Amazon marketplace: Cheap CDs etc....what's the catch?
 

Every so often I have a splurge and buy a load of hard copy CDs of anything that I downloaded and actually like.

Always bought new stuff, but always avoided the inflated costs of buying "just released" titles.

So here I am looking around and found a a load of "new and unused" CDs selling on amazon market place for a little as 97p plus £1.24 postage. When the likes of HMV etc are selling it for £9.99

Am I missing something here? Surely, there has to be catch? :wonder:

Ali, like you ive bought loads of CD's off Amazon for peanuts. I was browsing around one day for an album that i used to have but managed to lose it and came across the album on Amazon for 75p + 50p postage.

A lot of people are now into digital music where they stream it around the house via a network, things like sonos systems are very popular. Technology moves on, i read AV forums quite a lot and people on their are predicting that CD players could become like turntables in the future where only a hard core of CD fans and non technology buffs will continue to use CD players.

It makes sense really, you can store thousands of tunes on a memory card or on an internal memory chip which means you don't have hundreds of CD's scattered all over the place, CD's only have a certain life span as well plus they are very easy to scratch.

I guess people are ripping their albums to MP3's or other formats etc and selling off their CD's cheaply to move with techology.

very true Rob quality means nothing anymore its all about quantity and this is were MP3 has the edge. Also you can now buy DACs for less than a budget CD player, so really how much "quality" are you actually missing out on with MP3?

Yeh, DACs are an area i'm researching at the min. Am i right in thinking that DACs are the original source which the song was recorded in and then its converted to a digital format which means virtual lossless quality.

I suppose thats the probable explaination.

I have all my music on Mp3, but I like to rip it myself so I can get the best possible quality. I'm a bit snobbish like that, as when I listen to downloded content on a good proper Hi-Fi, I sometimes question if what I'm hearing is what I should be hearing.

Whilst I can easily question the quality of various formats and the ripping/conversion software used, or the source/provider where I download it from. I don't need to do so with a CD as it is what it is, which is why I like to keep hold of them :cool:

A DAC, takes a digital source(MP3) and converts it to an Analogue source(which your Hi-Fi will accept). Everything that can play MP3s etc will include a DAC but the quality of DACs differ massively.

If have used this one quite alot in work
http://www.richersounds.com/product/...acmagic-08-blk
Its a wonderful little device at the moment we have it connected upto a Sono ZP90 and the audio quality is very good.

Storage is so cheap now that when I get a new system up and running I will definitely be ripping all my CDs to a lossless format, e.g. FLAC. Played back through a good converter, amplification, speakers, etc. then it should be as good a quality as the CD provided the rip was error free.

That said, still interested in taking audio to the next level. Maybe Super Audio CD and/or DVD-Audio will start to become more mainstream?

Thats so true. There was a time that many audio devices wre still using 741 derived op-amps for the line-out drive (albeit in surface mount or IC form). Anyone who knows their op-amps will tell you that these are far from hi-fi. And this has been a long standing issue with using the headphone jack or analogue output of many MP3 players or streaming devices (and PCs).

Thats why I love my old Archos Jukebox; it has SPDIFF (coax) digital output - which I hook into my Technics amp which does the excellent job of converting back into analogue. CD player is optical output too as is the PC that feed it too.

Its very old hat, but TBH its only recent years that this kind of stuff is properly getting into the mainstream as a integrated solution thats starting to appeal to me (proper remote control etc).

At the moment i'm looking into all options to replace my Techincs seperates system which has been faultless, its mainly a space issue where i'm downsizing to keep things a lot more compact and neater with a lot less cables and leads.

Has anyone on here gone over to the digital side yet with something like a Sonos system or similar ? Ideally i want DAB radio and possibly internet radio, i'm open to suggestions after that. I already have quality speakers so its just a matter of buying the sound system.

Rob, I sell the Sonos equipment at work, its a wonderful piece of equipment. Although pricey, you do get what you pay for.

If you have any specific questions on it let me know and if i don't know i'll certainly find out for you.

My favourite feature of Sonos is the Napster account though, almost every track at you disposal which i think would be fantastic if having a party!:D

Might sound silly but what's amazon all about? Is all the stuff on there in their hands? Or are they a 3rd party selling on behalf of public like ebay? Never even looked on there (but might now)

I do this:-

CD to FLAC and FLAC played on my TVIX media jukebox thingy which is digital all the way to a decent Pioneer amp then going out via B&W speakers.

FLAC also gets on my Archos 5 for when I am out and about.

If I do download MP3 its only ever 320kbit/second.

Never really fathomed it myself either.

There is Amazon; some stuff appears to be sold by companies, and other stuff appears to be sold by amazon itself, then there is also amazon marketplace which also sells stuff from other people too. Well confusing :wonder:

But I use them quite regular for other things and the only thing amiss was a toner cartridge that took 3 weeks to deliver (the retailer blamed it on 2nd class postage- which IMO was a load of bullsh*t; reality is they probably didn't stock the item and couldn't get it in a timely manner ).

Ebay on the otherhand I steer well clear of (except when selling old junk ;) ).

Ali-B, I'm not sure how well known the brand is but about 6years ago I had an I-River IHP140 mp3 portable player. It was fantastic and the sound quality lightyears ahead of the IPod that replaced it. The party piece though its 3.5mm optical output, sounded great using my pioneer amp!

I still have my H340, used it at work, it gets some comments but still sounds great, ok the interface is comical but its good enough to kick off an album, plus it has a radio, battery is knackered now, couldnt get rid of it, bought an Archos to replace it with 250 gb and use that less !

Mine met its maker when a friend tried to charge it with a universal charger and fried the life out of it! :(