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August 12, 2012 - 4:28pm
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music format which option cd? high quality downloads or vinyl
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I sold all of my hifi gear over the last year and am starting over from scratch. The only thing that I kept was my Rega turntable. I'm not trying to replicate or replace my digital library with vinyl, but I do like digging through the bins at the record store. Sometimes I'll buy a stack of used albums that looks interesting or sometimes one or two "audiophile" pressings of music I already know and love.
As far as the digital side of things go, I still have to buy a high-quality DAC, but I need to figure out whether mixing in "audiophile downloads" is worth the investment or whether I'll stick with "CD quality" discs and downloads (and vinyl of course).
Yes, MP3s do suck.
CD sales may be way down because of downloads, but they are not going away. The music companies can make them for almost nothing and sell them cheaply and still make money.
New vinyl records are expensive, and the selection is very limited. I have good record playback gear, but I already have 700 records (and 1200 CDs), including some I have had for up to 50 years,
I would get a good USB DAC for playback purposes, such as the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic and store all of your music on a PC. You can use thumb drives for backup or transportability. If you buy a CD, you can transfer it to the computer also if you wish. You can also burn CDs from the computer for vehicle use. Quality downloads and CDs are available from Amazon and many other online stores cheap.
If you want to go with Vinyl, Audio-Technica has a crazy good deal; its Audio-Technica LP-60 turntable. It has a built-in USB output to connect to your computer, AND a built-in phono preamp to connect to an amplifier! Needle Doctor is selling it for $149, complete with cartridge.
So my family likes to stream and avoids playing records. To get the music to my family, I rip and stream. And I enjoy the ease of use as well! If I did not have all my records, I am not sure I would still have a turntable. I love listening to it, but it has its own share of difficulties. Good high res downloads and my own high res rips sound great over the computer. Not quite as good as vinyl, but they kick cds out of the running in the first few seconds. Again, if the downloads are good sounding.
Trey