I collect Jazz and very early Blues CDs, then import them onto my computer (in lossless format) and listen to them off that. I'm not sure which poll option to choose as I do get all my music from CDs, but after I import them I file them away and never really use them again.
I would consider myself a semi-audiophile: I've got a pretty amazing set of stereo speakers (with a budget amplifier, but I plan on replacing it as soon as I can) and I find badly compressed digital music increasingly easy to notice and increasingly annoying. Having said that I wouldn't really consider ever using vinyl, and most of the audiophile jargon goes straight over my head. I also compress my music to 320kbps to fit it all on my iPod and I can't really tell the difference from the lossless files.
I do obsess quite a bit over my CD collection, I've currently got 1060 CDs, though most are in multi-disc box sets. I've got a database with them all listed, as well as session info for the vast majority of it through the Tom Lord Jazz Discography (the Blues CDs aren't listed on there obviously).
I also rearrange my albums on my computer, e.g. for Louis Armstrong I've arranged all his master recordings from 1923-1949 (taken from several different box sets) in chronological order and broken them into albums (LA01 1923, LA12 1932-1933 etc.), then done the same for live recordings and alternates/outtakes. I've also got lots of his stuff from after 1949 but as my collection gets less complete there I label the albums differently, e.g. 1955 Satch Plays Fats, or 1960 Louis Armstrong And The Dukes Of Dixieland. I do it this way so that it's easier to add more as I get it, and I put the year before the album title so that it's easier to order by date.
It's pretty much been my main special interest for a few years now.
02 Aug 2013, 4:22 am
