[allenf]

Redbook & legacy support for my 1000+ vinyl.
Still buy the occasional will-not-be-released-on-CD soul/dance 12inch.
However, most of my listening at home is off mp3: if you have all your CDs and most of the decent vinyl ripped & archived as mp3 it is just convenient to plug your DAP into the room system. Great at home or away parties as well.

 

[GirgleMirt]

Quote:

There are many software format in the market and everybody has his own reason to choose. Assuming reasonable Recording quality, pls choose one. Pls just vote and don't make comment in this thread. Let's see what interesting result it will be. LP : CD : XRCD : SACD : DVD-A : MP3 :

I choose .WAV, because it makes as much sens as the original post.

A more interesting question would have been:

There are many colors available in the market and everybody has his own reason to choose.

Assuming reasonable color quality, pls choose one. Pls just vote and don't make comment in this thread. Let's see what interesting result it will be.:

Blue:
Red:
Brown:
Green:
Yellow:
Magenta:
Cyan:
Amber:

 

[Alu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GirgleMirt Assuming reasonable color quality, pls choose one. Pls just vote and don't make comment in this thread. Let's see what interesting result it will be.: Blue: Red: Brown: Green: Yellow: Magenta: Cyan: Amber: [/b]

I have a hard time making my choice here, as both, red and blue, are great colours.

 

[BillyBenBilly]

I was a vinylphile for years. I still love the qualities of great vinyl played on a fine system. But, with headphones, I can't take the surface noise, even on new, high quality records. It's a major chore to clean a record, etc and put it on. I can't just throw it on and listen.

SACD, a very interesting format but yet to be fully realized. Many of the recordings available were originally made on tape or PCM and the SACDs are limited by this fact. I've heard sacds that don't sound as good as their cd counterparts. Selection is limited and price is high.

MP3 are generally horrible. Ok if you're running and too out of breath to listen carefully.

CDs are still my format of choice. Many of the newer ones or remastered ones sound pretty fine, have low noise, are cheaply obtained used, and I can play them at home, in my car, on my computer drive, etc.

 

[tanfenton]

I have a rule of buying contemporary music on CD and everything recording up until 1989 on record.

NGF

 

[Canman]

XRCD is not a software format, it is a specific mastering technique and manufacturing process.

 

[gevorg]

MP3 of course.

In most HiFi setups, its impossible to differentiate them from original CDs/LPs/etc. IMHO!!

 

[Jacques]

If I would have to live with only one, LP would be my first choice. I also own a fairly high-end CD transport and DAC and I like the rich selection of software but there are to many artifacts on most recordings compare to LP's.

MP3 sound like a return to 8-tracks and the other high definition forrmats have limited selection and not be around in a few years.

 

[Jacques]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gevorg MP3 of course. In most HiFi setups, its impossible to differentiate them from original CDs/LPs/etc. IMHO!!

Really? Walking in the house, before I even took my coat off, I can tell if my wife is listening to a LP or a CD.

 

[Aman]

If I had to choose one, it'd be LP

Why? Because:

-Many times it is the closest I have to the most pure form of my favorite artists, ie. 60s-70s-80s jazz, rock, folk, and blues
-It can sound fantastic if you know what you're doing
-They are much more fun to handle than CDs - you are taking yourself to a whole new dimension in musicphilia if you get to handle the LPs like a hobby too
-They came with things that music today does not - and the artwork is quite amazing
-You can discover things on the LP format that I'd never even bother by buying used and by buying at the salvation army, rather than paying 20 dollars for it in a music store
-After listening to many albums through both LP AND CD, I can conclude that at least my vinyl setup has better realism, warmth, fluidness, and depth/air

People that say that vinyl isn't high fidelity are quite incorrect!

 

[Welly Wu]

If my reply post has any merit, then I have an interesting story to tell. I own virtually all types of video and audio DIGITAL formats: DVD-Video, VideoCD, SuperVCD, DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD, Red Book CD, High Definition Compatible Disc, JVC XRCD, and LAME .MP3 files encoded at both alt-preset-extreme and alt-preset-insane. To my ears, DVD-AUDIO has got the best sound quality that rivals vinyl LPs and 45s with the convenience factors that I have grown up to expect in any musical or film reproduction. Nothing gets closer to the absolute sound than vinyl (ugh, what a PITA) and no digital audio or video format gets as close to vinyl than DVD-AUDIO especially 192kHz/24bit pure 2.1 stereo loudspeakers (with .1 LFE) or through headphones combined. That liveliness of sound in terms of three dimensional holographic presence, soundstage height / depth that matches precise imaging through effortless sonic layering, smoothness of sound -- that resolution -- is unmatched. Only a very high end vinyl rig can match -- but not completely trounce in all audiophile criteria -- that well-mastered 192kHz/24bit DVD-AUDIO sound. A-B-A-B-A-B, as we all know, results in an outcome that makes the sonic differences between high end vinyl and DVD-AUDIO statistically null. It is that great folks. I don't care if I have to re-invest several more thousands of dollars in either HD-DVD or SONY Blu-Ray formats, but whichever has the full DVD-AUDIO specifications gets my hard earned money.