Music Format, too many? which way to go?

I believe that I use the best best of both worlds: PC audio with an USB Wavelength DAC & a Mac Mini Computer plus vinyl with a Galibier TT. It would be hard to choose only one path, but if I were a newbie, with a limited budget, PC audio using an open source codec like FLAC to rip & store, would be my recommendation.

Well, my local public library has book sales every month, and donated vinyl in bunches can often be found, especially on the classical or contemporary light jazz side of things (I mean, how much Helen Reddy and Kenny Rodgers do you need?). How does 10 cents apiece grab you? Yep, for Mercury Living Presence, et.al., too. O.K., that's the "bulk" price -- a whopping quarter each if you just want two or three.

I also recently bought my first CASSETTE deck(s) since my Concord portable in 1970 -- virtually pristine Nakamichis: CR-1 and CR-3 -- off original owners from eBay for comfortably under $200 total. Libraries and individuals are giving cassette tapes away by the boxful. In my case, I like to walk late at night (a Sony Walkman, among other options, can come along); and I'm a musician on the lookout for good songs I may have missed... so the strategy is worthwhile, at least until we are carrying the "Cloud", music-wise, with us everywhere.

For your budget:
Mac Mini w/Pure Music
External firewire HD
Decent USB DAC
Decent cables

Purchase your music from HDTracks or similar site in the highest resolution you can, then settle for CD. Your computer will downsample to match up with your DAC but you will have the hi rez for the future so you won't have to purchase Kind of Blue 10 times like some of us here. You don't have the budget to do both a good vinyl and a good digital setup, so opt for the future with digital. SACD, DVD-A....all physical formats will eventually be DOA.

Seakayaker, you really use a cassette walkman? Very retro!

Not for awhile, G. But back in the day, those 125kps MP3's and Appleseeds were not exactly competition; since, to reinforce your point, I had NO intention of ever PURCHASING obsolescent media -- particularly that which I dislike -- except under duress. I never bought a pre-recorded cassette at retail my entire life. But I didn't have a system going, and the public library had the Audio Books I liked... and a few good tunes for now and then. BTW, Like an audiophool, I auditioned a whole bunch of Walkmanlike candidates even though I was thinking "talking books" -- the CHEAPEST $17 Sony sounded best at any price among my options! Funny, just adding the tuner chip, turned off, to the otherwise EXACT SAME model, made cassette playback noticeably worse. I must have been the last person in North America to buy one new first time! It surprised the heck out of me in terms of musicality, despite all that had gone missing. After 5 drops on concrete for #1, the "improved" replacement [$18] Sony had lost that little bit of magic. More "hi-fi", but you know how that goes...

ONE POINT regarding things DOA, G. For those who are only boogie-ing on the crest of the wave, also DOA -- or roadkill in the rear view mirror -- will be much of the truly worthwhile music. Excuse the mixing of metaphors. I will also not be waiting personally for Corporate America and its well-compensated shills in government to do the right thing -- particularly not anything in service to artistic or to audiophile concerns. Not to mention the traditional and steadfastly dubious standards of intelligence and imagination associated with the "entertainment industry"...