[Czilla9000]

[size=small]Why I Love the Compact Disc[/size]

With all the vinyl lovin'/ digi hatin' going on, I thought it was time to defend what I consider to the best format out there - The Compact Disc.


Seven Reasons to Love the Compact Disc (in no order)


1. Objectively and Subjectively Excellent Sound Quality. According to Nyquist, a 44.1 kHz PCM signal should perfectly reproduce the entire audio band. Subjectively, the CD gives you an amazingly clear and accurate view of the music.

2. Durability. The CD has amazing durability. Though scratching can be a problem, a Compact Disc's performance remains constant know matter how many times you play it.

3. Cost effectiveness. A CD, due to its digital nature, does have as many variables to impact playback performance. Thus, excellent sound quality can be reached with far less money than an analog medium. Also, blank CDs are cheap to produce.

4. Portability. Use can carry a CD with you anywhere. The spendid sound of the Compact Disc can be reached on the beach, at home, or at 30,000 feet.

5. Capitalism. This is tied in with "cost effectiveness". No monopoly controls the CD anymore. Anyone can produce one, causing prices to fall and forcing companies to create music which pleases their customers. Also, since the CD is a globally recognized standard, there are plenty of manufactuers creating DACs and other CD equipment. This causes the prices on hardware to drop and better products and innovation. Bottom line - the CD gives companies the power to innovate and artists the power to produce.

6 . Device Freedom. Practically any modern day digital device can play CDs or music ripped off CDs. This gives artists freedom to have their music heard in more places.

7. Tracks. Since CDs are divided into tracks, you can skip right to what you what to hear.


I typed this up rather hastily, but I feel my mini-essay has merit.

The number one reason to love the CD though is freedom. Anyone can make them, anyone play them, anyone can make things to play them, anyone can innovate with them, and anyone can enjoy them.

Thank you for your time.

 

[ADS]

All great points. I'm all for perfecting redbook instead of going ahead with SACD/DVDA. Sampling rate/Quantization is not the reason that CD quality is not always up to par. The audio industry should be concentrating on perfecting 44.1 khz PCM DACS and recording techniques instead of introducing completely new formats with problems of their own. Where the hell are our near-optimal pulse shape DACS?! Screw this oversampling/upsampling ****.

 

[Czilla9000]

Quote:

Originally posted by ADS All great points. I'm all for perfecting redbook instead of going ahead with SACD/DVDA. Sampling rate/Quantization is not the reason that CD quality is not always up to par. The audio industry should be concentrating on perfecting 44.1 khz PCM DACS and recording techniques instead of introducing completely new formats with problems of their own. Where the hell are our near-optimal pulse shape DACS?! Screw this oversampling/upsampling ****.

I concur. I think digital amplification (which will elimidate DACS) will change peoples minds about the CD.

Actually, Sony's best argument for SACD is the fact that DACs are easier to perfect with DSD than PCM.

Basically.....the DAC is in many ways the culprit. However, once it is eliminated there will be little reason to go to another format.

Though the CD is just fine, the best format would be something using PWM, since that is what digiamps use to amplify anyway.

 

[blessingx]

Yes, portability/device freedom is the key. My computer's CD-ROM player and hard drive, home DVD player, car CD player, iPod, ISP server, memory keychain, even digital camera's memory have been used to play or transport CD's music or its resulting compressed children. The flexibility digital gives the user (barring future "protection" changes) is its greatest plus. A CD or CDR is a great inexpensive way to store those files. Do wish their life expediency was a little longer and their scratch resistance a little higher though.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Czilla9000 I concur. I think digital amplification (which will elimidate DACS) will change peoples minds about the CD.

Eliminate DACs? Errhm... you seem to have missed something. It is absolutely necessary to convert the 1's and 0's on a CD to an analog waveform (i.e. music) and you absolutely have to have a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) around to do that. Otherwise, all you have is a sequence of numbers or pulses read by a laser.

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally posted by Czilla9000 (...) 1. Objectively and Subjectively Excellent Sound Quality. According to Nyquist, a 44.1 kHz PCM signal should perfectly reproduce the entire audio band. Subjectively, the CD gives you an amazingly clear and accurate view of the music. (...) 6 . Device Freedom. Practically any modern day digital device can play CDs or music ripped off CDs. This gives artists freedom to have their music heard in more places. (...)

1.) No, no, no - not "perfectly", only without aliasing. With only two or three samples in the upper highs, you only get a comparatively rough representation with 44.1 kHz sampling...

6. Well, yeah, unless the record company spoils your freedom by nasty copy protections.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[Tuberoller]

Are you guys serious?

I'll take my music uncompressed,unconverted and as natural as possible. You can have your bits and bites.

There is no monopoly in LP pressing or preproduction. Most pressing plants in the USA are still operational. There are in fact 17 pressing plants in the midwest alone( five in Chicago). Few are still in use but the trend has seen two of the five presssing plants near me to open shop and press records in two 8 hour shifts per week. QC is much higher than CD pressing will ever be. When records are presssed,there is visual confirmation that QC issues exist that can be addressed before the pressing is distributed.

Analog recording and mastering will likely never completely die off as there are still so many fans and it's still so ingrained in some who have never used digital mastering or recording.

If you think you will ever see any cost savings form the cost effectiveness of CD production,please tell me when.

Nope,you can't carry a record around with you and you can't skip tracks. At this point you can't carry an SACD around with you either,I'm sure this will change soon but the highest resolution formats were never really meant to be portable. What real benefit would there be of toting around an SACD player when you likely never be able to take advantage of the higher resolution in a portable environment?

CDs are on the way out. They have never been a very effective way of delivering music and it was only a matter of time before other methods of digital were used to do so. When people realize the real ease of hard drive music storage and the music companies jump on board in a big way,which they are now doing slowly,the CD is done. The quality will folllow hard drive storage shortly afterwards and most audiophiles will join in as well. There will never be a real substitute for analog and vinyl playback and it will still be around long after you and I are gone.

Long Live Records!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Glassman]

Quote:

Originally posted by fewtch Eliminate DACs? Errhm... you seem to have missed something. It is absolutely necessary to convert the 1's and 0's on a CD to an analog waveform (i.e. music) and you absolutely have to have a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) around to do that. Otherwise, all you have is a sequence of numbers or pulses read by a laser.

and this is all we need, sequence of numbers or pulses, the only problem is that CD uses 16bit values but we need just 1bit values, then we can amplify the signal directly without previous D/A conversion.. how simple

do you know how does switching power supply work? this is the future of audio amplification guys

 

[Czilla9000]

Fewtch....


Digital Amplifiers work by converting a PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) signal into PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) via a digital to digital converter.

Most digiamps use 350 kHz Pulse Width Modulation. So the best digiformat of all would use it, to eliminate PCM to PWM conversion.

However, PCM to PWM does not create much of a problem.

 

[Wodgy]

Fewtch is kind of right about today's generation of digital amps -- many do indeed use DACs, even though there's no technical necessity to do so. Case in point: I recently discovered that the Sharp line of digital amps converts from digital -> analog -> digital again before amplifying -- not at all what you expect.

Second, Czilla, you're misapplying Nyquist's sampling theorem. Nyquist tells us that given infinite resolution samples, then 44.1 kHz sampling is enough. 16-bit integer quantization is hardly infinite resolution.

Always double-check your axioms before applying a theorem.

 

[theaudiohobby]

Quote:

Originally posted by Tuberoller QC is much higher than CD pressing will ever be. When records are presssed,there is visual confirmation that QC issues exist that can be addressed before the pressing is distributed.

Dream on, I think you need to rewind to the 70s/80s. I think you seem to forget that LPs the oh so wonderful format

was in decline even before the advent of CDs. The reason the quality of LPs is higher today is

1. It is now a Low Volume Venture
   That's is it's raison etre, without that it is dead!dead!dead!

Back in the day, variable quality was just as much a problem as is it is with CD today. CD may have had it's day, though it was good for the time, just like 78's did and the shellac before it. But has digital audio had it's day, I think not, rather it is taking great strides and is argueably capable of high fidelity that vinyl can only dream of. The fact that music producers are now engineering crackle into CDs makes stuff like this all more laughable. As said in another post, Yes, LPs will continue to exist but only in the same way old Roll Royces and such desirable oldies do, that is as cherised relics of a bygone era. In simple terms, Give me a Honda Accord and a RR Silver Shadow as cost no object offer, I know which one I will taking. However is a RR Silver Shadow a match for the Mercedes S500, No way. But if many people are given the choice I bet you they will choose the RR because it does have some qualities that are quite simply incompatible with the way the Merc is built.

PS: An article appeared in the FT today proclaiming death to the Stereo paradigm on the account of falling sales and the rise of Home Theatre. Funny in the eyes of the general public, the LP is already dead and the CD on the way to it's deathbed. Stereo fades into History

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally posted by theaudiohobby PS: An article appeared in the FT today proclaiming death to the Stereo paradigm on the account of falling sales and the rise of Home Theatre. Funny in the eyes of the general public, the LP is already dead and the CD on the way to it's deathbed. Stereo fades into History

An interesting (and may I add, rather depressing) article. With further segregation of "consumer" and "audiophile" gear, that only means increasing prices for quality 2-channel stereo gear.

Not much of a surprise though, I guess. I wonder if 'vintage' will be playing an increasing role for the 2-channel audiophile as time goes by (I mean vintage high-end stuff, not vintage consumer grade stuff). All the real bargains will likely be there.

"People thought we were crazy when we went into video five years ago. But if you are not in video today, you are not in business. Audio is an accessory," says Kevin Zarow, marketing director at Marantz, the US consumer electronics group with its roots in hi-fi.

 

[ADS]

Quote:

Originally posted by lini 1.) No, no, no - not "perfectly", only without aliasing. With only two or three samples in the upper highs, you only get a comparatively rough representation with 44.1 kHz sampling... 6. Well, yeah, unless the record company spoils your freedom by nasty copy protections. Greetings from Munich! Manfred / lini

Actually, the sampling theorem dictates that the signal can be perfectly reproduced at up to half the sampling rate. You just have to select the proper pulse reconstruction shape. After this point aliasing begins to take effect.

 

[Wodgy]

Quote:

Originally posted by ADS Actually, the sampling theorem dictates that the signal can be perfectly reproduced at up to half the sampling rate.

Not with quantized samples, I'm afraid.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Wodgy Not with quantized samples, I'm afraid.

One word -- dither.

Many words:

http://www.tonmeister.ca/main/textbook/digital/02.html

http://www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/dither.html

http://www.digitalprosound.com/Htm/A..._vs_Dither.htm