whats your music format preference?

[TBurst Std]

CDs then rip them to FLAC for my music server.
I do have some SACDs as well.
mp3 as last resort

 

[Cagey]

Turntables are similar to stringed instruments, they need the best setup you can do. If the needle "reads" and does not dig the record the wear is minimum. I have records I bought more than twenty years ago and they are in mint condition. CD and vinyl deteriorates, hard drives are crashing, nothing is perfect.

If they've ever been played, they're not in "mint" condition, no matter how good your equipment is. Minimal wear is still wear and even in mint condition, vinyl is an inferior recording medium. It doesn't have the frequency response or dynamic range of the original sound, assuming you have nearly perfect equipment that eliminates a great deal of the problems involved with that media outside its inherent technical flaws. You may be used to how it sounds, but it's not optimal. You're just not used to hearing a good recording.

You're right in that nothing lasts forever. But, at least with digital media, you have as close to the original sound as is technically possible and every copy is as good as the original. There's no generational decline. So, you make copies on various media such as CDs, DVDs, HDDs, or EEPROM, and they're all perfect, not compromised representations with regeneration damage. Pick one that works for you, or use them all.

I understand the emotional tie to old technology. It broke my heart to give away my hard-earned record collection. Took me a lotta years and money to build, and I had a lot of memories associated with it. But, fact of the matter is, the stuff wasn't worth keeping. Maybe if I'd waited until now, I could find people like yourself who are foolish enough to pay a premium for sub-standard quality recordings with a limited useful life. But, I'd have never used them, the resale value still wouldn't be very high (almost non-existent demand), and I can't afford to store everything I've ever owned since I was born. At some point, you've got to grow up.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

Turntables are similar to stringed instruments, they need the best setup you can do. If the needle "reads" and does not dig the record the wear is minimum. I have records I bought more than twenty years ago and they are in mint condition. CD and vinyl deteriorates, hard drives are crashing, nothing is perfect.

If they've ever been played, they're not in "mint" condition, no matter how good your equipment is. Minimal wear is still wear and even in mint condition, vinyl is an inferior recording medium. It doesn't have the frequency response or dynamic range of the original sound, assuming you have nearly perfect equipment that eliminates a great deal of the problems involved with that media outside its inherent technical flaws. You may be used to how it sounds, but it's not optimal. You're just not used to hearing a good recording.

You're right in that nothing lasts forever. But, at least with digital media, you have as close to the original sound as is technically possible and every copy is as good as the original. There's no generational decline. So, you make copies on various media such as CDs, DVDs, HDDs, or EEPROM, and they're all perfect, not compromised representations with regeneration damage. Pick one that works for you, or use them all.

I understand the emotional tie to old technology. It broke my heart to give away my hard-earned record collection. Took me a lotta years and money to build, and I had a lot of memories associated with it. But, fact of the matter is, the stuff wasn't worth keeping. Maybe if I'd waited until now, I could find people like yourself who are foolish enough to pay a premium for sub-standard quality recordings with a limited useful life. But, I'd have never used them, the resale value still wouldn't be very high (almost non-existent demand), and I can't afford to store everything I've ever owned since I was born. At some point, you've got to grow up.

Some interesting points are made in this argument, but the aggressive personal attack towards those who don't share your opinion turns me off.

 

[Cagey]

I'm sorry. It wasn't my intent to attack anyone in particular; I was using "you" and "you're" in the general sense, such as "when you're jumping out of a plane, you don't want to forget your parachute". It applies to everyone and no one. It's just a general statement. But, in review, I can see where I shifted focus and would leave the impression that I was attacking the original poster. If you hadn't already quoted me, I'd adjust the language. But, this should suffice.

 

[Cletus]

Turntables are similar to stringed instruments, they need the best setup you can do. If the needle "reads" and does not dig the record the wear is minimum. I have records I bought more than twenty years ago and they are in mint condition. CD and vinyl deteriorates, hard drives are crashing, nothing is perfect.

If they've ever been played, they're not in "mint" condition, no matter how good your equipment is. Minimal wear is still wear and even in mint condition, vinyl is an inferior recording medium. It doesn't have the frequency response or dynamic range of the original sound, assuming you have nearly perfect equipment that eliminates a great deal of the problems involved with that media outside its inherent technical flaws. You may be used to how it sounds, but it's not optimal. You're just not used to hearing a good recording.

You're right in that nothing lasts forever. But, at least with digital media, you have as close to the original sound as is technically possible and every copy is as good as the original. There's no generational decline. So, you make copies on various media such as CDs, DVDs, HDDs, or EEPROM, and they're all perfect, not compromised representations with regeneration damage. Pick one that works for you, or use them all.

I understand the emotional tie to old technology. It broke my heart to give away my hard-earned record collection. Took me a lotta years and money to build, and I had a lot of memories associated with it. But, fact of the matter is, the stuff wasn't worth keeping. Maybe if I'd waited until now, I could find people like yourself who are foolish enough to pay a premium for sub-standard quality recordings with a limited useful life. But, I'd have never used them, the resale value still wouldn't be very high (almost non-existent demand), and I can't afford to store everything I've ever owned since I was born. At some point, you've got to grow up.

There's always a sucker. I bet Cagey bought a laserdisc system too. Hands up anyone who has never had a CD scratched, jumpy, or otherwise very annoying.

 

[Cagey]

No, I never bought a laserdisc system; that was clearly as bad an idea as continuous loop 8-track tapes.

In any event, you're confusing the issue between recording integrity and recording media. Any media can be destroyed through mishandling, although at least if you don't mishandle opticals there's no deterioration for extraordinary lengths of time. Of course, they eventually will deteriorate as well, but if you live long enough to see that happen, you probably wouldn't be able to hear anymore anyway.

But, not all media can make a good recording. While vinyl was good, it was simply a reasonable compromise for regular folks who couldn't afford master quality tape decks and copies of master tapes. The decks alone were $25,000 to $50,000. Tapes were a crap shoot. What do you suppose masters of the Beatles recordings would cost? Today, given some good transducers and preamps, anybody can make a master quality recording that's better than the old tape masters you often couldn't buy anyway.

 

[swarfrat]

Mp3 is convenient, I do prefer to have the CD's on hand. But... the speakers bring up one of my sore points.

Ipod's have made it just about impossible to buy real honest to goodness 'STEREO' speakers.  Everything is 5.1 or sub/satellite designed for listening to mp3's at nice polite levels. The only people selling commercial stereo speakers with decent efficiencies AND bass specs is the green magic marker high-fi crowd. Come on, just gimme a set of 94 db 1w/1m 40Hz -3db floor standing 8" or 10" speakers. (And those AREN'T terribly stringent specs either) Something that can summon the cops if I so desire.  The only way to get such a beastie these days is to shell out $500 or build em yourself.

 

[nexrex]

Mp3 is convenient, I do prefer to have the CD's on hand. But... the speakers bring up one of my sore points.

Ipod's have made it just about impossible to buy real honest to goodness 'STEREO' speakers.  Everything is 5.1 or sub/satellite designed for listening to mp3's at nice polite levels. The only people selling commercial stereo speakers with decent efficiencies AND bass specs is the green magic marker high-fi crowd. Come on, just gimme a set of 94 db 1w/1m 40Hz -3db floor standing 8" or 10" speakers. (And those AREN'T terribly stringent specs either) Something that can summon the cops if I so desire.  The only way to get such a beastie these days is to shell out $500 or build em yourself.

Yeah but most mp3's are only encoded in stereo anyway. There is is some software around that will create surround sound mp3's. Problem is that there really isn't any way to play them properly.
Correct me if I'm wrong here...

 

[Cagey]

Multi-channel recording and playback software are both available, but you're right in that very few MP3s are encoded that way. There's just not that much call for it. It's a poor encoding scheme in the first place, so it's not usually used on better playback systems that might have multi-channel playback capability. It's used primarily on portable players and phones that aren't capable of that anyway, since they're normally used with ear buds. Most people only have two ears, and so only use two buds. Whaddaya gonna do with the extra channel information? Lose it? That's no good. Some car stereos are multi-channel, but that's just marketing hype to pull money out of rubes. A car is one of the worst environments extant for playing music in, no matter what you spend. So, the whole multi-channel MP3 thing has never gained any traction.

 

[nexrex]

Most of the software I have seen to record multi channel mp3's usually usually just take a stereo file and then clones the rear channels. I have never really heard an example of this that sounds realistic.

 

[swarfrat]

When I was disparaging Home Theater & Ipod, I was doing so more from a standpoint of the speakers marketed for it than the encoding format.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

I'm sorry. It wasn't my intent to attack anyone in particular; I was using "you" and "you're" in the general sense, such as "when you're jumping out of a plane, you don't want to forget your parachute". It applies to everyone and no one. It's just a general statement. But, in review, I can see where I shifted focus and would leave the impression that I was attacking the original poster. If you hadn't already quoted me, I'd adjust the language. But, this should suffice.

Its all cool my friend.  I had my panties all in a bunch that day for reasons beyond this forum.  You are obviously generous with all sorts of information on a regular basis.  We're a community after all!  ccasion14:

 

[rushye]

for me it would be mp3's played on computer with great speakes :glasses9: