CD vs Streaming.

[Jimbo]

I have noticed in the last year or so that there have been a number of articles stating that there has been a slow but steady CD revival after a dramatic decline up to 2021. Where as billions of CDs used to get sold they were reduced to a trickle obviously knocked on the head by the next latest and greatest technology - streaming.

My thoughts were that the main reason streaming took off was music could be so much more widely obtained and in infinite amount but foremost it was free and did not require the need for physical media. Every man and his dog took to streaming proclaiming it was the answer to all our need for music and the quality was as good as anything on any digital format as long as you subscribed to one of the better streaming companies.

CDs were abandoned in the same way vinyl was and it seemed folk just streamed. There were many arguments for it and it was generally accepted to be the future for digital music along with FBA which was quite often a ripped CD collection.

However Hifi journalists have been steadily started to review CD players again and from some mainstream companies with a view that we had abandoned CD too early and there maybe something still to be had from CD. Now I know many folk and indeed many on here never abandoned CD and used it regularly and have been happy with older players so I wonder if the latest "revival" is just the industry trying to move new boxes again proclaiming sonic benefits from "New Technological" improvements!

Today I read my first article by a journalist I respect and he thought that the CD player he reviewed sounded better with digital material than any streaming service or quality he had heard. Now that maybe hype (moving boxes) or a genuine reaffirmation that hard digital media simply sounded better than streamed music or local files.

I cannot really comment myself one way or the other although I have ripped most of my CD collection to file and believed it better than CD but maybe I need to reevaluate CD again. I have access to a number of CDP but my last foray into this game ended in tears.

Has anyone compared the two formats (CD vs Streaming) and come to any conclusions themselves as to which sounds best not withstanding cost and convenience?