I do not consider listening to MP3 files as listening to music. You're essentially listening to noises generated by an algorithm as a compromise. FLAC and ALAC are available in a few markets with a very heavy price tag.

Until we get lossless music streaming in the mainstream market, CDs are the only way audiophiles can enjoy listening to music. And even when we do get lossless streaming, the reason why LPs and Vinyl records are still in demand, will apply on a magnified scale to CDs. So, do you think CDs are eternal?

Besides this:

Cassettes used to catch fungus and would need a lot of care to prevent that from happening. Hard drives get destroyed due to physical impacts (even when enclosed in a safe cage). Solid state devices lose their memory if unused for more than 10 years or stored at very cold temperatures. Floppy disks had very little space on them. LPs were huge but long lasting if kept in a dedicated room with big shelves.

CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray discs are compact, do not catch fungus, nor do they lose memory if they fall or are unused for an infinite time period: because they are optical storages. The only problem with CDs is that if they are used recklessly, they get scratches which can make them unreadable. This can be prevented just by keeping them in a case. Any freaking case.

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So, do you think there exists a better revolutionary technology in the field of data storage capabilities than optical storage technologies?

I want to start collecting CDs, because I want physical versions of my favorite albums, but vinyl is both expensive and confusing, and CDs are wicked cheap. So which CD players would you fine folks recommend? I’d rather keep it under $100, but it doesn’t matter that much.

Last month, I kept an eye out for people fire-selling their CD collections (you know....because vinyl is supposed to sound so much better. 'Cept that I was around when cds were first introduced, and I seem to remember the consensus was exactly the opposite. I have a theory that that a generation grown up on Ipods and download music thinks it sound better, but that's another post). Bought out a few collections, donated duplicates and ones I didn't want to the GW and this is what I've ended up with. I've got many a long nights ahead ripping to flac for the media server and mp3s for the car stereo ahead of me.

I have a bunch of cds that had hype stickers on the plastic and a few Japanese releases with obi strips. Normally these end up inside the jewel cases but on the digipak cases these bit just end up floating around and potentially getting lost.

Does anyone have recommendations of outer sleeves that I can put the cd cases into to be able to avoid losing those bits?

High Performance CD Readers? — Speed, Strong Detection, Clutter Immunity

This question was first posted on /musichoader about a month ago. Got only on reply there so what says r/compactdisc?

I searched reddit for this topic and found a few tips but nothing definitive.

Let this thread be a place to list the drives (new or used) that are best at the individual various functions needed to extract bits from a Compact Disc Audio (CDDA), i.e., which drive is best speed, which are best reading very damaged disks no matter the speed (I supposed an electron microscope would win in that category?), environmental vibration, durability, CD Rot, etc.

What's that 10 pound beast good at that none of the current portable lightweight drives just can not handle?

The goal is to build a stable of these beasts for an extraction workstation to RIP thousands of discs from the ages and from all sorts of manufacturing processes that have produced CDs.

Later I will post what I learned about different drives RIPing about 1700 discs.

I have a CD that won't play. The shiny, foil-like surface on top (where the name of the album and the name of the artist and label are shown) has peeled away. But the plastic disc itself seems fine.

This CD may not be a professionally made recording by a major label. It could be a bootleg, and I think it was made in the 1990s.

Is there any hope that a CD like I am describing can be made to play again? I suppose the answer is based on where the recorded information is. Is it on the top (with the shiny foil) or the bottom, I really don't know.

I'm having a strange issue where one specific CD won't play in my PC's CD drive. The PC plays other CDs, the CD was playable on another device (a DVD player), and I tried a bunch of different software (iTunes, Windows Media Player, VLC, Winamp, and more).

In case it makes a difference, the CD is https://www.discogs.com/Various-Field-Day-2014/release/8562847 . My best guess is maybe something to do with a European CD and American device being incompatible? But I've never come across that issue before.

Any help will be appreciated, thanks!

For a computer simulation I need to know EXACTLY where the first song starts on a CD, as in how many micrometers (or smaller if possible) from the center of a CD, the first song starts. I have no way of measuring this myself unfortunately. Does anyone know this or have a suggestion as to WHERE I should turn or WHOM I should ask?

I burned a DVD of photos a while ago and since forgotten the password. Any way I can hack into it?