After having been a vivid collector of CDs back in the days (I sold all of them some 15 years ago…), I started collecting vinyl and depend on streaming services ever since. Currently, I make use of a Quobuz subscription and Roon to manage my library which also includes various high-res downloads stored locally (with backups in the cloud).
But I miss physical media, and vinyl doesn’t cut it for me. Don’t get me wrong, nothing beats listening to a good record with a dram of Scotch, but quality wise, it’s nowhere near digital sources, at least not within any reasonable price point.
Where to go from here? Paying for high-res downloads I often can stream at the same time feels strangely unsatisfying, while falling back to CDs might be an option, but leaves out higher quality tiers. Physical alternatives such as HDCD, SACD or DVD-Audio seem more or less a niche for enthusiasts of classical music (if not dead), with a very limited catalogue.
Can some of you share my feelings? How do you deal with it?
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I just bought a lot of one hundred CDs on Craigslist after reading this post!
Vinyl, to support the artist. Almost every new album from an artist I like I will buy the vinyl
Good point. Supporting artists is another strong argument for buying physical media. You’d have to stream A LOT to have them being payed out correspondingly…
Buying on Bandcamp often gets you the LP plus FLAC (sometimes hi res), plus the artist gets a sizable chunk of the revenue.
Every time I start getting nostalgic about getting back into vinyl, I just look at the prices of records I actually want to buy, then I go back to my Spotify.
Vinyls.
Vinyl for me, although not really seriously. Got curious and here I am.
I buy physical media, been buying mainly cassettes as of late since they’re rad as hell and pretty much is the only option for physicals for a lot of indie albums. It’s probably my faviorite physical format.
I still buy CDs to have as my digital master copy and I’m definitely listening to them more after upgrading my CD players dac to a Modi 3e since it sounds similar to my tape deck but a bit cleaner and wider.
Vinyl is fun and I like it, but not enough bands I like have releases on the format, but I do like listening to the 15 or so records I have
I buy CDs and rip them to FLAC then listen with musicbee
CDs which I rip to FLAC, cassettes, and some records.
I love audio files made from cds because I think the files sound better just like my cassette recordings of fm radio sounding better than live.
CD and vinyl. I just can’t get rid of CDs. They’re too good and convenient when compared to some streaming user interfaces.
Give up on CDs, they seem superfluous when you can get the higher quality sources from streaming.
I have no problem paying for streaming subscriptions, and find it odd that so many people do (especially when the same people have no problem paying for TV).
Unlimited streaming has opened up a whole new world of music discovery.
I still buy vinyl LPs though, mainly direct from the artist’s websites, Bandcamp, and sometimes shows.
It’s not an either or to me, and you are absolutely right: streaming subscriptions are probably the best way to discover new music – I wouldn’t want to miss it. But it’s been a few times already that albums from my streaming library weren’t available anymore or have been swapped with a new (and potentially remastered) release, which I find disturbing.
You’re right, I’ve found a handful of CDs that are just not on any streaming source, but they are rare.
But thankfully usually the opppsite is true, that there are more versions of an album than I have CDs, and you can compare them all
Vinyl & Thrift store CDs. Just nostalgia thing for me.
Yeah, £1 for a CD and I’ve been lucky with vinyl for £2 at a local charity shop. There’s one a drive away with CDs for 50p each.
I re-discovered my love of finding CDs and it’s been such a nice feeling to have that routine of browsing through lines of them.
CDs nutz. Gottem.
I’m buying back all the CDs I sold 17 years ago! Mostly at charity shops and totally loving it.
Like most man my age I buy vinyl so that they can collect dust while I stream the music…
Been reading that the best version of a song consistently is the Atmos track down mixed to 2 channel. I think there is a guy on this subreddit reviewing all the versions of a song (cd, vinyl, cd and stream) or albums.
One way to improve vinyl is a good phono preamp. Look around the used market for older top of line models. I got my slightly older $3000 original priced model for $500 used. The quietness is noticeable improvement. Still the same pops but all of a sudden my records sound like a digital version with all the magic of records retained.
I buy CDs for albums that are “Top 50,” which is now a list of approximately 150 albums… /s
Once I have them I rip FLACs to a media server so I can listen to them through Roon, but I also like having the album, even if it does sit and collect dust in a closet most of the time.