What did you enjoy more if you experienced all of them, buying new LPs, cassettes or cds?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by 80steen, Apr 20, 2022.

  1. sinistrail sentinel

    sinistrail sentinel Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I collected a bit of each, but it is my cassettes that I look back with the fondest nostalgia, particularly for the "look" of the format. More specifically the family of labels distributed by Warner Bros when they started to adopt clear shells in the mid-80's that ran through into the early 00's.

    I loved cracking open a new cassette, and unfolding the insert. A good one would have plenty of artwork and the lyrics as well. Even the smell of the fresh cassette also added to the experience (CDs and LPs do not have as strong an odor). It wasn't as easy to jump from song to song as a CD (or even LP), but I'd try and guess the length of an album based on the spool of tape through these shells.

    A random example below (a cassette I do not own). I liked the blue paper used to distinguish Reprise Records releases from the standard dark grey of most cassettes.

    [​IMG]

    The newer cassettes of today's revival have largely forgotten how to make the format visually appealing. Many have just blank paper inside, and those are from majors! I would not return to this format today though. CDs have been my format of choice for many years now, and many of those old cassettes I owned are now "upgraded" to those shiny discs.
     
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  2. MusicGuy5!

    MusicGuy5! Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sherman Tx
    I enjoy both CD and vinyl collecting. I have never bought a cassette before
     
  3. musicfan37

    musicfan37 Senior Member

    Nothing like going into Tower Records back in the 70s and gazing out over the sales floor at all the LP covers.
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2022
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  4. mightyquinn61

    mightyquinn61 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Australia
    For me the best part was copying my new records onto cassette. So I have many records that I only played once. I mainly played the tapes in my car.
     
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  5. Danswift

    Danswift Forum Resident

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Records, hands down.

    Especially in the days where you could still get hold of Northern Soul and Funk 45's without having to remortgage the damn house.

    You can include albums by Jazz musicians also for this ..again just being able to acquire the music in general and at realistic prices.

    There was a thread on here a few days ago where one of the members talked about how relieved he was that he'd amassed the majority his record collection decades ago and it's the same for myself and I'm sure loads of others on this forum.

    I wouldn't want to be in the process of starting a collection nowadays at all.

    I also love tapes,got a 1000 plus of them that I just cant part with but the vast majority were bought as blanks for recording purposes...theres probably less than 50 that were bought as pre-recorded cassettes.

    I still have this Jimi Hendrix tape I got when I was around 14 years old though..I'm actually amazed it's never snapped ,it still sounds pretty good too..:

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2022
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  6. mightyquinn61

    mightyquinn61 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Australia
    The pre-recorded tapes had Dolby noise reduction and I hated that. I bought the best blank tapes and turned noise reduction off.
     
  7. Allthingsmusic

    Allthingsmusic Forum Resident

    I would have to go with vinyl. As a kid in the 60's and 70's it was a ritual searching the racks at the local record store or the record department at a large retailer. The anticipation of choosing,buying,bringing the record home and unwrapping and putting it on the turntable were all part of the experience. All so deeply engrained in my memory to this day. One favorite activity was sitting in front of the turntable watching the record play and being aware of the exact spot where the music was coming from. It could also be very hypnotic!
    Not so much with cds.
     
  8. Front Row

    Front Row Finding pleasure when annoying those with OCD.

    Location:
    Chicago IL
    What I miss the most was the local LP/CD shop. (Some where also head shops too). Walking into a store, hearing new music and talking with someone that was knowledgeable and not arrogant could be such a pleasure. Scrolling through used bins with cheap prices and buying just on the look of a cover or knowing a favorite musician was in a different band was such a thrill. Especially when that guess turned into a treasured album. A virtual trip to Discgogs, Amazon or Ebay just doesn't arouse the same exuberance as a bike ride to a neighborhood music store and leaving with a brown paper bag of artistic treasures.
     
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  9. George Cooke

    George Cooke Well unknown member

    Location:
    Cumbria, UK
    Cassettes for me. They travelled with me and I was “wired for sound”.

    I joined Britannia Record Club and started to build up a reasonable collection.

    Nowadays I still do get pleasure from that format, but own most of my favourite tapes as CDs and, once again, Vinyl also.

    I still listen to minidisc as well.
     
  10. Jmetamatic

    Jmetamatic This is the end of our oxygen supply.

    Location:
    Glasgow, Scotland
    You're not wrong!
     
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  11. nodeerforamonth

    nodeerforamonth Consistently misunderstood

    Location:
    San Diego,CA USA
    CDs. Because they often came with extra tracks and/or bonuses
     
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  12. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    Though it has been some 36 years since I last bought an LP and overall 53 since I bought my first, those first LPs of discovery and adventure were certainly the most memorable. It's not that I am less excited by the music I bought since them but it was something specials flipping though those covers...
     
  13. 80steen

    80steen John McClane Thread Starter

    Location:
    West Virginia
    I almost mentioned that about cassettes but thought people would think I was weird
     
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  14. keef00

    keef00 Senior Member

    LPs and CDs equally for me. One high point was being in college in the mid-70s, discovering "college" record stores and the availability of LPs I had only read about before. Another LP high point happened around 1980, with my first apartment, a decent job, and the many record stores in Charlotte at the time. In the mid-90s it was CDs as the music industry peaked, there seemed to be a store on every corner, and that nearly everything ever recorded was available. Even the Media Play chain store had a room-sized import CD section.
     
  15. hyntsonsvmse

    hyntsonsvmse Nick Beal

    Location:
    northumberland
    I put CD's and Vinyl neck and neck. I like rarities. There are both to be had on both formats.
    Its a different world now in the UK as the vast majority of record shops have closed down. Markets have just about all gone and dealers etc have cottened on to rarities. Gone are the days when you could get 1st pressing for pennies.
    Covid has ended hight street shopping for me anyway.
    I just buy online now and thats boring but won't potentially end my life.
    I have always enjoyed rummaging and travelling around the UK for music.
    Vinyl and CD were neck and neck. Vinyl rummaging was about getting 1st pressings for next to nothing. CD's was about find rare underground prog, jazz, krautrock.
    And then I opened my own record and CD business specialising in underground UK prog and Krautrock.
     
  16. clip

    clip peDtaH 'ej chIS qo'

    Location:
    Australia
    I voted CDs. Although I haven’t bought a CD in many years, when CDs first came out they were fantastic. Cassettes were rubbish, always sounded horrible. But CDs sounded as good as an LP but they were small, you could take them anywhere, throw them around, spill drinks on them, run lines on them and they’d still bloody play sounding as good as when they were new. The most amazing and incredible technological advancement in audio ever! We don’t need them now, but at the time they were something out of the future that was mind boggling, and I bought them by the hundreds.
    So in answer to your question, buying CDs when they first came out definitely gave me more enjoyment. Now I revel in new vinyl, but the thrill of buying those first CDs has never diminished.
     
  17. Jmetamatic

    Jmetamatic This is the end of our oxygen supply.

    Location:
    Glasgow, Scotland
    I wanna buy the CDs you bought.
     
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  18. htbomb

    htbomb Hot Rod

    Location:
    FLA
    I voted LPs but CDs were a close second - used CDs that is.

    Back in the day I spent many hours browsing our local used CD store. Product was not sealed so you could look through the booklets, etc. Also there was little risk in exploring new artists and albums as you could always trade in if you didn't like it. Our store had lots of promos and imports, occasional gold discs, box sets and so much more. Uh-oh can I change my vote?!
     
  19. dalecooper

    dalecooper Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, GA
    CDs, and I'm still a fan.
     
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  20. Rich-n-Roll

    Rich-n-Roll Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington State
    I gave up on the vinyl thing when storage became a issue, so I switched CD's and have not looked back I like the convenience of Cd and the SQ is great I can still get the soundstage of vinyl from a Cd and not have the hiss of the record by buffering it through my tube preamp.
     
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  21. clip

    clip peDtaH 'ej chIS qo'

    Location:
    Australia
    They’re not made the same way now as they were were back then for sure :agree:
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2022
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  22. HfxBob

    HfxBob Forum Resident

    Weirdly enough it was 8-tracks. :p
     
  23. EliF

    EliF Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    In terms of buying, for me nothing compares to the tactile and visual experience of vinyl. This was as true for me in my teen years (early 70s) as it is today. I loved to pick up the album, examine the cover art, look at whatever text was visible, and, if used, to check the disk itself. CDs and cassettes never brought the same pleasure.

    One big difference today is that the internet and streaming music makes it very easy today to know exactly what you are buying. Back in the day, there was a bit of mystery when buying LPs . One may have heard some singles on the radio from an LP but often the rest was unknown or less known. So there was always that hope that the LP would live up to expectations - sometimes it did and sometimes not as much.
     
  24. mark_j

    mark_j Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I voted for LPs, but only because I hated opening new CD jewel cases that were sealed as if they needed to survive a trip to the ocean floor. Whatever tape they used should be repurposed for use in space.
     
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  25. HfxBob

    HfxBob Forum Resident

    For me, vinyl has always been way too easy to damage, especially by the needle used to play it.
     
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