The cd player and the return to physical media

Posted on October 28, 2025

    “You know what would be fire? A cd player. I would listen to lo-fi on that thing all the time” says Eve.
I look up from my laptop.
    “A cd player. Hmm I guess” I reply
That came out of nowhere. Eve has a lot of sudden ADHD induced ideas. I give it some thought.
    “Maybe. Would you just burn the music you listen to now and then just listen but on cd?” I ask
    “Yea!”
I give it another thought. I do remember still owning quite some cd’s. I check eBay oh my phone. 3$ for System of a Down, 2.50$ for Iron Maiden. Hmm, maybe this isn’t such a bad idea after all. She’s cooking.

A picture of Robin and Evelyn together surrounded by comfy pillows and blankets. They both have a laptop.

“You’re cookin’!” I say, laughing.
“Oh yea I know”

A few days pass and we manage to get a hold of two CD players. A portable one that used to belong to my dad, which he gave to us; and a traditional tower one bought second hand on the Dutch equivalent of Craigslist.

An open CD case of Ash's Free all Angels double album and a CD player playing music. There is a purple scented candle, another set of retro headphones and an earpod charging container in the picture.

I hook the tower cd player up to some speakers and insert The Prodigy, Experience. One of my favorite albums. Immediately the music starts playing over the speakers I connected. It sounds great. Why did we stop using these? I get to actually own my music. A short while of eBay browsing later, and about a 100$ less on my bank account, I just ordered a ton of CD’s of bands that we like. Nirvana, Queens of the Stone age, Garbage, The Prodigy, Supertramp, TaTu, and more. Sadly, they haven’t arrived yet.