Hi friends, In the early 1980s, Sony was a leader, along with Philips, in the design, implementation and release of CDs and CD players. Today, Sony no longer makes CD players. In my new YouTube video, I spend time marveling at Sony's engineering on a player they released in 1986, while also trying to understand why they stopped making players today: I enjoyed making this video and hope you do too. Have a great week! Aaron
13 days ago • 1 min read
Hi friends, First, the Forever Analog YouTube channel passed 50,000 subscribers this weekend. I started this channel as a way to help friends with their audio gear purchases and hitting this kind of milestone is very surreal. I appreciate any of you who subscribe and take time out of your busy day to watch my videos. Speaking of YouTube... I thought it would be fun to compare a vintage CD player with a new model, but make sure it was the same manufacturer. So, I bought two Denon CD players,...
20 days ago • 1 min read
Hi friend, I just released a new YouTube video that’s a little different from my usual gear reviews. This time, I’m talking about 5 rock bands from the 1970s that don’t get nearly enough attention but should. These aren’t the obvious names like Led Zeppelin, Cream or AC/DC. These are bands that: influenced bigger artists made incredible albums somehow slipped through the cracks I found most of these recommendations after spending hours digging in records stores. You can watch it here: Let me...
27 days ago • 1 min read
Hi everyone, Over the past year, I’ve received a lot of emails asking for one-on-one advice about CD players, DACs, upgrades, and physical media collecting in general. Sometimes it’s a specific question, “Which CD player should I buy?” or “Should I upgrade my DAC or not?”. Other times, people just want to talk through their setup, their collection, or share what they’re into right now. I try to respond when I can, but it’s not always possible to go deep in an email reply. So I wanted to share...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Recently, while having lunch with a friend, he told me he thought I was better at shopping record stores for vinyl and CDs than he was. He admitted that when he enters a store jammed full of stuff, he gets overwhelmed, doesn't know where to start and will often leave without buying something. I understand this feeling. Even after 30+ years of shopping in stores for music, I still get overwhelmed and a little anxious, mostly at the thought there is something awesome hiding in the piles and I...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hi friends, I recently purchased the new Fiio DM15 R2R CD player from Apos Audio and have been slowly starting to use it over the past few weeks. That is a blue protective film on the top that I've yet to remove! I'm a big fan on the previous model, the DM13 and gave it a positive review on YouTube last year while comparing it against a Moondrop player: I haven't compared the sound signatures of the DM15 and the DM13 yet. I think most people assume that's the first thing I would test, but...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Friends, I've reviewed a lot of newly released, modern CD players and one thing I've noticed is that the sound performance isn't the most important factor for me to consider. What I find to be most important is the feature set or really, just how the CD player works. Most new CD players offered today have the appropriate DAC design to sound fine and almost all new players have digital outputs to add an external DAC should you want to try and improve the sound. (My only advice is if you...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hello friends, My Forever Analog YouTube channel will always have a main focus on gear updates, product reviews and physical media collecting. But, I also want to incorporate another video style in 2026 that simply focuses on music. I posted my first video in this format style a few weeks ago about bands from the 1990's that we've forgotten about, or at least aren't talked about as much as bands like Alice In Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and more. I sell a lot of CDs by those...
2 months ago • 1 min read
This time last year I posted a video on my YouTube channel highlighting 11 reasons why I thought CDs were coming back in 2025. After selling a lot of CDs in 2024, both in my vintage booth in our local antique mall and at record shows, I thought CDs were becoming cool again with a younger generation. That video was very popular, so I made a few more videos about CD players and those performed well. I then made videos highlighting rare and expensive CDs sold on Discogs and eBay and even THOSE...
2 months ago • 1 min read