... and why?

As for me, I'm going back to vinyl. I recently purchased an inexpensive turntable after decades listening to CDs. Oh what I've missed. Wish I'd kept all those classical records I put on the sidewalk when I moved to Brooklyn. I'll have to build a new library and get a good turntable.

...

I “inherited” a Dual turntable (and other older components) from my brother-in-law. The Dual is hooked up but I haven’t tried using it yet. I still have some of my old vinyl. Otherwise the system sounds great with CDs.

A Dual was the last make I owned. I loved it, paired with my Denon amp and Ess speakers.

I--like everyone, has heard for years how digital is superior--and it may well be more 'accurate'--but I'm not convinced that's what pleases me ears. I find something in vinyl that's more 'live', or should I write, 'alive'?

We have both again. Our CD player/changer has been dead for over a year, and I recently inherited one from a friend. So I hooked it up and found that our receiver had also died (everything through it was distorted). I bought a cheap one (ready in 1 hour at Best Buy) and everything is groovy again!

Both CD and vinyl sound fine to our old ears. But the vinyl has to be flipped halfway through, and the CD changer can play five CDs before it needs attention. Also, the cat likes to jump up on the turntable (it’s closed), so there’s a risk of a record skipping…

The cool thing is that we’re listening to a lot of our old indie stuff you can’t find on Spotify. And music on the living room stereo equipment is so much nicer than through small Alexa devices room to room.

No vinyl here. No casettes, CDs, DVDS, or 8 tracks either. The players died years ago.

It’s all streaming now. Amazon Music, YouTube, AccuRadio, iTunes, Audible. Netflix, et.al. My music collection is larger than any I could ever hope to buy and it fits in my pocket. My video collection costs less per view than any DVD I ever purchased and a lot of it is free. We never watch a movie twice so that works out well.

Changes in technology have music sounding better than it ever did before using smaller and smaller components. The little Bluetooth speaker I got for Christmas is remarkably good and weighs about two pounds. The larger ones sound even better and you can’t beat the portability.

I’m probably paying a price in terms of fidelity but to me the convenience is worth it.

Vinyl!

I started re-assembling a collection in 2017. I had a couple of albums including one that my piano teacher released in the 1970s, one by Mike Oldfield (Airborn) and Pink Floyd's Ummagumma.

I had an old Realistic Linear Tracking Turntable and used it for a while with an older Technics Receiver that had a phono input. Used a pair of old JBL and "White Van" speakers I had purchased back in the 1980s.

Went through 3 turntables including the above mentioned Realistic, a vintage Technics SL-1200 MK5 a Schiit SOL, and 3D printed another one just for kicks, before I obtained one of my dream turntables earlier this year. A VPI Classic.



You might remember that a few years ago I built a new stereo preamp and amp combo in kit for from a company called AkitikA. That was a lot of fun and I learned a lot during the build.

I still have a Sony 50 CD changer and two streaming boxes and two DACs for digital playback along with a subscription to Amazon Music, An family account on Spotify and a trial subscription for Roon and Qobuz. Yet I listen to Vinyl 99% of the time. I just like the whole experience so much better not to mention the sound quality, which to me is a richer, warmer and more enveloping sound experience.

If you want any advice or information feel free to send a DM.

I'm in Steve's camp - we stream all our music. I'm actually even trying to figure out a way to load our CDs easily so we can listen to them, since our CD player isn't even plugged in to anything at the moment.

Highly annoying when iTunes was yanked, since I had several irreplaceable albums loaded there.

My ears/tinnitis mean that I really can't discern much difference between CD and vinyl any longer-- and I'm hesitant to use headphones much because I worry that it will make my tinnitis even worse.

Ha! I had no idea iTunes was gone. Sure enough I don’t have the app on my phone any more. Shows how often I listen to the albums I stored there, but still…

Turns out my music is all still stored on the phone, though. I can get to it via Amazon Music even when the phone is in airplane mode. Looks like Apple Music can get to it as well but I haven’t tried it. I had planned on dropping Amazon music in favor of YouTube premium but now I’m not so sure.

Time to find a workaround.

Lenco turntable (Swiss made) circa 1974
Shure V-15 Type 4 cartridge
Marantz 2230 tuner/amp circa 1975
Marantz speakers--the big ones that sit on the floor.

It sounds like the musicians are right in the room with you.

tuner/amp was restored by a fantastic tech almost a year ago.
Speakers were reconed back in the '90s but have held up since because I keep the humidity stable for the piano.

I do have a CD player hitched up to this system and I enjoy using it when I'm cleaning the house and want background music as the 6 disc player means I don't have to keep changing the record (or worry about the needle skipping if I'm moving furniture).

But if I'm listening closely I want vinyl.

Currently listening to the Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello performed by Jonas Starker circa 1966. This boxset is a recent remaster on 6, 180gram 45rpm LPs.

It sounds awesome. You can hear every nuance of the performance.

This was originally released on a 3 LP 33 1/3rpm boxset. My friend in Pennsylvania was gifted one in pristine condition. It is valued at over $400 and is pretty rare to find one, let alone in such condition.

quote:

Originally posted by markj:
Currently listening to the Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello performed by Jonas Starker circa 1966. This boxset is a recent remaster on 6, 180gram 45rpm LPs.

Wow, looks terrific! Somewhere among my LPs I have the violin partitas with Milstein. I should dig that out.

quote:

Currently listening to the Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello performed by Jonas Starker circa 1966. This boxset is a recent remaster on 6, 180gram 45rpm LPs.

-markj

Listening to Starker set me on my two years of driving and hour and half and back each week for dtwo years of cello lesson. I learned why the cello should be started at 6 not 60.
Starker was said to have the best left hand in the business. Starker taught my teacher's teacher.

I play Amazon Music and the Berlin Phil through my TV and good sound system via Roku.
Set up a desktop computer to send good signals from the web to the sound system and did not use it.
I have a small 10W Yamaha amplifier I sometimes use for an electric violin that does a good job of mimicking a tube amplifier. The sound is thin and shrill through a Roland amplifier. Wonder whether there is a receiver that does can mimic a tube amplifier.