Hughes123:gregory:Fair point, as i'm the market for an ipod of some sort or the latest generation of what's new it's nice to know of the next generation of informed listeners of whats going on in the market place. To be honest my son is always going on about being more up to date with the latest listening trends but i like my vinyl and it doesn't bother me turning over the 1st side of a record and putting on the over side but i do have at least over 1000 albums on my pc that i could listen to on my system but i like to converse with forum members while i listen to said albums, maybe i'm getting to old.
Gregory, stick to your vinyl - there's no competition!
Unless you listen to your music whilst travelling or whilst on holiday etc often, they aren't very handy - the sound quality is poor (accept for the ipod touch which is very good) and you can't just stick on an album and let it play through...there's just some magic missing when using an ipod compared to a CD or vinyl or even when playing ripped albums or downloaded albums via a computer.
And who cares whether we follow the latest trends? I've only got two CDs created in the last two years and I'm not even sixteen yet! The latest trends always fade after a while and you have to keep on spending money to keep up with them. I prefer to look to the past and find the highlights of the years of a particular product (which is why I love the late 70s of hi-fi!) and why I like prog-rock! Okay, that's a bit of a problem with home-cinema and TVs because they always improve, but with hi-fi in my opinion, the ipod is a bit of a backwards step. Is there not a niche in the market for a true high-end portable music player? The i-pod Elite, maybe? Memorary card slot rather than built in hard or flash drive? Proper integrated headphone amplifier? Maybe a DAB radio for good measure? I wouldn't mind paying an arm and a leg for such a product! How about you?
hughes, im am impressed that you have such an aged collection of music - my collection also follows this trend - to an extent. i love led zepp, deep purple, sabbath, floyd etc. but dont dismiss current or recent artists either. there are still innovative, original, inspirational and awe inspiring artists out there - unfortunately, due to the popularity of "pop" music, these artists are not well known and require seeking out rather than being thrust into your face.
if you like progressive music (with attitude) check out the likes of Devin Townsend (Ocean Machine LP), The Mars Volta (de-loused in the comatorium LP), Tool (Lateralus LP), The Tea Party (Edges Of Twilight LP), Oceansize (Frames LP) or Dream Theatre (Scenes from a memory LP).
goodluck