I started collecting CDs very hesitantly...

[JSngry]

It was at a Camelot, yeah.

Camelot also was source to beaucoup ECM LP cutouts too, when WB purged them.

[brownie]

I tried to ignore CDs when they came out and was not impressed with the sound of the first ones I listened to.

I gave in when Toshiba Japan reissued BN CDs that had additional material. That was back in 1987.

Hundreds of CD purchases later, it seems that my place has been invaded by the damn devices.

Sound reproduction has improved but when I want to listen to the real thing I go back to the vinyls. Glad I have kept all of those!

[kenny weir]

This is all very interesting.

But regardless, I'm sure there's one thing we can just about all agree upon - the jewel case is the stupidest creation, evah, of mankind.

[A Lark Ascending]

So a question for those who still have CDs purchased in the 80s- have many (or any) shown any signs of degrading?

I have a few, but the reasons are well documented - the classical Hyperion label used a pressing plant where something went wrong in the late 80s, something to do with the ink on the surface leaking into the disc. In general this has led to a 'bronzing' of the discs; in a few places little holes appeared and the discs started skipping. Hyperion have a replacement campaign for this.

In general I found new recordings to sound excellent; but there were some dreadful first generation transfers of existing material, many sounding flat, others with errors or pitch variation. Thus the 'remastering' phenomena (was this planned or just an unexpected boom for the record companies?)

My first three discs were Julian Bream playing Granados/Albeniz (RCA), Frederica von Stade singing the Songs of the Auvergne and the Beaux Arts Trio playing the Ravel/Chausson Trios. At last I could hear instrumental and chamber music without rice krispies, classical vocal without peak distortion.

[JohnS]

I was reluctant at first, mainly due to the cost of cds compared to vinyl. But it was the lure of extra tracks that got me in the end. My first cd was a Charlie Parker on Verve.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Actually, you've all reminded me of what was going on at the time, which I'd forgotten. First that CDs were much more expensive in the UK than LPs in those days; second about the bonus track thing - particularly for Blue Notes. I knew there was a shed full of unissued stuff, from the BN discography by Ruppli & Cuscuna, which came out in 1988 and which I bought immediately it became available here. I wrote out a list of still unissued stuff and waited for them to come out.

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

I seem to recall a full price CD £9.99 in '85...I think an LP was around £5.99 or £6.99.

I was in the habit of buying 2 or 3 LPs a week. Had to scale back for a while with CD.

Interesting that a full price download is now £7.99...given inflation, significantly cheaper (even if you factor in the lack of packaging, cost of the CD-R, paper and ink cost if you make a sleeve etc[though I always feel those are offset by not paying petrol costs or the costs of the cup of coffee, impulse buys etc incurred when going to a record shop!)).

[BillF]

Looking at what was coming out on CD in the late 80s, I made the incorrect decision that it wasn't a medium for the serious jazz collector and went out and bought a new outfit that didn't include a CD player! In 1991 I had to replace it with one that included a CD player, having bought two CDs by contemporary big bands: Mel Lewis's Soft Lights and Hot Music and Bill Holman Band on JVC. Do I get the impression from this thread that (as is so often the case) the U.S. was into the new technology earlier than we were?

[Tom Storer]

I resisted, I think, until around 1986 or 1987. I deduce this because I have some vinyl from around then. I gave in when the local record store switched all wall displays to CDs and put the LPs off in their own little corner.

But I have never collected either LPs or CDs. I just buy them and they accumulate.

[A Lark Ascending]

Do I get the impression from this thread that (as is so often the case) the U.S. was into the new technology earlier than we were?

I'm not sure that's true. It caught on very quickly in classical music over here.

I tend to be a bit sceptical about 'new' music technology - in most cases it tends to want to make you buy something that makes only marginal difference.

But where I can see a (for me) immediate practical advantage I tend to jump quickly. CD was like that; and the download thing more recently.

SACD, on the otherhand, never seemed to offer much more than the 'best possible sound'; all well and good, but I'm content with very good sound.

[fent99]

Bought my first discs in 89 when I shared a flat with a friend in my last year of college. First Discs were Song For my Father Horace Silver and Hats by the Blue Nile, both of which I still love and play (been humming the Horace over the last few days strangely, maybe the natives are restless...) When we finished and I moved flats I then had a bunch of Cds and no player and was back to cassettes which I still think are a great medium. Took about another 3-4 years to buy a player when I got a job and had some money.

But I have never collected either LPs or CDs. I just buy them and they accumulate.

Me too, and boy do they accumulate. Haven't counted in years and a little scared to

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Bought that little Sony D5 in '84 and friends would buy discs and I'd haul it to houses to listen.

My first CD was Joe Williams' "Nothin' but the Blues" on denon cuz it was a DDD, bought from a little shop in the Cleveland Arcade that was mostly Japanese imports.

I remember watching it roll off into the dining room as I had never opened a CD case before.

[jazzbo]

It was 1988 for me. Finally went for the format when I saw all the releases that I just couldn't find on lp then.

Sometimes I wish I'd gotten obsessed with something else, something that ultimately was less of a "cost" to my life. But what happened happened. Six walls in my house are covered with cds in one form or another.

[TedR]

My late father bought a cd player before I did.....in 1990 I believe. The first cd I bought him was Stan Getz Plays. After that I kept buying him those cut out Blue Notes that were around. As I write I'm playing the first one of those I gave dad.....Tony Williams' Spring. (The cd is from 1985 and still sounds pretty good.)Not his type of music but he loved it because the medium was so new. He could play 5 cds at a time without having to flip over and clean vinyl records. Perfect for the retiree who liked to entertain. Gift giving from then on was easy and lots of fun.

I got my first player in 1992 (I'm not sure but it may have been the Marantz 5 cd changer that just stopped playing last year.) My first cd was Charlie Haden's Quartet West Haunted Heart. Over the next 2 years I filled up a 250 cd shelf. That was the start. All the reissues with unreleased bonus tracks were too tempting. I'm too lazy to inventory but, between cd's and box sets, maybe 2500 cds now.

[Dave James]

I bought my first player in 1990 or 1991. It was a single disc Sony. The first CD I bought was the Quartets OJC by Stan Getz and, the second, Lyle Lovett & His Large Band. I still have the Getz. The Lovett is long gone. Once I started buying CD's, the flood gates didn't just open, they were blown right off their moorings. No hesitation here. I have no idea how many CD's I have now. Between the box sets and all the singles, I'd guess in the neighborhood of 3,500. While I've scaled back my purchasing frequency over the last couple of years, I'm still spending way too much on music. When I think back on all the ramifications, I have to agree with what Lon said, that choosing something else to obsess over might have been a good idea. Unfortunately, once you're hooked, you're really hooked. Has anyone ever been able to successfully kick this habit?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Has anyone ever been able to successfully kick this habit?

Good question. Never tried. I tried to give up smoking once; couldn't be asked.

MG

[jazzbo]

I gave up smoking just one month shy of twenty years ago. I haven't kicked the cd habit. . . .

[sidewinder]

Talking about the Blue Note long boxes, I fondly remember buying the Hank Mobley 'No Room For Squares', 'The Turnaround' and 'Caddy For Daddy', plus Joe Henderson 'In 'n Out' and Andrew Hill 'Point Of Departure' in an early batch one day (and taking damn ages to get them out of the boxes with waste all over the place afterwards). That was a very good day.

Edited June 3, 2010 by sidewinder

[Alexander]

I had a turntable and a cassette player in my room during high school, but I honestly didn't buy much music back then. I didn't work during the school year, so I never had any money (and my allowance always went towards comic books). What music I did have was all copied from a friend of mine onto 90 minute cassettes.

Then my stereo died and my parents bought me a little boombox, which (along with my walkman) was my only means of listening to music until my senior year of college. That year, I got a stereo with an unbelievably cheap top-loading CD player for my birthday. I did already own a few CDs, however. There were some albums (like "Into the Music" and "Common One" by Van Morrison) that were very hard to find on cassette, so I would get them on CD and tape them on a friend's machine. The first four CDs I got when I owned the CD player were in the James Brown "Star Time" box set (which I still have). Then I went on a deliberate mission to upgrade all of my cassettes (that I wanted to upgrade, anyway) onto CD. I would take a bunch of cassettes to Nuggets (a used record store in Boston) and trade them in for store credit. With the credit, I would buy a handful of used CDs. Then I would go home and put the cassettes I had upgraded in a box until I had a big enough pile to trade in and start the cycle anew. So I think I started getting CDs around 1992 or 93.