I'm a hifi buff and worked in record shops for twenty years and have seen lots of technology come and go.
My current system has four "sources" : vinyl, CD, DAB radio and PC.
Of those, I listen to CDs and records the vast majority of the time, the radio occasionally and the PC least of all through my main system, but fairly often on my desktop system.
I have DAB systems in the kitchen and bathroom and listen to them in there as well.
My main system is worth about £5-6k new, and half that second-hand.
The record deck alone (Linn Sondek) is well over a grand's worth, probably two, but you really don't need to spend that much to get great sound.
These days, there are specialist phone handsets with excellent DACs inside designed specifically for hi-def audio (DAC = Digital to Analogue Converter / hi-def audio = FLAC or similar, non-compressed audio files, as opposed to MP3).
I read the other day that MP3 is almost obsolete and when you get a download code now, it's almost always for a FLAC file.
These files take up more space but are worth it in terms of the sound quality.
A couple of months ago, I went to a music and hifi evening at an hotel in Romsey, just outside Southampton. It was organised by a hifi dealership and a record shop in aid of the RNLI.
There was a massive amp set up from local firm Naim Audio (£150k), 7' tall speakers from Danish company Dynaudio (£50k - same system as inside a Bugatti Veron !!), cables from The Chord Company (£30k), a hidef streamer also from Naim and a turntable from Michel (a mere £3k).
So the whole system was about £250k and the record deck a few percent of the budget but still more than most people would spend.
The vinyl was played first - some Bert Jansch, a new country artist and some Laura Marling - and sounded very nice indeed. Not a quarter of a million nice, mind you, and I actually felt really good about my own system when listening - law of diminishing returns and all that
Then there was a short break before streaming began through Tidal - as opposed to Spotify - the system being purely hidef in nature.
It sounded ASTOUNDING.
Night and day better than the vinyl.
All kinds of music was on offer, but (typically) Floyd's DSOM was played as well as some mono recordings of Maria Callas.
Honestly, as a vinyl fan of 45+ years I am committed to the sound, but I'm not stupid - the future's here now and you can carry it in your pocket.
If you get a decent amp and a good pair of speakers and use a decent DAC (total budget about £300 new!) then you can stream through either your laptop or phone and get a staggering sound for that money.
Don't buy soundbars - get stereo speakers because that's how your ears work and you won't get any kind of "sound stage" without them.
I love CD as a format and own thousands of them, same as with LP and I continue to buy both, but I can see a day in the not-too-distant when I will make the permanent switch to digital. I'll still buy old records, of course, because I love record shops, charity shops and car boots, but that's just me being quirky.
Look into Tidal and Spotify Premium because they really are excellent services.
Oh, and that £300 can be halved if you just buy a good headphone amp and headphones.
I think I'll shut up now
) and there's talk of us going back in to the studio again soon - just for a laugh to see how we sound as a 3-piece rather than a 5-piece. Who knows, if that goes well I might be writing more songs and get back to home recording again.