Further Notes On The Death Of Compact Disc

The following is a further instalment to an article that I wrote and published in late 2017.  The original can be found here. 

Two years on, and we’re still buying and listening to compact discs.  

 

Introduction

I read recently a somewhat disquieting and inaccurate advertising puff by Linn Audio in which the respected hi-fi brand celebrated the demise of the CD and heralded the supposed superiority of Hi-Res streaming and vinyl.  

It is of no coincidence that the hi-fi and music industries; not least Linn Audio; are eager to sell the same music collection a second or third time, in the form of expensive Hi-Res downloads, 180g vinyl and Super Audio CDs.  Those pesky compact discs are surely obsolete by now.  Aren’t they?  Notwithstanding that hi-fi manufacturers can’t wait to sell you some new kit in the form of fancy-pants network streaming devices and esoteric turntables.  £30,000 for a fully specced Linn LP12 and Klimax DS?  Crikey.

The opportunism of the music and audio industries cannot be denied.  Consumers should absolutely be wary of the march towards Hi-Res digital and 180g vinyl and be aware of the potential and versatility of both CDs and original vinyl pressings. 

The Hi-Res Catch-22

1. Hi-Res puts sensitivity where none is required.  For instance, most of the music that is available for download on this site was recorded on magnetic tape – with a theoretical upper frequency limit of 20,000hz, far beyond the 8-15 kHz limit of adult human hearing.  To rip the vinyl downloads on this site to 192/24 would be a waste of time, effort and hard disc space.  The assertion – made by proponents of Hi-Res - that the human ear and brain can subconsciously detect frequencies of above 25,000hz is utter tosh. 
2. True, Hi-Res is vastly superior to mp3.  It blows it out of the water.  As do 16bit CD and FLAC. 
3. Try a blindfold test between CD and Hi-Res.  You may be surprised.  Make sure that the same masters/versions of whichever recordings are being demonstrated.  To compare a 1987 CD with a 2018 Hi-Res remaster of the same album would, of course, be disingenuous.  Audio dealers would never employ that trick, would they?
4. The additional sampling rate offered by high resolution audio is no guarantee of superior sound quality.   Evaluate, if you get the chance, the Japanese SHM-CD of Stevie Wonder’s Music of My Mind against the 192kHz HDTracks download.  It's a no-brainer.  Buy the CD. 
5. Many companies - HDTracks included - charge more for a 192kHz download than for a 96kHz  version of the same album.  Which smacks of opportunism at best and duplicity at worst.  
6. £25-plus for a Hi-Res download?  Oh, please…

Do-It-Yourself

If you want to experience high-quality digital audio, try hooking up a standard PC or laptop to a good quality DAC and playing those rips, downloads and streams through your existing hi-fi.  You may be  astounded by the sound quality that such an arrangement is capable of. 

First Steps 

1. Take a connector lead - 4mm stereo jack to 2 x RCA plugs (phono).  
2. Plug the 4mm stereo jack into the green headphone output of your PC/laptop.
3. Plug the 2 x RCA plugs into the left & right auxiliary/tape/tuner inputs of your amplifier
4. Select the corresponding input on the front of your amplifier.
5. Play some music from your PC/laptop.
6. Not bad, hmm?

Let’s Take It To The Next Stage

1. Buy a quality USB Digital-to-Analogue converter (DAC), such as a Cambridge DAC Magic100 (c. £130)
2. Connect the DAC to your PC with the USB provided. There’s a good chance that the DAC will be plug & play i.e. Windows will find the necessary software on its own. Otherwise, install the software from the DAC (usually provided on a disc) onto your PC/laptop.
3. Connect the DAC via a stereo (2x RCA to 2 x RCA) lead, into the  left & right auxiliary/tape/tuner inputs of your amplifier.
4. Wait a moment, and right click the speaker icon in the bottom right hand of the system tray on your PC screen
5. Open sound settings
6. In the drop-down box beneath Sound – choose your output device at the top of the settings screen, select your DAC
7. Select the appropriate input on the front of your amplifier.
8. Play some (preferably lossless) music from your PC/laptop.
9. Be honest.  Wow!
10. You have just saved yourself a small fortune on digital hardware. 

As a rule, the more spent on a DAC, the better the sound.  The improvements in sound quality derived from increased expenditure may initially be less than striking, i.e. a £2000 DAC will not sound 10 times superior to one costing £200. 

And, if you intend to play Hi-Res files, apply the following setting: - 

Start/control panel/sound/device (your DAC)/advanced/24 bit,192000 Hz

  

The 180g Vinyl Remaster

1. Your expensive 180g vinyl record will have been prepared from a digital source.  Analogue freaks – let that sink in.
2. I have no problem with digital remastering.  However, transferring the digitised signal back to analogue via the vinyl medium can only introduce levels of colouration and noise (however slight) that hitherto never existed.  It is an own goal. What is point?
3. Original pressings of music made prior to 1987 are most likely to have been mastered from the original analogue tapes.  Now, bear in mind that analogue sound stored on magnetic tape invariably fades and softens-up over time (have you listened to any of your old cassettes lately?)  Today’s remasters invariably require a digital clean-up of the analogue source to sharpen up the sound, remove drop-outs and to reduce tape hiss.  Some tapes are so old and fragile that they cannot be played at all, due to the risk of large chunks of the magnetic coating falling away from the plastic backing. 
4. 180 grams of vinyl does not guarantee better sound quality.  It only guarantees more vinyl.   The thickness of an LP vinyl record is largely irrelevant to the accuracy of its playback.  Moreover, heavier records are more expensive to produce and to ship - and some say, more likely to warp. 
5. The artwork of a reissued LP is nearly always taken from photocopied scans of the original album sleeve.  Sad, but true.  A close friend of mine works as a printer, his company frequently receives original album jackets to be scanned, tidied up i.e. via Photoshop and used to produce new artwork of premium-priced vinyl reissues.  Regrettably, as the sales of CDs overtook vinyl, many record companies did not bother to archive the original artwork of their LPs as they disappeared from the catalogues.  For example, the sleeve, poster and inserts for the 2018 super-deluxe reissue of The Beatles (aka The White Album) were prepared from scanned copies and not the original lithographs.  Ever felt cheated?   
6. £25-plus for a reissued LP?  C’mon.  

 

Original vs reissue 

  The Super Audio CD

1. SACD can produce a listening experience that is nothing short of stunning - but the discs are needlessly expensive (c. £40…?).  The cost of the hardware can also be seriously prohibitive.
2. SACD samples at 64 times higher than CD (2.8224 MHz vs 44.1kHz) and has 4.7GB of storage space compared with 700MB of the CD.
3. Meanwhile, blindfold tests to establish the superiority of SACD over CD have been known to prove inconclusive.
4. SACD can carry 6 audio channels, the CD only 2. The format is most impressive when played in surround-sound and may just be the definitive medium for a multi-channel experience. 
5. Although some consider that SACD has been a commercial disappointment, the format is sufficiently established – especially in Japan – and is unlikely to disappear any time soon.  For those that prefer Hi-Res audio, the tangibility of an SACD might be considered preferable to the immateriality of an audio download.

 

Bring Back (Original) Vinyl

1. Although many old records will have suffered irreparable damage from blunt styli and reckless handling, a surprising amount of vintage vinyl can be resurrected via a simple cleaning process.  Distortion and surface noise are as likely as not a symptom of dirt in the grooves.
2. Furthermore, the financial outlay for a serious record-cleaning machine (such as the OkkiNokki) will pay considerable dividends.  Vinyl that has not been scratched or destroyed by a worn stylus will very likely sound like new once cleaned by such apparatus.  Owning such a machine is akin to having the vinyl fairy replace one’s entire record collection with shiny new copies.
3. "A flea market copy of Sweet Baby James will sound better than any new 180-gram version." – Tom Port, Better Records. A bold statement but providing your thoroughly cleaned flea-market album has not been played with a blunt knitting needle and/or used to rub down furniture, some might consider Tom Port to be largely correct. There are thousands of albums available in second-hand shops, garage sales and collector’s emporiums that have probably never been heard the way that the makers intended.  If vinyl is your bag, get some.  Clean them up and let them sing. 
4. Inner groove distortion (or tracking error) is, perhaps, the biggest downside of vinyl playback.   It may take some expenditure and expertise to minimise or eradicate this problem – however, there are highly effective shortcuts available.  Think of it as a challenge. 
5. Collectors and audiophiles often grumble about the excessive surface noise present on mid-1970s LP pressings.  The 1973-74 OPEC oil embargo is often cited as the prime reason for the music industry’s apparent reliance on low-quality and recycled/re-ground vinyl - pop and rock albums from this era would often suffer from hissy and crackly playing surfaces.  However, a couple of spins either side on the Okki Nokki easily fixes a noisy 70s LP – my original (and previously unlistenable) original copies of Wish You Were Here and (quadrophonic) Tubular Bells now sound as good as new.

“We oversaw every aspect of record manufacture. I would go down to the pressing plant myself and make sure that everything ran smoothly. And I discovered some very interesting things. For instance, the records are dipped during the manufacturing process into vats of acid, right? But for Rock/Pop stuff these vats are only cleaned out every six months. However, for classical records there are separate vats which are cleaned out every ten days! So, I persuaded the powers that be to dip Zeppelin’s albums into the classical vat, which is part of the reason why the sound quality on our albums was so good.” – PeterGrant, manager, Led Zeppelin

 

The Format That Refuses To Die

1. Discs and players are now very affordable.  It takes a trained ear to distinguish between the sounds made by a £100 machine and one costing over £2,000 when played through the same amplifier and loudspeakers.   Fact.
2. In blindfold tests or otherwise, and played through a quality hi-fi set-up, properly-mastered CDs will almost certainly surprise and delight even the most dedicated vinyl or Hi-Res fanatic.
3. For an audio carrier that has, by many been officially pronounced dead, the humble compact disc remains a benchmark of sound quality and on an album-by-album basis, represents a milestone in audio archiving.  Once transferred to CD, music achieves audio immortality.  It becomes permanent and available.  For casual buyers, collectors and the music-manic, there are two types of album – those that have been issued on CD and those that have not. 
4. It is rare for any new album release or re-release not to appear on compact disc.  Furthermore, the most complete super-deluxe editions of today’s exhaustive box set reissues are customarily issued in full on compact disc.  Vinyl editions of such reissues seldom contain everything that can be found on the CD versions.  For example: -

• Bob Dylan’s More Blood, More Tracks  The super-deluxe set contains 6CDs plus 1 Blu-ray covering 87 tracks.  The double LP contains 11 tracks.

• The Beatles (White Album) – The super-deluxe set contains 6CDs & 1 Blu-ray covering 107 tracks.  The 4LP set contains 60 tracks.  

Records wear out, hard drives corrupt and fail, tapes chew up and corrode.  The compact discs in my collection from as far back as 1983 show no sign of deterioration, nor do I believe shall they.  It is true that CD Rot can spoil or even destroy the odd compact disc, but this effect is so rare that it is barely worth mentioning, unless one regularly exposes discs to the extremes of temperature and humidity.

 

Compare and Contrast

Live music can be felt, as well as heard.  Few domestic audio systems can accurately reproduce the rush or air produced by the kick of a bass drum, the thump of a piano key or even the pluck of an acoustic guitar string.  Some get closer than others, but none seem capable of properly recreating the angel trumpets and devil trombones of a symphony orchestra.

Consider The Rolling Stones’ landmark 1971 album, Sticky Fingers.  Original copies carried a note from the album producer –

“A bit of advice from Jimmy M.: Maximum cycle characteristics and frequency response at high decibel level have been set according to standards suggested in the GUY STEVENS Producer Manual, chart R-357, in index, page 304. These recommended standards were compiled by the same authority having recently measured audible damage created by supersonic aircraft – if for any reason you do not agree with the standards, turn it up.”

Jimmy Miller was telling us that the amount of music on the record (in excess of 46 minutes) meant that he’d been obliged to cut the record at lower volume than usual.  Which means that Sticky Fingers sounded far too comfortable and polite on vinyl .  One could (and surely did) turn it up but the vital dynamic range of the recording had been lost, seemingly forever. 

Until the Bob Ludwig remaster appeared on compact disc in 1997.  Bob used the Apogee UV22 Super CD Encoding system, which removed and resolved the sonic limiting previously employed by Jimmy Miller.  Now, at the start of Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, Keith Richards’ guitar leaps out of the right-hand channel and positively spits fire.  There is enough separation and impact in Moonlight Mile for one to seemingly walk around the instruments.  Paul Buckmaster’s strings fly in suspension between the speakers and drip honey.  Throughout Bitch, Charlie Watts’ bass drum kicks to the gut.  Not bad for an audio format that is supposedly on its knees. 

The quality of sound offered by the original 1971 vinyl (c. £100) and the 2015 180g vinyl reissue (£25) cannot in any way compete with the 1997 CD (£5).  I can confirm that the Japanese SACD (£40) is nothing special.  At the time of writing there is no Hi-Res download available. 

Unsurprisingly, there are LPs that have not yet received a satisfactory CD transfer, where the original vinyl outshines the compact disc issue by some margin.  For example: -

• Bustin’ Out - Pure Prairie League
• Three Works For Jazz Soloists & Symphony Orchestra – Don Sebesky
• Heart Like A Wheel – Linda Ronstadt
• …Too - Carole Bayer Sager
• John Coltrane - Blue Train
• The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Uncle Charlie And His Dog, Teddy

Plus, there are countless single 45rpm records where the CD never sounds right.  For example, Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, by Steam.  In my humble opinion, one of the greatest records ever made, yet there isn’t a CD version that I know of that comes close to the power and impact of the original 45.

Not forgetting, the innumerable 12” singles that haven’t appeared on CD or as downloads. For example, the fabulous six-and-a-half minute version of Bruce Johnson's Pipeline. Or the gorgeous 7-minute version of The Dream Academy's Indian Summer.

 

It’s Your World

Compact discs may no longer be fashionable; they no longer scream sophistication.  They lack the tactile and visual playback experience of their vinyl forefathers.  The CD is nonetheless capable of near-studio quality playback for less than the price of a pint of beer. 

It’s your money, to spend how as you please.  Please, do not build a music collection in an audio format in an attempt to impress friends and peers.  Don't be one of those who buy expensive vinyl records, but don't ever play them.  For the love of God, don't be a record collector that does not own a turntable.

Be especially wary of hi-fi manufacturers that only want to sell you some new kit.  

Step away from record companies that repackage old albums again and again so as to compensate for a dearth of genuine new talent.

And, above all else, listen to your music in the way that you prefer.  

Glossary

180g vinyl

Consumers were not impressed by RCA’s Dynaflex ultra-thin (i.e. 85g) and wobbly LPs of the early 1970s, no matter how impressive they might have sounded.  In time, bespoke and high-end LP labels such as Mobile Fidelity managed to convince audio buffs that thicker vinyl is better.  Following the post-2010 resurgence in sales of LP records, record companies appear obligated to press albums in 180grams, despite there being no definitive proof of any audible sonic improvement afforded by the increased thickness or weight of a vinyl record.

Dynamic range

The range between the loudest and quietest sounds, particularly in an audio recording.  Dynamic Range is one of the crucial measurements of the accuracy in audio recording and playback. Digital systems are capable of far greater dynamic range than their analogue counterparts, for example 120dB (human hearing), 96dB (CD), 60dB (vinyl) and 70dB (professional ¼ inch tape machine).  The dynamic range of compact disc may be extended to 120dB using dither noise-shaping.

FLAC

Free Lossless Audio Codec.  FLAC has become established as the standard high-quality method of ripping/compressing audio files for playback on a personal computer without adversely affecting sound quality.

Hi-Res

High Resolution audio, where audio is sampled (or broken down) 96,000, 192,000 times (or more) times per second.  Compact discs sample at 44,000 times per second.  It remains somewhat contentious whether the human ear and brain can perceive recordings made with the higher sampling rates (q.v.)

Inner groove distortion

AKA tracking error.  As the stylus approaches the centre of a record, the harder it becomes for it to accurately follow (or track) the profile of a groove.  This results in reduced high-frequencies and can cause the sound to break up altogether; i.e. creating fuzzy distortion during loud and high-frequency passages.  A careful combination and expert adjustment of tone arm and cartridge can reduce or eliminate inner groove distortion altogether.  Small fortunes and much patience can be spent in the elimination of inner groove distortion from vinyl playback.  Meanwhile, the Ortofon OM cartridge range is both surprisingly affordable and effective at minimising such tracking error.  Many budget turntables – including the original (and remarkable) Pro-Ject Debut – included a factory fitted and adjusted Ortofon OM cartridge. 

mp3

A popular method of storing audio files for computer playback.  mp3 uses a high rate of compression, sometimes resulting in a considerable loss of audio information.  Depending on the bit rate of the mp3 file; considerable amounts of audio detail can be lost, resulting in reduced dynamic range and muted/splashy-sounding sibilants i.e. cymbals and vocals

SACD

Super-Audio CD.  Introduced in 1999, SACD uses high-resolution and is capable of 6-channel surround-sound audio.  Against DVD and Blu-Ray audio, SACD remains the dominant Hi-Res audio disc system.  It is most popular in Japan and to a lesser extent, the United States.

SHM-CD

Developed by Japanese firm JVC Kenwood and launched in 2007.  The makers claim that the higher-grade polycarbonate used in SHM-CD manufacture improves sound quality.  Not everyone agrees; however, the attention to packaging detail and careful tape research in SHM-CD production usually results in reference-standard compact discs