How do you play your music? There’s so many different ways of storing and listening to music in 2015, we thought we’d dedicate August entirely to the source.
Whether you’re a die-hard vinyl fan or keep your music strictly digital, the source is arguably the most important part of your system.
At Audio Affair we like music in every format – so long as you’re enjoying it, that’s all that matters. Here’s our rundown of what’s available, click the title link to browse products in that category… Although we can’t sell you a reel to reel player!
Reel to Reel
The reel to reel predates cassette tapes and 8-track tapes, and were available alongside cassettes but mostly for a limited range of musical genres. Although they offered higher quality than cassette tapes, the cumbersome threading of an open-reel tape meant sales were very low and specialisted during the 1980s. These days we barely hear about reel to reel, but afficionados still exist and enjoy them!
Between the early 1970s and the late 1990s, the cassette was one of the two most common formats for prerecorded music, first alongside the LP record and later the compact disc. The market for cassettes declined sharply after its peak in the late 1980s. By 1993, annual shipments of CD players had reached 5 million, up 21% from the year before; while cassette player shipments had dropped 7% to approximately 3.4 million. The decline continued, and in 2001 cassettes accounted for only 4% of all music sold. Since then, further decline occurred, with very few retailers stocking them because they are no longer issued by the major music labels.
The vinyl record was the music source of choice from the 1920s until the late 1980s. Known for it’s clarity and of course, those signature pops and scratches, the record player has seen a resurgence with vinyl sales growing year on year since 2006!
The trusty CD is still the go to medium for many audiophiles, but did you know that the first public demonstration was on the BBC television program Tomorrow’s World in 1981, when the Bee Gees’ album Living Eyes (1981) was played? The CD surpassed the record in popularity and sales in the late 1980s.
With digital radio joining FM and AM broadcasting, a tuner gives you access to thousands of radio stations worldwide. A digital tuner is a great way to access masses of music simple by adding another component to your separates system.
Connecting your player directly to the internet gives you access to an unfathomable amount of music, and with high resolution streaming services such as Spotify Premium and Tidal, it’s a great way to enjoy quality music at the touch of a button. Many streamers can store your entire music library either directly on the unit, or via a NAS (Network Accessed Storage) drive. It’s incredible to see such a small unit containing as much music as a warehouse full of vinyl!
Portable devices have been a part of the modern lifestyle for some years, and are widely available from an array of manufacturers. The quality of the device can vary, and we are now seeing a rise in the number of players that are capable of storing and playing high resolution music files such as FLAC.