CD and/or LP collections. Is it about the music?

I have about 1100 CD's and 2500 LP's. Based on market value they have to be worth far more than my system. When it comes to being "about the music" the more appropriate question might be, when you listen to any one of those CD's/LP's how often do you listen to the entire CD or LP? I think a pure music lover will listen to the whole CD/LP whereas the pure audiophile will more often listen to the "best" cuts. Of course we are all guilty of listening to single cuts for demonstration, comparison, or just pleasure so we fall in between. But if you find yourself only able to listen to one or two cuts before you move on to something else then you're not really a music lover. I've found this with a couple of dealers, they're too anxious to move on to the next cut and I can't enjoy the music. Not coincidentally their systems have the obligatory audiophile attributes but don't make music.

I'm down to about 500 carfully culled LP's and up to about 4000 not so carefully culled CD's. I listen to classical, jazz and vocal. Purchases are made based on the value of the performance (to me) and great sound is only an added benefit - I rarely listen for sound effects of any nature unless I'm listening to new equipment, which I rarely do any longer. I think we are seeing the death of two channel sound, especially software and I'd rather spend my money on the software while is still available.

Warrenh: So, what is THEE place to buy CDs????

I get many of my new classical releases from arkivmusic.com, but others used, etc.

Collection: 900 CDs (half or more are classical, remainder mostly Dylan, including bootlegs, jazz, blues).

Used to have 1000 or so LPs, but stupidly rid myself of a lot when CDs came out (&^&#($*#....sound of banging my head on my desk) and am now buying them all over again. Back up to a 100 or so, but a long way to go!

Price of my music collection greatly exceeds the price of my system.
It's not because some expencive pressings are present. I can say that I only have 1 MFSL copy of Led Zeppelin2 and mostly value records by its music.

Nrchy; another way of approaching this question-- especially if money is an issue-- is to ask: Would you rather listen to 200 CDs/LPs on a $20,000. system or 2000 Cds/LPs on a $1000. system? Personally, I only have about 1200-1300 CDs (about $18,000.+ at $15. ea.) and a $40K system, but at about 3-4 hours listening per day it would take a long time to listen to each of them once!!!

However, that's not the way I listen to music. Typically I become focused on a particular artist/group, or a type of music and mostly listen to that music for days or weeks at a time, and then move on when I've finally had my fill of my current listening obsession.

Two other points: 1. The Cd-R has fundamentally changed the way I listen to music, ie I've probably made over a 100 CD-Rs, and have come up w/ some interesting combinations of music that are unique to me, and I listen to them a LOT. 2. Also, I'm constantly on the lookout for good new music, but I don't keep music I don't like so to accumulate 1200 CDs, I've probably gone through 2000+. If I don't like it, it gets traded in, sold, given away etc. Just some personal thoughts. Cheers. Craig