useless Posted August 9, 2016 Posted August 9, 2016 Post your preferred format in here. I haven't got one at the moment, bit of a dilemma.
Tegis Posted August 9, 2016 VT Supporter Posted August 9, 2016 Preferably produced by these fellows It's just magnificent 2
dAVe80 Posted August 9, 2016 Posted August 9, 2016 Vinyl for me, although I think I'm possibly one of the only people left in the UK who still buys CDs. I do a lot of music listening in the car, so as I have a CD player in the car, it works for me. At home though, vinyl is king. 1
Popular Post 8pints Posted August 9, 2016 Popular Post Posted August 9, 2016 I prefer to listen to music through the format of my ears. 9
villa4europe Posted August 9, 2016 Posted August 9, 2016 spotify, use it a lot, probably 8+ hours a day, have it at work, home and in the car however...as a music lover i like to collect music, still buy a lot of CDs (maybe 5 a month) and vinyl (2/3 a month) nothing better than a proper music collection, dont buy stuff day 1 anymore though, unless its a special edition with extra content or colour vinyl i wait for it to go cheap, i did get in to importing CDs from japan, thats where its at, loads of extra content
chrisp65 Posted August 9, 2016 Posted August 9, 2016 I quite like the experience of shopping for a record, chatting to the shop staff who invariably give some decent tips. So what happens is typical of today, I've gone in to buy an album and bought some vinyl. But got listening to what the shop was playing, had a chat about it and bought that on CD. But as per dAVe's comment above, format is driven by where I am. Vinyl if I'm home alone, laptop home in company, CD in my car, phone or memory stick in the wife's car. I'm lucky, I can listen to the music, not the equipment. But I like having a physical thing with words and pictures on it. 3
choffer Posted August 9, 2016 VT Supporter Posted August 9, 2016 Having recently obtained a record player, I'd say vinyl is my favourite but I'd imagine I'll still keep buying CDs for as long as they still make them. Vinyl (mostly due to the expense) is saved for albums I really want to sit and listen to, cd's for the majority of purchases and downloads only for things that I have an immediate desire to hear, mostly when I'm travelling. Then again, if I like a downloaded album enough, I will then go and buy the cd or the vinyl of it. 1
tonyh29 Posted August 9, 2016 Posted August 9, 2016 Live music At Bestival last week i got blown away by how good KT Tunstall is , someone whose records I'd never consider buying she has great stage presence and can play a decent lick or two ... I'd probably even bang her as well if she asked nicely 2
Seat68 Posted August 10, 2016 Posted August 10, 2016 Listen to MP3's and Spotify at work, CD's in the car and vinyl and CD's at home. I would say the majority of purchases are CD.
blandy Posted August 10, 2016 Moderator Posted August 10, 2016 I listen to the radio a fair bit, so as well as iPod, cd and vinyl, plus live music, that's a favourite. Basically I listen to music by whatever means is available. i do enjoy specifically sitting down to actively listen to a vinyl lip or cd.
maqroll Posted August 10, 2016 Posted August 10, 2016 lately my car cd player i was blasting machine gun by jimi hendrix earlier tonight, like a madman 1
sexbelowsound Posted August 10, 2016 Posted August 10, 2016 11 hours ago, 8pints said: I prefer to listen to music through the format of my ears. Have a like for Bill Haverchuck. That particular scene is one of the saddest, yet uplifting scenes I can remember. 1
Popular Post mjmooney Posted August 10, 2016 VT Supporter Popular Post Posted August 10, 2016 CDs, by a country mile. I still have 2000-odd LPs (and singles) from back in the day, but I find the current fetish for vinyl laughable. CDs sound every bit as good, don't damage as easily, take up far less space, and are cheap. Yet they are still a physical thing, with artwork, sleeve notes, etc. 'Virtual' music is just too intangible. I do have a lot of stuff on mp3, but it's more of a backup/occasional convenience. 8
chrisp65 Posted August 10, 2016 Posted August 10, 2016 I bought a new vinyl double album yesterday (£9.99) and it was £2 cheaper than the CD I bought at the same time. So price is an interesting one. I do wonder, when they re release some Elvis greatest hits album and charge £25 for it, who exactly is getting the money. But, if you want to go to HMV and pay £28 for a re press of an old Iron Maiden album, best of luck. If I'm buying something like Nils Frahm, I'll probably opt for CD or mp3 as any tiny hiss, clicks n ticks could be annoying. If I'm buying something by The Lovely Eggs then a bit of crackle just adds to the ambience! I'm not sure listening to a wav file through £1500 wifi speakers enhances much of Lee Scratch Perry's work. People can spend crazy money on some shitty Neil Young Pono digital player, or they can pay £100 for a full on retro stereo system. The money, generally, is just down to how much money people like spending. Everyone else is out this evening (cinema), once I've relieved some tension, I shall indulge in an hour or two of getting records in and out of sleeves and spinning them over touching only the edges and inventing new stereo uses for stuff bought in the kitchen section of Ikea. ---- Once every couple of months I go along to sort of listening event type things. A bunch of people meet up with a bunch of hifi and a stack of music and listen to all sorts of music on all sorts of formats on all sorts of budgets of kit. The people that have spent £800 on speaker cable never want to do a blind testing of their kit versus cheap shit. Money spent, is never the clincher for whether any particular piece of music was enjoyable. 3
Phumfeinz Posted August 10, 2016 Posted August 10, 2016 Spotify is great, can't fault it really. Well worth paying the money for a premium account.
Xann Posted August 10, 2016 Posted August 10, 2016 (edited) If people want to jump up and down to scratchy Punk or notoriously terrible second hand Reggae 7"s, who am I to tell you that CD is better? If you want to listen to the formats that transparently and accurately deliver the contents of the master? AIFF (CD), WAV and FLAC piss all over vinyl. There are certainly vinyl cuts that sound nicer than their CD counterparts, but if that's what floats your boat, you'd better get a cassette player. With some recordings it's the humble compact cassette that comes out on top. Ironically the dance music that kept vinyl alive until the recent resurgence of interest really shows up vinyl's weakness with bass, stereo and phase trickery. I used to record material (from scratch) that Hi Fi manufacturers used to show off their kit. After a disastrous and expensive day spent trying to squeeze a Techno track onto vinyl, with the best cutter around (microscope on the groove etc etc) and with plenty room on a 12" 45 to cut a groove as wide as a motorway, I abandoned vinyl almost entirely for twenty years - With the exception of charity shop specials. Alas, there are lots of modern vinyl only releases that are pretty cool. There's a steadily growing pile next to the stereo these days. Though CDs are far from indestructible, my copy of 'Black Celebration' which I bought for my first CD player in 1986 still sounds perfect. Unlike some of the vinyl I've bought in the last 12 months, which punish me for living in a house with carpet, curtains and soft furnishings. Edited August 10, 2016 by Xann 1
Xela Posted August 10, 2016 Posted August 10, 2016 (edited) Spotify Luckily i'm no audiophile so i can listen to music and not the medium its transmitted through. Haven't purchased physical music (or media) in about 7 or 8 years. All streamed now Edited August 10, 2016 by Xela
useless Posted August 11, 2016 Author Posted August 11, 2016 Downsides to vinyl are it's expensive the p&p costs loads (I've bought records from the US where the p&p has cost more than the record and it's still worked out cheaper than buying it from the UK), they take up too much room, and are an hassle to get rid of when no longer wanted, plus you have to keep changing sides. All this stuff about rituals of getting it out the sleeve and staring at the 'artwork' just sounds like adman speak. I still get the odd 'vinyl' but these days but try and keep it to all time favourites that often aren't available any other way anyway. CD's are cheap plastic storage devices with hardly any room on them and they too take up space. My main gripe with them is that I don't like the ticking noises that CD players make which sometimes spoils quiet music. But I guess the sound quality is there with CDs and at least they keep the digital files safe, as in CD's don't get wiped out, like other storage devices can (as far as I know). Plus even if a CD get's so scratched or cracked, that it's unplayable the files are usually still retrievable if you rip the disc. I'm warming to FLACs/lossless, it's pretty much like having the CD but without them taking up so much room and no ticking noise, but not all music is available in lossless format without buying the CD in the first place. Downside is you can't really sell them once bored to fund other purchases, or swap them. I'd see streaming as more of a way of testing music, I haven't got spotify but with Bandcamp, Soundcloud and Youtube, even I, can notice the sound quality isn't great. So in answer to the thread title, it depends.
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