What is your ideal audio format and why?

High rez PCM downloads. Instant gratification and superior sound. No need to wait for and rip a CD. :)

Really enjoying the 24/96 soundtrack from Rogue One.
 
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Over the past couple years I've been listening to CD's more and more. As a result, tuner and CD listening are about equal with LP's coming in a distant third. I don't perceive any of these three as ideal.
 
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Depends on my reason for listening. Sitting in a dark room to listen: LP or R2R playing a ripped LP
Working and want background music: 5 disc CD player on random play, iPod through garage system, cassette.
Driving: bluetooth headphones / iPod or wired connection / Sony Walkman.
 
Digital. Don't care as long as the recording is good I am happy with Redbook "resolution". Flac, high MP3, CD, I simply don't care. I will take FLAC if there is a choice.
Then tape. I love recording stuff to tape and then, in the proper setting, playing it back while watching the reels spin.

Then ... Well, Vinyl never got me. My dad taught me that the record player is for transfering records to tape, so I guess that stuck with me. :) I have several TT, 10 crates of records (70s 80s stuff) :)
 
The absolute best medium is a live FM broadcast via a well-engineered station and a tube tuner
True, the upper 5kHz is cutoff but the midrange quality compensates.

After good FM comes vinyl and hi-res digital.

Vinyl is great to dance too but otherwise you have to get up out of your comfy chair and change sides.
 
As far as what I listen to most:

1) 70% digital, streamed via Spotify or Youtube - while at work. Sounds plenty good to me when run through a decent DAC and system! Sometimes I want to play just a song or two here and there from various artists, or just turn on a playlist, and digital gets it done and sounds good.
2) 15% vinyl - if I have the time, this is actually usually my preferred method of listening, espeically when I want to hear an entire album. Can't beat vinyl for the entire "experience"...looking at the album artwork, reading liner notes, watching it spin...adds another level to the experience.
3) 7.5% - tube tuner, for listening to NPR talk radio or the occasional late-night listening session (Rust on the Dial, World Cafe, Cosmic American music show on WNCW, etc). I wish I used it more, it sounds so damn good!
4) 7.5% CD's - mostly in the car. At home, I usually stream unless what I want to hear is not availble (not often).
 
As far as what I listen to most:

1) 70% digital, streamed via Spotify or Youtube - while at work. Sounds plenty good to me when run through a decent DAC and system! Sometimes I want to play just a song or two here and there from various artists, or just turn on a playlist, and digital gets it done and sounds good.
2) 15% vinyl - if I have the time, this is actually usually my preferred method of listening, espeically when I want to hear an entire album. Can't beat vinyl for the entire "experience"...looking at the album artwork, reading liner notes, watching it spin...adds another level to the experience.
3) 7.5% - tube tuner, for listening to NPR talk radio or the occasional late-night listening session (Rust on the Dial, World Cafe, Cosmic American music show on WNCW, etc). I wish I used it more, it sounds so damn good!
4) 7.5% CD's - mostly in the car. At home, I usually stream unless what I want to hear is not availble (not often).
That sounds good Hawk. What DAC etc do you use to get it to your amp?
 
That sounds good Hawk. What DAC etc do you use to get it to your amp?

Nothing special or exotic by any means. Peachtree DAC-itX. Used for $175. I think it sounds great in my system though (see my signature, Office system).

As you can also see in my signature I have a Peachtree integrated amp/DAC in my living room system.

Can you do better than Peachtree? Probably. But Peachtree and Emotiva make up the bulk of my electronincs. Good bang for the buck.

With that said, I'd like to try a Schiit Multi-bit DAC and something a little higher end, someday. Not in the cards right now, my systems have hit a plateau where I'm likely to stay for awhile and just "enjoy the music" as they say! And it is sounding great these days, on all three systems!
 
First choice, vinyl, second choice open reel tape, third choice, cassettes, 4th choice FM, 5th choice Compact discs. The music I want mainly exists on analog media.
 
I think vinyl sounds best most of the time personally, but I listen to Apple Music the most due to the obvious convenience. Have the files downloaded to my iMac for airplay to my systems, streaming on my iPhone on the go. Want to try higher quality streaming, if there is anything and if it actually makes a difference. I own no CDs, don't think I ever will. Matter of fact my Sony Discman is the only CD player I ever owned, it's still like new it was used so little.
 
I like CD, think I always will. Streaming is a-ok too, but I do like "playing an album".

Me too. But for digital audio I'd prefer to completely get rid of (electro-)mechanical drives sooner or later in favour of some sort of solid-state memory. Hence my comment above that I'd nowadays really like to be able to buy albums on microSD-compatible ROM cards - of course non-copy-protected, so that the honest buyer has a chance to make as many working copies or back-ups (be that on regular flash cards, USB sticks, CD-Rs or whatever...) as he needs or would like to make.

I just fear the music industry doesn't care about what I'd like to buy... *sigh* ;)

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
Most listening from digital - via an iPad2 into a Schiit Mimby into my Spec system (pic in my avatar). Soooooooooooo convenient and have about 60 playlists.
CD's are second - love the convenience and prefer the sound slightly over digital.
Vinyl third...............love the whole process of cleaning and playing a side but it's not for long term listening as the "every 20 minute have to repeat the process" gets old....................
 
Me too. But for digital audio I'd prefer to completely get rid of (electro-)mechanical drives sooner or later in favour of some sort of solid-state memory. Hence my comment above that I'd nowadays really like to be able to buy albums on microSD-compatible ROM cards - of course non-copy-protected, so that the honest buyer has a chance to make as many working copies or back-ups (be that on regular flash cards, USB sticks, CD-Rs or whatever...) as he needs or would like to make.

I just fear the music industry doesn't care about what I'd like to buy... *sigh* ;)

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
I can really get with what you're saying. There doesn't seem to be much room for choice. I mean I'm a physical format kind of guy, it's part of the pleasure I get from stereo play -- flipping through a library of software in a case, on a wall or (in the case of smaller SD ROM) in a box. That artwork would be small! (Haha.)
I'd like to be able to stay in this stable.
For those who may leap, I am not at all resistant to computer library's or streaming.
 
Ds2k: The flipping through to me also is a relevant aspect. Another is that it's also a matter of principle: If I buy music on a medium, I buy an actual product, not (just) a license or a service - a product I can sell on anytime, if I don't like it (anymore), and which whoever will inherit my stuff one day can easily take possession of simply by phsycally grabbing it.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
LP when possible, the nearly ALWAYS represent the music in a more complete, relaxing, and satisfying way. hi res digital can be convincing and very close to analog but the recordings are more and the playback schemes aren't a turnkey operation.

SACD and DVDA qualify as hi res and like hi res files, are CLOSE to vinyl but not quite the equal.

you asked.
 
Digital

1. Streaming - almost always available, playlists, and what I like at the touch of a button or even just telling the digital assistant what I want to hear
2. SACD Hybrids - I like the SQ, but I also like multichannel when it is available.
3. DVD-A/DualDisc - same as above
4. CDs - I have ripped all of them, so I main stream them these days.

Vinyl is great when I am in the mood for playing it. I prefer streaming to everything else by a mile, though.
 
I've really got to rip more of my favorite vinyl and tapes. My entire CD collection has been ripped to FLAC. Yes, I've kept the original CD's.

The instant accessibility of files on a music server is a convenience that's hard to resist. Using some sort of external DAC IMO/E makes a positive audible difference from the internal DAC on laptops and many desktops.

FWIW: I use an external (Emotiva XDA-2) DAC with the laptop that's my "Music Server". It also works just fine streaming music from the web. I keep it adjacent to my "chair", consequently I don't need any sort of remote app to control. However, I did download the Android app for my tablet.
 
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