At one time I had about 5000 CDs and I sold them due to the fact that I had no room for them and most of them I didn't listen to at all. In the last few years I add a title to my collection only if it is really good and worthy of multiple listens and the enjoyment value is high. My current collection is less than 1000 for both CD and vinyl.
I've got a friend that has so many CDs, SACDs, LPS, etc. that even if he listened for 8 hours a day he would never repeat the same selection in more than 10 years. To me that just doesn't make sense but it makes him happy so I guess that is what counts.
How about everyone here? Do you add just to add or do you keep your collection, like me, to just the best of the best.
that statement blows me away. Please define regularly.
i will try to explain the best i can. sorry for the delay, i missed your question in December and just saw it this morning.
in my music barn i do have 10,000 Lps. of which 3000 are actually in my listening room with me which are all played from time to time. i listen to music 7 days a week, with weekends included likely averaging 3-4 hours per day. maybe 50%+ of the time it's Lps.
i have 1000+ 45rpm Lps, all in room, that are my most frequent played Lps. i'm a guy who 75% of the time will listen to one cut or one side of an Lp. if i am really into it i may listen to 15 to 20 or more different Lps in a day. other days 3 to 5.
there are box sets in room where not all Lps have been played.
i would guess that every one of the 3000 Lps in room have been listened to at least once in the last 2 and 1/2 years. most 3 or 4 times and some once a week. is that '3000 are played regularly'? i think so.
sometimes i'll just grab a hndfull of Lps from a spot on my shelf and play those....which gets me into more seldomely played Lps.
obviously, the roster of in-room Lps changes over time as some new ones enter and others leave for my 'B' shelf.
Added another 3,500 - 5,000+ classical & jazz albums to my collection, since my posting in September, from a record store closing down. Deal was too good to count them all, but the boxes have filled an 18ft garage floor. It includes some 10" Columbia classical EP's, 10" Jazz EP's & 78's, new & s/hand. Plus a couple of records a month from my subscriptions to the Jazz re-issues and about 30 SACD's & c.d. Also got around to getting a carpenter to build some floor to ceiling shelving in the listening room, which I'm using to store the new heavyweight vinyl and classic box sets.
When I bought my TW Akustic Raven One from Jeff at Highwater Sound last April, he had 28,0000 LPs,dont know how many CD's or SACDS! As for myself, 1000 LPs and around 500 CDs.--Mrmitch
I have app. 2000 cds..99% are live shows that I have traded for with traders from around the world.All the bands allow for recording and trading but no selling of their shows. Music is mostly european jazz,world, classic rock and jam bands and the quality is usually a/a-. Communication with the other traders makes it all fun.
My collection is only measured in the 100's. I have friends who easily have a collection in the 1000's or even 10'000's. I have a friend like you, whould could listen to music all day and not need to repeat an album for years.
About 2,000 LP's.All bought new starting back in the Mono days of the 1950's.Mostly jazz then on to rock in the late 60's and a mix of everything else since then.
That would be the great Japancakes from Athens, GA. Their first three albums are just fantastic. Cello, viola, pedal steel guitar, drums, bass and synth for most of the instrumentation.
12,000+ lps: mono, stereo, classical & jazz 45's. 600+ cd. Just starting out on sacd & bought an Wadia sacd player. I don't have an issue with space but I'm going to catalogue it all - one day!
3500 CD's, 800 SACD's, 40 DVD-A's, 10,000 Lps, 125 RTR tapes....and a music server.
music server with about 20 Hi-rez files, another 1500+ Cd's (from my CD collection) on the server. i do plan on expanding my hirez file collection.
10,000 Lps; of which about 3000 are played regularly, another 3000 'B' list are cleaned and cataloged, and when i'm in the mood i'll go thru the remaining 4000 and pull a few out to inspect and play from time to time.
i have about 100 50's and 60's RTR tapes in 1/4" 7 1/2 ips format. and i have about 25 15 ips 1/4" master dubs.....which are the stars of my software collection.
i don't own an MP3 or any other low-rez recording (my wife does use an i-pod in the house with some of my CD's in MP3 format.
i do have many hundreds of DVD's and about 150 Blue Ray movies (and approx 50 HD-DVD's). a good amount of those are music videos. those are all in the house in my HT.
overall; i find that since that my music focus and even my format focus seems to change over time; that some music that i did not connect with to begin with i'll come back to later and understand; or i'll get back into some of my music that i had forgotten about. i like to think i've evolved musically over the last 15-20 years of serious music collecting. i cannot imagine getting rid of music; it's too personal. i'm a gear-head for sure, but it's the music that matters.
in the last few years i've not been able to afford to add as much new music to my collection; and i've noticed how that makes it less fun. new music is the lifeblood of this hobby.
Glad to see I'm not the only one with the sickness. Been awhile since I did a total count but if my numbers are correct I'm pushing 10,000 cds. I still remember my first CD (in '84 I think) "Shot Gun Angel" by Daniel Amos. Currently I have just over 72,000 songs loaded on my music server and lots more to load. It would be great just to peak into all the great collections out there.
Thought I'd add a bit of additional info to my previous post:
About 90% classical; 10% rock and miscellaneous.
About 1/3 of the collection consists of either releases from audiophile-oriented smaller labels, or audiophile-oriented remasters of older releases from big labels, or releases from smaller labels which are otherwise known for their high quality. That 1/3 gets listened to the most :)
I have about 1000 CD's right now, including DVD-A and SACD.
I'm in the process of downloading as FLAC files, and am purchasing hi-rez music online. Eventually I plan on having the whole collection on hard drive, and only have certain CD's, like the upcoming King Crimson 'In the Court of the Crimson King' boxset as physical media.
Real estate for the collection is getting to be a hassle. Especially since my wife is a Marine, and we move a lot...
My CD collection is static and does not grow or change much. Occasionally something will come around that is new that I really want like the new Robin Trower or maybe the new Beatles box set; however, those instances are few. Most new CDs are either remasters that have superior sonic qualities or Best Of compilations from artist that I like enough to own a compilation but not a complete library.
Either way, I have just about every CD that I've ever wanted and several compilation CDs that bring back memories.
I've got 200 LPs from a few years ago when I got back into vinyl and purchased a turntable. The turntable, TT preamp, and vinyl gather dust and they may go by the wayside. Vinyl is so hard to maintain.
I've long ago thinned down my LP's to the essential and these are now more for occasional reference than anything else (my analogue system is in the closet just now). Haven't done this with digital recordings which were accumulated when my decisions were more (not a lot, just more and occasionally better) informed and selective in the first place. Most recordings are classical or jazz.
5000 +/- CD's 450 LP's
Buying has really slowed down over the past couple of years.
About 7000 LP's, 600 CD's, 1500 DVD's & around 50 SACD/DVDA. I purchase mostly vinyl as you can tell and I mainly collect Rock. I have started to collect some Jazz, Blues & Classical though and continue to purchase them as my taste in music changes. I feel if I wait as I did when I did not listen to the latter music at all I may not be able to afford them. I have noticed that more Jazz, Blues & Classical original and reissues releases go up in price more than Rock. Some as much as 10 times their original cost when they are out of print. Sending some cash now will save me lots later or make me lots at a later date. I also purchase dups trying to find the best recording I can find if I am not impressed with what I have. I have lots of fun hunting through record stores, thrift shops and flea markets. I don't think I will be able to listen to all I have in my life time. I will try though when I retire.
Nothing outrageous - roughly 700 CD's and 700 LP's. Back in 2000-2001, I used a dictaphone to record title, catalog number, and performer for each title I owned, and had a secretary type it up, the resulting typed list allowing easy reference to available titles. Unfortunately, I didn't maintain the list, and even though I generally have my CD's and LP's arranged alphabetically, it would be a pain to update. I need to update it, as the list caused much better rotation (and was not cheap to have typed).
It will be interesting to see if the equipment geeks who post about equipment topics on this forum appear in this thread - not too many have shown so far.
Right now (9/7/09) I have ~5800 CDs, and I usually buy one or two a week so it continues to grow. I consider it an investment into my future retirement. Not $, but something to keep me busy and happy during my retirement. BTW that's about 10 years away, so the collection should be huge by then
Been in this hobby about 28 years. Have almost 500 LPs and about half I listen to regularly the other half seldom. About 30 cds listen to about 5 of them regularly. Not large numbers but the ones I listen to I really enjoy.
The way to determine if it large enough is to calculate 'time to death', which is assumed to be when you are 76 years old. So, if you started now to listen to each item in your collection would you die before completing the task? Yes, the older you get means you should be selling off, given away, all that cannot be listened to. Since I am only five years old, and have ten cds, I can gladly accept your 'un-listenable' items. So, please contact me for my shipping address.
thedautch...which way are you implying takes longer. It sounds like you're saying it takes MORE time to import a cd when you only choose a handful of tracks? If so did you know that you can do this: while holding down the option key with a cd inserted you can then DESELECT all the songs by clicking any one of the "checks". This removes all the checked songs. Now you can let go of the command key. Now just click the few songs you want one by one.
I own about 1000 CD's and it has taken me more than 20 years to collect that number. I have to really like the artist/album before I will buy it. So, the collection I have is music that I continue to listen to fairly consistently. There's no worse feeling than buying a CD on impulse and then listening to it once or twice and then storing it away forever.
But, times are changing. Today with subscriptions to a few online music services, such as Pandora and Rhapsody, I have access to an almost infinite amount of music. These services have definitely changed the way I listen to music and, as as result, my music buying habits.
A very brief aside here (I promise). My iTunes has 3,582 somgs (after burning in two CDs this morning). However, I delete songs I don't like or just don't burn them in to begin with. For example, if I own some disc with 12 tracks and I only like 4 of them, I just burned in those 4 and that's it.
Not sure if others took the time (and it takes WAY more time than the normal "import CD" button), or if people just let all their discs into iTunes/equivalent with all tracks intact.
About 2500-3000 lps and near 100 cds plus about 100 cassettes which still get played on the bedroom system (proton player, onkyo receiver and EPI 100 speakers).
3k LP 1K cd 1000-1500 albums in FLAC files I figure they won't let me have my LP's in the nursing home so I'm currently backing up my albums to FLAC files You can never have too much music. I like the idea of having a large collection which allows me to sample a large amount of music.
Synthfreek: I used to be the tour side of the business and loved that I could carry all my favorite songs around in a iPod and portable stereo when on the road.
When I am at home, I like to kick back and really enjoy a listening session. My small and humble collection contains artists that I think exceled at making great albums, end to end, rather than the one-single numbers that constitute the majority of iPod's content.
I've got about 43,000 songs in my collection (on a music server). It has been compiled from CDs I've bought along with LPs and open reels in my collection from years back that I've converted.
For me, the point of that size collection is not that I am constantly listening to every song repeatedly, but rather I have an enormous selection of choices available for whatever mood I'm in.
Not too long ago I went through a spell where I was listening to a lot of stuff from the 40s and 50s - Louis Jordon, various boogie woogie artists. Other times I may be in a mood for classic jazz - Chet Baker, Coltrane, Art Blakey. Or perhaps I'm exploring newer releases by Diane Birch or Gogol Bordello. I also love classical which offers an endless array of recordings for exploration, especially if one can appreciate having more than one version of a piece or is interested in going beyond the common standards.
I know some people primarily stick with mostly one genre and have their solid preferences when it comes to artists. However, when one is a musical omnivore, the collection tends to continue growing and growing. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Should I feel bad for having 7000 or so CDs? Wow bongofury...there are a few artists that I have close to 100 discs of just their albums. I don't know what I'd do if I had 200 CDs. Vinyl...I'd guess 5000 or so.
a little over 350 CD's, don't buy them much at all anymore unless there is a new recording I really need for work or study purposes
a little over 750 LP's now. However, in both formats, that's counting a box set as one, so the LP number in particular is actually quite a bit higher, as I have many box sets.
still have probably 30-40 cassettes, mostly of my own student performances
1000 cds 100 lps, although I have no way to listen to them. I sold the main lp collection a few years ago along with the tt. More interesting to me is the part of your question concerning music that will probably never get listened to again. I have cds that will never see the inside of my cdp again and some that have never been played, still in plastic wrap. There is room in my cd storage for maybe another 100 cds. After that I'll need to recycle the unneeded cds. I could easily lose 200 cds without regret. Why do we hang on to them?
I've got about 1000 cds - although I have sold stuff off over the years - and probably about 300 albums. Storage is on the verge of becoming an issue though.
I currently have approx: - 2000 CDs - 1000 LPs - 500 45s
I add when artist's that I am interested in release new stuff or collaborate on something. I buy *used* CDs whenever possible. I buy vinyl above all else. If the artist doesn't release vinyl I'll buy the interior CD.
I rip the CD to FLAC. I have no CDP. No use for one. Then file the disc away in its original case never to be played again. I'm currently using a Squeezebox system making all my music easily accessible whenever I want in seconds - selecting a random song mix from an every growing album library makes radio unnecessary - if I dont want to hear it I just hit "next..."
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