Anyone have a physical music collection?

[Miami Wayfarer]

Anyone here collect music in the form of Vinyl or CD's? I'm looking to start a collection but can't decide between vinyl or CD's. Right now I'm leaning more towards vinyl, but wanted to see if you guys had opinions and/or advice on the subject. My collection would probably start with the Miami vice soundtracks I'm thinking.

[Robbie C.]

CDs are easier to get and cheaper, but with good equipment vinyl sounds better to me. I prefer either to strictly digital. 

[Dadrian]

I’ve been going through mine today actually! Thousands of CDs and vinyls. Lots of cassette tapes, too. No 8 tracks though. I came along just after that. 

My favorite vinyl to put on is “Gaucho” (1980) by Steely Dan. 

My favorite CD is the import version of Sting’s “Ten Summoner’s Tales” (1993) with one really great extra track more than the US release. 

I currently do not own a cassette player. 

[BretuL]

I'm leaning towards CD's mainly but I have Peter Gabriel's "So" & James Blake's "Assume Form" on vinyl. I mostly buy them only from thrift stores and places like that. I have only bought 8 CD's brand new. Others from the thrift stores. If you plan on listening to the music then I'd suggest vinyl. If you're just gonna collect them to stack them up i'd go with CD's.

[Robbie C.]

I do still have a cassette player. Double one on the Kenwood system I’ve had since the early 90s. Some stuff you just can’t find now. 

[BretuL]

3 hours ago, Miami Wayfarer said:

Anyone here collect music in the form of Vinyl or CD's? I'm looking to start a collection but can't decide between vinyl or CD's. Right now I'm leaning more towards vinyl, but wanted to see if you guys had opinions and/or advice on the subject. My collection would probably start with the Miami vice soundtracks I'm thinking.

Most of the MV music I've found are only on CD's or digital. I haven't found any cassette or vinyls online. But it still comes down to preference. I suggest collecting both as CD's look pretty nice placed next to vinyls.

[Dadrian]

I know @Ferrariman has a few CDs 

[Mr. Calderon]

good question...my cassete tapes i throwed away, my lp records are here just for sentimentalism sake, i have a small amount of audio cds, but i have mp3 cds here. Well..to be honest, since they created youtube, why i would buy physical music?

[Ferrariman]

33 minutes ago, Dadrian said:

I know @Ferrariman has a few CDs 

Yup, a few (hundred)    I would go with CDs   If for no other reason there's a much better selection out there compared to vinyl.  I know some purists need to hear all those little snap, crackle and pop sounds you get with vinyl but I'll take the sound quality of CDs over vinyl any day.

[vicegirl85]

I used to have vinyl LPs of the first MV album, DJ's Heartbeat and Let it Roll, but no longer have a turntable and decided not to replace the last one that quit working.  So I donated all of my vinyls (only about 25 or so) about a year ago.  At one time I had some cassettes as well, but as Robbie said, replacing a cassette player isn't too easy either.  Never did have 8-tracks, although I remember them.  Currently I have about 25 Christmas CDs but otherwise honestly I am not a music head.  Probably own a couple of dozen CDs besides my Christmas stuff.  However, although I enjoy Youtube, I'd rather have a player I can move around in the house if I'm going to listen to music (instead of sitting at the computer or listening via my phone).  And the technology involved with listening to music seems to evolve to a point of almost making the previous medium obsolete, so that a large investment in physical collections and the players for them is down the drain for a person who isn't very knowledgeable about fixing/ replacing the things that go wrong.

[jpaul1]

concerning CD this is a risky enterprise if you want my 2c. CD are subject to decay, and one day you may say sup, i'm gonna put that cool tune, as i'm in a great mood for it. and you suddenly land down, and realize the thing has stopped working

concerning vinyls, i'm not into that thing so i can't tell. but i believe they can last forever if you protect them.?

so, to answer the question, no i only have a digital collection. backed up on 3 HDD (not stored in the same place) of course

Edited December 19, 2019 by jpaul1

[vicegirl85]

2 hours ago, jpaul1 said:

concerning CD this is a risky enterprise if you want my 2c. CD are subject to decay, and one day you may say sup, i'm gonna put that cool tune, as i'm in a great mood for it. and you suddenly land down, and realize the thing has stopped working

concerning vinyls, i'm not into that thing so i can't tell. but i believe they can last forever if you protect them.?

Yes, I found out about the "CD rot" after I started replacing a few of my favorite vinyls with CDs.  It hasn't happened to any of mine yet (as far as I know, LOL) but it may...

Re: vinyl's longevity--well they are easy to scratch; must be stored correctly (on edge in a climate-controlled space) so they don't warp, and can collect dust which degrades the sound.  Also they take up quite a bit of physical space.  A plus for vinyl is that some of the art for the jackets is amazing and can set a tone for your space if you can display it. 

Edited December 19, 2019 by vicegirl85
added an advantage for vinyl

[Robbie C.]

Hard drives also decay, fragment, and can get erased or otherwise damaged. No storage method is perfect. I'm willing to risk CD rot for better sound quality, and there are some artists you can only find on CDs or vinyl. In the end it all comes down to how and why you listen. Portability isn't as important to me as sound quality, so I collect accordingly. I also dislike relying on 'cloud' sources for music...too easy to lose access. And as for buying music...I prefer to support artists when I can.

[Dadrian]

I love all formats for different reasons, but only one of them has an extra added sensory appeal:

The musty old smell of a 40 or 50 year old disc as you pull it out of the sleeve. That smell means you’re about to hear something great—something that a lexicon of adult men and women had dedicated all their being to for their livelihood and for your personal pleasure and enjoyment. 
 

edit: nothing against the “modern means of music media” (that sounds like something Izzy would say  ). There are LOTS of great artists and producers who are carrying the torch today, but I truly love the products of 1959-1989 from a technical standpoint. 

Edited December 19, 2019 by Dadrian

[Sonny-Burnett]

10 minutes ago, Dadrian said:

I love all formats for different reasons, but only one of them has an extra added sensory appeal:

The musty old smell of a 40 or 50 year old disc as you pull it out of the sleeve. That smell means you’re about to hear something great—something that a lexicon of adult men and women had dedicated all their being to for their livelihood and for your personal pleasure and enjoyment. 

So very true, Dadrian.

Some of my vinyl goes back into the 40s ( I think)  and 50s that were my Grandmother's and Mother's records. And I've got many from the 60s, 70s and 80s before I made the switch to CDs.  LPs and even 45s. 

I probably have 2 and 1/2 large bankers boxes of vinyl and 1+ medium mover's boxes full of CDs. 

I never knew CDs could degrade though.  

Edited December 19, 2019 by Sonny-Burnett

[agent 47]

I still collect CDs. It's a good time to collect them as if you have some good thrift shops, flea markets or a store like 2nd and Charles around you can find some pretty cheap. I've had pretty good luck finding CDs lately and have probably bought well over a hundred CDs just this year. Honestly though if someone was wanting to collect music I'd say if they have the space and money for it I would recommend having multiple formats.With movies I collect multiple formats and can say it makes it much easier to track things down so I imagine for music having both CD and Vinyl may make things a little easier. You might find something on one format that is either too hard to find on the other or not available at all on something else.

[Mr. Calderon]

from my personal experience, hard disk storage is more risky than cd storage. Hard Disk is that wonderful thing that erases too much space from your cd shelf buuuut....in few years it goes crazy and dies. I have cds here from 1997 and still working. 

[Kladdagh]

I still collect CD's and have put 'em on digital ...

I can listen my music all day long ... I'm so in love with the music ... 

[Matt5]

I still have cds but I mainly buy new albums now on vinyl - sound amazing with the big vinyl comeback in the last few years. But I mainly stream or download on my phone that’s what I listen to the most. I don’t think you can beat a physical new album vinyl copy.

[IA-SteveB]

I had been collecting vinyl for years before it was en vogue again.  It was easy to collect them 5+ years ago but since everyone wants them now the sources for cheap vintage records have dried up unless you get lucky.  Vintage albums I used to buy for $3 each are now $10+.  I don't really buy any re-issues because I don't enjoy paying that much.  I'd take an original cheap album that I had to hunt for over buying a new one.  It is fun to thumb through boxes at shops, flea markets or whatever until you say, "WHOAH, I need that one!"

I have an early 80's Pioneer turntable and amp along with Bose speakers.  Since I grew up listening to vinyl that my parents had, I am still drawn to it.  I used to spend hours looking through all of the cover art and reading the lyric sleeves on LPs in my parent's collection as a kid.  Ah, the memories.  Cassettes will never have a renaissance like vinyl.  Yes, I was one who used to buy "cassette singles."  lol

Edited December 20, 2019 by IA-SteveB

[jpaul1]

6 hours ago, Mr. Calderon said:

from my personal experience, hard disk storage is more risky than cd storage. Hard Disk is that wonderful thing that erases too much space from your cd shelf buuuut....in few years it goes crazy and dies. I have cds here from 1997 and still working. 

any serious PC user that uses backup for personal, or professional use, will tell you that one back up isn't enough. for a correct back up you need at least 2 back ups, mostly 3, or even more. the modern HDD being very reliable, the chances for them to break at the same time is non-existent. HDD back ups are more ecological too; no plastic, no transport, endless lifespan

Edited December 19, 2019 by jpaul1

[Mr. Calderon]

I have 6 hdds here. 1 500mb, the rest all 1 tb. 1 from western digital died. Another one was restored using hdd regenerator. so external hdds arent sooooo safe as we can think.  Not saying cds/dvds cant have probs too. But instead losing a whole 1tb, i would loose only 4gb. It would be cheaper too and when you have many of them becomes a problem to store. And when you dont have the player to buy anymore you are lost. Unhopefully the industry became dvds/cds obsolete. Well...maybe buying many pendrives?

 

[IA-SteveB]

Not to get too off topic, but I just use cloud storage.  I don't want to worry about hard drives or solid state drives because they all have an MTBF.  Just use cloud storage with a complex password and multifactor authentication and don't worry about it.   Not saying you have confidential information on those HDDs, but they darn well better be encrypted.    In this day and age, every physical pierce of storage should be encrypted and every Internet account you have should have MFA enabled.  Absolutely no reason not to.

On a side note, I now have all of the Miami Vice LPs in my collection after picking up the one I needed in an antique store.  Not a bad 2 bucks spent.  I can't wait until Christmas to see if I get the Led Zeppelin albums I have been wanting. 

Edited December 20, 2019 by IA-SteveB

[squeezem3]

Digital music is perfect for sports and driving, but nothing beats the experience of vinyl at home. If you keep your stylus and the records clean, the sound is superb. Beside that it is a whole different experience to look at your record rotating in the player while relaxing on the couch. 

It is like a quality meal compared to fast food, or reading a book instead of reading on a kindle. You listen to the whole album instead of just skipping from one track to another and that really calms you down after a long day!

Finding old and new vinyls, even original Miami Vice soundtracks, is easy online. Have a look at Discogs and ebay. Plus you get the original covers and sleeves along with the music. Really nice for collectors, and I can assure you - collecting vinyl can be quite addictive! 

[pahonu]

I have had all the formats since LP records, except 8 tracks.  I still have about 50 LPs from when I was younger and started collecting.  I play them occasionally as I still have a working player from the early 90’s.  

Almost all the cassettes eventually got chewed up.  I still have a handful but don’t have a player anymore.

 I have several hundred CDs, including about 150-200 reggae albums, that I play at home.  Many of the reggae CDs are collections of singles, as most reggae music was released as vinyl singles in the day and aren’t available on vinyl today.

All the CDs are loaded in an old iPod that I play through the stereo in my old VW camper van.  My wife and I listen to it while camping.  It’s a few thousand songs.  The iPod battery doesn’t hold a charge well anymore but it’s always plugged in to the stereo and charging, so it’s fine.  It has to be at least 12+ years old but it works for me.

The rest of my music is in my phone, but that might be the smallest part of my collection.  I mostly stream through my phone.  As the formats changed over the years I just added to my collection not really tossing anything unless it was ruined.  That said, I’ve never had a CD go bad.  So I keep using the older formats however they are convenient.