Cds or MP3s?

ONLY CDs for me. I'm an audiophile and I will NOT start downloading anything until the sound quality of the files has surpassed Super Audio CD sound quality. Besides, I own many CDs that are promotional or signed by artists.

ALWAYS go for CD or "CD quality" (lossless) audio.


All CDs carry uncompressed, full quality sound ---
up to the limit produced in the original recording, of course.

MP3 formats compress data, which reduces the quality of sound.

CDs if you are serious about listening I have a CD bluray player that I got from freecycle to use as a standalone CD player to use on my HiFi setup.

320K MP3 files created with a _good_ encoder are OK; not CD quality, but fine for casual / portable listening.

For serious listening on my home system I use FLAC files created from the CDs. They are smaller than raw CD audio but use lossless compression, so the playback is identical to the CD itself.

It's the best of both worlds; instant access to any track from any disc, but no hassle with changing CDs; they get read once then stored away.

Cds