Buying CDs. Why?

[cloughie]

An omen for 2014. Sad to hear from the grocer's some weeks ago that they will only supply downloads from March 2014.

Now that is a shame - they were giving the River people price competition and I've had some good sets from them.

[amateur51]

Now that is a shame - they were giving the River people price competition and I've had some good sets from them.

Me too, and free p&p.

[hafod]

An omen for 2014. Sad to hear from the grocer's some weeks ago that they will only supply downloads from March 2014.

Thank you for the tip. Sad to see another hardware supplier pulling out. Still, I have more than enough discs in my collection to see me out. I suppose I should be thankful that the collection will grow a little slower although I have already cut down on additions considerably in recent months.

[richardfinegold]

Only last week I received a film sealed double CD album (Levit's Beethoven late sonatas), to find a significant chip of polycarbonate missing from, and a further small crack in, the region surrounding the central hole. The disc does play, but given the eccentric distribution of mass, and the high rotation speeds of CD players, I thought it best to rip and backup the faulty disc, rather than risk unnecessary wear on the drives of CD players. The missing chip of polycarbonate was nowhere to be found inside the case, so the damage must have been done before it was packaged. Black mark for Sony' s quality control procedures. I am seeking a replacement from the vendor, though only the legal responsibility for, not the causation of, the fault lies with them, rather than with Sony. Hopefully the vendor can, and will, seek redress from Sony.

Wow. I have purchased thousands of Polycarbonate discs and never had anything like that happen. My biggest annoyance are the jewell cases that mange to break into 20 or so pieces upon first being opened.
I just had a hard drive fail today, after a grand life span of 6 weeks, with a few hundred discs burned to it. These things are digital fruit flies. Fortunately I had made a backup drive. Downloading failures and drive deaths are a common phenomenon for me; defective discs, not so much.

[johnb]

I just had a hard drive fail today, after a grand life span of 6 weeks, with a few hundred discs burned to it. These things are digital fruit flies. Fortunately I had made a backup drive. Downloading failures and drive deaths are a common phenomenon for me; defective discs, not so much.

Lucky that you had a backup.

What make/model of HDD was it?

Was it an external HDD or an internal HDD (i.e. one inside your computer)?

[richardfinegold]

Lucky that you had a backup.

What make/model of HDD was it?

Was it an external HDD or an internal HDD (i.e. one inside your computer)?

External HD, a LaCie 3TB drive, of which I had used about 5%. This isn't the first drive to fail on me, but it is the first that I was using for music archiving.

[johnb]

It is always possible that the HDD is actually OK but that the LaCie hardware has failed. Assuming that it is a straightforward external HDD, you could open up the LaCie, remove the HDD and install it in either enclosure (if you have one handy) or in your computer (if you have a spare bay).

[vinteuil]

It is always possible that the HDD is actually OK but that the LaCie hardware has failed. Assuming that it is a straightforward external HDD, you could open up the LaCie, remove the HDD and install it in either enclosure (if you have one handy) or in your computer (if you have a spare bay).

... and people still wonder why I prefer CDs.

[jayne lee wilson]

... and people still wonder why I prefer CDs.

Having travelled far into 24-bit downloads (troublefree, thankfully) and all the way back to buying CDs again, I'd always say just, "trust your instincts" and enjoy!
But the last few posts are a bit ... not that problemsolving can't be fun in itself! Of course it can! You can play a CD while you figure it out...

[David-G]

I just had a hard drive fail today, after a grand life span of 6 weeks, with a few hundred discs burned to it. These things are digital fruit flies. Fortunately I had made a backup drive. Downloading failures and drive deaths are a common phenomenon for me; defective discs, not so much.

The possibility of hard-drive failure is for me a constant worry. I try hard to keep copies of everything on at least two hard drives, but that requires me to be extremely methodical, and I am not sure that I always manage to achieve that.

[teamsaint]

Having travelled far into 24-bit downloads (troublefree, thankfully) and all the way back to buying CDs again, I'd always say just, "trust your instincts" and enjoy!
But the last few posts are a bit ... not that problemsolving can't be fun in itself! Of course it can! You can play a CD while you figure it out...

Oh, I thought" listening" to music while doing something else wasn't allowed.

Anyway, there is so much to enjoy on good old fashioned CD that I don't feel constrained by that method of listening.

[Stunsworth]

The possibility of hard-drive failure is for me a constant worry. I try hard to keep copies of everything on at least two hard drives, but that requires me to be extremely methodical, and I am not sure that I always manage to achieve that.

When I used a Windows PC I used this software to automatically keep a drive in sync with the master...

http://www.techsoftpl.com/backup/index.php

It works automatically in the background.

Now that I use Macs I have two Macs, one in the office, the other in the living room. I add music to the office system and then copy it to the one connected to the main hifi. I also use Time Machine to provide backups.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Sometimes I think of the many hours I spent ripping my CDs to an 80 Gigabyte iPod, and how the latter sits there untouched for most of the time, but I play the CDs…

[Pianoman]

Ditto here - the iPod is great but more and more is used purely as a holiday device

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And then there's the pleasure of choosing a CD to give as a gift: you select something that you know the recipient doesn't have, but that you think s/he'll enjoy - and their pleasure and surprise when they receive it. So much more indicative of friendship than a download token.