[domsch1988]

After listening to 320 mp3's and spotify exclusively for 2 or 3 years, the arrival of my HD600 got me back into better quality audio. I tried tidal. The quality is good, but the price is rather high and offline music is sometimes more convenient. Especially since Tidal's Desktop client is sub par (mildly said).

I want to acquire a whole bunch of my favorite albums (and maybe some new ones) as high quality material. For my "On the go" listening i'll stay with spotify, so everything i don't own in a good quality will be streamed until replaced.

Assuming i currently don't own any devices to play physical media, and assuming i will need/want to digitize the music to my PC, what's the best way to go? Some options i looked at:
- CD new/used: since most people stream nowadays, CD's are dirt cheap. More so used. The entire Back catalog of Dream Theater can be had for under 50$ for example (that's under 9$ per Album), and that's new. Then again it's "only" 16/44.1. Most Online Stores for High Resolution Music offer 24/96. Albeit at a much higher price. Plus EVERYTHING can be had on CD.
- Stores like HD-Tracks offer 24/96 for Downloads. Downsides are no physical copy (in case of dataloss or account loss. A CD can always be ripped again), Price (starting at 12$ -13$ per Album) and selection (especially modern Metal is reeealy limited.
- Vinyl. The quality (some argue) is higher than CD. Price of entry for a good player is high and albums are generally more expensive than CD. Vinyl is catching on a bit lately, so much newer music is available again. Wether that is any better quality than CD is up there. A Vinyl collection also has something about it, that makes you appreciate music in a physical way i think.

So, lets say i canceled Tidal and am planing to invest the 20$-30$ a month into new music. Which is the best bang for your buck? And do you feel upgrading to 24/96 download over CD brings any appreciable sound improvements?

 

[cossix]

Truthfully, it's up to your
Own ears to decide if you
Really need something better than
Ripped CD quality for your albums.
Essentially, there are plenty of
Nifty ways of going about getting
Tons of good albums for free.
Some ways are just a bit less accepted.

 

[bixby]

used cds

 

[peskypesky]

used cds

yep.

You can go to thrift stores (Salvation Army, etc) and load up with cd's for very low prices. Also, look on Amazon, Ebay and Half.com

 

[domsch1988]

Seems CD it is.
Any tipps for an external CD Drive? My PC doesn't have one... Most i found online are only 24x or so, which is rather slow...

 

[cossix]

Seems CD it is.
Any tipps for an external CD Drive? My PC doesn't have one... Most i found online are only 24x or so, which is rather slow...

Pcpartpicker will list tons of them, then it's just a matter of searching on NewEgg or Amazon

 

[bixby]

Do not worry too much about the speed of a drive. The ripping software will slow things down if it having trouble reading the data. And error checking slows things as well. Depending on your ripper and CD quality things can get slowed down to 2-8X.

A fave of mine is this one with an appropriate enclosure or just grab a usb 3 to sata interface like the Anker.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0033Z2BAQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005B3VO24/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[dukeman]

A public library usually has a really wide range of music, I've been stocking up on classical and opera lately

 

[domsch1988]

A public library usually has a really wide range of music, I've been stocking up on classical and opera lately

That's a great tip. Thank you very much. Another good reason to finally get this library pass going!
Although german laws might not allow ripping those to PC. I'll need to do some research into this. In the end it's a great option to find out what's worth buying though.

 

[Music Alchemist]

Buy used CDs on Amazon, eBay, Discogs, etc. Some are available for as low as a penny plus shipping.

Get a cheap USB CD drive to rip them with. I use an LG GP10NB20 Portable Super Multi Drive.

Download a CD ripper program that is compatible with the AccurateRip database that can verify whether your rip is accurate. I use dBpoweramp. It's paid software, but has a free trial that reverts to a more basic forever free version if you don't buy it. Exact Audio Copy is another popular one. I keep it installed for cases when dBpoweramp's error correction doesn't do the best job for damaged discs. In my experience, dBpoweramp has much better features, interface, speed, ease of use, etc.

Rip the files to a lossless format such as FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, or WAV. You can make lossy copies of those files in the future if you need to save space for portable use.

Buy external hard drives for backup. They're a lot cheaper than they used to be. I'd recommend 2 TB or more.

I'd also recommend using foobar2000 for music playback, with bit-perfect output (ASIO, KS, or WASAPI) to your DAC. It's free, has tons of features and customization options (such as downloadable skins and plugins) and is popular among audiophiles.

When hi-res downloads sound different from the CD, it's because they used a different master. (Think of it like comparing an original release to a remastered one.) If you use a program like dBpoweramp to convert the hi-res files to lossless Red Book (16-bit / 44.1 kHz; the standard that CDs use), they should sound the same. (Click here for details.)

Vinyl, as a medium, is not higher quality than digital (including CDs). In fact, digital is capable of markedly higher performance. (Click here for details.) However, some vinyl masters are better than some CD masters, and of course, some vinyl playback systems are better quality than many digital systems.