The reason I am going the USB route is I got tired of the inability to get music to my phone. Have been having issue the last year of load an album to the phone, then go to play it and have it show as 'on the cloud'. I really don't want to use data every time I play a song.

 

Cant beat the smooth sound of analog vinyl.

Most cant or dont care to hear the difference.
And yes, it can get very expensive very quickly for sure! I bought most of my home audio equipment used or refurbished to reduce the insane cost. Ive got what would Have been $15K new in home audio equipment and only have about $5,500 sunk in it.
Thrifts stores can sometimes have really good stuff super cheap. I found a perfect Marantz SACD player at a thrift store for $6 thats still worth $200+

 

Lol..... I’m sure you said the same thing years ago when cassettes and the players as well as when VCR’s and video tapes were still on the shelves at various big box stores so how did that work out for you.

Remember Blockbuster? Lol

Have a great day.

 

Mmmmm....the original response u made was much nastier. Glad you edited it.
Even you realized your true colors were too much.

 

CDs, enjoy them if u have them.

Downloaded files, enjoy them if thats your thing.

 

I am an audiophile and, while I still have a CD transport in my system, I can't remember the last time I used it. I have ripped my entire CD collection to FLAC lossless and play it via a Roon Nucleus directly to my DAC. I also buy lossless audio files from Amazon and sites like HDtracks instead of buying physical CDs. For streaming audio I have Google Play Music for when I want convenient (320K compressed) and Tidal HiFi/Masters (both lossless) for when I want best quality. Both of those those services also allow me to download playlists of music directly to my phone, so I will do that with my commonly listened to "favorites" so I can access them at any time (even without data).

A lossless audio file sounds EXACTLY the same as a physical CD - it's the same data. That being said, I find that 320K compressed audio usually sounds the same as lossless in a noisy environment like a truck. Unlike CD transports, which have mechanical components which will eventually fail, a USB flash drive is solid state and should last pretty much indefinitely. If you are a CD person that's great but, in a rough riding and potentially dirty truck, ripping your collection at a high bitrate and sticking it on a USB stick makes a lot more sense. I use the SanDisk Ultra Fit drives in my vehicles because it is low profile and won't damage the USB port if it gets bumped and, at 256GB it holds hundreds of CD's even in lossless format! Link here: https://smile.amazon.com/SanDisk-64G...dp/B07857Y17V/

 

Great writeup. Thank you.
Since your into audio.
Have you found a streaming service that will stream lossless audio for movies? Or is that still a disc thing?

thanks

 

I am not nearly as well versed on video as I am audio, but as far as I know lossless multichannel audio tracks for movies are still only available with physical media (Blu-Ray). Figure CD quality (lossless) stereo audio is 1411 Kbps, so figure a lossless 5.1 soundtrack would chew up 4.2 Mbps of data alone for audio. That number jumps to 9.2 Mbps for just audio if you go to a higher spec like 7.2.4. Standard frame rate 4K video is 35-45 Mbps as it is so you are talking about a lot of bandwidth if you add in lossless audio. Unfortunately compressed audio is good enough for most people with the average surround sound system, so "good enough" covers the majority of people.

Back on the truck audio subject, even I don't usually mind high bitrate compressed audio in a vehicle setting - and I'm pretty picky! I agree that satellite radio is highly compressed and doesn't sound much better than good quality regular FM. HD radio seems to be better than satellite, but a good 320K music stream sounds great to me in a truck. For the people in this thread who cherish their CD players in their trucks, ask yourself this... What would you rather have dashboard real estate allocated to - a CD player which can be functionally replaced with a USB port and flash drive, or something like a larger infotainment screen? Heck, even Bluetooth audio can sound great with the newer standards like aptX HD and LDAC. I know my 2020 F-450 won't have a CD player and I won't be missing it at all.

 

CD's are on a downward spiral and have been for a few years. Just a few years ago I had a 5 disc changer in my truck, then down to one disc. Now none.

As far as Walmart goes, they will continue to have the Chinese press CD's for them as long as they can sell them

 

I'll take the ability to play off USB any day. When properly compressed, the audio quality will not be noticed in my truck, and the convenience of having hundreds, (or thousands, depending on usb size) of albums on a single thumb drive versus plastic discs lying about, and being able to switch music without switching media - usb wins hands down.

 

Thanks everyone for all of the good info. I guess that I have been getting lazy, when I think about it the CDs in my old truck had probably been in the drive for a year or so.

Back in the old days (60's), I used to record a local FM stereo station (stereo FM was new in those days) on reel to reel tape at 7 1/2 IPS and then edit and dup to 8-track (yes I even had a 8-track recorder) and also copying vinyl (we didn't call it ripping in those days). 8-tracks were not a good solution, as they had an endless loop of tape, they would frequently jam and you would get a bird's nest of tape in your player. I still remember seeing the piles of tape along the side of the road where frustrated people just threw it out the window.

Then compact cassette tapes came along, they were much more reliable but there was a big debate about audio quality because of the slow tape speed (1 7/8 IPS) but there were plenty of recorders available and the format took over. I then began making my own cassettes. The cassette still had issues and you could see them along the side of the road also.

When CDs came along, they were much better for the auto market and CD changers were the way to go. Some solutions didn't eat up dash space, my 2000 Expedition had the changer in the center console. I would like to see a CD ripper in a vehicle with a large solid state disk, you could put CDs in one at a time and copy the contents to the drive and then put the CDs away. Ripping CDs to a thumb drive does take some plan-ahead time on the computer.

After reading all of the good comments here, and due to the fact that there were no sports to watch on TV yesterday, I decided to try ripping some CDs. i found a 32 GB USB drive in my computer bag, brought out a box of CDs and started ripping. Before dinner, I had about 25 disks ripped. It is a slow process but you only need to do it once per disk. The USB drive works well in my new Denon home theater amp. I may even setup a music server on my computer as it now holds all of that music. After all of that, I now feel well "ripped" and I didn't even have to do any sit-ups

Thanks guys for bringing me into the 21st century music-wise.

 

I don't have vinyl, but I do much prefer the sound of music through tube amplification.

 

Technically digital is better sound than vinyl, but it sure doesn't have that warmth that analog provides. I do use a USB stick in my truck and digital from the computer at home, I have almost a 100K songs, but when I really want to relax to music it is vinyl all the way.