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

Forgive me, but this is absurd.

 

You forgot the smiley.

Or are you serious?

Regards,
Your friendly neighborhood geezer

 

Vinyl

By far

Cassettes were disposable. I used to buy them used for a couple bucks to play in the car.

CDs looked like something from Office Max. They have no soul.

 

Sometimes I wish things would’ve turned out differently. I haven’t purchased any vinyl in over 20 years because I no longer have a turntable. I actually sold off my considerable vinyl collection back in February. That wouldn’t have happened if I had the space. While I still get a bit of a thrill with my Cd purchases, it doesn’t compare to the excitement of buying a new album from whomever. I know the quality of vinyl has improved greatly, especially compared to what I was buying in the Seventies. However, the current market prices for vinyl have reached stratospheric levels and that alone would’ve priced me out if not completely, pretty close to it.

 

Tough to say. I loved tapes as a kid. It was so exciting to open it up and hear what's going to happen. I had one of those little fisher price cassette boom boxes and would blast it on there. I guess at that time any medium was fun, because I was just so excited to hear whatever it was on there. It could have been any format.

Pre Vinyl come back, CDs were just the next vehicle to get music! It felt so special to go to a store. Shop for hours just checking out the inventory. Between the ages of 10-18 this was just such a joy. It was a corporate place but loved going to Blockbuster music, listening to the TOP 20 headphones stations. They'd have a huge lit up picture of the album in your face, you'd stand there and listen to Green Day Dookie, or Pearl Jam Vitalogy. Nirvana In Utero. Or whatever it was. And then HAVE to make a decision because the CD's were like $18! New albums were so expensive. So I'd pick up 3 or 4 CDS walk around the store and just think for an hour which one I really wanted. Study all the artwork and kind of be freaked out. Some grunge rock/metal stuff was scary as a kid!

Once I got it home, it would just be all I did for the day. Unwrap the plastic. Read the liner notes and really try to listen to the whole thing unless I really hated something. I loved whatever smell new CDs had too. Liner notes would smell different depending on the material they used. I hated the fold out ones or the ones that would skimp. Like you open it up and there's 3 pages, 2 pictures and some boring information. The best ones would be like 7-10 pages, with lyrics, artwork on each page, tidbits about songs or inspiration. I learned so much.

With streaming, there's not much excitement in getting that new album anymore. It's just kind of there. Even when some anticipation for it comes out. The fact that it just comes to you kind of makes it less special. As amazing as it is. If you would have told my 12 year old self in Blockbuster music that "one day all this will be yours" I would have lost my mind if I could've wrapped my head around it all.

These days the special moments come in vinyl reissues of those albums I bought on CD as a kid and want to hear with a fresh coat of paint on them. Some of these remasters are so incredible. Like getting to see your favorite old movie back on the big screen, so you can really appreciate it again.

 

Thanks! I'm having lots of fun. There was actually a couple pre-recorded cassettes in the case - Steve Vai/Passion and Warfare, Nine Inch Nails/The Downward Spiral, and Offspring/Smash. They are all 25-ish years old and they all sound great.

The jam tapes (there's around 60-70 of them) all have varied quality depending on the jam, the room, and the device used. We experimented a lot. One of the things we did was put a piece of clear sticky tape over the little condenser mic on the boom box (if that's what we were using) and poke a couple little holes in it with a pin. It reduced the massive wall of sound hitting it and stopped that "muffled" kind of recording you'd get if the input was too much for it to handle. It worked reasonably well considering how low-tech it was of a solution.

As for your dilemma, I would definitely not buy a new, current one. Find a used one somewhere - yard sale, Kijiji, eBay etc. - you're bound to find something somewhere for $50 or even less.

 

I should've specified: zero sincere votes. Because these 15 votes just have to be troll votes, don't they?

How is it even possible that anyone would favour buying cassettes? Genuinely intrigued.

 

On the internet in today's world, people love echo chambers and some lash out at anything that threatens it.

I voted cassettes. The most fun I ever had buying music was during my childhood in the 1980s and the majority of those purchases were cassettes.

 

Never purchased an album on cassette in my life; during the whole era, the only ones I had were handed to me by either promotion people or picked up at work. Also, I used to buy cassettes by both the pack, and the case, because I made airchecks of shows every day, and that's not what you're looking for here at all. I did make mixtapes for cars and other uses, but never shopped by the music already on them.

CD shopping was easier to answer, because a lot of it happened when I was going to more record fairs and ordering specific titles online. In my LP days there was always variety, but spent a lot of time focusing on the cover art in the stores, trying to figure out if I could tell what the music would be like from the art design; and half my LP buying years there were no CD's in history at the time to compare it with.

So, I guess my answer for your poll would be...

 

I have to admit LPs, but I was much younger then, I'm older than that now. Nostalgia has something to do with it. CDs were fine too. It's just hunting for music really.

 

No distinction for me.
I prefer records and cd's, but new music is new music, and I did buy a couple of cassettes.
These days I get more joy when I get a 5.1 mix, but the joy only really enters into it when I have listened, and they actually mixed it to 5.1 well

 

LPs for me. Spent a good portion of my weekends in the 80s scouring the used record stores in Greenwich Village, NYC. Great times. The hunt was just as much fun as the listening.

Cassettes were for copying the LPs to tape for portability. Didn't like the quality of pre-recorded cassettes.

CDs... well this listening enjoyment is there, but I now buy them online. No fun in that until it reaches you door.

 

Well-said, such an accurate description. When strictly making the argument about visual/tactile superiority, CDs are so cold, bland and boring. "Office Max" with no soul, indeed.

 

I never had a negative feeling about any format. I used to enjoy buying cassettes in the era when they would come with bonus tracks and you could pop it straight into the Walkman after you'd left the store. Vinyl was a pain to smuggle past my parents but was pleasingly tactile. CDs were practical, could look great when designed and manufactured with a bit of love and effort and were particularly useful for longer programmes. Even downloads have an immediacy that takes me back to the Walkman days - especially on Bandcamp; pay the artist, click the button, unzip the file and boom, you're listening already.

A well-made anything will bring me joy. A sloppily made anything will not - dull CDs in plastic cases, hissy flimsy cassettes, a crackly 'novelty' vinyl.

 

Definitely shopping for and purchasing new LPs. Especially making the trek to Bleeker Bob's in NYC to get imports.

 

Honestly? I enjoy the listening much more than the buying.

 

LP’s by a longshot!

 

Also if you switch on "random" option on cd player, could be interesting. Also I did listened some albums backwards, it sounded great. You can't do that with vinyl and tapes. I like and have all three formats. And use all of them even today.

 

Well cassettes were good for car, party, or going to frend house with all others. You don't want carry around big vinyl LP or that drunk friends with nasty fingers touch vinyl. Also tapes were like pack of cigarettes in pocket in shirt. Very mobile. I had prerecorded tapes for parties, but later I wanted better sound, so I bought Sony and TDK chrom and metal tapes, and recorded from vinyl albums on them. Sometimes even compilation so friends can hear it what they never heard. And those tapes sound really good. Much better than pre recorded ones.

 

The only reason I chose CDs is because I was so excited to buy my very first ones when that new format came out. Pretty exhilarating!

 

After a few years of experimenting, I got into music big-time in 1980, aged 9, and had my first record player (an all-in-one unit that would be ridiculed by everyone on here if I could even remember what it was) for my 10th birthday in 1981. I loved albums from day one - they were the default condition. I loved CDs later too - I remember my Dad getting a CD player and I was blown away. I never stopped buying vinyl, but I bought a few hundred CDs from that point onwards.

Cassettes were awful. I never fell in love with tapes. Don't get me wrong, I bought plenty - my cheap Alba Walkman was my best-friend on the bus to and from school. I bought tapes and I taped my favourite albums. And I collected a mountain of bootleg live tapes too. But it was never a passion. I bought a tape if I was out and about and wanted to immediately listen to it on my walkman or - later - in the car. I wouldn't be averse to buying a tape deck again for nostalgia's sake, but I can happily live without one.

I loved CDs and I loved vinyl, but if I had to buy a favourite record on any format - it's always vinyl. My system has always been geared toward that, and I find the format aesthetically the best. I buy for fidelity too, though I admit that I'm no audiophile and I don't have golden ears. I'm a music fan, first and foremost. And I love my records.

 

Albums

Young whipper snapper in the late 60`s. Albums were very expensive for me. I did`t know jack about the artists. Hard to find reviews of what to buy. Each Album was big and beautiful. Great aet. Sometimes great liner notes, often not. The record inner sleves had pictures of Albums I never knew existed.

Later on, i had a clue about the artists and albums. Something was magical about being a babe in the woods.

 

I was born in 1975. By the time I got started getting into music in the mid-80's, it was mostly cassettes and cds for me. (My dad was a bit of a techie, and he bought one of the earliest commercial cd players, around 82/83. We were also a laserdisc and Betamax family, lol.)

So most of my childhood music purchases were either cd or cassette. I somewhat regret missing out on original vinyl era, but I was born at the wrong time, I guess. (I had a handful of records, but very very few.)

Even though vinyl is "back" as a niche item, I still haven't joined the bandwagon. I don't even own a record player. Most of my music consumption now is from streaming or pulling out my old cds. I'm fine with it.

 

LP and 45 RPM the best. I remember when pre-recorded tapes were much more expensive, discounted little or even none, LP and 45 could be had affordably. I bought more blank tapes than pre-recorded even when the price was the same. CD until recently was so expensive, they were not that much fun. Now they're nice to buy, and fun, more so than when they were the main media.

 

LPs, hands down #1 in pleasurable and enjoying.
Everything about it...
From finding / discovering record stores in whatever area I am in, to flipping through the merchandise, to the 'thrill of the hunt'.
That buzz you would get when you walked in and saw the latest LPs up on display ( as well as the one YOU were looking for )!
The excitement of taking that LP home, peeling off the shrink wrap ( or not...cough!), and that FIRST play through.
Hearing songs you did not get to hear on the radio, along with ones you already knew and likely bought the album for to begin with.
Yes, nothing compares to buying LPs.

Cassettes would be #2, only becuase I love cassettes and have too many of them ( like LPs!)
Back in the day however when they were 'new' in the early /mid 80s they were not that pleasurable to shop for.
Cassettes back then were displayed on walls and encased in (what seemed to be ) three inch thick bullet proof plexiglass to prevent shoplifting.
You couldn't see the covers, you couldn't see the track list...you shopped 'blind'.
To buy a cassette back then, you had to ask a employee to remove it from the case like a pack of cigarettes.
Or, you had to poke your fingers through a few purposely drilled small holes in said peri glass and try to drop the tape down onto a conveyer belt.
That belt carried your tape up behind where the shops' check out counter was...where you could then purchase the cassette.
So in short, it was a major hassle back then to buy tapes!

I hated CDs with a passion when they were first rolled out...and hated them even more when the music industry pushed them hard in the late 80s to replace LPs.
Ticked me off to no end...and I still don't care for them.
I have very few CDs, and the first thing I would do when I would buy one was copy it to cassette tape.
The CD was rarely played again, but the tape was played many times.
I'm just not a 'digital' kinda gal.

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