Only time I use CDs is burning them for the car. No aux input in my car so its either cd or radio and I rarely listen to the radio.

@nematode said:

I stick to cassette/mp3/vinyl myself, CDs have no place in my life.

cassettes? interesting. I have a few cassettes I play since my car has a cassette player. Recently picked up the best of Kenny Rogers cassette for 50 cents to check out.

CDS for the car. I have a sync in my car that hooks up with my ipod but it's just too difficult to mess with while driving.

What are CDs? harddrive connected to your car audio via usb or at home get tbs of music on internal harddrives in your computer pushed through amps and fatty speaks or STFU...!

yeah wtf

I spend about an hour and a half in my car on days where I have school and work (most days.... ) So I rely pretty heavily on CDs. I do have an auxiliary jack to hook my phone or an ipod or something into my cars stereo, but I don't wanna be tempted to pull my phone out to change songs when I can just hit a button on my steering wheel and change the song or the disc using a CD.

At home, I prefer vinyl or digital, but I still use CD's frequently. Mainly because the laptop where the majority of my music (well not majority, but easily accesiable) has a screen which no longer works and is currently stuck on a desk in my room hooked into an external monitor.

So burning a disc to play in the living room has become a common ritual on drunk nights when I gotta hear some specific set or a song, which leads to filling out the discs with other random songs that I can think of off the top of my head, which leads to some rather eclectic CDs which usually end up in my car for future use.

AAAAAnd my post has gone full circle.

Oh, to answer the question, I have exactly one functioning CD player now that the one in my car stopped working, so I basically never use them except when I'm doing something in the kitchen. If I'm on my computer and want to listen to one of them, half the time I'm too lazy to go look for it and just illegally download the FLACs instead.

yeah, i know.

"mastered for 8-track"

"mastered for wax cylinder."

Like 5 years ago. Haven't used one in years.

I am 90% CD free and have been since last summer. My wife's car is the only one not but we are not in there all that often.

I'm in between. Whats the best way to convert preexisting CD's to digital? Ext. harddrive?

I buy CDs and rip them to my PC so that I can put them on my iPod. CDs then go in my cabinet. I like the initial tactile experience of handling the CD, reading the liner notes, looking at photos, etc. I also like having an archival copy of music that is really important to me in case my computer crashes and I lose everything. I have an external hard drive to back music files up on, but that could crash, too. I also have an extensive collection of vinyl. I grew up with records, and the physical artifact is part of the enjoyment of music for me. I've bought a bunch of the Grateful Dead box sets like the Winterland 73 and Winterland 77, Dave's Picks, etc., and I love reading the extensive liner notes, looking at photos, etc. while I put them on my computer. Even after I've loaded them on my PC/iPod, I'll get them out and listen to them on the CD when I'm sitting around listening to music at home. Not only does it sound better, but it is a much more engaging listening experience to handle the physical object, load it in the player, etc. This is even more true of listening to records.

I have a buddy who buys CDs, puts them on his PC/iPod and then sells them on Amazon or Ebay and has no physical collection. He has a lot of this on his PC at work. Over Christmas break, the IT guys wiped everything out on his computer, and he lost all of his music.

Mini discs have come and gone but the good old compact disc still has life as a relevant product.

I'm with @Angler here, I will buy a CD unless I absolutely cannot find one anywhere near me. Having the liner notes and all the packaging is big for me plus I have it backed up.

I hate cds

I still buy CDs on the reg. But also purchase albums via the net as well. I like having something physical. Plus some of the booklets are pretty cool with the CDs.

I just started getting into FLAC/lossless audio files, so I guess I prefer the CD quality, but unless I'm in my car that only has a CD player, i'm 100% digital.

@AugustWest2001 said:

Flac is just as digitally pure as a cd, just compressed - right?

Yup, no difference whatsoever. Technically, if it was ripped from a CD, you have to make sure that it was done accurately with a program like Exact Audio Copy (EAC), but these days, most people who care enough to use FLAC are probably going to use EAC anyway, so it's not really a big deal.

its been about 2 years of being cd free as in physically placing one in a player to listen to music...all my music is stored as flac (majority) and some mp3 (music given to me from phish ticket stubs, or my co-worker that has anything and everything i can think of)

I really miss my 8-Tracks though....

I should add I don't really buys CDs outside of shows that have a booth for the artist(s).

we were at my grandma's house on christmas eve, for dinner; she has an old-school portable CD player/boombox. we were going through a pile of christmas music cd's and it was my turn to change the CD. it took me a minute to 'remember' how to use the dam thing

@Capricornio said:

How do you like Subsonic? I was recently looking into this. Do you stream from your own computer or did you purchase one of their server packages? Does it work well?

Nothing to lose! It is free. If you want your own domain name, you need to make a one-time donation. Otherwise can just use an IP address.

PM me and I'll set you up on my server for a couple of days to check it out. No need to buy a server package if you have half decent bandwidth at home. My computer is always on and I have FiOS so there is no need in my case.

Subsonic also does video which is pretty sweet. And you can cache any of your folders for offline use.

@dsanbensoff said:

It is sad to think that people use mp3 as a replacement for a CD.

Only if their mp3 bit rate is under 256 kbps.

I've tested ALAC vs an 320 kbps mp3 and the difference is hardly noticeable; even with proper headphones.

Ditch the CDs?? Never!!!

I'm partial towards vinyl, but I got pretty heavily invested in CDs back in the early 80's, and I've got a couple of thousand, so I'm still buying them. My g/f subscribed me to Dave's Picks, so I'm definitely not done with the format. As digital recording technology continues to catch up with where analog was, the potential of the format is still expanding. I'd like to believe that the turn towards high resolution digital files is going to render them obsolete, but when people are happy with a 128kbps MP3, I don't see this happening.

I'm actually looking to buy the Oppo BDP 105 Universal BluRay Player, an audiophile grade component that plays any audio or video format available. It also has a high-end DAC built into it along with wireless and LAN inputs so you can use it to stream your ripped audio files (which I also have). It's an all-in-one music server for your digital entertainment needs.