Vinyl or CD?

[hifinutt]

cd for stress free listening and vinyl for lots of aggro and stress and expense

[walpurgis]

CD........no. Unless you already have a cd collection, I wouldn’t bother.

Why not?

[Manicatel]

Because if I was essentially “starting out”now, I would concentrate on streaming as my primary source & vinyl as my luxury/ special occasion source.
Fewer manufacturers are making stand-alone CDP’s now. Even some of the bigger companies don’t hold spares for some of their older players.
Streaming has usurped the convenience/ease of use trump cards that cd used to hold over vinyl.
With the big caveat that you have to have a reasonable, reliable internet. Admittedly without that, streaming is useless.
If you already have a good collection of discs, then continue along that road.
To me, cd’s are stuck between the convenience of streaming & the emotional attachment of vinyl as a physical source.
Only my opinion though!

[bobvfr]

I have to agree with the ideas Matt has put forward, I was an early giver upper of vinyl, I bought the Philips CD101 and haven't looked back, I have no interest in going back to vinyl, but having just ripped my CD collection to FLAC format, and although I personally intend buying more CD's, I will instantly rip them and put them away. I will then fill in the gaps of albums I can't find with purchased downloads in FLAC format (So not really streaming).

So although I am not off to the shops to buy a record deck and vinyl, in some ways it makes sense to either go streaming (At CD quality) or go vinyl for the tactile experience.

As I said I have no intention of going that way, but I can see the appeal.

I will be on my guard of creeping into the easy trap of skipping tracks or jumping from one artist to another.

I am still an album fan and believe in putting an album on and listening to the whole thing (OK I admit "When I am 64" gets skipped, but I used to do that on vinyl as well).

[forsell]

Some time in the near future I'll be upgrading my source but I don't know what to go for I find the idea of vinyl very appealing even the whole physical side of it leads me to think I would get more enjoyment out of it

Then again CD is what I know and love, the simplicity of it and next to zero maintenance is good if you just wanna listen to music without any fuss and placement in my tiny room might not work for vinyl

My experience with vinyl is very limited or next to none I've heard some cheap crap that hasn't been cleaned or looked after and I wouldn't really count that as an experience

I want to know how do the two different sounds compare and what's your opinion on the matter

If you don't own any records and are going to A) listen to current production new releases B) buy new records from store you have to be aware when making decision to go down this road that with vinyl you are nowadays entering a highly priced "luxury market". In the end it is your own decision whether your are willing to join this boutique price game or not.

[Yomanze]

Without a shadow of a doubt you should get a DAC or CDP first. Not all digital is flat and hard sounding, just a lot of it. IME multibit DACs sound more natural, providing the circuit around it is good of course, critical in fact.

[James the Albarry lover]

My favourite music is from the 70s and 80s, to be honest I don't like the idea of streaming but I do see the benefits of it, to me the physical side of music is a fun part that I would miss it's nice having something solid for your money wether it be CDs or LPs, I never knew that some modern re releases on vinyl where so bad which is making me edge more towards CD

[Manicatel]

Sounds to me like you’ve made your mind up already.
Hey, it’s all music, it can all sound great.
Enjoy, whatever your decision.

[paulf-2007]

You already have a decent cdp. If you're not keen on streaming then work your up the food chain with vinyl, but buy older vinyl rather than new, but some new vinyl is ok. I have a DVD that plays sacd but I rarely play cd, usually when the internet isn't playing ball. So mostly Spotify and vinyl. I don't understand having thousands of CDs or vinyl lp's as there isn't enough time to listen to them all, hence streaming. The rest of my listening is vinyl, probably about 30 albums in good enough condition to play,the rest from my drunken teenage years are toast. Only buying half speed mastered and 45rpm lp's when I can find them.

[paulf-2007]

Without a shadow of a doubt you should get a DAC or CDP first. Not all digital is flat and hard sounding, just a lot of it. IME multibit DACs sound more natural, providing the circuit around it is good of course, critical in fact.

Flat and hard sounding....really? Not in my experience