Hello audiophiles! All I’m looking for in this post is to say Hello to other music fans who engage with collecting like I do, because sometimes I feel lonely in the age of streaming.
I started collecting music in college (mid 2000’s) when I got a pair of turntables and learned how to mix house and techno. I found it enjoyable to visit record stores and dig around crates looking for gems. After college I kept one turntable and got into audiophile collecting, like original pressings and Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs pressings of classic albums.
Fast forward a few years and I discover that some vinyl collectors rip their super-rare records with super-expense gear and share with people like me. I got into that and started collecting FLAC files of rare records and audiophile gold CDs. This is around when Spotify got big but I was so engaged with collecting vinyl & digital downloads I didn’t really get into it.
Finally, a few years after that I discover Bandcamp and fell in love with the service. It gave me the feel of a record store but online. Plus the majority of my money goes to the artist which is great to know. I spend much more each month buying and downloading FLAC files from Bandcamp compared to streaming but I couldn’t be happier. Around this time I bought an ADC and ripped my own vinyl collection then sold my turntable and records. I’m now all FLAC.
At one point I tired Tidal and Qobuz but wasn’t impressed. The sound quality of classic albums ranged from either “really good but not quite as good as my flac files” to completely awful. I always dropped the service after a month and went back to my FLAC files.
I now have about 11,000 songs, all lossless, all sourced from vinyl, gold CDs from MFSL and DCC, plus loads of Bandcamp downloads. It’s really enjoyable to curate a collection, I feel like it’s a great way to engage with this hobby but I don’t see many audiophile take this path.
Just wondering who else loves collecting instead of streaming?
Glad to hear there is actually an end to ripping your collection. I’ve been at it for 6 months. All my CD’s are finally flac. Just started ripping my vinyl. After 2 more months, I have got through 50 LP’s. Only 500 more to go.
Do you have any suggestions on what to use to turn one side of an LP wav file into separate song flacs?
It took me about 3 months rip my vinyl. I used Audacity. I’d use Amplify to normalize my LP side to -1db then tell the software where to split the tracks. I’d do some light, manual click removal if needed. Once the tracks were split I’d type in the metadata and attach album art
It’s a major pain in the butt but I don’t miss vinyl collecting.