Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [video]
1–10 of 29 posts
Re: Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [video]
#2I grew up with cassettes, CDs, and MiniDisc (and floppy discs and using a file splitter to spread large files over multiple disks... risky business!) I never want to go back to that because the impact on the environment is just too high. All that plastic which, eventually, will end up on a landfill.
As much as I hate the fact a publisher can pull music from Apple Music in an instant, it's rare and the benefit is instant streaming with little impact on the environment. No impact if I've already got the track downloaded.
Re: Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [video]
#3I grew up with cassettes, CDs, and MiniDisc (and floppy discs and using a file splitter to spread large files over multiple disks... risky business!) I never want to go back to that because the impact on the environment is just too high. All that plastic which, eventually, will end up on a landfill. As much as I hate the fact a publisher can pull music from Apple Music in an instant, it's rare and the benefit is inst…
Rare? It’s subjective.
Spotify will keep showing tracks in playlists if they aren’t available. I have quite a few with grey/missing tracks. Sometimes they come back. But it’s incredibly annoying to have tracks you’ve played many times suddenly become unplayable. That’s not possible with a CD.
Re: Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [video]
#4I grew up with cassettes, CDs, and MiniDisc (and floppy discs and using a file splitter to spread large files over multiple disks... risky business!) I never want to go back to that because the impact on the environment is just too high. All that plastic which, eventually, will end up on a landfill. As much as I hate the fact a publisher can pull music from Apple Music in an instant, it's rare and the benefit is inst…
These supports shouldn't be necessary anymore, no contest - while the reality of it, etc... But why do you think CDs, of all things, are such a high impact on the environment?
Re: Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [video]
#5I grew up with cassettes, CDs, and MiniDisc (and floppy discs and using a file splitter to spread large files over multiple disks... risky business!) I never want to go back to that because the impact on the environment is just too high. All that plastic which, eventually, will end up on a landfill. As much as I hate the fact a publisher can pull music from Apple Music in an instant, it's rare and the benefit is inst…
But cassettes, CDs and MiniDiscs replaced expensive traveling musicians, burning petrochemicals to drive a bus from one gig to the next.
Sort of how coal mining and oil drilling saved whales from extinction by replacing whale oil.
Re: Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [video]
#6I couldn’t watch much of that video but what was the answer? I had no idea people were buying retro stuff like that. Is the size for style and lifestyle signaling like the way hipster types used to have type writers and fixie bikes?
Re: Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [video]
#7I couldn’t watch much of that video but what was the answer? I had no idea people were buying retro stuff like that. Is the size for style and lifestyle signaling like the way hipster types used to have type writers and fixie bikes?
TLDR; there's only a few manufacturers making the underlying hardware as these are now niche low volume products.
The engineering and manufacturing skill that went into producing Sony's smallest walkmen isn't particularly well reflected in the single design coming out of China right now.
Re: Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [video]
#8I couldn’t watch much of that video but what was the answer? I had no idea people were buying retro stuff like that. Is the size for style and lifestyle signaling like the way hipster types used to have type writers and fixie bikes?
Cost. These "new" products are doing the bare minimum needed turning extant mechanisms into a product, than make bespoke tooling for a specific performance envelope.
Cassettes are definitely a hipster kind of thing, CDs aren't as they are pretty much the only way you can have music digitally without having it taken from you. Pretty much nobody that buys CDs actually plays them regularly, they just rip it at home and use that instead.
Re: Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [video]
#9It turns out that streamed music isn’t an artefact in neither format nor artistic integrity. The underlying tracks found in streaming are subject to change, and they may also be different to those on the original album. But my 1987 CD will always be 1987 songs.
My kid gets this, he hears it, and to my surprise he’s playing all my records. And some he’s bought himself. He doesn’t mind turning a record over, or walking to the stereo, or listening to a side in full. He’s making his own memories and his own associations, it turns out that it’s more powerful for him with something he holds in his hands.
The sequencing and timing between tracks turns out to be crucial too. Too many songs on streaming are split or stutter when they’re supposed to segue smoothly into one another, or the single version appears as an album track and sounds weird, or there’s a different delay between two songs everyone. It breaks the rhythm, even the one you can’t hear.
Re: Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [video]
#10I grew up with cassettes, CDs, and MiniDisc (and floppy discs and using a file splitter to spread large files over multiple disks... risky business!) I never want to go back to that because the impact on the environment is just too high. All that plastic which, eventually, will end up on a landfill. As much as I hate the fact a publisher can pull music from Apple Music in an instant, it's rare and the benefit is inst…
Little plastic discs are killing the Earth but building massive datacenters which require continuous power, cooling, and other resources, not to mention all the intermediate network transport - whether or not they're being used, all for the sake of convenience - is little impact?
A CD requires no power sitting on your shelf unplayed. The same as cups and dishes sitting in a cupboard. If the threat to the environment is as real as you say, consider pouring food directly into your hands.