Cd's or vinyl

Haven't you just answered your own question? (Assuming there's a question, it's hard to tell.)

Both.

Vinyl for sitting down and listening: CDs for moving around the room/house with no worries about jumps or skips on the platter.

There are subtle differences, and sometimes noticeable comparisons to the formats for the same recording, but as long as it's music you like, then just enjoy!

I only listen to live music in the house, its the only way to consume audio.

Vinyl for sitting down and listening: CDs for moving around the room/house with no worries about jumps or skips on the platter.

But if you're arguing for CDs on the basis of convenience, why wouldn't you stream instead?

I only listen to live music in the house, its the only way to consume audio.

Same here, but then my wife arrives home and tells me she break the banjo if I don't get some lessons.

I'm not sure what the question is, but I wandered into Fopp the other day and was taken aback to learn the going rate for a vinyl LP is about £30 now.

That might steer me to CDs if I were building a collection.

Vinyl and streaming. And vinyl from record fairs or other secondhand sources. When my last cd player died I didn't replace it. My van still has a cd player though so they do get listened to.

Still have 2 Technics 1210's and new X-One mixer, so i'm the two extremes, vinyl as it is a physical process, the singlespeeding of audio!

And streaming when i am just "listening" to music in background.

Remember when they said CD's could be frozen, covered in jam and fag ash and would still work? Half the ones i owned had terrible skipping in them after a few years

I tend to have a rule, vinyl if the music was actually made in an analogue way (including dance music) and streaming if it recent music and produced for streaming really, as i tend to find that it doesn't often translate well to vinyl (or sound any warmer..) but that might just be my ears

On a side note, over 50% of all vinyl sold in the US is to people who don't own a turntable and the third largest vinyl pressing plant in the world does nothing but Fleetwood Mac reissues..

I only listen to live music in the house, its the only way to consume audio.

I have a minstrel follow me around when I am out and about.

I’m not sure what the question is, but I wandered into Fopp the other day and was taken aback to learn the going rate for a vinyl LP is about £30 now.

Back in the 90s a new CD album was what, £12 say? 1995 relative today would be £24 so £30 isn't crazy for vinyl I think.

But if you’re arguing for CDs on the basis of convenience, why wouldn’t you stream instead?

Is true, unless Spotify (or whichever streaming service) doesn't have the album you want to enjoy, which happens pretty regularly for me. Also applies to the remastered versions that become default; these sometimes aren't the definitive or preferred version, regardless.
I suppose the physical nature of even a CD is a nice thing, also.

Back in the 90s a new CD album was what, £12 say? 1995 relative today would be £24 so £30 isn’t crazy for vinyl I think.

Absolutely. A £15.99 CD from 1995 works out at £31 using the inflation calculator.

Is true, unless Spotify (or whichever streaming service) doesn’t have the album you want to enjoy, which happens pretty regularly for me

Fair point. It's a very rare thing for me and remastered vs original doesn't bother me for casual listening. I have about 300 CDs in boxes in the loft, I can't say I've missed playing them. I do like to play a record though on the rare occasions I have time.

Absolutely. A £15.99 CD from 1995 works out at £31 using the inflation calculator.

Yet CDs haven't got so pricey?

I stream nearly all the music I listen to. I find spotify 'very high' quality sounds identical to CD through my current equipment.

But I still buy merch including CDs and Vinyl to support the artists. I know the smaller artists don't make a great deal of money on CDs but do better out of Vinyl. I'm actually building quite a nice (niche) vinyl collection at the moment which I look forward to being able to actually listen to one day when I get round to buying a record player.

I have a minstrel follow me around when I am out and about.

Nice, i couldn't afford to spring for the paid subscription.

Same here, but then my wife arrives home and tells me she break the banjo if I don’t get some lesson

You're finbar Saunders yeah?

I buy vinyl as I like owning it, I usually listen to youtube and watch vids via some decent powered speakers, but display albums on shelves.  Most albums I haven't even opened.  Hmv want 30 to 40 quid an album, I rarely pay more than 25, unless it's super collectable.

A £15.99 CD from 1995 works out at £31 using the inflation calculator.

that price was insane though, the result of the music industry bigwigs ripping off everyone including the consumer.

CDs for backup and ripping to my NAS for streaming round the house.

Vinyl for sitting down and actually listening to music in one room.

It's an expensive approach though

the third largest vinyl pressing plant in the world does nothing but Fleetwood Mac reissues..

Which plant is this?

Vinyl and some CDs for listening proper, CD's when I'm cooking, washing up etc, Streaming when I'm out and about or looking for new music.

I have a love/hate relationship with streaming. Yes you can get everything ever but you have very little control over the version you are listening to and if digital remastering isn't your thing then tough. I'm not even going into playback quality (though I know what I think) but an original CD from say 1988 can sound very different to the current Apple music or Tidal offering just because of dynamic range fubars when remastering.

Also, CDs are an absolute bargain right now though they have been rising in price.

Vinyl is just a nice thing to use like a high quality tool over a Screwfix cheapie.

Edit - also some things just BELONG on vinyl like the John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers album I'm currently listening to!

I only listen to live music in the house, its the only way to consume audio

Me too. I've told that bastard with the tuba to stop following me around indoors but he still does it.

CDs all the way. Got well oyer a thousand of then.

Both. There is a lot of music out there that was never made on vinyl or only in very small quantities so now they are hens teeth and worth a fortune.  Plus as stated above CD’s are bargains at the moment. Buy them up now because they will without doubt be collectible before too long.

Also worth buying a quality CD player now while they are cheap.  I’ve still got my Technics MASH CD player from 1990 and use it a lot.

Yet CDs haven’t got so pricey?

Supply and demand I would think, plus LPs are I assume more expensive to produce anyway.

Streaming for myself using Roon/tidal, also have Apple Music but rarely use it.

Ripped all my 2000+ cd's to a 2tb Samsung ssd and have the cd's boxed up in cupboard.

I buy a couple of LP's for a mates kid every month though, getting him a decent turntable/monitors and streamer for xmas

I have a Linn LP12 with Ittok arm. Pretty old now but still a good deck. I can't remember when I last listened to a record. CD or Radio 3 for me.

Vinyl at home, cds in the car, streaming when walking anywhere.

Remember when they said CD’s could be frozen, covered in jam and fag ash and would still work? Half the ones i owned had terrible skipping in them after a few years

A few things here.

1) The nature of CD error correction means they are resistant to radial scratches but susceptible to ones "with the grain." So if like most people you cleaned CDs in a circle as you would with an LP you're far more likely to damage it. Wipe them down from centre to edge.

2) The polycarbonate is (was?) the same stuff they make bulletproof shields from, but the data layer is on the label side and quite thin.

3) Not all CDs are created of equal quality. I had a particular problem with cheap CD-Rs delaminating after a few years.

4) Cheap CD Walkmans were not kind to discs. Spinning a disc at several hundred RPM and then giving the transport a good shake is only going to end one way, and see 1).

5) The "smear it with strawberry jam" claim was a Not The Nine O'Clock News comedy sketch. The punchline was something like "in fact, there are many things you can do with a CD, whilst you're saving up to buy a CD player."

All 4 in one on my setup...

Vinyl on a Pro-Ject turntable, CDs + Tapes with a Tascam A500 dual deck, and streaming via a Chromecast Audio plugged into the Amp.

Listening to the new Trunk Records LP right now...

That's about 1/3 of my 2000 odd LPs, the rest is in my music 'studio'.

) The “smear it with strawberry jam” claim was a Not The Nine O’Clock News comedy sketch. The punchline was something like “in fact, there are many things you can do with a CD, whilst you’re saving up to buy a CD player.”

Here's a segment from BBC breakfast, spreading honey and pouring coffee onto a CD:

That’s about 1/3 of my 2000 odd LPs,

Cool number but that does not look like 666.66666r LPs.

Cool number but that does not look like 666.66666r LPs.

Just counted, and it's actually 23/80 ths of my collection 😉

Yes.

CDs, vinyl, cassettes, minidiscs, ipods, a DAP (in the car).

Just ordered a Denon box that I can plug my turntable and cassette player into that also will stream off my NAS. See as much live music as is feasible.

Take my music where I can get it. Why limit yourself 🙂

Here’s a segment from BBC breakfast, spreading honey and pouring coffee onto a CD:

The sketch I was thinking of was likely a parody of that.

Seems I got the show wrong, it's from Naked Video. First half of this clip. (Not The... last aired in 1982, it's too old.)

A thousand albums is over 5years of music played non stop.

Clearly they aren't all getting listened to so whats the point?

Edit: no its not. I am being daft.

There are so many technical flaws and difficulties with vinyl and record players so obviously CDs or preferably a digital download from the artist if possible so they get more of the revenue.

And paying all that money for vinyl and then playing it on a mediocre record deck makes no sense to me.

I have a Linn LP12 with Ittok arm. Pretty old now but still a good deck. I can’t remember when I last listened to a record. CD or Radio 3 for me.

Do you have any idea what that Linn is worth? A Basik is very expensive, my mate has one he bought new, and has had it upgraded, and it’s worth several thousand pounds now, LP12’s run to many thousands! Go online and you can find s/h LP12’s going for £1500-2500, but I’ve just seen two from petertyson.co.uk, this being the most expensive…

https://petertyson.co.uk/linn-sondek-lp12-50-turntable?clickref=1101lzQGeLdn&utm_source=partnerize&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=1101l69362

I gave up on vinyl in 1982, when I returned four copies of Peter Gabriel’s fourth album because they were unplayable, the surface noise made them unlistenable, and that coincided neatly with CD being introduced, and that album was one of the first. I happened to work part-time in a HiFi shop, so I had access to nice equipment, my turntable was a Logic DM101, Zeta tonearm with AudioTechnica MC cartridge, about £2.5k retail, so if vinyl was unlistenable on that, it must be bad. It was, vinyl was being recycled, ground up and reused for new albums, I had one that had lots of little white specks all over it - under a magnifying glass they were bits of ground up label embedded in the disks!

I wouldn’t trust vintage vinyl, tbh, without knowing the history. Plus it wasn’t unusual for the original stampers used to press the disks to wear out or get damaged, and a replacement cut from a copy of the studio master, which might be a second- or third-generation tape, so sound quality is degrading at every stage.

It’s possible to tell, by looking at the sleeve details, where it might say ‘Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk’, he’s accepted as the best vinyl mastering engineer ever, but you can look at the run-out grooves of the disk, and one side might say ‘Masterdisk’, the other might say ‘Stirling Sound’, so it can’t, by definition, be as good quality because it’s been mastered from a second generation tape, by a different person at a different mastering studio.

Having said all that, early CD’s were pretty crap because they were mastered from tapes EQ’d for vinyl, which has a totally different dynamic range.

But no shitty background noise, though.

Music snobbery seems to have peaked.

And paying all that money for vinyl and then playing it on a mediocre record deck makes no sense to me.

I do still buy the occasional bit of vinyl - new stuff from Trunk, or Ninja Tunes, etc. if I see something cool - but I'm not into these £30+ reissues of classic albums.

Luckily most of my vinyl purchasing was back in the 90s - 00s, when new vinyl was still relatively cheap, you could pick up proper bargains in places like Music and Video Exchange (I haunted that place when I lived in London!), and charity shops were full to brim with exciting finds as everyone was just chucking out their old LPs.

I clearly remember walking out of a Torquay chazza with David Bowie's entire back catalogue for a cheeky 50p per LP 😆

I clearly remember walking out of a Torquay chazza with David Bowie’s entire back catalogue for a cheeky 50p per LP ?

Those were the days when you could get five pints, a bag of chips and still get changes out of a fiver

early CD’s were pretty crap because they were mastered from tapes EQ’d for vinyl, which has a totally different dynamic range.

Back in those days, CDs were labelled [A][A][D] or suchlike to indicate how far along the food chain it'd been converted. The first fully (mainstream?) [D][D][D] disc was Brothers in Arms.

I've mentioned this before but MrsRNP beloved father had a 'gold turntable', after his death it got lost in the garage.

I found it and discovered it was a Nottingham Analogue Dais. I contacted them and dropped it off for repair (they also replaced the arm & stylus) and did an amazing job.

Record playing in our house is a lovely emotive charged affair.

https://ibb.co/ww4DF83
https://ibb.co/LJsq7JK

Those were the days when you could get five pints, a bag of chips and still get changes out of a fiver

😆 not quite, but old vinyl was literally as cheap as chips.

I had to look that turntable up as I thought it was a copy of my Systemdek biscuit tin from '85

Very expensive indeed

I need to get some electrical repairs to my A&R Cambridge A60 amp from the same era and see if the Creek amp I've got up the loft fires up with no cracklin

Vinyl for me...but then I'm a old skool rave dj , 2 decks and a mixer turns vinyl into a instrument

Do you have any idea what that Linn is worth?

It's a "standard" LP12 from the '90s. No fancy stuff like Valhalla. I reckon it's probably worth around £1000. That £50000 version has very little in common with mine. Still a bloody silly price.

CDs were labelled [A][A][D] or suchlike to indicate how far along the food chain it’d been converted.

Never knew what that refered to, thanks Cou2.

I buy cds generally, rip to an mp3 player for out & about. Vinyl is too fragile and so often I hear about substandard quality of small run presses. I get the impression that quality control is less of a thing now that plants are so busy and it's hard to time stock with a tour or advertised release date so if there's an issue with a batch a repress might take ages.

When cds became available I heard rumours that they'd be susceptable to oxidation / disk rot. First cd I ever bought still gets played every so often, no issues.

When cds became available I heard rumours that they’d be susceptable to oxidation / disk rot.

Seemingly it is a thing, I've had a couple of CDs and DVDs go bad but can't say it's been anything other than random. In any event it's an easy job to rip discs to a hard drive and storage has never been cheaper. My plan is to rip everything and self-host.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot

Never knew what that refered to, thanks Cou2.

It's something like Original Master, Duplication, Pressing. Or something. The final [D] being the disc itself.

Huh, it's just occurred to me,

All the vinyl aficionados eschewing digital formats, any LPs pressed in like the last 30 years were probably recorded digitally in the first place and then converted back to analogue to press the record.

All the vinyl aficionados eschewing digital formats, any LPs pressed in like the last 30 years were probably recorded digitally in the first place and then converted back to analogue to press the record.

Likewise, if you're listening to an older recording on CD or streaming, it was recorded on analogue.

Personally, I don't care. Vinyl sounds great to my ears and that's all that really matters.

that’s all that really matters.

Yep. It's like riding a hardtail or full-sus; it's all good, all that matters is you're on a bike. I guess streaming is an e-bike, in that analogy.

It’s something like Original Master, Duplication, Pressing. Or something. The final [D] being the disc itself.

Yep. SPARS code

I guess streaming is an e-bike, in that analogy.

Except in the case of streaming the musicians creating the product get paid buttons.

that’s all that really matters.

Can't argue with that. We can debate all we like, but only have you have your ears.

(I mean, they're clearly broken, but... 🙂 )

Yep. SPARS code

Aha, I never knew what it was called. Cheers for that.

(And I was almost right 🙂 )