Old CDs and records

@rok2id

We are in transition… so not surprising there are various takes on the current situation. The hierarchy used to be really simple, vinyl was simply the best by a long ways at nearly all price levels, then came CD, and finally streaming. Things have radically changed.

I have a good contemporary system and for the last couple years: streaming is generally superior to vinyl which is superior to CDs and playing of std Rez files. Since streaming (Qobuz) has 1/2 million high resolution albums… this means most of the time streaming is best. If the same files are being streamed as are on a CD… then it will sound the same.

So, what does this mean? Streaming and vinyl are “superior” as they can sound better up to the level of investment you are willing to make in your audio system. Vinyl can best streaming with the appropriate investment, or visa versa.

Vinyl still has an edge: large in the <$10 - $15K system range. But that edge becomes smaller as your system gets better. The thing that kills CDs is their restricted resolution and cost (space and $). For the price of one new CD per month you get access to nearly all music. Once you have that… there is no going back… unless for reasons of nostalgia you like fiddling with disks.

The ambiguity occurs because many folks here have varied levels of equipment, experience and skill. So someone may have a particularly great CP Player and thinks it blows away everything else, some may have terrible DACs… there are so many ways not to get the very best sound that it covers up the underlying differences in the media… the current high Rez formats are streaming and vinyl and the long run winner will be streaming.

@ghdprentice 

Thanks for the post.   Sometimes I am tempted to set up my vinyl rig again to do a comparison between LP and CD.  In the meantime I will just agree to disagree with those that prefer LP.  Although I do miss the album cover art and the liner notes /  booklets of LP.

I have also learned that there are so many factors involved in all this, that just using logic and  or technical specifications and even sound quality is just plain useless.  We all have perfectly strange reasons for doing and thinking as we do.

You say you have access to thousands of tunes on Qobuz, and I'm sure they sound great, but, they would not belong to me.  I would be renting them by the month. I would not own them, and that's important to me.   For instance, to not have physical copies  of the Karajan 1977 Beethoven cycle, on both LP and CD, would be unthinkable!! :)

Cheers

somebody will love your collection. 

Somebody Loves Me
I Wonder Who 🎶

I like most would take that collection off your hands.there are many cds and records out there that you won't find on any streaming service. About 20% of my music collection is not found on any streaming service. Also the sound of vymal is so much more rich warm and natural then digital music. I have found unless you plan to spend like 15000 or more on like a LINN streaming  unit  you are not going to hear the quality of music your vynal will produce. 

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