CDs Sound Better Than Vinyl, and Every Other Reason I Still Buy Them in 2024 (2024)

FAQs

Why are CDs better than vinyl? ›

The compact disc offers a better signal-to-noise ratio. Rumble — that low-frequency noise that's not part of the music and is created by the stylus running through the grooves of a record as well as vibration from the turntable motor — is pretty much non-existent with a CD.

With higher APYs and possible interest rate cuts coming, certificates of deposit (CDs) could be worth adding to your personal finances in 2024. CDs are safe investments when you put your money in FDIC-insured banks (or NCUA-insured credit unions).

CD's are lossless waves meaning they offer better sound quality than MP3s when encoding audio into digital form. Whereas vinyl records lose some higher frequencies in conversion; thus CD's can get louder and deliver clear frequencies even at high volumes.

CD sales are on the rise again, and for good reason. In fact, there are a lot of good reasons. It's 2024 and streaming makes up more than 84 percent of the music industry. But there's still a lot of love for physical audio formats.

Is the long slide really over? According to music data compiler MRC Data, sales of CDs increased from 40.16 million units in 2020 to 40.59 million in 2021, marking the first time CD sales have increased on a year-over-year basis since 2004. During the same time, vinyl album sales increased by a massive 50.4%.

According to experts, vinyl records can last for hundreds, even thousands of years if stored properly. This is because vinyl is a durable material that can withstand wear and tear better than CDs. On the other hand, CDs are more susceptible to damage from scratches, dust, and exposure to sunlight.

CD Investing Pros and Cons in 2024

CDs can be a smart financial move at times, but not so great at others. In the past, other investments earned higher rates than even the best CDs could earn. But, in today's high-interest-rate environment, CDs might be a great option.

The end of the CD is a bit like the end of the world: People keep predicting it, but it has yet to happen. Of course, more and more people are turning to audio formats like MP3s that have no physical store medium. This allows people to compile vast music libraries on their computer hard drives or USB storage devices.

Although CDs have primarily been replaced by all-you-can-consume music streaming services, something interesting happened in 2021: CD sales rose for the first time in almost two decades, driving over $580 million in revenue for the music industry. While that pales in comparison to the $12.3 billion.

Newer players can sound great if you spend decent money. This is mostly due to improvements in DAC architecture, but that's about all that's improved in terms of Redbook CD playback. It's not easy to find great-sounding affordable players, and I've noticed that many newer players sound thin, etched and lack body.

Do remastered CDs sound better? ›

This is a contentious topic for ardent music fans who pay attention to audio quality. The annoying answer to this question is: sometimes original masters are better than remasters, and often remasters are technically better than original masters. It's also a matter of personal taste to some extent.

Absolutely. Vinyl, CDs and streaming. Each has its own use.

So, if we look purely at the technical aspects, CDs sound better than records, and if you were to go to recording and mastering forums, you would find that most mastering and recording engineers will confirm this. That doesn't mean that a record can't sound better to you. The sound we prefer is extremely personal.

Absolutely! Although streaming and digital music are the most popular ways to listen these days, lots of people prefer the collectable nature and superior sound quality of CDs. This demand means that the vast majority of CDs are still worth something - and the amount you can make soon adds up!

To begin with, CDs are significantly cheaper than vinyl, especially when you consider that for new chart releases, you'll be paying about twice as much for vinyl than a CD. The price drops even more if you spot a second-hand find in a thrift store.

Estimates put the carbon footprint of an hour of media streaming at around 55 grams of CO2 equivalent, while CDs are over three times that, and vinyl and cassettes release over 2 kilograms of CO2 a unit. But the huge growth in our music consumption more than outweighs those savings.

In 1988, the CD surpassed the gramophone record in popularity. Vinyl records experienced a sudden decline in popularity between 1988 and 1991, when the major label distributors restricted their return policies, which retailers had been relying on to maintain and swap out stocks of relatively unpopular titles.

There's no question that CDs sound much better than MP3s. But the real downside of the CD is its lack of portability. And having to search through an extensive CD collection to find the song you want to listen to can be frustrating. High-Resolution Audio offers both quality and convenience.

CDs, on the other hand, don't degrade through repeated playing since there's no physical contact happening. Since vinyl records need physical contact during playback, this means that any external factor can damage them and affect their sound quality.