It is nice, however, that technicians and audiophiles are doing the hard work for us by experimenting, and obsessing over ways to best appreciate recorded music. This, then, could be considered a layman’s (read: not technical) approach to the various formats over the years used to make music a portable, personal entity.

What: Vinyl

What's the deal? Of all the musical formats, vinyl has probably the biggest fan club. No one is rah-rahing about cds, but big, chunky slabs of vinyl will never be replaced as the format of choice for many music lovers. Starting out as creaky phonographs, records evolved to include both smaller “45s for singles and the standard “33 1/3 for full-length albums.

Why We Love It: While some debate rages, vinyl purists insist that records give off a different sound than compact discs, which includes the whole spectrum (not just the top) of a recording that escape other formats. Usually, the way people attribute the way vinyl sounds is an unhelpful adjective like “warmer.” Yeah, vinyl sounds warmer, and I can taste colors, okay? But you can’t deny the joy of having a big album, with big album art – especially when they’re weighty, 180 gram vinyl. In a world of digitization, this is as tangible as tangible gets.

Why It Sucks: When I think of the sound of vinyl, I can’t separate that so-called “warm” feel from the hisses, scratches, and blips that threaten make listening to a record a frustrating experience. New vinyl is one thing, but as they age, records are prone to warpage, collect scratches and dust and otherwise become less listenable. That initial hiss, the skip of a song, the way fuzz on a record gets picked up by the needle and muffles the music…it’s just plain irritating. Great sound or no, who even cares if you can hear all of that background noise? Also, leaving a record in your car if it’s not a perfect temperature results in an unfixable mess, making your new favorite band’s album about as useful as a thin Frisbee. Lugging these babies around is also a pain. Ask your favorite (non-laptop) DJ.

What: Cassettes

What's the deal? Sorry 8-tracks, no one cares about you. What we care about are cassettes, which made music easily portable. While a few adventurous folks did outfit cars with record players, speed bumps made short work of that experiment. Cassettes are housed in hard plastic, can handle extreme temperatures, and are handy enough to slip into a pocket or a purse.

Why We Love It: Other than letting us bring music everywhere, the advent of cassettes created cassette recording, which meant we could tape vinyl, other tapes, songs off the radio, and make allusion-heavy mixes for crushes. Vinyl was for the clubs and home stereos, but cassettes took recorded music everywhere else and gave the listener heretofore unknown options when it came to organizing and experiencing the music they loved.

Why It Sucks: Like vinyl, cassettes are also prone to the ravages of time, and get an eerily in-out effect after a certain number of listens. Also, that tape spool isn’t the most reliable invention, and many a person has ejected a tape from a player only to discover half of it was still caught inside. Also, while flipping sides became easier, all in all cassettes felt like companions to vinyl and not replacements. For folio art, good home stereo sound and something that felt more like a real purchase than a plastic commodity, vinyl was still the way to go.

What: The Compact Disc

What's the deal? Like tiny, silver, special little records, compact discs were made to combine what people loved about the two aforementioned formats. Unlike rinky-dinky cassettes, cds felt like actual albums, included larger type, more information and even longer space for music. A four-disc record set could fit onto two cds, which you could then take anywhere.

Why We Love It: From the bedroom to the beach, cds were the preferred musical format for the masses for some time. Neil Young hated the way they sounded, but you can be damn sure that he sold more cds than records in the 90s. The cd Walkman allowed you to take your songs on the go (as long as you didn’t walk too fast) and rewritable cds continued the D.I.Y. trend that began with blank cassettes. Rewinding and fast forwarding was arduous with cassettes, and cds solved that problem. Also, the task of flipping cassettes or records was made obsolete by the cd, which created a more linear, uninterrupted listening experience. This understated innovation effectively killed the a-side/b-side dichotomy and gave both listeners and musicians one less thing to distract them from the album (or single) at hand.

Why It Sucks: With so much going for them, what could possibly be wrong with a compact disc? Well, skipping, for one. If vinyl skipping is bothersome, cd skipping is easily ten times more frustrating. That playing side of cds are so sensitive that even a fingerprint could cause a song to hiccup, whereas vinyl had more durability. Worse still, cd scratches are unpredictable. I know exactly when my LP copy of Friends by The Beach Boys begins to skip, but throw in a cd of Pet Sounds and it’s a crap shoot. The only constant is that it will skip at some point, and it will be annoying. But skipping aside, even the cd began to feel clunky by the time we hit the 2000s. Surely something better was just over the horizon.

What: Digital

What's the deal? Hello digital! Our next format is almost an anti-format - both everything and nothing. It can sound like the best thing recorded, or as low quality as the sound of a radio blaring out of a bus. Audiophiles pride themselves over FLAC formats (Free Lossless Audio Codec), a step up from the mp3, but beggars and the less picky just pull middle to low quality junk off the internet on a daily basis.

Why We Love It: Ease. Never before has it been so easy to transmit, find, share, steal, and purchase music. With only simple software, anyone can instantly find what they want and spread that music everywhere, from the car to the mp3 player to their aunt in Florida. MP3s make the portability of a cd seem like a sick joke. Finally, a music format other than the radio that is truly jogger-friendly!

Why It Sucks: As mentioned, quality control with regard to digital music can be dicey. Purchased digital music sounds okay, but pirated or free mp3s range from great to iffy. Labels and bands sometimes give out cruddy-quality mp3s hoping for a later sale, and file sharing networks are clogged with differing versions of the same songs, meaning that consistency goes right out the window when it comes to what you download. Furthermore, there’s that recurring complaint that digital music takes away from the album experience, which, as we’ve pointed out, has often involved scratches, switching sides, and a lack of portability. Point taken, though: experiencing a streaming album online is far removed from the act of going to a record store, perusing the aisles, finding an album you want and pouring over the album sleeve and packaging. Then again, is this sort of complaint bitching for the sake of bitching? We’re saving paper, plastic, and our music is more accessible to us than ever. So what’s the problem?

Even though digital music is the wave of the future, that’s no reason to believe that physical formats are dead. Vinyl is on an upswing, and most music sales today still consist of compact disc purchases. If suppliers can find a way to combine the consistency of compact discs, the physical presence of vinyl, the portability and ease of digital, and the, uh, durability of the cassette, maybe we’ll have our master format. For now, many indie labels are including a digital download free with vinyl purchases. Given that you have a record player, this is most definitely the best bang for your buck.