How BIG is yours?


That is, music collection. Seems like everyone is proud of their big (physically, cost-wise etc) stereo systems. I want to know how big your music collection is. I always ask when I conduct a transaction, half out of curiosity, half wondering whether to trust the sonic biases of someone who owns maybe fifty-sixty albums/CDs tops. I'll start: I have around 500 LPs and 1500 CDs, more and more of which are the excellent DCC Gold and XRCD variety. Would you rather spend $100 on trying music you haven't heard or trying a new power cord (no wrong answer here, I do both)?
classicjazz
How big is mine? based on some-older-previous threads you can only imagine(those who are following my career!)
wow..you guys are all RICHI BOYS!

i only have like 30 cds i listen to right now..
no LP
i don't even have a big sound system yet ..still waiting on money to finance amp/preamp ..

most of tbe CDs i posess now are downtempo/acid jazz/rythm.
that's what i listen to the most, and it's hard to find music that i like within that style, so i will never posess 1500Cds that i wouldn't listen to anyway.. ( 1500cds * 10$ each ..wow ..15 000$..that's surely more than i'll buy in my entire life :p ahah )

you guys are crazy!
do you folks want to sell lps?
I am listening to Jazz and classical lps.
pl e mail me.
thanks

Tim
Mike: No, no, there is hope! You only have around 4500 (!) hrs of music -- and growing steadily. It'll only take you about 7months of 7/24 listening to go through the collection. Think of Detlof, Cornfed & others!
About 3200 cds, 2500 lps, and 175 sacds so far. The last year or so i have been more discriminating with my aquisitions. I still buy about 10 cds and 5 lps a month although i can feel an lp binge comeing on as i just bought a Clearaudio Insider Gold and am really enjoying it. A conductor friend just gave me a list of his personal favorite classical cds so i will be hot on the trail of those soon too. I guess i am hopeless.
Man, you guys have lots of music.. Amazing.... where do you find the time to listen to over a thousand cd's lol. I have a collection of maybe 50, i feel ashamed..

Happy Listening
About 2000 CDs. Also, a few crates of 1980's New Wave LPs that are either warped from heat or moldy. God, I miss 'em!!!!

Brad, Atlanta
Sean,

I am a piker here, with maybe 250 or 300 CDs, and maybe 100 albums (got rid of a lot over the years, just kept the ones I knew I could never get on CD, mostly old blues).

Even so, I had the problem you describe -- go into a music store, and couldn't remember which album other audiogoner's thought was an artist's best. Or did I already have that album!

My answer? A PalmPilot. I got a Sony model (S-320) for $135 new from Dell, and am using HandyShopper (a freeware shopping list program that is amazingly flexible). I'm putting in all the music I already have, and entering albums I want to buy. I realize it's a long-shot, but if you have a Palm, I would be happy to email you a database you can use as a starting point.

This has been awesome for me. I was in Chicago over the summer, had one hour (that's all!) in what has to be the best Jazz/Blues record store in the country (Jazz Record Mart). I was able to cruise through finding stuff I wanted. Could never have done it without help!

Happy hunting!

- Eric
OK, I'm a light weight. I've spent most of my money on gear and speaker upgrades the last few years. Software wise we're talking in the neighborhood of around 500 cd's. Slightly off topic I own around 300 DVD's. I guess you could say I'm a movie junkie to.
I think people sort of gloss over the music they have, using generic terms like jazz when they mean Kenny G or classic when they mean star wars soundtrack. But hey, why not? If it sounds good, even for a while, I say get it. I can admit I have the Armageddon soundtrack (what was I thinking?) I have all sorts of pop and folk music some in languages I barely understand if at all: Brasilian, Celtic, Japanese rock, pop, Canto-pop, Taiwanese folk, Mandarin-pop, R&B, Jazz, Lieder, opera (yes!), various chant, all kinds of rock/pop, chamber music, duets, solos, orchestral. I don't have funked-out synth music but I do have a test tone CD. That's what's so great about music. Oh, I admit, the gear is fun, too.
I raised a similar post a while back,there's a wide range of people who take up the audio hobby.
It seems to me by nature very many have pretty conservative tastes,classic rock,some folk,some country,some jazz,some classical.
I have collected somewhere in the region of 1100 CD's in the last 6 years(before that I had about 500 LP's) and I get more joy out of searching out new sounds than I do tweaking/upgrading my system.
I have no prejudice on this subject,if you only had 3 CD's
and a 10K system who am I to judge?
I just find I keep following links in the chain of musical history and end up with all kinds of mad records from the avant garde to Eva Cassidy but I do consider myself pretty unique on Audiogon as someone who spends more time checking
out music than trying to improve my system.
my cd collection has been growing by 50-75/ month, mostly promos provided by my older son who's a consultant to various radio stations and record labels. lot's of discs stacked up, many still unplayed. i estimate my cd's number somewhere around 2,300 at the moment.

i used gregm's formula to measure my lp's and it seems to work about the same as my earlier estimates. i own 24 meters' worth, so about 5,400.

BTW, sean, when you've reached 50, and beyond, you'll look back on 40 as a grand, youthful time. many fewer brain farts. am i right, detlof & albert, my friends?

-kelly
I worked at a CD store for about 4 years, during the heyday of Classical issues and reissues (back when Fanfare was as thick as a good-sized paperback). Plus, I was fortunate enough to marry a wife who had a very, very nice vinyl collection from her teen years (70's-80's). How many of you guys here now of women who actually collected music when they were in their teens and early 20's? LOL. Plus, I regularly shop these days at least once a week, usually for vinyl rock-pop stuff, as well as used bins and thrift stores for as much cocktail, crooner, easy listening silliness as possible. My jazz collection is the only part of my collection that is wanting.

CD's: over 4000
LP's: around the same.

Just to fess up to how silly collecting can get, I still have over a hundred (!!) unopened cd's that i have yet to get around to listening to from when I worked at the CD store --- 6 years ago!!

pcanis
A few people have mentioned they would like my system--or me to catalog for them (NO WAY!!) Putting the data in is a labor of love--I could only do it for my collection. Now I maintain it with more and more purchases. My method uses Microsoft Access. If you have Access 97 or higher, my template, reports and queries should work for you. I would be happy to share the template with anyone that wants it. There are some significant caveats to it--especially if you have a large classical collection. There is no place for conductor, symphony, etc. I categorize by Artist/Composer and Title/Work only. It's also difficult to find particular classical works that are just one part of the program (multiple composers and multiple works). I developed this prior to having much classical and have never re-designed it--but probably should. If anyone wants the template--e-mail me and I'll send it to you.
Small by the big leaguers standards here!!!! 430 CD´s...
As abstract pointed out would like to hear how do you guys keep inventory and index your collections.....see I have a "growing" problem with this.... and sometimes finding that candy that comes to mind doesn´t come as easy as I'd like
Luis
I'm not sure, probably over 1200 LPs and a similar number of Cds, and between 40 and 50 SACDs (growing as good releases come out). These days I tend to buy mostly vinyl and SACDs, holding off on CDs unless I know it won't come out on SACD and I want the musical performance (such as the recent NY Philharmonic boxed sets that the orchestra has released on its own label). Used to have more LPs but sold a lot back in college, to my current chagrin. Sean, wait till you go over 50. The senior moments become more and more frequent. And Abstract7, I should hire you to catalog my collection for me, as I just plain can't find the time or the patience to do it.
Like Abstract7, I am a fellow sufferer of CRS disease, especially the "can't remember what you have or where you put them" part. I have CDs covering every square inch of horizontal storage space in my house and in my cars (before I got married, my collection covered every square inch of horizontal space period. This made walkin gin my house a real adventure). I also have a basement full of cables, etc. I love music and audoio equipment, but I have no interest in organizing music or audio equipment, so I really have no idea how many CDs I have. I also have in storage about a thousand LPs from college that I'm sure are unplayable by now.
Well, our collection probably tops out at a few hundred CD's, which is probably a bit lopsided considering the 2-channel portion of our system retails around 11 or 12k (not including cabling). well, i suppose 300 CD's retails for around 4 or 5k (wow! never thought about that), so I guess it's not THAT lopsided. we only have 2 or 3 LPs, inherited, which is why we haven't gotten into analog yet. We do almost all of our shopping online, so it's hard to get into vinyl, which is kinda sad...
so far i have a modest collection of 600 vinyls and 150 CDs.
Buying records for me is like buying sigarettes for smoker. Every week I do go to Manhattan and shop(or exchange with collectors) records. I've almost stopped buying CDs -- only for rare(non-radio) jazz and some "underground" newly issued CDs.
My music interests belong to the meaningful music -- music that is aimed to describe our life in different ways: realistic, surrealistic and even abstract.
For example: I do admire musicians and composers that can play the picture in museum.
Sometimes I go for the exhibition and I realize that some of these pictures I've already heard without even seing them.
I always give preference to listening to my new aquired records that I've never heard or heard a long time ago rather than listening the same records with new power cord.
At last inventory, my LP collection was about 5,000. The CD and SACD's amount to only a few hundred. What is more important than quantity is the quality of the collection. If I were ask to be totally honest and remove any LP's from my collection that I would not mind losing, I would have trouble finding a hundred.

Its nice to have a large collection, but to have one where you can reach for any spline protruding from the shelf and get a record that makes you happy is pure bliss.
I have been collecting most every artist new and old in jazz, rock and heavy metal. Some for audiophile interests but mostly for musical talents. I have 2000+ Cd's and about 600 LP's. I sold alot of vinyl lately because of the time and convienence factor. This is also my problem with newer formats in that I don't want to be limited to what I can listen to based on format. Invest in software and happy listening!!!
Without actually counting them, I'd guess 3,000 lps, l,500 CDs, l50 R-R tapes (prerecorded), l00 cassettes, and several hundred 78s. Play 'em all, too, which is why I don't get out of the house much.
I'm not 40 and already have CRS disease. I also have audiophilia (which most people on this site have). CDC has deemed this to be one of the most highly contageous diseases--for which there is no cure, only treatment of the symptoms by buying more music than you can listen to and better cables and power cords until you fill a closet of cords--and would sell them, but can't remember what you have to sell or where you put them.

972 CDs and 898 LPs. 130 CDs are audiophile labels, 238 LPs are audiophile. How do I know this? They are all categorized and databased--I'm sick, really sick--I need help.
600 CDs and a few hundred LPs. Although I have been very focused on equipment changes as of late, software is a top concern most of the time. More important than the software though is going out to live concerts!! Actually hearing the Opera at the Met or a chorus at the Y is unlike anything in the world ... NO system can touch that expierince. It calibrates your ears to what is real and right, and lets your soul recharge from the energy of both the performers and the audience.
I've got about 1600 CD's. I was advised to put 500 LP's to sleep about 15 yrs. ago due to a flood that warped them! What a loss, I never reinvested into the LP's.
Sean. It's okay until you start walking into a room and forget what you came in for. Trust me, 40 is not so bad. Exercise is the key. On topic I once had over 2000 lps and 500 45s and have almost 1200 cds/ I've cleaned my cds out several times so I had more stand space/ When I bought my house I gave away a lot of vinyl I didn't want and kept the gems and favourites, so I'm more around 1000 lps now and still pick up the odd album..for me its more the music, I guess......trust me, if I had the bucks I'd be gear crazy, at least for awhile. Now where did I put that Canadian Tire money? cheers, Bluenose
About 2.500 LPs and +1000 cds. One way of counting LPs is to measure the length of space when tighly stacked. ABout 225 LPs to the metre. So what I'm really saying is, I have a bit over 11 metres in LP, 3 metres of which is jazz & blues (the rest is classical).

AND yes, I would still buy s/ware over the power cord... which is silly IMO, as I would enjoy the cord immediately and all of the time -- whereas, how many times would I listen to my latest version of, say, Mahler's 2nd!!!

BTW, Detlof, I feel for you -- what a nightmare! I happily consent to helping you get rid of some, a few metres, say, of that paper packaged plastic that takes up so much (expensive) space... any time.
Cheers!
I've been collecting since the late fiftees and I've stopped counting the LPs long ago. Mostly classical and Jazz though. Goes into many thousands and takes up lots of space. Everytime I had to move house, the movers thought me nuts, which I probably am. One of my dear friends remarked, that if I were to play one after the other without a break, I wouldn't go through a tenth of them before I was to kick the bucket. He's probably right. Cheers,
"Can't wait till i'm 40 to see what begins to go then... "

You don't want to know...
Sean- two things go at 40, one is the knees and I forget the other one.

On thread, about 300-400 of each.
I've got about 500 CD's and 1000 LP's. I would have TONS more vinyl but suffered through a house fire several years back. Needless to say, records do not take well to intense heat.

As to which i'd rather spend my money on, it has been rather lopsided lately. Measurably more gear than music, although i'm about to change that. I keep hearing stuff that i want to buy but somehow manage to forget about it when i'm either at the record shop or shopping on-line. Going to start making notes for myself. Getting old is hell on the memory. Can't wait till i'm 40 to see what begins to go then... : ) Sean
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Well......keeping it on topic; I have about 1000 CDs, and like you, I too want to try new equipment as well as find new music. Cheers. Craig