classical music source

I listen to classical music primarily from CD sources. The selection of music/performance on CD is enormous, the sound quality is pretty good--many older recordings are nicely remastered and new recordings are quite well recorded (unlike new pop/rock recordings which sound much worse than recordings from 30 to 60 years ago). My CDs have been burned to a server (all in WAV files) for convenience.

I am less enamoured with classical music on LPs--no newer recordings are released on LP, noise tends to be an issue because of the dynamic range of classical music, and I prefer the longer uniterrupted playing of digital material.

I have not paid much attention to high resolution downloads because of the limited selection and because so much of what is out there is of dubious quality (e.g., upsampled CDs being passed off as high-rez). I am waiting till these kinds of issues are sorted out.

With some classical labels, such as 1970's DG, original vinyl issues were pretty poor in terms of sound quality, but the label took advantage of the opportunity to remaster for digital and put out some pretty decent reissues. Other labels, such as EMI, are all over the map in terms of sound quality; some reissues of their great sounding vinyl releases sound like crap, while certain other reissues sound pretty good.

Certain reissue labels, such as Brilliant, make it easy to build a comprehensive collection of a particular composer's works (e.g., the massive complete works of J.S. Bach); one of my favorite Brilliant collections is the complete string quartets of Villa-Lobos (something I probably would not have even looked at, except that Brilliant put together a very cheap and easy to acquire collection). CD's have been such a boon to collectors of both older material as reissues, and to collectors of newer releases (It is far cheaper to make CDs and digital downloads than to press records; given how poorly classical sells these days, almost nothing could be economically released if vinyl were the only medium available).

Jetrexpro,

I agree that a lot of jazz sounds particularly good on vinyl. As for classical sound quality, both digital and analogue sources can sound very good, with digital having and advantage when it comes to noise (a MUCH bigger issue with classical than any other type of music because of the extremes of dynamics). Where digital has a huge advantage is with availability of content. I only have a few records that have not be reissued in digital form, and many hundreds of CDs that were never issued as vinyl recordings. Moreover, it is easier to find out-of-print CDs than it is to find most old vinyl, and finding vinyl in good condition adds to the difficulty in collecting in this medium.

I don't subscribe to any streaming services, but, I have been pleasantly surprised by the substantial classical catalogues of some of these services; this is a good way to browse for new music.

If one is talking about a kind of shootout for ultimate sound quality, then yes, the very best records that I have do indeed sound better than most, if not all of my digital classical music. But, these extraordinary records are relatively few in number in my collection. Also, a lot of the vinyl reissues of great sounding recordings are of warhorses that I really don't listen to that much. Many of the non-reissued records that sound good are quite difficult to find (e.g., records from the East German label NOVA). From a practical standpoint, aside from audio showcase recordings, digital recordings dominate the universe of decent sounding recordings that can be reasonably procured.

Hi Schuber,

I suppose it largely depends on what kind of records/music one wants to collect and the kind of money one wants to spend. If you are talking about searching for cheap used recordings souced locally, then yes, LPs are the way to go. In almost any city, one can find classical records selling for around $.50 to $1.00. This is a pretty cheap way to build a basic collection. Used CDs can also be found locally in most big cities, but, used CDs sell for a lot more. Of course both can be found on the internet, but, along with shipping cost and the inability to examine the records first, on-line shopping for LPs is not nearly as inexpensive and reliable as local shopping.

But, if one is looking for specific recordings or less common composers and repertoire, and one is willing to spend more, then CD might be the better alternative as far as availability.

As for sound quality, I think both CD and LP sound quality is so highly variable that I would not make any kind of generalization about which will sound better. Particularly when one is considering used records, the sound quality, in terms of noise and possible groove damage, makes it more likely that an average selection will sound not as good as an average used CD (although, as you suggest, LPs are cheap so that one can be happy keeping only a few out of a lot).