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Comment by jghn | Hacker News Reader

I lived through vinyl, 8-track, cassettes, and CDs. I digitized all of my music over 20 years ago and no longer even own a physical media playback device. I can't fathom going back. Digital or bust.

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If you want the cassette experience without the massive downsides of cassettes, pick up an old Minidisc recorder. Physical media that are nearly infinitely re-recordable (unused ones are expensive but used ones from Japan are not) and nearly indestructible. The NetMD ones have been bid up in price because of transfer speed but older ones that only do real-time transfers are not hideously expensive.

I remember minidiscs, but never had my own player. But I don't want any sort of physical media.

Yep. Picked up a few MiniDisc players. My daughter is fascinated with them.

I still have a few specialty MD's from various brands such as the mona/bitclub; my last recorder was the RH1 and I regretted ever letting that unit go.

But why would I want the cassette experience in the first place?

Mix tapes were a very cool experience that a Spotify playlist can’t replicate. Beyond that, ask someone who wants it. I don’t, but they are a really cool piece of tech.

Minidiscs were so cool! I was surprised to see they still make them. Unfortunately they’re not all that cheap but not terrible.

They don’t still make them. It’s all NOS or used.

Only recently discontinued in Feburary 2025!

Nooooo!!!

You do not get tape saturation with minidisc, thus you cannot get the "cassette experience".

If there is one old format that actually should have a revival, it's minidisk. I was really holding out for their production keep on until that revival came but they gave up the ghost this year.

Tiny digital CDs packaged in little neon jewel floppy disks is the neotokyo future we all deserve.

Owning bit-perfect rips of your favourite music is a sweet spot. I have no interest in tape - of any kind - or vinyl.

The one frustration is that continuous FLAC playback appears to be an arcane programming challenge that only a select few developers have mastered. Especially on mobile.

And unless you set up a server the business of getting files onto and off devices is insanely perverse.

But in terms of sound quality and convenience, lossless rips win over anything else.

Going back to physical seems almost pointlessly decadent.

Cassettes were always a pain, but LPs are an awesome medium even today.

While it's convenient to just listen to anything with a click, the joy of the experience is gone. Purposefully pulling out an LP and setting it on the turntable, sitting on the couch to meaningfully listen while reading the album cover is a much more engaging musical experience.

Yes, I don't have time to do that much anymore either. But when possible, it is much more enjoyable.

I would especially not go back to tape. sssssssssssssssssssssss

8-track is lower than cassette in my book, but they share a common factor!

Why not? Now after 20 years passed you won't hear it anymore! :-P

Not trying to correct you, just looking for the right word. Digital isn't the right term here, because CDs are also digital. I'm trying to come up with the word for the opposite of physical media, but strangely I can't. Maybe streaming, but how would MP3s on a USB drive fit in?

Ethereal, Ephemeral?

I know what you mean but I can't think of any word that describes the concept (without requiring further elaboration).

Maybe "mediumless" is the right word.

Although, if we want to pedantic: music stored on a hard disk is still stored on a medium, but you can't pop the hard drive into any old player and play the music.

"physical media" is an inaccurate, redundant, phrase.

The issue here is, "physical" is a misleading word. Digital works are also held on physical media. The distinction is whether the work is stored on a dedicated physical object.

Edit: I suppose a jukebox confuses things as I think it belongs in the "physical media" box, but it isn't dedicated to a specific work. Hmm.

Same here. And I've been old-guy grumbling for years now about kids-these-days getting into vinyl and other retro technology that I was happy to be rid of.

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