classical music source

tough choice

what I did: bought a REGA ISIS valve cdp that also has a direct USB input with handset full features that controls your hi-res file downloads stored on an external hard drive that get decoded through its hi-end internal DAC

= best of both worlds.

also, many more classical music selections on CD readily available = a second reason to invest on a cdp with USB input to its DAC.

I prefer Minnesota Symphony Hall or BAM(Brooklyn Academy of Music).

I listen to classical music primarily from CD sources. The selection of music/performance on CD is enormous, the sound quality is pretty good--many older recordings are nicely remastered and new recordings are quite well recorded (unlike new pop/rock recordings which sound much worse than recordings from 30 to 60 years ago). My CDs have been burned to a server (all in WAV files) for convenience.

I am less enamoured with classical music on LPs--no newer recordings are released on LP, noise tends to be an issue because of the dynamic range of classical music, and I prefer the longer uniterrupted playing of digital material.

I have not paid much attention to high resolution downloads because of the limited selection and because so much of what is out there is of dubious quality (e.g., upsampled CDs being passed off as high-rez). I am waiting till these kinds of issues are sorted out.

Obviously it's not possible to listen to Toscanini/NBC Symphony in today's venues, but for me it's not possible to listen to him on CDs as well.