What's your go to: Vinyl, Reel to Reel, CD, Download or Streaming your music?

Ok, here's the Poll of all polls, of all polls, of all polls, of all polls..............

What is your # 1 listening pleasure, (and only 1 choice).

Myself, as much as I have a big sentiment for Vinyl, my #1 music listening is downloading through iTunes and have no regret selling off all my CDs, as I did with my Record collection when CDs came out.

I'm not ready for Streaming music, nor do I care for Cassettes or 8-Tracks anymore. Never owned or operated a Reel to Reel player.

Just curious what will be the most polled!

 

My main listening now is AIFF files ripped from cds. It ain't on the list.

 

I gave away a big LP collection in 1985, tossed my cassettes and 8-tracks, and started buying CDs.

I'm back into "vinyl" now in a small way but I have hundreds of recordings on CD only, so that's my go to most of the time.

 

Vinyl for me. No CD player and I'm in the process of selling off my collection. I do stream while commuting, driving, flying, or at work though.

 

Like timind.

Computer audio - CD's in FLAC, downloads, multichannel, vinyl rips, DSD all from personal music server.

Needs to be on the list, very common these days!

 

I started collecting CDs in high school in 1993. I've been buying them ever since and have well over a thousand. I am satisfied with the format and have too much invested in it to change now. Not to mention my ever expanding SACD collection!

 

DAP or NAS device filled with music files.

 

Tidal HiFi streaming just edges out CD for me, which in turn edges out LP, with FM next (Jazz 91.1 and Classical 96.3 in Toronto are superb stations), digital files after that and reel-to-reel in last place.

 

I listen to vinyl, sacds, blu ray audio, DVD audio, CDs and my lossless and hi res and needle drop collection on my PC.

Any given day it's different sometimes it's all of the above in a day. Sometimes I spin records for days sometimes I just let foobar2k do all the work or my oppo103. I don't stream but sometimes I'll watch tons of live performances on YouTube since I have a 50 inch LED in the music room.

 

Music server, and it's not on the list.

 

CDs. The actual listening is about 50% direct and 50% through lossless rips.

 

(e.g. iTunes) is just an example of downloading....

 

I get your point, but the term downloading means pulling something off the web which I have done for exactly three songs. At least that's how I see it.

 

My "go to" is determined by where I am, which is about evenly split between home and away from home. So, there is no one "go to" for me.

"None" would have been a useful option for the poll.

 

I see what your saying, and I've done the same. I was referring to downloading CDs to my iTunes.

 

You don't play music????

 

Vinyl is #1 for me, but I do listen to CD's & lossless CD rips from a server quite a bit.

Without question I also enjoy streaming as well (Apple Music) but vinyl remains #1 as per your criteria.

 

That's fine, but you left out the option (music file palyback) that several of us have as our go-to. Myself included.

I believe he meant that some have such a mixture of formats that they don't have a main format of choice.

 

Tough crowd!

 

Vinyl for me. I'm currently in the process of backing up all my vinyl to an SSD in case any get damaged, so I suppose digital also.

 

I mostly play my ripped CD collection...that's not the same thing as downloading.

 

Vinyl with a bullet is my preferred way of listening. I have a player for optical discs and hard drives full of downloaded/ripped music. The hard drive is number two and optical discs are third. Streaming is for music I don't already own.

 

90% of my listening is vinyl. 10% SACD/CD.

 

Best estimation.
95% vinyl
3% Reel To Reel
2% Other

 

Short version: I voted vinyl, but have a ton of CDs and some DVD-A also. Lots of cassettes in the garage unplayed for years (mostly mix tapes).

Long version: Lately my favorite vinyl has been going from my turntable, through a Rega Fono Mini that has USB-out to my Mac, where it gets digitized via Audacity. After I manually remove pops if any, I apply fade-out and fade-in to the spaces between tracks, split up the tracks and add the metadata (using the Comments field to identify the record label, catalog number, bar code if present, plus whatever is scratched into the vinyl runout). Then I save them twice: as AIFF 16-48, and as mp3-320. Then, into iTunes where I add the best hi-res cover art that I can find online via Google image search. Often, the cover art of the LP is available somewhere.

If I also have it on CD, I rip in both of those same formats, also capturing the metadata, album art, Label, catalog no, and enter the bar code and CD runout etc., then into iTunes as above. If it's on DVD-A, I use DVD Audio Extractor and save to AIFF in the same bit/sampling rates as are on the source, and add all the metadata etc.

This makes any of the above playable to any of several rooms via WiFi using iTunes and the Remote app on my phone or iPad. (handy for background or situations where the music is not the focus). When I listen actively and compare the vinyl with the same music in other formats, the vinyl usually wins (vs compression, loudness wars, etc).

Which means I go back to the room where the turntable and system are, and pull out the record anyway...

Also, some streaming - Jazz After Hours, which our local jazz station dropped recently. Classical KING FM Seattle app.

But I am ready to buy a NAS and proper music server software, if anyone has any suggestions...

Most of the above, I learned here, and finally, I donated to this site.