Music Format Tier List | The 100 Year Format War

This video contains the history of the most mainstream pre-recorded audio formats used over the decades and I condensed it into a tier list. Is the vinyl record better than CD? Are CDs better than streaming? Why did more modern physical formats like SACD and DVD Audio fail? Does vinyl sounds better? I answers these questions, among others, and rank the most popular formats used over the last century. This is a celebration of the different technologies used over a century to listen to music. I also do my best to explain each format's strengths and shortcomings. These days, we have access to millions of songs and sometimes we can take that for granted. I feel that looking back grounds me and gives me a different perspective.

Tier List:

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
0:47 High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray
2:24 DVD-Audio
3:07 Super Audio CD
3:42 MiniDisc
5:11 Compact Disc
6:43 8-track
8:21 Compact Cassette
10:21 Vinyl 45 Record
11:51 Reel-to-reel
12:43 Vinyl LP Record
14:15 78 RPM Record
15:43 Thanks for watching!

[martineyles]

DVD Video was actually used for some audio-only discs too. It could hold multichannel recordings or higher than CD bit and sample rate recordings in uncompressed PCM (perhaps not as high as DVD audio though). Many of the benefits of DVD audio without the compatibility issues.

[ldrelick]

Neat video.. just one minor correction. I was first introduced to DVD Audio because the car I bought, a 2005 Acura TL, had DVD Audio capabilities, and came with a sampler CD. It did sound pretty great but the dance/electronic music I like were a bit more niche back then and didn't really have much in the way of DVD Audio representation.

[yannisgk]

what about dcc and dat? i still don't know whether dcc was lossy or not!!!

[Reed-Publications]

I do agree with most of your ratings, but the Hi-MD eliminated most of the problems you mentioned in your review and became the standard Minidisc format in the end. I realize that this format still failed, but the standard should be measured in HI-MD, rather than the standard MD format that was initially released. It was a fantastic format. Minimum A rank.

* Also, CD's were never cool. Even when I was a teenager I remember being annoyed by the endless scratches and horribly designed jewel cases. I do admit that they are great for buying high-quality music at an affordable price, but the format itself is trash. I would have much preferred a world where Minidisc became the new standard format.