Tell me about yr music collection: digital, CD, vinyl, etc.

[Strat]

Team Strat.

you and me is like peas and carrots

[epilogue]

Team Strat.

you and me is like peas and carrots

[Birds in Hell]

All I mean to say is that I've never had that experience of listening to new headphones or a new stereo system and suddenly feeling like I'm hearing recorded sound again for the first time, as though all my listening prior to my receipt of x piece of gadgetry was a sham, which is not uncommon verbiage from audio geeks when discussing listening accessories.

I know it sounds trite but that description really does ring true for the experience of first listening through my newly-purchased Sennheiser headphones back in 2003 or 2004. It really was as though I hadn't heard any of my favourite music before - I immediately wanted to hear everything I'd ever listened to all over again so I could absorb all of the details I'd previously been unaware of.

Sound quality isn't the be-all-end-all for me, the musical content is still far and away the most important thing, but it still makes a significant impact on my enjoyment of music. I've found renewed love for an album through finding a superior CD mastering and, at the other end of the spectrum, felt disinclined to put on an album I genuinely like because it's difficult to enjoy through excessive compression, weird EQ, digital clipping, etc.

[Strat]

Just a bunch of well adjusted music nerds yadda yadda yadda

[Kevin Davis]

This all sounds very apparent to me when I listen to a leaked album that may have leaked at a lower rate/crappy quality. Ill get used to this sound of the album. Then it will actually be released and I hear it in its full glory.

I feel you on this. I can't tolerate low-bitrate mp3s -- they remind me of watching an old VHS tape that was made from a copy of a copy of a copy on a cassette that's been re-used and "taped over" so many times that all the resolution is dead. I rarely seek out leaks but in the event that one finds its way to me, I will usually choose patience over succumbing to a low quality rip. To me, having the intrinsic value of the sound file compromised in some way is not the same as listening to a lossless version of the recording through non-audiophile gear, or on one format over another, or whatever. Again, I don't claim that no difference exists from one consumer product to the next (and I have certainly had headphones and speakers over the years that just feel "off" somehow), but overall I feel like I've been blessed with good enough ears to make up for what I am unwilling to spend on expensive equipment. Maybe I just haven't found that magical piece of gear yet, who knows.

[Patman]

I have probably 700 cds or so, and no in home player besides my DVD player so they really only get listened to in the car... they were all ripped to an external hard drive which also had a lot of other music on it. The hard drive crashed, so it's all gone. I want to go through and rip everything again, but just knowing how long it took last time makes me not want to do it.

I do collect vinyl and have a few hundred albums, and that's how I do most of my listening at home.

[Birds in Hell]

After selling/donating/junking every bit of vinyl I had, as well as a few hundred CDs, I now have a shelf with the remaining 500 or so CDs organised alphabetically.

Guess what? Now it's done it all feels kind of redundant and I can easily imagine a time when I'll get rid of the rest and move to digital only. Unlike books, where I feel as though the tangible object remains clearly preferable to the digital alternative, I really don't have any lingering fondness for hanging onto my music in a physical form. In every respect, a lossless digital file seems like the better option.

How about you, OB?

Guess what? Having lived with this question for a while, I've decided that I'm sticking with CDs and will probably dedicate myself to slowly picking up a good percentage of the things I've downloaded in FLAC over the last few years. Repurchasing things I've already bought the digital version of seems redundant but that's the position that I find myself in.

This was all well and good until we decided to move house - holy shit, boxes full of CDs weigh a ton.

[Kevin Davis]

Last time we moved (two years ago) I had 11 boxes of CD's, and I insisted on transporting them personally. No way I was going to let some mover or one of our idiot friends drop a fucking sofa on my life's work.

[LetMeSleep]

Spenno, after not having my CDs for over five years I haven't really missed them. I'm currently selling most of them but I imagine I'll keep 100plus. I've sold about 300 so far and there have only been a handful that have been tough to actually put in an envelope. But I've got a new iPhone and I've done a bathroom renovation from the cash.

[darth_vedder]

Spenno, after not having my CDs for over five years I haven't really missed them. I'm currently selling most of them but I imagine I'll keep 100plus. I've sold about 300 so far and there have only been a handful that have been tough to actually put in an envelope. But I've got a new iPhone and I've done a bathroom renovation from the cash.

Wait, so from 300 CDs, you were able to buy a new iPhone and renovate your bathroom? What was your average selling price? Like $10 or so?

I need to get on this, I pretty much have burned all my CDs to my Mac, and the majority are in their at either 320 AAC, or ALAC. I can't really think of any reason to keep them. I do however still buy CDs b/c sometimes Amazon sells them cheaper than what the digital download is, so I get the hard copy, + I can burn it at a higher bit rate than their 256mp3.

[BurtReynolds]

I just had the option to buy mp3s for $10, or a cd plus the mp3s for the same price. I went for just the mp3s. I didn't want the carbon footprints of CDs or whatever.

[LetMeSleep]

There have been lots of rarities so I'm averaging over $5 plus adding a dollar to postage. Lots have gone for 0.99 but some have been 20+.

I'm also probably $200 short of the mentioned above but it's pretty close. And the bathroom stuff was a new shower screen/enclosure for about $700.

[Higgs]

I have started a big project to organise my digital music collection. I'm leaning heavily on Musicbrainz Picard to help me correctly tag all my stuff and grab album art so it sits in my Plex server nice and neat (Plex is a storage program that plays through Plexamp - an app on my phone).

I started last week and through trial and error have had mixed results but am getting there.

Last night I had a set back though as suddenly Plex decided to rename artists so I suddenly had 2,500 albums by The Ronettes!

I decided to nuke my library and re-import only the albums I'd already tagged and force Plex to only look at the tags I'd created (left unchecked it makes it's own decisions, kinda messing up the hard work I'm doing).

So far it's looking like a thing of beauty. Long way to go but I'm excited for the end result now.

This digital media tagging is a journey, I tell ya. In the end I hope to have my digital library pristine and perfect.

What a fucking dork I am...

[dad]

I have started a big project to organise my digital music collection. I'm leaning heavily on Musicbrainz Picard to help me correctly tag all my stuff and grab album art so it sits in my Plex server nice and neat (Plex is a storage program that plays through Plexamp - an app on my phone).

I started last week and through trial and error have had mixed results but am getting there.

Last night I had a set back though as suddenly Plex decided to rename artists so I suddenly had 2,500 albums by The Ronettes!

I decided to nuke my library and re-import only the albums I'd already tagged and force Plex to only look at the tags I'd created (left unchecked it makes it's own decisions, kinda messing up the hard work I'm doing).

So far it's looking like a thing of beauty. Long way to go but I'm excited for the end result now.

This digital media tagging is a journey, I tell ya. In the end I hope to have my digital library pristine and perfect.

What a fucking dork I am...

I love this.

[BurtReynolds]

I bought a CD for the first time in about 15 years! Don't know what I'm supposed to do with it. Mostly bought it for the art and to support the band (Protomen).

[LoathedVermin72]

I’m glad I’ve been maintaining the tags on all my files since high school. Still the only way I listen to music.

[B]

I've got so much digital stuff and have all but ignored it since getting a spotify account last year.

I do have 300 or so records, probably a similar number of CDs.