Can play vinyl & CD. What do you buy?

Music Room
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Since 1990 I have been able to play both vinyl albums & CD’s &, with the equipment I have owned, found both sources provide good SQ but that vinyl is marginally better.

I therefore confess that since about 1989 I have not purchased a new vinyl album, the last one being U2’s Joshua Tree. A bit ironic as I have never liked U2 &, other than a couple of tracks, this album did nothing for me either.

So why CD from then on? I moved to Cornwall in the pre-internet days of 1986 & purchased my vinyl from the limited no of shops here in the county. Vinyl had completely disappeared from those shops by 1989 & I was forced to buy a CD player & just CD’s from then. I had previously had a couple of bad experiences buying vinyl mail order.

Following a new car purchase, with multi disc CD player, in 1992, I was able to play all my new music at home & in the car with no effort at all. My current car has a built in hard disc drive so I can easily rip whatever I want to that. Prior to retiring in 2015 I spent a lot of time in my car so it made good sense to buy CD’s, plus vinyl was not really available.

Come the 2020’s vinyl is of course pretty plentiful, both locally & over the internet. I have often thought I should begin buying it again but have been put off by three things:-

1 The sheer cost compared with CD.

2 The oft heard complaint here that the actual quality is very variable &

3 Despite only spending about 20% of the time I used to spend in my car when working, I can’t get over the mindset that I may want to listen to my new CD albums in the car.

What has prompted this post is that my approx. 8th purchased vinyl album, & first double, in 1968 was Creams Wheels of Fire. I think it was £2 10s when I bought it &, still being at school, I could not afford it all at once so paid the record shop 10s deposit & they retained it for me until I had saved the balance. The deposit sticker is still on the cover! I actually played all four sides a couple of weeks ago for the first time in many years & was surprised that it sounded quite good as it was played to death when first purchased on a variety of not very good equipment.

I then learnt that new versions of the album are being released in June. To honour my original, I should have ordered the 3LP version but have instead gone for the 5CD one for the reasons stated above plus the fact that there is a lot more music on the CD set. I am feeling a bit guilty about this.

What would you have done in this instance & what do you buy when you can play both LP & CD?

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A couple of questions

Are you happy with the SQ of both vinyl and CD ?

If so are you intending to upgrade either source in the future ?

How many CD’s v Vinyl do you currently have please ?

Steve

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As I said, SQ is very similar from either source, with vinyl just sounding a little better to me. I am happy with both & could happily live with either & have no plans for any upgrades until Naim introduce a SuperNova with a better pre-amp & streamer. Current power is plenty for me & my fairly small sitting room.

I have about 500 LPs & 700 CDs. I thought this was a lot until I joined this forum & found that this represents a very small collection to many on here!

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I gave up on vinyl in 1985, when I heard a CD player at a friends house. I was tired of the poor quality of most pressings back then. I bought a CD player and some CD’s the following Saturday.

Digital has improved. The hardware has got better, and the studios have learnt how to master digital. I love the crystal clear sound of a good digital CD or download recording. I do not miss all the clicks and pops, warped records and the palaver of setting up the record deck and having to surgically clean LP’s.

I see not good reason to go back to vinyl, just as I have no nostalgia for film photography.

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The bulk of my collection is CDs. I got back into vinyl about 10 years ago because some things I wanted to buy were only released on vinyl. And that’s how my buying basically goes, CD first, then vinyl if there is no CD release.

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It’s a puzzling situation and one that I share to an extent. My difference is that I went from CD555 + LP12 to ND555+ LP12 + Uniti Core. I have a lot of CDs and LPs and I haven’t yet ripped all the CDs. It certainly used to be more convenient to have CDs to play in various locations including the car, but like you, I no longer have a CD player in the car.

I find that the ascending order of SQ is from streaming (Qobuz), to ripped CDs to LPs. The gap between the ND555 and vinyl is definitely less than with the CD555 (both with a single power supply). In particular I find that well recorded and mastered digital leaves little to be desired - for example ECM CDs and the final Leonard Cohen CDs As a consequence I am finding that the lazy convenience of the streamer is beginning to win over the process of putting on the LP. The dire consequence is that I am too often duplicating the media, and this has to stop!

It’s intriguing that you refer to the Wheels of Fire Super Deluxe. I bought the LP set when it came out and I remember what a premium price it was then. Do you realise that there was 3 LP live Cream set for RSD recently that will cover the live tracks on the CD set. However, I’m not sure whether all the studio tracks are covered. I no longer have my original vinyl but I do have an older pressing and a Back to Black reissue. However, I do not have a CD version, apart from the one from the Those Were the Days box set, so I will be ordering the CD box. And, no, I did not get the RSD vinyl, but I do have the Goodbye Live CD box set.

In general I do find it worth buying new LPs but I tend to buy those that are classed as audiophile reissues and some others that seem to be well mastered specifically for vinyl. Mostly I haven’t had significant problems in very judiciously buying second-hand LPs.

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Many people did, and sold their collection of records.

I didn’t - and now being asked by the same people that sold their collection, to sell them some favorite, rare and collectable records.:grin:

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I sold my collection last year after 40 years and have absolutely no regrets. CD and streaming for me. Just need to get a Core now. A couple I should have kept hold off, but just for nostalgia and nothing else.

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Both. Sadly, many times the CD equivalent is cheaper, substantially but even that is slowly changing. I have a very weird musical taste and specialist label albums or cd’s often come at a heavy premium. If I can find an original pressing in mint- condition I will likely go for that. Otherwise it’s CD.

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Hi, I started with LPs in the 70’s and then mid 80’s moved over to CD. Since then I have added a few LPs mainly when there is no CD format available. Recently I have noted that here in Portugal there is a greater choice of LPs available compared to CDs but at 2x + the price.

I ripped all my CDs and continue to do so onto the Innuos hard drive. I find the SQ now is as good as LP and of course there is the ease of selecting the music.

I have sufficient storage space so keep all my CDs in IKEA storage bins. The LPs are in an Ikea storage rack in the hallway. My idea is keep the music sources in case there is a technology improvement which would further improve the SQ. I also have an idea of passing
On the music library, though this is getting a mixed reaction currently - best being put it on an SSD for us.

At the end of the day, whichever format and interaction with the CD/LP/Streamer gives you most listening pleasure, is the best way for you.

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