[BadassFractal]

I clearly remember burning CDs up until around 2010, but I never realized that the technology was already around 30 years earlier.

I still have rose-colored glasses nostalgia of the days of PC games in large cardboard boxes containing multi-CD jewel cases and elaborate manuals.

I bet you the CD will come back as a vintage retro format in about 10-15 years when the kids who never grew up with them learn to treat it as a cool hipster format. Just like my generation did with vinyl, which I never experienced myself back in the day, having arrived too late on the scene.

Friendly plug for LGR and 8 Bit Guy channels on Youtube who often dive back into these antique devices.

[ace2358]

The interesting thing about vinyl compared to any other format is that not only is it analog, it’s also mechanical! I think that gives the technology an aesthetic that can’t be matched by other analog formats, it also works without electricity! The whole idea of engraving sound into a physics object is a still pretty wild and something that’s been going on for over 100 years!

[zbuf]

I also think perhaps we over estimate how "digital" CD playback is.

I repaired a CD player recently and learned that the control system which guides and powers the laser is entirely analogue. Only the audio pickup was a digital signal.

I'm sure designs vary, but it made a great deal of sense when you consider a design from the 70s and 80s.

A CD is digital, but a CD _player_ is a surprisingly analogue device.

[airhead969]

You should see how tiny the MicroLine diamond is on my Audio-Technica MM cartridge. 90% of the cost is in that replaceable, fragile part of an MM cartridge: the stylus.

MC cartridges typically don't have replaceable styluses. Bust an AT-ART9XA, and get ready to lay-out 1.3k clams.

[ace2358]

Is the AT-ART9XA the MM stylus? I’ve heard a bit about the MM stylus, though never used one myself. Just getting into vinyl gear for DJing soon, but will be starting lower end. Especially at 1.3k! What makes that stylus so good?

[AshamedCaptain]

I think people put too much value on the "digital" vs "analog" distinction. Note for example:

> The whole idea of engraving sound into a physics object is a still pretty wild

Yeah that's exactly what it is, "analog" or "digital".

[the_af]

8 Bit Guy is very cool.

I'm saddened to hear the CD called a "retro format". Next you'll tell me the DVD is not the cool new thing from the future :(

(Seriously though, I have a hard time dealing with people calling the CD retro. To me not even the audio tape is really old... I grew up listening to music on tapes, the CD was the new thing!)

[dehrmann]

I guess I'd say CD is and isn't retro. It's looking close to being the ultimate physical digital medium for music, with vinyl being the ultimate analog medium. It's really only retro in the sense that there isn't much reason to keep physical copies.

[tinus_hn]

It contains the uncompressed original audio stream! Where else can you get that?

[z2]

I was similarly amazed to learn that a couple of years ago, after borrowing a concert recording CD from a library marked "Recorded in West Germany ©1983." One that the disc was in such great condition after 3 decades, and two that I had modern devices still able to read it. The same could not be said for many other types of digital or analog media...