The Mike Moffat (#2 at Schiit) Blog

While not as cheap as buying used CDs, I appreciate the convenience of Amazon's Autorip feature. Amazon provides a digital track and also sends you the physical CD. This way I get the high quality CD that I can store for those times I want to listen to my reference CD system while also being able to listen to a lower quality digital track. They take care of accessibility, streaming, and backup while I own the physical media in case something ever happens to Amazon.

 

I tried something like this with Murfie.com recently. I'm sure Amazon probably does it better but it kind of felt like jumping through hoops at murfie. I do like that Murfie will rip a flac for you and they will store the CD for you. You can request physical delivery of the CD at any time.

 

Agree completely.

 

Hilarious! Now I'll think of is as coax, optical, i2s, or the convenient chicken bone input.

 

Bandcamp is another alternative for the smaller artists that you might not find on Amazon, many of them will sell their CDs or vinyl on the site with the lossless digital tracks included for no additional cost.

 

Well said. Fully agree.
I left the Linn Unidisk 1.1 behind because I got a bit hurt by all the snarky comments from audio experts proclaiming the death of CD. Then ended up deep into USB, trying desperately to convince myself and others that USB surely must be the best thing since sliced bread. But it's not

 

I can't see any value in this feature myself, because the quality of the MP3s that you get from Amazon is poor. Some are VBR (probably V2 from the bitrate), some 256 Kbps, some 128 Kbps. I don't listen to lossy files anyway, but for the sake of discussion, the least they can do is provide 320 Kbps MP3s.

 

Yeah. I don't really see the value unless they're doing it like Murfie and ripping to flac for you.

 

Bandcamp is best. You get the FLAC download and the CD as a physical thing and backup.

The physical limitations of the vinyl format. Once you hear them, you can't unhear them. It's easy to build a rig that pretty much outresolves vinyl and is held back by the format.

 

It's just about ditching the CD is favour of a ssd disc. A transport is just moving digital data, it shouldn't matter if that's comming of a CD or some other storage. I'd think that ssd storage should be even better than a CD because you don't need a motor to spin it.
The problem to solve is how to navigate the files without too much CPU activity and how to connect to a computer beause wifi and ethernet, as done in most computers, suck for audio.
Cleaning up the garbage that comes out of PC USB is, right now, to much work and costs too much money.

btw love the blog and all the schiit digital inventions, many thanks!

 

Hi Mike.....
Just read thru your blog, and just love your attitude and company.

Glad you mentioned the Redbook CD as something still viable. Been buying CDs from Amazon and FLAC ripping them. using USB to Modi Multibit. SBAF members keep saying coax is better. I said CD transport. I am now convinced after reading your merry wisdom on CDs still being viable medium.

Plan is to keep Surface 4 clone next to me with USB to Modi Multibit to play FLAC and Tidal and CD transport under Freya with coax to Modi Multibit.

Sound improvement if I get my sorry ass the hell up.

I look foward to more from you Mike.
I read an article you wrote on one of the other forums and it made me laugh like hell.

 

And let's not forget power management. ACPI.sys really SUCKS TOO! NDIS.sys isn't far behind. Wifi and Bluetooth drivers are not audio friendly. Windoze users have so much with which to contend in attempting to get clean audio out either USB or Ethernet.

 

Huh? I'm not involved in a lot of conversations but my take on the common wisdom here is that CD transport is better than PC>Coax

 

@DigMe
I think most want the CD dead here......

Me like CD.......

in car sounds nice.....

home stereo....... will sound nice when I get one

fun to collect........ and exciting to get in mailbox from Amazon

better 320 rips from CD than that crap 256

FLAC rips............................................... gooooooood

fun to hold physical disc and case in hand....... feels like it's yours

 

I disagree.. well I should say that many would love for flac to sound as good but I think most here acknowledge that direct from CD transport sounds better. I just really can't see how you got the opposite perception.

 

Got a Goodwill nearby? Thrift shop? CD's are generally $3 or less. Depending on the sales going on, you'll be paying around $1 per. (Protip: it's the same thing with vinyl. St. Vincent de Paul sells their LP's for $0.25 here. I'm willing to take some chances on new stuff at that price point, particularly if they're in good condition, which they sometimes are.)

Serious question here about USB, as this is not an area of my expertise: ones and zeroes go in and ones and zeroes come out. Assuming that I'm running my tunes from a computer and I've successfully unfucked the software side of the house, does the quality of my ones and zeroes matter? I've looked around a bit for a detailed breakdown but I haven't found it yet. I'm not saying that there isn't an issue here. I'd just like for someone to explain it.