CDs or Vinyl? Who's actually crazy?

Oh yeah, I pick up CDs too, but Vinyl Records are my absolute number one!

Alex Scott22 said:Let them burn 🙂

I’m giving them my full blessing to go up in flames.
The establishment types... enjoy the chaos. 🙂

Preach,
my buddy here is a total anarchist🙂 🙂 :2up: 🙂

I guess I should probably mention that things are looking pretty good lately! Everything seems to be moving along quite nicely, if you ask me. It’s been such a pleasant stretch, and honestly, I’m just feeling really optimistic about where everything is headed. Maybe it's just my mood today, but I truly believe we're heading in a great direction! kaže:
It’s like a total sonic theater experience! The mid-range tones have such a gorgeous, granular texture to them, though I guess the soundstage feels a little blurry around the edges. I have a feeling that if I swap out this power cable, the whole thing might finally settle into a perfect sense of calm. But man, just listen to that timbre—it is absolutely incredible!

🤣

David Sullivan4 As I was saying:
I think I’ve got some massive hits playing at my place right now! Seriously, the vibe is incredible.

Honestly, what we’re doing over here doesn't really have anything to do with you guys. 🙂
🥳

I’m honestly not sure yet. I think I'll just wait until my tax refund hits my account before I go out and pick up a decent, high-quality turntable—instead of this cheap junk I picked up off some old clearance rack. By the way, I have to agree with you; for me, the cover art is definitely the best part of an LP. 😬
In any case, I really love both CeeLo Green and anyone else I can find an original copy of if the opportunity pops up. I just have this thing where I love owning the original CD—I guess I can't quite put my finger on why, Kastie.

Alex Scott22 said:I’m genuinely curious about that impulse—that sudden urge to just drop a hundred bucks.$43 On the original CD?
Especially when we're talking about something in that lilac color palette... honestly, that band is totally my vibe.
Good grief... paying that kind of money just for a color cover? I mean, come on. Why drop that much cash when a buddy can just rip a CD for you, or you could easily just download it?

Look, I’ll admit I’ll grab it if there’s absolutely no other way to get my hands on it... but otherwise? Not really my style.

By the way, LPs are a completely different beast altogether. It’s perfectly understandable why you’d want to pick up some Vinyl Records—there’s something about owning something that’s impossible to just duplicate. They feel unique, both in how they look and how they feel in your hands. And of course, there's the sound quality, but I won't get too carried away preaching about that.

I'll try to keep this brief. 😁

I've got a Thorens turntable sitting at my place that someone originally picked up over in Germany back in the mid-'70s. It isn't spinning anymore—well, it's not exactly broken, I think it just needs a specific part replaced. The problem is, I haven't the slightest clue which component is causing the issue. 😳My old man has an absolutely massive collection of Vinyl Records. We actually have a custom cabinet in the living room specifically designed with those narrow, specialized slots just for his LPs. 😬There were just a few tracks that really caught my eye. Since my old turntable has been broken for ages—and my parents moved into a different place with a brand-new setup anyway—I never really fell into the habit of hunting down and listening to Vinyl Records. Besides, I only actually own about two LPs myself.

The era when CDs first started hitting the shelves lines up perfectly with the time I actually began taking music seriously. Everything felt so fresh and exciting back then that, honestly, vinyl records weren't even on my radar. I picked up my very first CD in '91, right around the same time I got my hands on a Sony mini system—it was this tiny, sleek, black, minimalist little thing. I still have it today, and I wouldn't trade it for any high-tech gadget on the market. As long as it keeps playing, it’s perfect.

Why go for an original CD? Well, look at it this way: some people are obsessed with traveling to exotic destinations, others drop a fortune on designer clothes, some spend way too much on gas, and still others collect fine art. Compared to all that, collecting original CDs is actually a pretty affordable hobby. 🙂Of course—you get the cover art, the liner notes, the lyrics, and all those little details like the credits and dedications too. 😬It’s just incomparable to those soulless MP3 files where someone might have scribbled an album title on a marker. Even burned CDs usually come in those thin jewel cases, whereas the originals actually have some weight to them. 😁The photography on these things is just stunning. There’s honestly nothing quite like that specific feeling when you’re cracking open a brand-new CD and the plastic still has that slight resistance. I remember being the kind of kid who would practically insist at Best Buy that they hand me a factory-sealed disc, just to be absolutely certain nobody had been rifling through them or leaving greasy fingerprints all over the jewel case. And then there’s the ritual of dealing with those stubborn price stickers—you know, the ones you find on domestic releases that feel more like they were glued on with industrial adhesive? You have to carefully rub away that sticker until it’s completely gone. It’s a bit of a chore, especially compared to the imported stuff, which usually comes with those high-quality labels that peel right off perfectly. 🙂).

I won't pretend to be an audio expert when it comes to sound quality, but I'll say this: MP3s just don't cut it. They skip, they feel incomplete, and parts of songs get clipped—it’s incredibly frustrating. Around here, you don't really bother buying original pressings locally unless it's some indie domestic release; instead, everyone imports them from abroad because it’s much cheaper. You usually hunt through online catalogs or those obscure, tucked-away record stores where you actually know you'll find what you're looking for. My strategy is to keep a close eye on the sales and buy in bulk during certain times of the year. Sometimes, you can even use a loyalty card where you get one free for every six you pick up. Of course, there are those moments at a concert where you just can't resist grabbing a CD right there. And occasionally, I'll receive a few as gifts for birthdays or other occasions, since my friends and family know that nothing makes me happier. Plus, sometimes they just show up because, well, it's part of the job.

CDs are just more practical for me since they're smaller and slide right into my bag when I'm commuting on the subway, riding the bus, or heading out to the beach. With MP3s, you’re basically stuck listening on a computer, which just isn't convenient. I'm not exactly a tech wizard, so all these MP3 players, iPods, and similar gadgets don't really mean much to me. I don't have the drive or the time to download everything from the internet, and my connection isn't fast enough anyway. Back when I had fewer CDs, I actually listened to them with more "quality" because I'd find myself playing the same one all day long. Nowadays, I might listen to a CD once and then not touch it again for months. If I started making MP3 playlists, I’d suddenly end up with a massive mountain of files that I wouldn't have the time to manage, and I really don't want that. It's about quality over quantity for me.

As for the music industry and copyright laws... honestly, I couldn't care less. I buy originals purely for my own satisfaction. Besides the fact that I'm always trying to please others, I like treating myself every now and then (I actually used to have a little system where I'd reward myself with one CD for every exam I passed, which wasn't a bad motivator 😬). Plus, you tend to take better care of things when you know you spent good money on them; I'm much more careful with my stuff. For example, there's no way I'd ever leave an original CD lying around without its case or drag it across the floor—ever since some of my discs got scratched, I don't even lend them out anymore. At least I know I haven't wasted money on something silly, which makes me happy, since I'm not exactly the most rational person with my finances and I often buy things I don't even need, just because I'm a bit impulsive 🙂

Anyway, that was my short version 😁

That was actually quite nice. 🙂

Yeah, I finally had a dream about the Forunash crew too, and it was actually tied to this thread.

Basically, I was over in the States and met Greg Gin. He decided to give me a little something, then suddenly he’s handing me this massive pile of Vinyl Records. Next thing I know, I'm back home in the US and I'm absolutely livid because I didn't even want the records. So, I just let the wrong guys—Anki and David Sullivan4—tear each other apart over them.😁

...this whole MP3 mafia thing is a total disaster. I need actual artists and musical variety. Listening to nothing but the Traxdate and Verbat discographies just doesn't do it for me.🙄

Let’s look at the price ratio between a single record and a CD compared to the standards of their respective eras. For the sake of argument, let's assume the sound quality is identical for both.

I think that provides enough of a baseline to bookend any discussion on this topic.

If a college student can only swing one LP a week, then there really isn't much left for us to debate.
The CD essentially killed the soul of music—mainly because its price tag was 100 to 150 times higher than the actual cost of production, and at least 80 times higher than what a fair retail price should have been.
It was the sheer technology and the ability to basically mass-produce literal copies of the same product for that kind of money that killed the charm. It buried the culture of collecting, the sense of ownership, and ultimately, the act of listening to music itself.

I’ve always maintained that, in my view, people who drop serious cash on CDs are just fools—no offense intended, that’s just how I see it.

So what’s the payoff? You have an original disc and some cover art... wow.
Someone else with a burned copy has the exact same thing.
As for the comparison between CD and Vinyl Records...

All I know is that some original CDs (which I got for free, by the way...) have stopped working or started skipping after only 7 or 8 years. Meanwhile, my neighbor has over 500 LP records, and after 25 or 30 years, almost none of them give him any trouble at all.

A record has always been accessible to the masses; a CD, however, was never truly meant for everyone.
A CD is an incredibly delicate, perishable medium. If you apply the same level of care—or neglect—to both, you could safely say an LP just doesn't suffer the same fate.
Sound quality is subjective. I’m a bit of a retro guy; I love that depth and that specific "plastic clarity" you get from a record, though I still enjoy the sound of a CD if it's running through a high-end system.

When you play a record, the rule is you don't touch it; you just let it spin until the end. With a CD, there's almost always this constant fidgeting with the remote control.
That goes back to the ritual of listening. 🙂

I won't get bogged down in specific metrics or ratios, but I will say this: as long as we had LPs, we had music. Once everything shifted to CDs and MP3, the whole thing just went south.

When you can have anything you want, whenever you want it, the mystery and the excitement vanish.
I think that’s pretty obvious to everyone.

Best,

I feel bad even mentioning my own ramblings on the blog, but everything MissL was saying about being back on the road really hit home for me. I actually posted some pretty similar thoughts right here a while back...

, specifically that post about transistor blues...

: *sipping a beer and pretending they didn't just say that*:

I also know this guy who hangs out at a local dive bar—he’s probably the only person in all of Chicago who has every single type of stylus and needle you could want, but man, he charges an arm and a leg...

We’re dancing around the whole CD versus Vinyl debate a bit too much. Personally, if I have the chance to pick up some Vinyl Records, they are my first choice—mostly for the exact reasons Kevin Chavez3 pointed out. Of course, as one gets older (meaning me), you eventually get the opportunity to invest in some high-end gear, and there is a certain joy—both auditory and visual—in owning Vinyl Records. I recently upgraded my old Lenco turntable for a much more dignified Dual CS 5000, and I’m hoping to add a tube amplifier to the setup soon. As for quality, I find it incredibly difficult to claim one medium is definitively superior to the other. The actual quality of Vinyl Records varies wildly depending on a dozen different factors. I would never be so bold as to put my money on the line and say Vinyl Records sound better than a CD. They certainly sound *different*, and that’s a fact. In my own collection, I have CDs that are over fifteen years old, and I don't notice any degradation in quality whatsoever. I buy originals because it's a hobby, but for those more obscure tracks I can't track down physically, I usually just download them to listen to in MP3 format, which serves as a temporary medium for me.

Ideally, I want the stuff that was originally released on Vinyl Records—back when there wasn't any alternative out there. I’d love to own everything in that format, though it's a tall order since my record hunting is purely impulsive, consisting mostly of digging through local Goodwill bins. There’s just no feeling quite like scoring a great find amidst a pile of Ray Coniff albums and eighties junk, even if that means my collection leans heavily toward classic rock rather than reflecting my actual musical tastes. But, moving back to the point, the truth is that vinyl demands a level of focus that has been completely lost in the era of digital formats. Plus, every record has two sides; that strategic placement of certain tracks on a physical disc is totally lost in the endless stream of a digital file.
When it comes to CDs, I can't help but feel cheated—it feels like paying for the cover art. Though, I suppose record labels have tried to fix that by using more elaborate packaging to make them more desirable now that they're competing with the MP3. Still, if I truly love something, I want the complete product, regardless of whether it's easy to replicate at home. Besides, I enjoy providing a little financial boost to the artist. Or to his struggling mother in Manchester, for all I care.

ruggedcrane22 said:I think we're overthinking this whole CD vs. Vinyl debate.

🙂

edit: regarding my turntable, I clearly didn't take the intro to "Alright Hear this" by Beastie Boys seriously enough.

ironcrane7 said:When it comes to CDs, I always feel cheated—like I'm paying for the artwork instead of the music itself.

🙂🙂🙂

Alex Scott22 said:🙂🙂🙂

then I shouldn't bother 🙂🙂🙂🙂

David Sullivan4 said:then I shouldn't bother

tenkre vid🙂

Look at those insane prices I was talking about earlier...

$20 worth 🙂

One guy buys them and then eighteen others just burn through them... whatever..

Man, I'm gonna have to corner you when I see you (after we grab seven beers on the corner)

...Alex Scott22, what's got you so hyped up today?😬
[by the way, we seriously need to grab a new space heater... our current heating situation is a total joke😬]
I don't know, I'm definitely one of those people who sticks to buying the originals.
And honestly, I find myself constantly re-buying things I already own just because they’re so damn good that the original version is worth it all over again.
There isn't some big logical breakdown for it, I just love the stuff, plain and simple.😍
I remember back in my college days, there were weeks where I lived basically on toast and milk just so I could afford a new CD (student budgets, right?), but man, it was always worth it...
I actually tried doing the math once to see how much cash I've sunk into this hobby over the years, but I hit $6667 and had to stop before I had a literal heart attack😬

As for CD vs. LP...
For me, the split is probably something like 90:10 in favor of CDs.
I mostly pick up CDs for the practical side of things—listening in the car, using a portable player, stuff like that.

dinsdale said:CDs are overpriced and they degrade eventually, and Vinyl Records wear down too. I just stick to my MP3s and I've never been happier. Sure, I still find myself sitting in front of an audiophile altar, listening with religious devotion (soundstage! grainy mids! blurry edges! if I swap the power cable the sound will finally breathe! listen to that timbre, for god's sake!). But it happens less and less. There's just no time. Usually, there's just no time. So a setup using emptrics works perfectly for me: from the computer via Ethernet or wireless into the squeezebox , then from the squeezebox via optical straight to the amp. A massive hard drive with 1,000,000 albums and just let it rip. "But MP3s are a lossy format! You can hear it!" Yeah, obviously... ☕

Vinyl is great, but it's an expensive fetish. All these Vinyl Record zealots (who know exactly who they are) waving their LPs around like trophies while spinning them on some cheap thrift store turntable through desktop speakers should be banned from public life. What's The Point? Owning vinyl just so you can act like a total elitist when someone asks if you have a certain album... "Yeah, I've got it on Vinyl." :assholeextravaganza: Invest in the gear, people... A high-end turntable, a solid amp, decent speakers make all the difference...

I’d be a vinyl fanatic too, but CDs are just more practical, honestly...

I mean, who listens to records through computer speakers? 😁 Though, I guess that's pretty punk rock, so why not.

I'm a snob, so I run my records through a tube amp. And some sensitive speakers... so you can actually hear the crackle!
And there have been tube components for CD players for ages now to warm up the sound.

Anyway, I agree with ironcrane7... with records, you get that tactile feel and look... you actually hold something. It's real. You've got two sides. Two different beginnings that someone actually had to think about when sequencing...
CDs are cold, soulless things. And don't even get me started on MP3s. That's just complete digital alienation... there's nothing there. You just hear a voice...!?

ruggedcrane22 said:We're overthinking this whole CD vs. Vinyl Records debate. If I have the chance to pick up some Vinyl Records, that's my first move, mostly for the reasons Kevin Chavez3 mentioned. Of course, as you get older (meaning me), you eventually get the budget for some high-end gear and you can fully appreciate the experience—both the sound and the ritual. I recently upgraded my old Lenco turntable for a much more elegant Dual CS 5000, and I’m hoping to grab a tube amp soon. As for quality? It's hard to claim one medium is objectively better. The quality of Vinyl Records varies wildly depending on a dozen different factors. I’d never be foolish enough to say Vinyl Records sound better than CDs. They sound *different*, sure. But I have CDs in my collection that are over fifteen years old and I don't notice any degradation at all. I buy originals because it's a hobby, but for those obscure tracks I can't track down, I just download them to listen to in MP3 format, which is basically just a temporary solution for me.

It's always great to hear an "industry" perspective on this, especially from another tube enthusiast. 😎

C2V3N said:...1. Sound quality (I don't listen just to hear noise, I listen to enjoy it, and you can't enjoy anything via MP3), if you have a 5.1 surround system at home, you might as well throw it out the window if you're only using it for MP3 (or better yet, just give it to me)...

...those are a few of my points. 😬

Now a mob of angry forum users is probably going to come after me for this, but: the CD format was designed specifically for stereo listening. Even though I own a 5.1 system (and I'm not talking about cheap computer speakers), I listen to CDs in stereo. When it comes to 5.1, I only listen to stuff actually mixed for 5.1. No offense intended, but that's just how I perceive it.

Give it a rest; isn't it obvious this is just a generational divide?

Those born in the 70s (maybe even '80 or '81) actually had a shot at hunting down and listening to Vinyl Records (luckily, I’m still hovering on the edge of that group) before the Compact Disc absolutely decimated the market in the late 80s and early 90s... The wars here probably slowed our transition to that medium, but the "new era" arrived a year or two late regardless. That’s not even counting the people who ditched their entire record collections just to mass-buy CDs—I know plenty of them. As for those of us who were born too late to be die-hard vinyl purists, yet grew up silently buying and rewinding cassettes while being just young enough to adopt the new tech, we all seem to be stuck balancing between the "clouds" of cassettes, Compact Discs, and LP, without any real devotion to one format over the other—just to the music itself.
Honestly, what else is there? Most of the albums I care about—excluding my old man's collection (everything up to roughly 1979) or the stuff outside that reach—especially the early 80s American bands (not the mainstream ones, obviously), are nearly impossible to find.
I’ve tried four different routes;
1. eBay and similar sites (where a single from a relatively obscure band from that era can hit $200 at auction, though I’ve been lucky a few times... snagging something for $50 😬 ),
2. Second-hand shops (I know our local spots inside and out, and I already know what I definitely WON'T find there, whereas the shops outside the US are being absolutely picked clean by collectors),
3. Reissues on Vinyl (but forget it; hardly anything gets reissued on vinyl these days, mostly just on Compact Disc. For half the stuff I look for, I feel like I'm basically just buying a CD anyway if we're talking about a "true" reissue)
4. Trading (though I wouldn't trade anything I own, and nobody wants to swap the stuff I actually want for things that are easy to find)...
If anyone thinks of a more productive way, let me know! 😉

Congressman said:if you position yourself correctly—meaning your head and the two speakers form an equilateral triangle...

just set the balance knob right in the middle and sit dead center—equidistant from both speakers! 🙏

Honestly, I’m inclined to agree with the other gentleman—especially when we're talking about listening to a stereo mix through a six-speaker setup. For that kind of thing, you really need to look into SACD or audio DVD formats.