what format of music do you purchase most?

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What formats do you buy your music in?

  • LP's: Standard Issue

    Votes: 9 30.0%
  • LP's: Audiophile reissue

    Votes: 10 33.3%
  • CD's: Standard Issue

    Votes: 25 83.3%
  • CD's: Audiophile reissue

    Votes: 18 60.0%
  • Hi Res downloads (music giants, Linn, etc)

    Votes: 2 6.7%
  • Standard downloads (iTunes, etc)

    Votes: 4 13.3%
  • Vintage/unavailable formats (Tape, mini disc, etc)

    Votes: 1 3.3%

  • Total voters
    30
  • Poll closed .

tonepub

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Hi there:

Im working on a series of articles that will address the fact that music QUALITY is still important to us. I've got some pretty interesting people
from the music business to chat with me, but I'd like to offer up some
thoughts from our audience as well.

Would you guys entertain telling me a bit about how you buy music, format wise? I'm a music nut,
so it's all over for me. I'm still buying RTR tapes and bought a huge box of 8 tracks at a garage
sale the other day!!

As always, thanks for your support!
 
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I prefer the convenience of c.d. over vinyl, and also prefer better mastering (audiophile remasters) and higher resolution formats (SACD and DVDA) for most music. The majority of what I purchase are standard cd's just because that is the format that is easily available to me with most new music releases. If music was available on flash memory cards with high resolution files, I would switch to that format in a heartbeat. I am not big on the idea of digital downloads, simply because I don't want to lose my music catalog if a hard drive crashes, and don't want to deal with creating the hard copy backups myself.
 
What about SACD?

Unfortunately, you can't escape the CD. For now anyway.

If music was available in high-res files I'd switch to that format in a heartbeat too, but not until they have a standard. The last thing I want is every digital file I purchase being in a different format! I'll keep buying CDs for as long as this madness continues.
 
Great Question

Very good poll Jeff. I suspect I know what will win out, but I'll be monitoring the results anyway.

For me personally, I spend most of my money buying and listening to vinyl. I pick up a fair amount of audiophile vinyl, but there is also a lot of "standard issue" vinyl available. Case in point - I recently picked up the most current Radiohead album at one of my local haunts for $9.99. It does appear to be on heavy (180-200 gm) vinyl, but it's not any sort of audiophile pressing (although it certainly sounds like it - great album). I still buy a fair amount of used vinyl as well.

In digital media I tend to look for SACD's wherever possible, and I still pick up standard Redbook CD's in both new and used condition when I am looking for music that I can find on vinyl.

For a breakdown, I'd say I spend 65-70% of my music dollars on vinyl, 15-20% on Redbook CD, and the last 10-20% on SACD or other "Audiopohile" digital media.
 
CD's as a primary medium and downloads as a secondary. The downloads I have are mostly exploratory excursions and all PAID FOR!
I do have a very small amount of traded tracks and will do so in return, but only on a personal basis and solely for the purpose of introducing someone I know to music/artists they might enjoy, much like lending a book. Plus I usually purchase the CD of what I download if I like what I hear because the sound quality is better and I like the concept of hard copies. I hold to my primary belief that artists have a right to be paid and so do the recording companies and related industries.
For myself, vinyl and SACD are a moot point at this time as I am still attempting to get the best sound out of the basics of what I have and adding different media sources would only (as I say, for me) complicate things.
 
High-Rez

More than 50% of the last years purchases have been SACD or DVD-A. It would have been 100%, but they quit releasing music on the high-rez formats.

And then the stupid music industry wonders why they have no revenue...

So, I buy CD's, hopefully of the highest quality. I then instantly rip it to my server as 16/44 WAV's so I can then upsample during playback to 16/88.

I use my Meridian's Trifield mode to process the stereo CD's, which while clearly not as good as a DVD-A, at least delivers a much more immersive and satisfying 7.1 experience.


As for downloads, I refuse to do DRM.
After 30 years in the software and computer biz, I know servers, services and formats change. And I want to be able to play back my music in 30 years.

I'd happily pay for high-rez (DRM free) downloads, but since I want great multichannel sound, they would be 4 to 15 gig per album. And the pipes are not yet big enough here in the USA for that.

So, I hope that BluRay (or HD-DVD) will be the medium to deliver my hope for multichannel, high-quality content. Some concert discs are already pretty good.
 
More than 50% of the last years purchases have been SACD or DVD-A. It would have been 100%, but they quit releasing music on the high-rez formats.

And then the stupid music industry wonders why they have no revenue...

So, I buy CD's, hopefully of the highest quality. I then instantly rip it to my server as 16/44 WAV's so I can then upsample during playback to 16/88.

I use my Meridian's Trifield mode to process the stereo CD's, which while clearly not as good as a DVD-A, at least delivers a much more immersive and satisfying 7.1 experience.


As for downloads, I refuse to do DRM.
After 30 years in the software and computer biz, I know servers, services and formats change. And I want to be able to play back my music in 30 years.

I'd happily pay for high-rez (DRM free) downloads, but since I want great multichannel sound, they would be 4 to 15 gig per album. And the pipes are not yet big enough here in the USA for that.

So, I hope that BluRay (or HD-DVD) will be the medium to deliver my hope for multichannel, high-quality content. Some concert discs are already pretty good.


I won't do DRM either. Personally, I've never understood it. I mean, CDs are DRM free, and it is very easy to make DRM files DRM free, albeit with a loss in sound quality which is of course unacceptable to us.

So what does it achieve by putting DRM on downloads. Am I more likely to pirate crappy music I've downloaded in 128k/bps AAC than the music I've ripped to my hard disk from CD?
 
More than 50% of the last years purchases have been SACD or DVD-A. It would have been 100%, but they quit releasing music on the high-rez formats.

Well, that's not quite true Jon. I admit I haven't seen a whole lot of new DVD-A activity since the Doors set a few months ago, but I get newsletters from Acoustic Sounds and Music Direct at least twice a week announcing new SACD and Vinyl titles. I wouldn't call either format dead yet. Although I'll admit that MOST SACD titles cater to the Jazz and Classical fans, the Genesis box sets do acknowledge at least a fleeting nod to the rock music lovers amongst us.
 
Well, that's not quite true Jon. I admit I haven't seen a whole lot of new DVD-A activity since the Doors set a few months ago, but I get newsletters from Acoustic Sounds and Music Direct at least twice a week announcing new SACD and Vinyl titles. I wouldn't call either format dead yet. Although I'll admit that MOST SACD titles cater to the Jazz and Classical fans, the Genesis box sets do acknowledge at least a fleeting nod to the rock music lovers amongst us.


Tim, you're right, there is still a trickle of SACD's, but they are getting more and more esoteric by the day.

The last discs I have any real desire for are the remaining Genesis reissues. I've had every batch on pre-order for months ;)
 
Tim, you're right, there is still a trickle of SACD's, but they are getting more and more esoteric by the day.

Hey Jon, are you on the Acoustic Sounds mailing list? They just released 24 new titles on 19 different labels on Monday. Some of them are esoteric I suppose, but quite a few from the likes of Chandos, Hyperion, BIS, Channel Classics etc. Similarly - Music Direct has nearly 1400 different titles in stock right now.
 
Tim, yes I get the MusicDirect mailings, but with over 100 HighRez discs and 1,300+ CD's in my collection, I've pretty much got the content I'm really into.

My challenge is that much of what I like will probaly not come out on high-rez media for another decade, if ever. I'm lucky Steve Wilson of Porcupine Tree loves good audio, or I'd be out some of the best sounds in my favorite genre.

I waited for close to eight years for Genesis re-issues, and then the mix was sub-par.

I tell 'ya, it's hard to beleive people care about quality anymore...
 
I buy mostly standard-issue CDs because they are the most readily available format. Ever since I got my Vantages, however, I've been thinking of ordering more audiophile-grade CDs from labels like Telarc.

And might move into vinyl at some point...:music:
 
Very interesting sidebar. As I checked the poll today (01/24/08), with 24 people voting in the poll, Analog (in both standard and Audiophile segments) registers at 33.3%

The LP's most of us listen to spin at the same rate - 33 1/3rd.

Cosmic huh?:rolleyes:
 
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