Best Ever Albums

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

Graeme2 — Sat, 1 Jul 2017 15:50:04 GMT

Author: Graeme2

Posted: 07/01/2017 19:50

I'm buying lots of vinyl though 🤣 The best thing with vinyl for me, always has, is going to the charity/thrift or car boot sale store and scoring a gem for peanuts after taking a punt. Or finding something you know is great for next to nowt. Mind you I suppose this is possible to some extent with cd.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

RoundTheBend — Sat, 1 Jul 2017 15:37:27 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 07/01/2017 19:37

Jimmy Dread wrote:

I have no idea why I started collecting vinyl again - likely a combination of the wife buying me a new turntable, years of not spending a penny on music (and suddenly having the expendable income to do so) and midlife crisis. It started about 3 years ago and my original intention was to collect my Overall chart on the black stuff, but thanks to a house move giving me more space and getting as much satisfaction in shifting on old crap as finding a previously hard-to-find gem it's become something of an obsession in the last couple of years.

I am a geek and do look on some of the stuff I collect as an investment, and maintain a chart of my most valuable stuff just as a point of reference to myself if nothing else. I've got about as many CDs as I have records (about 1000 of each) but just don't give CDs a spin anymore - in fact they're all sat in my garage waiting for me to go through to decide what to do with them. As I'm lucky enough to work from home as well as on the road my records get plenty of playtime, and I'm not overly anal about keeping all bar the most valuable ones in pristine nick, although they all get cleaned before a play (likely because I buy 80%-20% second hand to new). My most collectible/loved LPs are kept in flight cases which in the event of a fire would be the first things I've grabbed after my wife and son.

If there's one specific genre/label I collect it's probably no surprise to regular readers that I'm obsessive about Studio One. I've only got about 40 or so LPs of theirs but every time I see one I tend to buy it, more often than not because they're not going to repressed anytime soon and tend to hold their value pretty well. So yeah, I buy music not just to enjoy listening to it, but also as a nest egg and a legacy to my lad. Would I sell it? Possibly - but I'd be in no hurry to. I just wish I had more like-minded friends who I could invite over to show it all off to...

This is pretty cool mate.

Reminds me a bit of where I'm at, albeit a bit different.

I had a record player my whole life. It was my parents and they stopped using it, so I just "took" it. I've had it in my domicile since I was about 15 (1999). BUT... buying vinyl was pretty few and far between. New vinyl was expensive, even back then. It was by and large cheaper to buy the CD (so memory serves, and of course there exceptions). So then I move to Los Angeles when I'm 16 and discover Ameoba Music in the year 2000. That place was a mecca for vinyl that was used, cheap, and the new vinyl movement hadn't destroyed it yet. I went from using my parents vinyl/buying maybe a new record once a year, to buying the whole 1980s discography of U2, a few R.E.M. records, Beatles, etc. Then I become a monk for 2 years 2004-2006, and leave all that behind. Then I come back and MP3 really takes off and I get an iPod and play my records less and less. But then as I said, the thrill of having 3279374 records on my ipod wore off when trying to manage all that data - it just became tedious when I got a new computer/ipod/phone. So I stopped doing that and started doing Spotify. Spotify has been a blessing and a curse. It's fantastic for obvious reasons, but having so much music at your finger tips really does devalue the experience - so I started collecting again... and unfortunately not scoring as much used - so I'm being an idiot and buying it new... mostly because of convenience.

I mean this is more or less the story - with some variants if I stop and think about it more.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

AfterHours — Sat, 1 Jul 2017 15:15:54 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 07/01/2017 19:15

Back in the day I bought lots of CDs and in some cases I still do pick one up here and there, but these days I tend to roll with Spotify, or if I can't find it there, other music sites.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

bobbyb5 — Sat, 1 Jul 2017 15:15:47 GMT

Author: bobbyb5

Posted: 07/01/2017 19:15

Graeme2 wrote:

I'm seriously falling out of love with CDs. I still buy the odd one but it's a trickle now compared to what it was. they just take up too much space, I can't find what I want half the time and after 15mins of looking I end up playing it on spotify. Keep hold of them though for the cd renaissance in 2030.

Me too. I'm getting over cds. Up until this year I was the kind of person who had to own the physical copy of everything. It just wasn't good enough having it on Spotify or even downloaded. Now I really don't care if I actually own the physical copy. Plus, I hate lugging all that stuff around every time you move. Especially vinyl. It's just too fucking heavy to fuck with every time u move. That's why every time i move, i get rid of some of it. Just to lighten the load.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

RoundTheBend — Sat, 1 Jul 2017 15:01:36 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 07/01/2017 19:01

Graeme2 wrote:

🤣

Yup.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

Graeme2 — Sat, 1 Jul 2017 14:46:43 GMT

Author: Graeme2

Posted: 07/01/2017 18:46

I'm seriously falling out of love with CDs. I still buy the odd one but it's a trickle now compared to what it was. they just take up too much space, I can't find what I want half the time and after 15mins of looking I end up playing it on spotify. Keep hold of them though for the cd renaissance in 2030.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

Repo — Sat, 1 Jul 2017 13:46:56 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 07/01/2017 17:46

Jimmy Dread wrote:

Tilly wrote:

Hey Jimmy,

If you're really thinking about tossing out those cds, I'd love to take them off your hands. 😁

Seriously. I lost my entire cd collection - easily a couple thousand (maybe more) - to a flood because my ex decided to store them in the basement )without a sub-pump!) while I was in Malaysia a couple of years ago and I miss those fuckers. I had it all organized by genre, and my cd towers were beautiful. I'd just gaze at it for hours.

Anyways, I LOVE all the stuff you love (can't think of anything that u like that I don't like too) so it'd b a pretty easy match.

so if you're really thinking about it... 😉

Peace, brother. And next time I'm in England, I'll totally stop by so we can both geek out over your collection. lol.

Jeff

ps. How do u store your photos online so that u can upload them to the site. this is obviously open to anyone out there. I'm a technological/social media idiot. lol.

You got it pal 😄

I use something called Photobucket - it's an app for your phone. Take the picture on your phone, upload it to Photobucket and it gives you a weblink which you then use in a forum post. There's probably some easier way of doing it but I still use chalk.

Thanks! will check it out.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

Jimmy Dread — Sat, 1 Jul 2017 13:19:25 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 07/01/2017 17:19

Tilly wrote:

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

Repo — Sat, 1 Jul 2017 13:04:14 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 07/01/2017 17:04

And to answer the question, I LOVE the ritual of collecting and listening to vinyl so that. But now I'm priced out due to hipsters that don't even have turntables. lol.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

Repo — Sat, 1 Jul 2017 12:55:09 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 07/01/2017 16:55

Jimmy Dread wrote:

I have no idea why I started collecting vinyl again - likely a combination of the wife buying me a new turntable, years of not spending a penny on music (and suddenly having the expendable income to do so) and midlife crisis. It started about 3 years ago and my original intention was to collect my Overall chart on the black stuff, but thanks to a house move giving me more space and getting as much satisfaction in shifting on old crap as finding a previously hard-to-find gem it's become something of an obsession in the last couple of years.

I am a geek and do look on some of the stuff I collect as an investment, and maintain a chart of my most valuable stuff just as a point of reference to myself if nothing else. I've got about as many CDs as I have records (about 1000 of each) but just don't give CDs a spin anymore - in fact they're all sat in my garage waiting for me to go through to decide what to do with them. As I'm lucky enough to work from home as well as on the road my records get plenty of playtime, and I'm not overly anal about keeping all but the most valuable ones in pristine nick - these are in flight cases which in the event of a fire would be the first things I've grabbed after my wife and son.

If there's one specific genre/label I collect it's probably no surprise to regular readers that I'm obsessive about Studio One. I've only got about 40 or so LPs of theirs but every time I see one I tend to buy it, more often than not because they're not going to repressed anytime soon and tend to hold their value pretty well. So yeah, I buy music not just to enjoy listening to it, but also as a nest egg and a legacy to my lad. Would I sell it? Possibly - but I'd be in no hurry to. I just wish I had more like-minded friends who I could invite over to show it all off to...

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

Jimmy Dread — Sat, 1 Jul 2017 12:46:05 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 07/01/2017 16:46

I have no idea why I started collecting vinyl again - likely a combination of the wife buying me a new turntable, years of not spending a penny on music (and suddenly having the expendable income to do so) and midlife crisis. It started about 3 years ago and my original intention was to collect my Overall chart on the black stuff, but thanks to a house move giving me more space and getting as much satisfaction in shifting on old crap as finding a previously hard-to-find gem it's become something of an obsession in the last couple of years.

I am a geek and do look on some of the stuff I collect as an investment, and maintain a chart of my most valuable stuff just as a point of reference to myself if nothing else. I've got about as many CDs as I have records (about 1000 of each) but just don't give CDs a spin anymore - in fact they're all sat in my garage waiting for me to go through to decide what to do with them. As I'm lucky enough to work from home as well as on the road my records get plenty of playtime, and I'm not overly anal about keeping all bar the most valuable ones in pristine nick, although they all get cleaned before a play (likely because I buy 80%-20% second hand to new). My most collectible/loved LPs are kept in flight cases which in the event of a fire would be the first things I've grabbed after my wife and son.

If there's one specific genre/label I collect it's probably no surprise to regular readers that I'm obsessive about Studio One. I've only got about 40 or so LPs of theirs but every time I see one I tend to buy it, more often than not because they're not going to repressed anytime soon and tend to hold their value pretty well. So yeah, I buy music not just to enjoy listening to it, but also as a nest egg and a legacy to my lad. Would I sell it? Possibly - but I'd be in no hurry to. I just wish I had more like-minded friends who I could invite over to show it all off to...

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

RoundTheBend — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 13:37:00 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 06/30/2017 17:37

bobbyb5 wrote:

I cant believe nobody else here likes to collect weird shit, like picture discs and colored vinyl and old 8- track tapes. I thought for sure some of u folks would be into it. I guess I'm weirder than i thought.

For me it is about what Keith is saying above- mostly ease of use.

Digital became difficult for me to manage. Probably better way to do so, but I gave up.

Vinyl makes it manageable strictly based on the fact that most people don't own 947945794 vinyl.

Colored stuff - eh it's cool when it is like that, but I care more about the content than the color of the vinyl.

I did have a friend who collected just weird vinyl covers and the such - not very seriously though. Like maybe 30 no name weird vinyl covers.

I suppose I sometimes splurge and get the special editions of stuff from time to time. U2 started off right with their special editions. Siamese Dream. Probably a couple others I'm forgetting that I still have on CD due to that.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

bobbyb5 — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 12:11:01 GMT

Author: bobbyb5

Posted: 06/30/2017 16:11

I cant believe nobody else here likes to collect weird shit, like picture discs and colored vinyl and old 8- track tapes. I thought for sure some of u folks would be into it. I guess I'm weirder than i thought.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 09:51:40 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/30/2017 13:51

I prefer digital. Easily transferable and easily duplicated, allowing ease of getting it, backing it up, spreading it across whatever devices you have, sharing it, etc. There's something kind of enjoyable about the coldness of digital, caused by taking out nearly all the negative and positive experiences typically associated with record finding and buying, in that it almost makes it more about the music (and/or the musician) than the format. And, for better or worse, we've seen the effects of the digital format on "musician" proliferation, an alleged disconnect among peers in a modern society (because everyone's wearing earbuds or sth), and how big everyone's musical libraries have gotten.

In practice, I take what I can get and if possible transfer it to digital, so I collect LPs, CDs, and cassettes too. Some labels issued only LPs that haven't seen a reissue of their original 500 pressed and it's damn hard to find a file; some labels issue CD only and don't deal in digital and, due to obscurity, their files are hard to find as well; some labels issue digital and cassette, but it costs as much to purchase the cassette and digital as it does digital, so I'll buy the cassettes and hand them off to a friend with a deck; sometimes you just want to support the musician, so you buy whatever physical stuff they offer (always straight from them). There's so many format combinations across the music I seem to be looking for that I have a small CD and LP collection too, and would have a cassette collection if I had a deck and cared.

Of the physical formats, my favorite is the LP and I think that's because (1) I saw that the cool kids were doing it and I have a couple of friends that like to get together and play sides for each other and (2) the process of discovering new music by shopping for LPs (e.g. by cover, or names on the sleeve, etc.) is probably the second best extra-musical experience I can think of in the world of music (after watching musicians perform). CDs even have the same thing going for them, but I think they suffer because of societal reasons (LPs are treasured over CDs typically, so a store is going to put more effort into its LP selection to increase sales or sth) and because, maybe related to the previous thing, is the presentation, which is spine up instead of cover up and out.

Long story short, I collect everything and prefer digital and LPs

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

RoundTheBend — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 01:26:29 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 06/30/2017 05:26

Hmmmm... I really don't know.

Depends on what year it is.

I really did like my CD collection, but with the advent of the MP3 player, I never looked at them and they just collected dust. So that's boring.

FLAC was fun for like 3 years. And then organizing of it became tedious.

This is when Spotify saved the day - they organize and manage the library, and I don't have to pirate music to have a taste.

Then finally vinyl. If I were to own all the albums I listened to while listening to Spotify, I'd likely need to structurally reinforce my house (I had a friend who literally had to do this because his vinyl collection was so massive).

But vinyl does have the appeal CDs had in the beginning of the 90s - something physical. Something with album art. Something you can actually physically collect. Plus vinyl had bigger pictures and something actually worth collecting. It has more class/impact than any other format. Tape and CD have nothing on it. Even when CD was wildly still used, vinyl had this magical quality. Something about music history and stuff.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

RoundTheBend — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 01:20:14 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 06/30/2017 05:20

Hayden wrote:

bobbyb5 wrote:

Right. Its not true about always having to replace the stylus. Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man. How the fuck could it be worn out by a fucking piece of PLASTIC ???

Personally, I always scratch my records with my diamond collection right before playing them. Gives the sound a different texture.

🤣

I finally got a joke.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

Hayden — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 16:56:45 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 06/29/2017 20:56

bobbyb5 wrote:

Right. Its not true about always having to replace the stylus. Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man. How the fuck could it be worn out by a fucking piece of PLASTIC ???

Personally, I always scratch my records with my diamond collection right before playing them. Gives the sound a different texture.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

bobbyb5 — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 16:50:58 GMT

Author: bobbyb5

Posted: 06/29/2017 20:50

Jimmy Dread wrote:

Unless you're using a stylus made out of concrete and have a tracking force akin to a small mammal sitting on top of your tone arm (or using one of those turntables in a suitcase people who shop in Urban Outfitters buy) this just isn't true, and a common misconception. The irony is that if you look after your records (play them with a diamond elliptical stylus, handle them carefully, manage the static, etc) they'll outlast your CDs, which as you've said will naturally degrade over time (think it's called Disc Rot or something equally imaginative). The only way LPs degrade is if they're played on rubbish equipment, cleaned with abrasive chemicals or poorly handled. I've played some records umpteen times without any noticeable degredation of sound whatsoever, as well as bought 40+ year old records that sound as fresh as the day they were pressed.

You are right about the cost of replacing a stylus - it ain't cheap - but then again you're talking in most cases after 500-1000 hours of play. That's a heck of a lot of spinning.

Right. Its not true about always having to replace the stylus. Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man. How the fuck could it be worn out by a fucking piece of PLASTIC ???

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

Jimmy Dread — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 16:38:35 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 06/29/2017 20:38

stangetzaway wrote:

Within 15 or so listens the sound is deterioating on lps and you have to replace the needle on the record player constantly which I imagine costs a bomb nowadays.

Re: What's your favorite music format to collect?

LordMark — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 16:12:10 GMT

Author: LordMark

Posted: 06/29/2017 20:12

I buy my stuff on iTunes. I like listening to music on my laptop when I'm at home and my iPod when I'm travelling, and I really don't have any space to put my CDs. I also like to create my own playlists for some albums, getting rid of some album tracks and replacing them with superior b-sides.