good question.

I can see the purpose for both. CD's are much cleaner sounding and more portable (obviously). The only thing I dislike about CD's is that most of the time the packaging is boring as hell and I don't use a CD player for anything, so whatever CD's I purchase get ripped into my library and put back on the shelf, hardly ever being touched again. I just don't feel the need to spend money on them.

Vinyl has more of a natural sound to it. A lot of older stuff, especially stuff that has never been properly mastered for compact disc (The Beatles, anyone?) and pretty much every jazz album ever just sounds eons better on vinyl than CD. Then there's stuff that's never been released on CD either, so throw that in the "pros" column. I also find bigger artwork to be more pleasing to the eye. I don't know what else to say. It's just a lot more "fun" to collect and listen to, I guess.

I say the best of both worlds are the old school original issue CDs which read
AAD

analog recording
analog mix
digital remastering

vinyl has a paradox, purer sound yet more distortion. the sound is more natural and pleasing to the ear, but the nature of the medium is limited, and can have a fuzzy or even distorted sound at higher volume, especially with even a little age. so for my part, I vote for analog recordings/analog mix digitally remastered onto CD.

Second-hand CDs. If they're good, they're nearly always fucked. If they're not good, the case will still be fucked.

Second-hand LPs. Tatty sleeve from time to time, but will usually play.

I buy a lot of vinyl from charity stores, but I can't think of a single CD I've got from same.

I wouldn't generally show a preference - I own more CDs by pragmatism - but CDs do not get as well looked after as LPs for me.

yes, but you must admit that the 2nd hand vinyl is not the crispest sound, it has the vintage vinyl pops and fuzz, which as a purist drives me bonkers! I can hear every subtle detail with the ear of the conductor of the damned philharmonic.. I prefer analog recordings, but they need to permanence of the digital format, analog format like vinyl and cassettes lose their quality too much over time..

while you won't buy a 2nd hand CD (though I do all the time from used record stores who resurface the discs to play perfectly) cuz it might be scratched, in this time it is MUCH easier to get a new CD that has been reissued or download the tune from the internet than to find it on new vinyl, and when it comes to vinyl for me it as to be new to have the least crackle and pop.. i'd be ten times more likely to enjoy a used disc than buy a used record.. I love the 'warmth' and natural sound of analog, but the inherent flaws of the medium urk me to no end..

for my part I say good riddence! The only place I want to hear vinyl is on the dancefloor at the reggae club, and even then I prefer live gigs..

I'm trying not to show a preference. I simply cannot be twatted with mp3s. I've got some, I deleted loads, but I never remember to listen to mp3s (and it's not like they're a new thing in my life). This isn't a qualitative gesture, it's merely an observation of my own life.

I still listen to the radio though. I'm listening to it right now. Fucking love the radio I does.

this is Los Angeles. I have few options but to loathe and despise the radio, aside from 88.1 KJAZZ.. the only station in this god-awful metropolis that plays decent music 24/7

WASH YOUR VINYL.

unless it is scratched, any hiss and pops you may hear on yr vinyl is due to dirt in the grooves. get a decent cleaning kit for under $25 and you can reduce this surface noise by as much as 90%. I buy old vinyl all the time and unless you clean it well, the dust and shit in the grooves will sound terrible.

I use dish soap, warm water, pure alcohol, and very soft artists brushes. I have a whole regimen where I scrub with the soap and warm water, from the faucet, wipe dry with a clean lint-free cloth, then go over them with the alcohol with another brush, wipe that clean, and they're good. I do this for anything used I buy and for anything I haven't played in years. Cleans them up so much they are virtually noise-free.

Also take good care of your stylus. Keep that clean, too.

It is 730 PM here and Xenakis is being broadcast nationwide. Britain definitely wins radio.

Dead-Air's earlier point about increasingly finding CDs too bulky is a good one I think. Most of the music I've sold over the years has been because of space rather than financial restrictions - and I'm now looking at my CDs with the same sense of resentment that I used to reserve for vinyl. It strikes me that people want the permanence of a 'hard' copy but increasingly can't sacrifice the space necessary to house them. It's exactly the same with books. This is especially true of people who live in small rooms, flats, apartments. In that sense I tend to think format choice is as much a lifestyle issue as it is a musical preference.

I'm getting rid of furniture to make room for my LPs in my new apartment. Seriously. Priorities, man!

all this work that you and Rob promote is too much work for the love of music.. I need to be able to put on my tunes with out too much bullshit.. at the end of the day, this why I converted to MP3 format years ago, and ripped all my discs into the computer, though until very recently I used mp3 Data discs on conventional cd players..

I have finally, out of sheer convenience, succumbed to the Ipod craze and now I can listen to any of my tunes, with the best audio quality, any time I want, though I must admit, it has taken all the fun out of browsing your albums to find what you want to listen to out of spontanaity

there is no browsing with ipod.

I love browsing.

plus the smell. I love the smell of records and books.

I could live in a tiny place as long as my books and records were there.

alas, this bastard has shrunk down my collection from a huge piles of discs to browse through, reminisce and pick out an album to some little shit in my pocket on a list that seems much much smaller than it did when it was a pile of discs.. even as mp3 data discs I had dozens to chose from..

haha. i remember seeing that ad in some magazine years ago. it's great.

and the whole thing of obsessive care of vinyl is kind of the point. Vinyl colectors nowawdays are archivists really, unlike people in the old days wh bought records and listened to them and treated them as shittily as people nowadays treat CD's. (playing them with an ancient crusty needle, stacking up 7" singles or records without their sleeves, throwing them around, etc.)

I treat my vinyl recordss like bits of archeology. I take great care with them, keep them from direct sun, no heat, no humidity. I never stack them, only have them on their sides on shelves. I woul do the same for old books, or artworks.
CD's however, I could care less, and a digital file that can get completely erased if you happen to walk by a powerful electromagnet? shiiiiiiiit.

i'm old school Rastafari..
discs in piles all around the place, find one on the floor, dust it off, through it in.. original needles in the record player, dust lining the tape deck.. in the end it was inevitable for me to switch to the Ipod, it is the only way my lazy ass could inevitably preserve the audio integrity of my music..

ironically I keep my converse in much better shape, shined up incessantly like a pair of two-tone spectators..

Rob, you are a man after me own heart. Ay, but ye already know that, doncha lad?