What cd's do you get?

bigaudiofanatic

So I was thinking today. I have all of the eagles cd's and the box sex and I also have their greatest hit albums as well. Of cores I do not need all of them as most of them have repeat songs. So my question is, what do you get from the artist. Do you just buy the greatest hits and that's it? Or do you prefer to get original albums and or box sets?

treitz3

Depends mostly on the group or singer.

bigaudiofanatic

treitz3 wrote: »

Depends mostly on the group or singer.

True, I find myself buying the best of cd's for bands that I only like a few songs such as Guns n' roses.

treitz3

Yeah, I can only take so much of Kenny Rodgers.........Now anything that Donald Fagan touches? That's a different story.

dorokusai

Since iTunes came around, I usually buy singles unless the whole album is good....which is rare these days.

comfortablycurt

It depends...I voted for "all of the above except singles".

Sometimes when I want to check a band out...I'll start out with a greatest hits album. Those are great starting points, because they usually give you a taste of their different sounds at different points in their career. Then you can take the tracks that you like the most, and buy those albums.

I don't always strive to have every bands complete catalog. There are plenty of bands that have a few albums I really like...and some that I'm not too big on.

Some bands, such as Floyd, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead...I insist on having the complete collections. I'm still working on all of the above though.;)

The Dylan and Dead catalogs in particular are rather extensive. I believe Dylan has something like 54 official albums between his studio albums, bootlegs, live albums and greatest hits collections. I've got about 30 as of last count...so I'm getting there.

The Dead? Their catalog is almost infinite. Between the studio albums and the thousands of live shows, it's quite a collection. I'm nowhere near done yet. Between all of my Dead studio albums and live shows...I probably have about 175 Dead CD's. Only several thousand more to go...lol

bigaudiofanatic

That is sort of what I do when I am interested in new artists. I start out with their greatest hits if they have one. Normally that is as far as I go unless I really like them.

Rivrrat

It depends on what I see. I usually buy my cds at a local used bookstore anyway.

bigaudiofanatic

Rivrrat wrote: »

It depends on what I see. I usually buy my cds at a local used bookstore anyway.

You mean like Barns and nobile?

vc69

I have bought from every category so I voted "all of the above".

For some artists (very few), a complete discography is important to me. Even singles.

For other artists, a box set re-issue would suffice. Say the Beetles remasters for instance. I just want to have all of their stuff.

Others have good "greatest hits" collections that I own as well as select original releases.

Still other CD's I own have only one song worth owning. And other discs I own... I look back and wonder "wtf was I thinking"?

zombie boy 2000

"All of the above"... but I really enjoy seeking out singles from artists and bands I really like. What can I say? I'm a "B-side" lovin', music store snob ala High Fidelity. My friends rag me for it all time, claiming I can't officially endorse a song unless it was a B-side to some single released only in Peru during the harvest moon.

coolsax

I do have a few singles floating around but those were from back in my college days.. i haven't bought a cd "single" in close to 10 years

vc69

coolsax wrote: »

I do have a few singles floating around but those were from back in my college days.. i haven't bought a cd "single" in close to 10 years

I have purchased three in the last week. All to complete a NIN collection. I still need several, but I am "closer".

coolsax

LOL.. in fact one of my few random singles is a NIN single.. "Head like a hole" the 10 track european release

vc69

Wanna sell it?

coolsax

nope... its definitely a keeper single for me sorry

vc69

coolsax wrote: »

nope... its definitely a keeper single for me sorry

Don't blame ya one bit.

bigaudiofanatic

coolsax wrote: »

I do have a few singles floating around but those were from back in my college days.. i haven't bought a cd "single" in close to 10 years

Same here I do not think I have bought a single sense shoot 13 years ago.

steveinaz

I generally avoid greatest hits cd's as they often sound like crap. The only boxed set I have is the Led Zeppelin remasters.

vc69

The Fleetwood Mac Greatest hits is incredible. A very good remaster.

But, I have to agree...many sound like remastered **** or worse. Some are compiled from worn out masters with no regard for quality. The Alan Parsons Project Greatest Hits comes to mind. Simply awful.

bigaudiofanatic

vc69 wrote: »

The Fleetwood Mac Greatest hits is incredible. A very good remaster.

But, I have to agree...many sound like remastered **** or worse. Some are compiled from worn out masters with no regard for quality. The Alan Parsons Project Greatest Hits comes to mind. Simply awful.

So what is the difference between a original and a remaster? Just cleaned up and made or suppose to sound better.

bigaudiofanatic

steveinaz wrote: »

I generally avoid greatest hits cd's as they often sound like crap. The only boxed set I have is the Led Zeppelin remasters.

Why do you say that?:eek:

vc69

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

So what is the difference between a original and a remaster? Just cleaned up and made or suppose to sound better.

Get your read on


Some are excellent, some are disastrous. It all depends on the quality of the original and the skill and care of the people/engineer doing the remastering.

steveinaz wrote: »

I generally avoid greatest hits cd's as they often sound like crap. The only boxed set I have is the Led Zeppelin remasters.

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

Why do you say that?:eek:

As I said, some greatest hits are compiled from worn out masters. This is particularly true of older analog master tapes. I gave an example of one in my above post. It is almost universally true that greatest hits compilations sound bad. There are exceptions of course, and digital has made it less troublesome. Still, they are almost never well mastered and many, if not most, are not sonically acceptable to an audiophile.

steveinaz

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

Why do you say that?:eek:

Just my experience. Everytime I have purchased a Greatest Hits CD, the individual tracks sound better on the original cd---I don't know why.

Try it for yourself---pick an artist that you have an original CD from, and a greatest hits; pick the same track on the greatest hits---A/B them...greatest hits version sucks in comparison huh?

bigaudiofanatic

vc69 wrote: »

Get your read on


Some are excellent, some are disastrous. It all depends on the quality of the original and the skill and care of the people/engineer doing the remastering.

Thanks

treitz3

vc69....nail, hit, head and all that jazz....

bigaudiofanatic

I just did the a/b thing did not hear any difference. Tried it with the cd's and with the digital lossless rips on the computer hooked up to the stereo. This is using all my eagles cd's including the box set and greatest hits. No difference to me.

treitz3

Then consider yourself in bliss, seriously. If you only knew.......

Danny Tse

For me, it depends on the artist....

If I hear a song on the radio that made me interested in the artist's work, assuming I don't have any of his/her/their work, I'd generally start with a greatest hit compilation to sample the artist's sound. If I like what I hear, then I would go with individual albums. There're artists that I would buy without hearing just because I have confidence in their work from past albums, but those are few.

There are greatest hits CDs that just sound sooooo good, musically speaking....like Little River Band's "Greatest Hits" (original version) and Hall & Oates' "Rock & Soul, Part I"

bigaudiofanatic

treitz3 wrote: »

Then consider yourself in bliss, seriously. If you only knew.......

Well how you are putting it it all depends on who and how it was redone. So the eagles could all be done right. I am not disagreeing with you just saying mine all sound good.

PSOVLSK

It really depends on the artists for me. I can't imagine anyone just buys the box set though. Seems to me if you liked someone enough to be interested in the box set you'd already have a CD or two of the artists.