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Nothing in the last few months, but when I do buy it is CDs.
CD sales are clearly in a slump, SACD and DVD-A are down for the count, a few downloads are just starting to sound decent (Linn for example), and the LP keeps chugging along. What audio format did you spend the most money on in the last few months? Why?
While SACDs offer superior sound quality to CDs, selections, while increasing at a slow rate are still rare in the market. Around 1/2 the price of SACDs, with today's technologies, CD's sounds amazing, and being cheaper, we are able to explore more music, making this a no-brainer! Long live CDs!
I went to a few show this summer where I bought the artists CDs.My experiences with computers are not a selling point for downloading music, I don't want to transfer my music collection every other year when my computer is made obsolete or a major crash locks my music in cyberspace.
Vinyl, by a wide margin. One reason is that unit cost is higher than CD. An advantage of living in a city is the easy availability of a good selection of new releases on vinyl and then of course there's on-line and catalog orders. Of course, it sounds really great.
I spent more on CDs but I probably downloaded (in terms of music minutes) more music in MP3 and FLAC format. But then downloads are cheaper. I buy CDs for the sound quality. I can play SACD on my home theater but I prefer to listen to my stereo setup, which isn't SACD capable.
I pick SACD over CD if I have an option as it is clearly superior. But ofter (forced to) listen in CD format. It takes a lot more money and time and effort to get a steady pitch, low noise, low distortion etc. etc. out of vinyl than out of CD/SACD. MP3 and the other lossy crap can die tomorrow as far as I am concerned. Live music? Vastly overrated sonically, emotionally it's another story.
Not as many as I used to buy, but CD is still my only source of music. I listen to discs over and over again, and then digitize my favorite tracks; this way I can listen to my music library any way I want without skipping a song. As long as CDs are still being produced, I won’t buy music from any of the commercial download services; and I don’t go to file-sharing sites for lo-fi MP3s either.
Vinyl is far better than CD for classical music reproduction. Instrument timbres are more realistic and dynamic nuances are simply superb. On the other hand, digital distortion of CD makes quiet passages of symphonic works sound horrible. You don’t believe it? Compare a piano concerto in vinyl and CD and you will wonder where the high frequency harmonics have gone in the digital format.
I listen to my music on my PC and other digital sources. I've got a -cherished- eMusic subscription and am generally satisfied with high-quality MP3 tracks. The SACD (got me for a while) and DVD-A format war debacle brought more quickly the death of physical musical media.
Vinyl. SACD is only good for classical now and considering what we have for choices on new CD's, it only makes sense to upgrade or invest in a new analog rig. The choices on audiophile vinyl get better by the day...still, by far, the best way to listen to music.