Who Still Buys Physical Formats (CD, DVD-A, BD, SACD, vinyl)?Music

[lbsf1]

99% of my music is Mp3 downloads however whenever I see a music store I always pop in to see if there is anything going very cheap. Even albums I already have downloaded I would buy if they were discounted if they have really nice artwork. This is just simply because its nice to have something you can actually hold, and they give nice decoration around the house.

 

[PeterJB]

I only own three CDs, everything else is digital.

 

[JV White]

To this day, I still buy CDs, DVDs, and even vynal records. Over the past few months I purchased several vynal records.

Same here. As long as there are interesting CD's or DVD's in a store shelves I will buy one.

 

[Anomaly]

Who here still buys physical formats? How come you still buy them? For me, I keep buying CD's because they sound better than digital downloads offered via iTunes or Amazon (even though those sound pretty decent).

Physical (music) formats.

I'm with you on the superior sound quality. I don't download at all because of the absolute crap quality. Also, I like having a complete package... The artwork, the liner notes, etc. Music has been turned into a throwaway commodity and relegated to background noise. Listening to an album (not just one song) used to be an experience. It no longer is, and music in general has suffered. That said, Vinyl offers the fullest, richest sound, but many things are simply not mastered correctly nowadays for that format. Any and all digital formats do not contain a full representation of the music on them. That is fact and in theory can never be corrected.

I only own three CDs, everything else is digital.

CDs are digital.

As for movies... I am a collector. I've long since switched from DVD to Blu-ray though.

 

[Kristus]

CD, LP & TAPE
Collection can be seen here:
http://www.metal-archives.com/collections/NokturnalFin

 

[Qvale]

I am beginning to collect CDs, mostly retro rap albums. There's just that certain satisfaction I get from physically owning it, ya know? I currently have 12, no intention of stopping.

 

[F1GTR]

Vinyl if it's from a band/artist I really like, FLAC/ALAC downloads for everything else.

 

[BKGlover]

If I find an album that has enough songs I like on it to be worth purchase, even if I have bought them on iTunes, I'll buy the CD. Generally these are greatest hits albums but whatever, Fleetwood Mac was the latest instance. One or two songs, download only.

 

[Mark T]

I still buy all my films and music on Blu Ray and CD, I hate the thought of downloading a years worth of media again when my device decides to fail and requires a format.

I don't buy any music when it's released, I usually pick the album up a year later at a car boot sale for £1. The amount of "as new" CD's at car boot sales is ridiculous. i assume people buy the album, rip it to their device and then sell the CD off a year later.

I don't like the thought of a future where I can't buy a physical copy of the media. Maybe when the UK has a very high speed fibre broadband service and streaming is the norm, I won't mind as much.

 

[Just1nn_]

I usually borrow CD's off friends or occasionally buy them. Only reason for that is because I prefer to rip them as Flac and WAV files. I don't think I'll ever touch an MP3 again. I mainly use WAV files now but yeah. If I do download then I prefer to download Flac's, but that's only if I can't get those albums/singles in store.

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

I still buy CDs so I have a physical copy should my laptop or hard drive screw up and I lose things, plus they always tend to be bought at rock bottom prices. I paid 51p for the Jay Z and Linkin Park album.

 

[MatskiMonk]

If I buy music I'll by the CD. I think I've only ever bought two tracks via download. I'll usually rip them to WAV also, but these days if I'm listening to my actual HiFi it's actually easier to put it in the CD player (actually it's an old Yamaha DVD-S1000, but I can't afford to buy a proper CD player at the moment!)

 

[R5]

Something so cold and clinical about downloads. I prefer the CDs and DVDs just because you get a few nice extras such as the blueprint art in Daft Punk's Random Access Memories and the McLaren store discount in RUSH.

 

[Anomaly]

Something so cold and clinical about downloads. I prefer the CDs and DVDs just because you get a few nice extras such as the blueprint art in Daft Punk's Random Access Memories and the McLaren store discount in RUSH.

Soundwise, any digital format could be described as cold or clinical compared to analog, which is much fuller/richer and warmer.

 

[Danoff]

I don't buy music in physical form, because I can't tell the difference in quality between something I rip and something I download. I would buy video as downloads as well but it's always compressed to hell. If someone wants to start selling the full 8gb DVD or 25gb BD file, I'd download it instead of ripping it. Until then I have to rip them.

I still buy all my films and music on Blu Ray and CD, I hate the thought of downloading a years worth of media again when my device decides to fail and requires a format.

I store my media rips and downloads on a redundant disk raid array as well as a single copy on a separate machine.

 

[R5]

Soundwise, any digital format could be described as cold or clinical compared to analog, which is much fuller/richer and warmer.

Yeah that is most definitely a part of it. But the other thing.

Even the act of going out to buy it on release day (I say no to preorders after my problems with my beloved Random Access Memories' preorder) and even just the fact I can play it in the Bronze Crap Wagon whereas I can't with a Download. It's simple stuff but it just adds a nice warmth to the experience.

 

[Danoff]

Soundwise, any digital format could be described as cold or clinical compared to analog, which is much fuller/richer and warmer.

If the original artist wanted more warmth in the song, it would be recorded that way in the master and show up in the digital form. The notion that analog might add warmth to me is a drawback - that warmth is not what the artist wanted, it's a distortion.

 

[Omnis]

Soundwise, any digital format could be described as cold or clinical compared to analog, which is much fuller/richer and warmer.

Uh, no. This is your experience coloring the music. You want to feel warm and fuzzy for using specific equipment and an antiquated novelty format.

Trust me, I've listened to things on tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. You only get as good as the master.

 

[BKGlover]

Something so cold and clinical about downloads. I prefer the CDs and DVDs just because you get a few nice extras such as the blueprint art in Daft Punk's Random Access Memories and the McLaren store discount in RUSH.

Most albums don't have special stuff like that, some are lucky to get more than two pages of credits between covers.

I but for the music, everthing else is an unintended bonus, and I'd probably buy more if albums had more than one or two songs out of 10-15 that I want to hear, You know, the biggest reason people dislike buying CDs.

 

[R5]

Most albums don't have special stuff like that, some are lucky to get more than two pages of credits between covers.

I but for the music, everthing else is an unintended bonus, and I'd probably buy more if albums had more than one or two songs out of 10-15 that I want to hear, You know, the biggest reason people dislike buying CDs.

The first point is fair enough, it's just a good surprise if they do.

The second. Because you only like 2 songs you don't buy albums, which is fair enough but it can't be used as an argument point because, well, it's opinion. Yeah sure people don't buy albums because of it but then they can select the digital download option on the poll. Some of us like many songs on a CD (take your 1-2 liked and change it to 1-2 disliked out of my example of Random Access Memories)

 

[Kristus]

The second. Because you only like 2 songs you don't buy albums, which is fair enough but it can't be used as an argument point because, well, it's opinion. Yeah sure people don't buy albums because of it but then they can select the digital download option on the poll. Some of us like many songs on a CD (take your 1-2 liked and change it to 1-2 disliked out of my example of Random Access Memories)

Well that would depend a bit on the musical style in question. Especially pop music is constructed around 1-2 hit songs and the rest is just pulled together to fill the album.

 

[Anomaly]

Uh, no. This is your experience coloring the music. You want to feel warm and fuzzy for using specific equipment and an antiquated novelty format.

Trust me, I've listened to things on tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. You only get as good as the master.

Obviously any recording is only as good as the master. However, digital, by it's very nature is missing pieces of the music because it is not continuously variable. This is not any experience coloring what I hear... It is the inherent technical limitations of digital recording. Digital simply cannot reproduce what was originally played, regardless of production. If the master was recorded digitally, it is already flawed.

 

[Sprite]

I've always bought a physical copy of something if I can. If I really like it I may even buy it and varying formats.

I just started buying vinyl again so I now own some stuffin three formats. FLAC, CD & Vinyl.

As for the format wars. To my ears vinyl can and does sound just as good as a CD. In some cases much better. @Omnis you're correct in stating if the master for the vinyl, cd, tape or digital file is created from is rubbish then the end product is rubbish. It's all starts with the master.

A vinyl record by its nature is analogue, so if the record is cut from a digital master then the vinyl will invariably have the same sound and attributes but also impose its own limitations and quirks too on the end result.

However if the original master is analogue in format, like the Beatles tapes they are using to cut the new Mono box set from, then it's an analogue to analogue transfer and you'll end up (if they don't mess it up) with a super close facsimile of what the artist intended.

What I've found with vinyl through my own experiments is it really lends itself to music with a high ratio of high frequencies like rock, jazz & classical. This down to the nature of vinyl holding more information about the sound and leaving a warmer tone. CD can sound too cold and hollow.

Not all digital formats are like this, take Bluray, DVD & SACD formats along with their downloadable counterparts and these can start to sound much better and in some cases to my ear better.

Then you have what your listening through, cheap phones to £100,000+ systems and yes of course a high spec HiFi will sound better technically but everyone has different levels of hearing and also different taste in how things sound. My dad lives for moody, dull, deep & booming sound hence why he has a pair of Lentek studio monitors back against the living room corners enhancing the depths of deep bass they produce, this in turn is colouring the music so play a record with deep bass in and you have a recipe for standing waves that nearly bring the house down to its foundations.

However this is not what I like, I love to hear the bass but instead of it drowning out everything else I like my music to have all the brilliance it was intended to have and a more neutral and informed sound. So my system is designed to sound this way.

The issue I have is, it's too revealing and shows up poor quality recordings, and rock CDs unless of a very high standard sound horrid and too open and lack bass. This trend extends to all music but I've found heavy rock CDs are the worst for it. I'm hoping once I have a new deck this will alter with vinyl editions as I've got some 1st pressings and these were cut from the original analogue tapes and are not reissues.

Vinyl is not a solution to CDs clinical and cold sound and it's not just a hipster past time, it has a real merit and depending on the pressing, master it was cut from and equipment you use for playback it can show up a CD.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Obviously any recording is only as good as the master. However, digital, by it's very nature is missing pieces of the music because it is not continuously variable. This is not any experience coloring what I hear... It is the inherent technical limitations of digital recording. Digital simply cannot reproduce what was originally played, regardless of production. If the master was recorded digitally, it is already flawed.

And most analog, by it's nature, includes things that weren't there in the original recording, or sometimes even the last time you played it, and the more and more times it's played, the less like the original it becomes.

I know what you are getting at, and if you prefer the sound of analog, that's great for you, but the implication that analog is automatically better, I don't agree with at all.

I know what you mean by warmer, and as a descriptive term I don't have so much of problem with that. I would say a Marantz CD-63 MkII KI Signature* edition sounded warmer than a Yamaha CDX-393, that doesn't mean the Marantz is overly coloured/distorted, anymore than it means the Yamaha is overly harsh/distorted. All things are relative... rarely do we get the opportunity to compare a home Hi-Fi reproduction to what came out of the mixer at the studio.

*sigh, back in the good old days

 

[Sprite]

@MatskiMonk you're spot on unfortunately analogue by its nature with deteriorate over time and needs a lot of careful looking after if you want to preserve that "first pressed" quality. CD as it was designed will last a long time with minimal looking after and the recording will sound the same with no deterioration.

Plus different HiFi components will reproduce recordings with varying sound alterations, but there is nothing to say what is bad or good, like you say, unless you at the mixer listening to the original master as it was created and comparing what you hear, you'll never know what kind of an effect your HiFi is having on the sound.

Sound is so subjective nobody is incorrect.

 

[Omnis]

Obviously any recording is only as good as the master. However, digital, by it's very nature is missing pieces of the music because it is not continuously variable. This is not any experience coloring what I hear... It is the inherent technical limitations of digital recording. Digital simply cannot reproduce what was originally played, regardless of production. If the master was recorded digitally, it is already flawed.

Said flaws are already beyond human perception. Beyond a point, anything else is psychological.

 

[R5]

Well that would depend a bit on the musical style in question. Especially pop music is constructed around 1-2 hit songs and the rest is just pulled together to fill the album.

Yes, but in that case I'd simply download them. I'm saying I buy albums but I also do download stuff too.

On the subject of DVDs: My example will be RUSH. Doesn't come with special art or anything but does have useful stuff like subtitles (I used it to revise French) and extras such as deleted scenes which are interesting.

Ditto with SENNA and the "lost" radio interview.

 

[Turtle]

Trust me, I've listened to things on tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. You only get as good as the master.

Wow, is that the Orpheus?

 

[Omnis]

Wow, is that the Orpheus?

Yeah. Went to a meet in Miami with all the top equipment available at the time. Most of it was brought up by a banker from the Caymans. I distinctly remember listening to vinyl and some of my CDs through K701s and MDR-R10s. I could not discern a difference until the owner of the Sonys plugged me into his ridiculous rig with some exotic disc format. Maybe xrcd... Can't remember.

 

[Turtle]

Yeah. Went to a meet in Miami with all the top equipment available at the time. Most of it was brought up by a banker from the Caymans. I distinctly remember listening to vinyl and some of my CDs through K701s and MDR-R10s. I could not discern a difference until the owner of the Sonys plugged me into his ridiculous rig with some exotic disc format. Maybe xrcd... Can't remember.

Lucky, I'd love to go to a meet but I never get the chance. Maybe in the future. Probably for the best though, because I'd probably go out and just blow what little money I have on headphone equipment.

I've never heard of XRCD before, looks like it's even less known than SACD.