I review home audio products on my blog and YouTube channel, along with tips and tricks to get the best sound possible out of your home stereo!
I Didn’t Expect This From CDs in 2025
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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 videos were popular with viewers. I reviewed 10 CD players this year and just posted a roundup video ranking those worst to first. I have two more CD players in for review that I need to work on and hopefully more are on the way for 2026. I also bought several vintage CD players this year and repaired them all with simple service techniques that got them working again, which I shared in another video. I hate to think of all the CD players tossed in the trash because they were "broken" when all they needed was a new belt or some new grease applied. So...yeah, I decided to lean into CDs in 2025 and had a blast doing so and it more than doubled my audience on YouTube from 2024. It turns out there's a great community of folks still buying and collecting CDs! Now that I look ahead to 2026, I have a lot of CD related content ready for YouTube. I thought it would be fun to do vintage CD player comparisons by brand with their modern day versions and make that a little series. I also want to release more videos about music in general. I tried one this month about forgotten bands from the 1990s and people really seemed to enjoy it. I also want to make more CDs available in my Discogs store for people to shop and purchase. It's important to note that vinyl records still hold a special place in my heart and I found a new appreciation for them after upgrading to a moving coil cartridge. Right now I have a 1950's HH Scott tube amp powering Klipsch Heresy speakers using the Audio Technica OC9EXN moving coil cart into a Sutherland KC Vibe phono preamp and it sounds amazing. I'm grateful to everyone who has signed up for this mailing list and if you've read this far, remember you can hit reply and message me back with any questions or video ideas for next year. Happy new year. Aaron |
Forever Analog
I review home audio products on my blog and YouTube channel, along with tips and tricks to get the best sound possible out of your home stereo!
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...
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...
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...