5 ms·

I buy CDs because I want to own my music, instead of renting low-quality versions from a company that can unilaterally block my access on a whim, degrades quali

I buy CDs because I want to own my music, instead of renting low-quality versions from a company that can unilaterally block my access on a whim, degrades quality with watermarks, includes DRM so I can't listen where I want, and forces me to use their shitty software that only works on half my devices. CDs are often cheaper than renting the vendor-locked versions, and it only takes a couple minutes to rip a high-quality version. That said, I'll pay even more if they offer high-quality downloads on Bandcamp.

blacklion 5y ago
> and it only takes a couple minutes to rip a high-quality version. Which drive do you use? My specially-selected-for-the-task drive (selected 10 year ago, to be honest, and I don't know what I will do when it dies, all modern drives looks to be crap) with firmware tuned for audio grabbing takes ~1.1x to grab CD, so 45 minutes CD will be grabbed in 1h20m (because you need check pass, of course, to have high-quality version!).
- dsr_ 5y ago
  On a well-made, new-out-of-the-box CD, a modern cheap drive should have no problems ripping at 48x with full CDparanoia checking. It is much more likely that you will be getting a loudness-war mastering problem than a bad copy of the data. That you can only fix with better source data.
  - blacklion 4y ago
    It is completely opposite to my experience, Exact Audio Copy with Secure (not Paranoid) mode, with enabled "defeat audio cache" feature grabs modern new CD on proven SATA LiteOn drive slightly faster than realtime, and slim USB attached drive could spent 3-4x time (0.25x) and fail at the end! And, yes, old Audio CD (new old stock, 10-15 years old) can be grabbed at 6-8x speed. Looks like new Audio CD pressed much worse than old ones. I don't believe in 48x exact extraction, sorry.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
soco 5y ago
Right! I try though to buy the CDs directly from the artists - when I catch them live even better - in the hope more of that money goes in their pockets like that.
ac29 4y ago
There are services that let you buy music as uncompressed, DRM-free downloads. Qobuz comes to mind. There isnt much reason to buy a physical disc unless you want the disc itself.
- dTal 4y ago
  And why wouldn't you want the disc? Not only is it (as noted) often cheaper, it's also a durable read-only archival-quality backup. Come to think of it, a pressed CD is probably the best ever consumer technology for that so far. What other medium has safely borne nearly a gigabyte across nearly 40 years, and can still be read in the average office?

blacklion 5y ago

> and it only takes a couple minutes to rip a high-quality version. Which drive do you use? My specially-selected-for-the-task drive (selected 10 year ago, to be honest, and I don't know what I will do when it dies, all modern drives looks to be crap) with firmware tuned for audio grabbing takes ~1.1x to grab CD, so 45 minutes CD will be grabbed in 1h20m (because you need check pass, of course, to have high-quality version!).

dsr_ 5y ago
On a well-made, new-out-of-the-box CD, a modern cheap drive should have no problems ripping at 48x with full CDparanoia checking. It is much more likely that you will be getting a loudness-war mastering problem than a bad copy of the data. That you can only fix with better source data.
- blacklion 4y ago
  It is completely opposite to my experience, Exact Audio Copy with Secure (not Paranoid) mode, with enabled "defeat audio cache" feature grabs modern new CD on proven SATA LiteOn drive slightly faster than realtime, and slim USB attached drive could spent 3-4x time (0.25x) and fail at the end! And, yes, old Audio CD (new old stock, 10-15 years old) can be grabbed at 6-8x speed. Looks like new Audio CD pressed much worse than old ones. I don't believe in 48x exact extraction, sorry.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

soco 5y ago

Right! I try though to buy the CDs directly from the artists - when I catch them live even better - in the hope more of that money goes in their pockets like that.

ac29 4y ago

There are services that let you buy music as uncompressed, DRM-free downloads. Qobuz comes to mind. There isnt much reason to buy a physical disc unless you want the disc itself.

dTal 4y ago
And why wouldn't you want the disc? Not only is it (as noted) often cheaper, it's also a durable read-only archival-quality backup. Come to think of it, a pressed CD is probably the best ever consumer technology for that so far. What other medium has safely borne nearly a gigabyte across nearly 40 years, and can still be read in the average office?