CDs, LPs or MCs - what's your prefered format?

[Bear 1817]

The thread kinda says it all, doesn't it? What's your prefered format and why?

 

As for me:

 

1. Vinyl

To me, vinyl sounds warmer than tapes and CDs, and there's something very magical about flipping it over after you've heard the A-side. It's a format for when you're gonna focus soly on the music an pay a little extra attention to the music. Get yourself a glass of your finest whisky/wine/beer and enjoy the huge artwork, read the lyrics (if it has that) and just enjoy the music to the fullest without fuckign around with your computer or phone or anything else. It's the format which makes listening to music a bit more special.

 

2. Tapes

A small, beautiful format which tts rough sound makes it perfect for demos and certain genres (black/death/thrash metal for instance), and it's a fantasticly charming format to me. It's a fun format, and a format that gives me a bit extra that the CDs lack. It's cheap too, which makes it possible to get three of these for the price of one CD.

 

On the minus side it's a format that will get damaged over time no matter how well you take care of it. Time will fuck 'em up, even if you don't, and that sucks. But it's worth it.

 

3. CDs

Sounds good, but gives me nothing more than the music, and for someone who pays for a lot more than just the music there's nothing to gain here really. Sounds good and is easy to deal with and take care of, but the artwork's small as fuck and there's nothing special about it. Nothing special at all, and a format I spend close to nowt on. I'll only spend money on CDs if it's something really special or a band I collect (Sigh). But that's it for me. Most of my CDs are laying in bags somewhere and I'm not using them other than in the car and whenever we're getting drunk.

 

 

And you?

[Jigsaw9 6783]

I used to buy cassettes for a short period while I was getting into music, but switched to CD not long afterwards. That became my main thing and has remained till this day. I have a hi-fi system at home so it's really comfortable to listen to CDs that way (it doesn't have a tape player unit). I've only listened to a small handful of vinyls so far (and those were pretty old albums too), but that sounds nice as well. Still, I'm thinking it would be a hassle buying a vinyl player and then those big records -- I barely have any free space as is! lol. They do look mighty fine tho and I get the appeal.

[Biopanda 2675]

There are(with very, very few exceptions) no VK vinyls, so it's cassettes all the way for me XD

[doombox 4421]

I don't understand why CD artwork got bashed so hard when it's normally the same as on the LPs these days. I maybe understand your problem with it being smaller.... but wow that was kinda harsh. ^^;

 

I grew up with vinyl and cassettes, and I think the people who are more attached to them are going to be old enough to have valued them growing up. I really like vinyl but I also have the issue of it simply taking up too much space. So CDs win out for practicality, more selection, and and I don't find the difference in sound to be a very big deal. Vinyl comes in second, and tapes third because I never really liked tapes to begin with. I only bought them out of necessity and, like CDs, at the time they took up much less space. I do however miss the hell out of making cassette mixtapes for other people. So much love went into those! haha.

[indigo 389]

My preferred format is CDs just because I spend so much time in my car. I usually buy records and tapes only when it's something rare or limited or not available on cd. Some of my favorite albums I have on both CD and tape.

[Bear 1817]

I don't understand why CD artwork got bashed so hard when it's normally the same as on the LPs these days. I maybe understand your problem with it being smaller.... but wow that was kinda harsh. ^^;

 

Yes, the design is often (though, far from always) the same, but the size ain't the same as you said. Great artwork, and especially artworks with lots of details, will always look better when bigger. It's the same as with posters or whatever. What's better and cooler to look at; a 20x30cm poster or a 60x90cm poster? I'd go with the 60x90cm every single day of the week, all year long.

 

But as I said, a CD is more practical and it sounds good, but me, I buy more than the music whenever I buy something. I buy a whole package, which I why I have become very careful with what I buy.

[Thedane 176]

CD's, since that's what I can play and listen to, and actually have the space to store them properly.

[Mr Bacon 106]

1. Vinyl

To me, vinyl sounds warmer than tapes and CDs, and there's something very magical about flipping it over after you've heard the A-side. It's a format for when you're gonna focus soly on the music an pay a little extra attention to the music. Get yourself a glass of your finest whisky/wine/beer and enjoy the huge artwork, read the lyrics (if it has that) and just enjoy the music to the fullest without fuckign around with your computer or phone or anything else. It's the format which makes listening to music a bit more special.

This, pretty much. However since I'm a pretty busy person, I don't always want to make time to flip records, haha. That's why my main format is still CD because you still get the artwork (albeit smaller) and those are easier to convert to digital files.

If I love a record, however, I will buy the vinyl for sure.

 

Cassettes aren't my thing. Inferior audio quality, hardly any artwork, etc. Sure it has its charms, but if I have the choice I won't buy cassettes.

[CAT5 9075]

CDs - not only because of practicality, but I listen to a ton of music that's not even available in other physical formats.

[JukaForever 758]

Vinyl and tapes are simply old tech and in many ways inferior to CD quality music. One outputs at most 12 bits and the other does a measly 8 bits. While CD is the most transparent at 16 bits and is pretty much the sweet spot in terms of file size and for audible fidelity.

I don't see a reason to buy or invest in equipment for vinyl when the quality of the music is so low. It seems to be only for people bent on collecting old music or those that want an audibly imperfect representation of the music they are listening to.

[Biopanda 2675]

Vinyl and tapes are simply old tech and in many ways inferior to CD quality music. One outputs at most 12 bits and the other does a measly 8 bits. While CD is the most transparent at 16 bits and is pretty much the sweet spot in terms of file size and for audible fidelity.

I don't see a reason to buy or invest in equipment for vinyl when the quality of the music is so low. It seems to be only for people bent on collecting old music or those that want an audibly imperfect representation of the music they are listening to.

Little bit of misinformation here though. Since both vinyl and cassettes are analog media, they don't output any bits at all. While they may sound similar to something encoded at those, saying they output those is wrong.

[Lestat 2167]

Ouch, JukaForever.

 

I (used to; my spree calmed down a bit and I haven't purchased anything in a while) collect vinyl, my main interest goes out to eighties rock and metal (i.e. Poison, Cinderella, you get the idea). I think the oldest records I have date to the late sixties and are mainly from Alice Cooper. It's probably a stereotype thought vinyl-lovers have, but I adore the light crackle — it gives me that idea that I can actually sit down and listen to music, rather than when I just push the shuffle-button on my PC and let the music play mostly for background and ambience. 

 

A CD I hardly ever use, although I do buy a lot of them simply to show my support and because I do love to own music in physical forms. I don't own a car or a CD-player, so if the record isn't uploaded elsewhere on the internet then the only time it ever gets out of its case is when I have to rip it to my PC.

[JukaForever 758]

Little bit of misinformation here though. Since both vinyl and cassettes are analog media, they don't output any bits at all. While they may sound similar to something encoded at those, saying they output those is wrong.

I use bits to quantify the useful information outputted when you play them

[beni 2149]

I've never actually had a vinyl myself, my older sister had many as she enjoyed collecting a load of them. I've had tapes before, but not music related. When I was younger, I'd listen to audio stories being spoken on a tape. These two moments are the only times I know I've used or been near these formats. At this age and for a while now, I've grown up with CDs and digital downloading, these two the only formats I'll pay for, since, like CAT5, I find it difficult finding the music I want on any other format. I actually use digital downloading (iTunes) the most, but I dislike that since I can't have the actual music in my hands (I mean to say the case, but I can't work it correctly xD). And I just generally prefer CDs over anything else, probably just because I'm so used to it now. Reading about the others now, I'm missing out on quite a bit. ><

[kyoselflove 2680]

I prefer CD's because they are small and more readily available.  I love LP's but I simply do not have the space for them lol.  I would love tapes more if I didn't get my heart broken so many times by them getting eaten by tape players T__T

[ghost 2687]

CDS are my format of choice. My reasons are coming from more of a collectors perspective though.

-You can play them on anything that has a disc drive. So basically everything (lol)

-You can rip the music off the disc and transfer it to a digital music player or create additional copies for more rugged use. (I'm pretty sure you can do this with the other 2 formats but I don't know how complicated the process is.)

-For special editions, the CD format is a nice size to create something more luxurious but not over-sized. (Except Dir en Grey and GazettE Ihetyou).

-I feel like it's the most durable out of the 3 formats.

-I like seeing designs right on the top of the disc

-CD is a common word used by many languages so yay for no translations (LP too?)

-You can use the C in CD to make a "C:" face, and the D to make a ":D" face

-Have you ever microwaved a CD?

-You can easily replace cases as needed. Sadly, not possible with vinyl.

[Bear 1817]

-You can rip the music off the disc and transfer it to a digital music player or create additional copies for more rugged use. (I'm pretty sure you can do this with the other 2 formats but I don't know how complicated the process is.)

 

It's a bit harder and requiers a lot more work and time, as well as money (in the begining as you'll need some extra equipment), but as ong as you have the equipment it's not very comlecated. However, unless you choose to rip song by song, which is quite tiresome, you'll have to separate the tracks afterwards that's the hardest thing to do, and that's fairly easy. So a bit harder and more time consuming, but at the end of the day you only rip your rare vinyls and tapes, so it ain't a bother (for those who choose to do it).

 

 

You're also right about the cover thing, but that also goes for a lot of CDs. I've got plenty of CDs that are either digipack or have a special case which you simply cannot change if damaged, such as this. But I am careful with all my tapes, vinyls and CDs, so this is not a problem for me. Never have been, and never will be. However, to take extra good cae of your vinyls you obviously have to buy plastic sleeves for your vinyls to protect them, and that adds some money to that. But it's not too expensive as long as you buy it off the internet.