Make Controversial Comparisons!

[The Dark One™]

Democrats = Republicans

[HomeStarRunnerTron]

Father of the Bride (1990s remake) > Father of the Bride (1950s original version)

WHY?!

Frank >>> Snobby British Caterer

Also, the entire 90s cast > the 50s cast. Besides Billie Burke. Gotta love Glinda!

[Bonkava!]

digital downloads < CDs or vinyl

Second.

[The Sneak]

digital downloads < CDs or vinyl

Well, duh

[Revan/anakinjmt]

Well, duh

Can't agree with that. Unless it's a soundtrack disc, I'll just get it from iTunes. That way, I'm not spending $20 for the one song I want.

[Sonic the Werewolf.]

The way I see it, CDs and vinyl > digital downloads because the quality is always better, and if your computer crashes, you don't lose the songs that you actually have on physical discs. My computer sucks and used to constantly erase things and crash, which used to lead to me losing all of the songs I bought off of online music stores until I re-downloaded them.
That got annoying, so I just buy everything on discs now.

Anyway, I posted that to tell you this: Dream Theater > Tool.
Steely Dan > Jethro Tull

[Revan/anakinjmt]

The way I see it, CDs and vinyl > digital downloads because the quality is always better, and if your computer crashes, you don't lose the songs that you actually have on physical discs. My computer sucks and used to constantly erase things and crash, which used to lead to me losing all of the songs I bought off of online music stores until I re-downloaded them.
That got annoying, so I just buy everything on discs now.

Anyway, I posted that to tell you this: Dream Theater > Tool.
Steely Dan > Jethro Tull

Two very valid points. However, I save all my songs on my external, so that pretty much eliminates the risk of crashing for me, and at a time when I need to save money where I can, not having to buy the whole CD for one or two songs is worth it. And, I don't notice any difference in sound quality, just like I don't notice a difference between an MP3 and a WAV (in fact, WAV to me sounds worse for some reason, even though it's a better quality).

Oh, and fans > AC. I like to actually feel a breeze, which you don't always get with AC.

[Bonkava!]

Buying one song for 10-20 dollars and learning 5-15 other songs > buying one song for a dollar and still only knowing one song

[Burled Holiday Cabbage]

Eh hem...

"Getting" any song you ever want for free > whatever you guys are talking about.

[tape-leg]

You won't hear a difference in quality between what online stores sell and a CD on ordinary, relatively cheap equipment.

And if you're someone who's mainly interested in singles, the answer for you is obvious, but for people who listen to full albums, the advantages of owning the disc are there.

[Revan/anakinjmt]

You won't hear a difference in quality between what online stores sell and a CD on ordinary, relatively cheap equipment.

And if you're someone who's mainly interested in singles, the answer for you is obvious, but for people who listen to full albums, the advantages of owning the disc are there.

Yeah, see, there are very few times I like an entire album. Now, if I like most of an album, or I think I will (such as Weird Al), then I'll get the entire album. Although, even now I'm moving away from buying entire albums in a store and purchasing them via iTunes (I got the entire Dark Knight and Transformers score for $9.99).

And, what exactly would not constitute "ordinary, relatively cheap equipment"?

[Deputy Laser Action]

Man. Who knew his opinion would be so controversial.

[tape-leg]

To hear the difference between an AAC from iTunes and a lossless copy, you would probably need $100+ headphones capable of actually reproducing the details that the lower encode is missing.

When you get into higher bitrates, like 256 MP3, which I think is around what Amazon sells, you would probably need audiophile headphones or speakers (in the hundreds to thousands of dollars), a capable sound card, and a trained ear.  I don't know a lot about this, some say you can't hear a difference between a highest-quality VBR MP3 and lossless, while others swear you can and encode their music in FLAC.  I just know all this because I read the forums on a music torrent site with its fair share of audiophiles.

I have Grado SR60 headphones and I hear no difference between the 192kbps AACs I rip CDs to and the original CDs.  I was only trying to point out that you're not gonna hear a difference between "an MP3 and a WAV" on common computer speakers or headphones.

When I said "the advantages of owning the disc," I wasn't only talking about quality.  While I do prefer owning the full quality version, whether I can hear the difference or not, there's also the permanence of the CD, the ability to resell it, the cover/liner notes/packaging, and the collector's/enthusiast's pride of having it on your shelf.

[Bonkava!]

Liner Notes > Not Liner Notes

[Revan/anakinjmt]

To hear the difference between an AAC from iTunes and a lossless copy, you would probably need $100+ headphones capable of actually reproducing the details that the lower encode is missing.

When you get into higher bitrates, like 256 MP3, which I think is around what Amazon sells, you would probably need audiophile headphones or speakers (in the hundreds to thousands of dollars), a capable sound card, and a trained ear.  I don't know a lot about this, some say you can't hear a difference between a highest-quality VBR MP3 and lossless, while others swear you can and encode their music in FLAC.  I just know all this because I read the forums on a music torrent site with its fair share of audiophiles.

I have Grado SR60 headphones and I hear no difference between the 192kbps AACs I rip CDs to and the original CDs.  I was only trying to point out that you're not gonna hear a difference between "an MP3 and a WAV" on common computer speakers or headphones.

When I said "the advantages of owning the disc," I wasn't only talking about quality.  While I do prefer owning the full quality version, whether I can hear the difference or not, there's also the permanence of the CD, the ability to resell it, the cover/liner notes/packaging, and the collector's/enthusiast's pride of having it on your shelf.

Ah, I see. Quite interesting.