CDs then. I can't imagine you'll get much more than $.25 to $.50 a piece now.

[Skip]

FIFY

Another way to say that would be "Every other DIGITAL format features some kind of compression."

Are studios recording in lossless digital formats now?

My understanding is they are and that means there is no tape to begin with but a digital master. Ken Andrews (love his work) was one of the first major producers to stick his neck out defending it almost ten years ago.

I have some vinyl myself but it doesn't get played enough. It's a long process but I rip that to WAV, run the filters on it, import into iTunes, then convert to AAC for the iThingies. You lose the warm tones and the experience is different but I can't lug a turntable around. My buddy has really nice setup with a turntable and I really like that sound but he spent a lot of $$$.

And I will always keep my vinyl just like I keep my CDs.

Another villain is extreme DRC. When this is abused, the medium doesn't matter. Great pieces on this from CNET on that if anyone is interested...

http://www.cnet.com/news/whats-the-d...o-compression/
http://www.cnet.com/news/compression...ng-your-music/

If you buy iTunes or Amazon MP3 files you're getting dynamically compressed, lossy compressed music. Congratulations, you're getting the worst of both forms of compression! You can avoid lossy compression by buying the CD, but chances are it will still be dynamically compressed.

[Bailey Guns]

My 8-Track collection could use an update...

[rondog]

If ya still wanna sell 'em, I might be innerested if you have some good rock.....and the price is right.

[Zundfolge]

I'd keep them if you can. If you lose a hard drive then you'll have to go re-buy all of it (or get it through less than legal means).

Keep in mind that there are two types of people in the world. Those that have lost a hard drive and those that will.