Viricide Filly wrote:Granted, when a CD is played back in less than ideal conditions, after improper storage, it's hard to argue that it still sounds "good."
Not necessarily true - information on CDs is stored in purely digital form, so any degradation in quality would have to come from physical damage (scratches, mostly) causing data corruption. And even then, the chances of that causing a slight degradation in quality are virtually nil - it's far, far, far more likely to result in outright corruption - that is, a short burst of garbage data (static) at a point where it's scratched, or some sort of skipping effect. At that point it's not really a matter if it sounding "good" anymore and more a matter of it being uncorrupted. Other than that, by the very nature of it being digital, you'll get the exact same data, bit-for-bit, every time you play the CD unless it's acutely damaged.
Basically, people only ever listen to low-fi mediums like vinyl or cassettes for one of two reasons:
1. They don't actually understand how audio works, and are under the false impression that vinyl offers better quality, or that analog stuff is better than the equivalent digital stuff (both of which are obviously false if you have a decent understanding of audio engineering and how digital and analog sound actually work).
2. They understand that they're getting a lower-fidelity sound, but they don't mind because they like having physical, analog mediums for music as part of the aesthetic of listening that helps them enjoy the music better, or they're fond of the little imperfections that come from the medium that give it a distinctive, or "colored," sound.
Specifically with the first half of reason #2, the same often goes for getting physical CDs as opposed to digital downloads. Many people find there's just something nice and satisfying about having a real material version of the music, although with CDs there's not (usually) a quality difference, as the digital data you're getting is oftentimes literally identical.
Obviously, the second is a totally valid reason for preferring vinyl and cassette stuff, and the first is not. I can't personally related to either reason at all, but I think it's important to recognize the legitimacy of the different ways that different people prefer to experience art (in this case, music).