classical music source

I am with most on this thread and depend on CDs for most of my classical listening. I have not have good luck with classical on vinyl. My ayon CD player does a great job. I prefer jazz on vinyl.

With some classical labels, such as 1970's DG, original vinyl issues were pretty poor in terms of sound quality, but the label took advantage of the opportunity to remaster for digital and put out some pretty decent reissues. Other labels, such as EMI, are all over the map in terms of sound quality; some reissues of their great sounding vinyl releases sound like crap, while certain other reissues sound pretty good.

Certain reissue labels, such as Brilliant, make it easy to build a comprehensive collection of a particular composer's works (e.g., the massive complete works of J.S. Bach); one of my favorite Brilliant collections is the complete string quartets of Villa-Lobos (something I probably would not have even looked at, except that Brilliant put together a very cheap and easy to acquire collection). CD's have been such a boon to collectors of both older material as reissues, and to collectors of newer releases (It is far cheaper to make CDs and digital downloads than to press records; given how poorly classical sells these days, almost nothing could be economically released if vinyl were the only medium available).

Larryi-great to mention Brilliant! With them and Naxos lies grea
treasures.

I'm with jedinite - LP's/analogue all the way i.e. for serious listening.

I have some previously enjoyed albums and some excellent new pressings from various labels.

I also enjoy streaming classical from my iMac - much more convenient.

But there's just something about analogue :-)

Jetrexpro,

I agree that a lot of jazz sounds particularly good on vinyl. As for classical sound quality, both digital and analogue sources can sound very good, with digital having and advantage when it comes to noise (a MUCH bigger issue with classical than any other type of music because of the extremes of dynamics). Where digital has a huge advantage is with availability of content. I only have a few records that have not be reissued in digital form, and many hundreds of CDs that were never issued as vinyl recordings. Moreover, it is easier to find out-of-print CDs than it is to find most old vinyl, and finding vinyl in good condition adds to the difficulty in collecting in this medium.

I don't subscribe to any streaming services, but, I have been pleasantly surprised by the substantial classical catalogues of some of these services; this is a good way to browse for new music.