CDs or Vinyl

Vinyl. When it comes to listening to music. This is your tube amp. Genuine and has feeling. Digital reproductions (cds and MP3) are solid state or emulators... they sound just fine UNTIL you have a tube amp.

1/4" reel to reel

This is a great metaphor. I suppose the daay I start getting into vinyl is when I'll already have some decent speakers. It'd be nice to have physical copies of the albums I love.

I think my first vinyl album will be The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place.

Speaking of, here are my CD's that I left in my car! The clutch burnt out, so I need to invest in a new car, which is why I took them out. My favourite is Kveikur with F#A#(Infinity) in very close second.

http://i.imgur.com/rUFPAEY.jpg

EDIT: Well, shit, now I want to start buying vinyl. Aaaand the temptations have already begun...

Records are the best, widely available option. They due come with their cons though.

The price to have a great, 3D setup of speakers, a high end needle, a high end arm, and a high end machine that runs with smooth gears is a costly adventure. The vinyls themselves are the cheapest part of the equation and usually are found for 25-75 bucks to the CD's 5-16 bucks.

I once listened to a few songs off of Metallica's deluxe 180 gr black album, "Faster, Louder, Heavier" on a $10,000 vinyl set-up, and it made my eyes tear up. It was so beautiful and deep. When Lars started off a song with his kick, the kick traveled towards your face and seemed like it was coming from a long hallway towards you. It sounded like each instrument came out of a different speaker. It left an impression on me.

Now, if you don't want to go all in for vinyl, I would suggest just staying with the rivers and the lakes that you're used to. I owned a lower quality record player and about 20 records, but I rarely listened to them because of the hassle as well as the lower quality gear I was using.