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Turntable. All four of them.
As we transition from one format to another, some components hang on as our main source of music. What is the source component you use most in your home system?
A Pioneer Elite 300-disc changer, no less. Using an external DAC, the sound quality very close to the much more expensive single players I've tried, and the "hands off" convenience is simply unbeatable. I keep a spreadsheet of which disc is in which slot on the computer, so armed with a printout, me and my remote don't ever have to leave the listening chair.
You betcha it's vinyl. Even with all of digital's improvements I still get most of my audio thrills from the vinyl disc. It probably doesn't hurt that I spin LP's on my new inverted bearing, thick black platter, made by VPI. Ultimately, the source component I use most will reflect the sources I have the most of--VINYL!
CD player still rules for convenience and access to latest music. Id say i use it about 80% of my time with my turntable at about 20%. This is also primarily because the popular music i like is on CD and classical i have is on vinyl.
To qualify my response: when I have time devoted to just listening to music, I play records about 80% of the time. Generally, I find vinyl to be more musically involving than CDs. I work at home several days each week, though, and because of the numerous phone calls during the day, I stick with CDs for the convenience factor. I have yet to run across a remote controlled turntable that I can pause when the phone rings.
I love my records. But it's take the record out, Zerostat, clean the record, clean the stylus, move the tonearm, lower the tonearm, listen for 20 minutes, raise the tonearm, and repeat. Not to mention replacing a very expensive stylus annually. Okay, I did that happily 20 years ago, but I've been spoiled by convenience and CDs that sound a hell of a lot better than vinyl devotees say.
I have an inexpencive Sony SACD/CD player. I use it much more as a CD player because I have many more CDs than SACDs. I have also used my computer fairly often. For a reduction in quality, I get all my music organized alphabetically by Artist, Genre, and CD. It makes finding a particuar song easier and more convenient.