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Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2025 11:59:40 -0500
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Subject: Re: S-VHS cassette recorders
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On 1/6/2025 6:57 AM, Lasse Langwadt wrote:
> On 1/6/25 01:19, Cursitor Doom wrote:
>> On Sun, 5 Jan 2025 13:24:22 -0700, Don Y wrote:
>>
>>> On 1/5/2025 12:28 PM, bitrex wrote:
>>>> CD players are probably right up there for Rube Goldberg complexity,
>>>> people who knew what they're doing probably repaired them regularly
>>>> back in the day but I've never had much luck if the unit has a serious
>>>> fault, and the service manuals I've seen tend to be pretty unhelpful.
>>>
>>> CD players are relatively trivial, compared to VCRs.  There is NO "media
>>> handling" other than hoping the user installs the medium on the spindle
>>> correctly.
>>>
>>> By contrast, a VCR has to extract the tape from the cassette (after
>>> opening the access door and unlocking the reels) and pull it around the
>>> rotating head assembly.  Then, has to ensure the alignment of the head
>>> tracks the magnetic slices laid down on the medium, in real time.
>>>
>>> As well as having to ensure the *mechanism* is operating at the right
>>> "rate of speed" to ensure the video signal complies with that expected
>>> downstream.
>>>
>>>> A lot of the parts for vintage CD players are unobtanium now
>>>> particularly the laser diode which seems to be a common fault, in a few
>>>> decades I expect there will be almost none in working condition. like
>>>> the Chevy Vega.
>>>
>>> If you resign yourself to using drives intended for use with computers
>>> (even having audio output capability), you can rescue as many as you can
>>> carry!
>>>
>>>> I see why people miss vinyl sometimes but I can't imagine anyone will
>>>> really miss the CD, a real stopgap technology.
>>>
>>> The CD was a huge step up from vinyl.  No fussing with tracking, warped
>>> media, dust and other contaminants, etc.  Play it the Nth time and it's
>>> just as faithful to the source as the first!
>>
>> True, but there must be *something* about vinyl that more than 
>> compensates
>> for its shortcomings, given the fact that prices for old turntables have
>> soared and record shops are now stocking vinyl albums again.
>>
> 
> Vinyl sales have been higher than CD sale for years and growing 
> something like 20% per year while CD sales drop like a rock
> 
> 

The album art is bigger on LPs, and they have more distortion (warmth.)

Also as I somewhat mentioned before they haven't made _good_ standalone 
CD players at a consumer-friendly price point in like 25-30 years. New 
cars don't come with CD players anymore. Very few laptops have optical 
drives anymore.

And a lot of the more budget models even in the early 90s were getting 
enshittified and cost-reduced. And once the laser diode on them goes 
that's it, I've read that audiophiles have started resorting to 
cannibalizing cheaper units with the same mechanism to keep higher end 
ones going.

Meanwhile there are probably like 50 million Technics SL-whatever 
turntables floating around in generally working condition they made 
basically the same turntable for like 40 years.