[hciman77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab /img/forum/go_quote.gif http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...17/nsing17.xml And that was just from the first article on a simple Google search.

All of this stratospheric rise has been in 7 inch singles , and that mostly in the UK, US patterns are different - Album sales (numbers not hearsay) on vinyl still seem to be as flat as a pancake.

Even then 1M singles means that one in 60 Brits bought one vinyl single last year. This still makes it a cult interest if we are judging purely by numbers. Let us be more realistic and say that the vinyl single buyers bought say 20 singles each then it becomes 1 in 1200 or under 0.1% of the populus.

The BPI figures show Vinyl LPs sales declined from 2M in 2003 to 1M in 2006.

The US figures RIAA show vinyl LP/EP sales declining from 1.7M (2002) to 1.02M (2005) figures for 2006 unavailable.

In the UK CD albums sales were ~227M for 2006 in 2005 the figure for the US was ~700M.

In the US vinyl Singles sales declined from 3.8M (2003) to 2.3M (2005)

CD sales (US) have declined (2002 - 2005) but are still at over 300x LP/EP sales

http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/...yrEndStats.pdf

 

[memepool]

The major trend in music overall is definitely a fall in sales of physical media and huge rise in downloads but within the smaller physical media market vinyl sales are still strong or growing in general compared to plunging CD sales and almost non-existant sales of DVD-A and SACD.
Within the singles market in the UK vinyl is definitely the dominant medium. If the megastores begin to stock vinyl in depth again which seems to be the trend then I see no reason for this not to continue.

 

[Girlsound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif The 1" masters I used to work with were usually 4 or 8 track masters

They generally are. There is a rising number of studios that are using the 1" two track format...including JVC and Sony. Ironic. There are so many problems with using analog tapes that the digital "revolution" solved that it's just not realistic to see them (VERY expensive 1" two track) too often. I recently looked into a two track conversion ("ultimate analog") for a friends A80 1/2" four track. For a small time engineer and mobile truck builder, it's just not in the picture.

Anyhoo, I still think that analog is better sounding than digital. Numbers be damned.

Vinyl, with it's limitations, still offers that experience. Perhaps it's like crossfeed in a headphone amp (where's your crosstalk specs now?

), or maybe it's similar to tube stages (that's for another time/argument). The added euphonics, psychologically, outweigh the drawbacks. Digital measures the signal while analog follows it. There are limitations and drawback of either approach. But why the obsession with it. If there are both formats, just listen to the one you like and be done with it.

 

[hciman77]

never mind

 

[Leporello]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Girlsound /img/forum/go_quote.gif There are so many problems with using analog tapes that the digital "revolution" solved that it's just not realistic to see them (VERY expensive 1" two track) too often.

One of the problems being that analog tape is in very short supply. Quantegy - one of the majors - called it quits a couple of years ago. I don't know, there have been rumous that they are in business again - does somebody know about this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Girlsound /img/forum/go_quote.gif Anyhoo, I still think that analog is better sounding than digital. Numbers be damned. Vinyl, with it's limitations, still offers that experience. Perhaps it's like crossfeed in a headphone amp (where's your crosstalk specs now? ), or maybe it's similar to tube stages (that's for another time/argument). The added euphonics, psychologically, outweigh the drawbacks. Digital measures the signal while analog follows it. There are limitations and drawback of either approach. But why the obsession with it. If there are both formats, just listen to the one you like and be done with it.

Sounds reasonable to me. If I had the money, even I - a deluded digiphile - would like to own an SME, or an Oracle... or whatever. But that is an entirely different story...


Regards,

L.

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hciman77 /img/forum/go_quote.gif The figures I linked do not support the assertion that LP sales are rising, do you have a source for this ?

Don't look at the record sales but at the record player sales, you'll see an increase...either new or second hand...audio shops tend to sell more record players then it used to do some years ago...record players and records are in demand again...not in the numbers as it was in the hay days but it is slowly climbing...

lot of people buy second hand records because the best recordings are not for sale anymore...over here we have big organized second hand sales of records all of the country in huge halls, so lots of records

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Girlsound /img/forum/go_quote.gif They generally are. There is a rising number of studios that are using the 1" two track format...including JVC and Sony. Ironic. There are so many problems with using analog tapes that the digital "revolution" solved that it's just not realistic to see them (VERY expensive 1" two track) too often. I recently looked into a two track conversion ("ultimate analog") for a friends A80 1/2" four track. For a small time engineer and mobile truck builder, it's just not in the picture. Anyhoo, I still think that analog is better sounding than digital. Numbers be damned. Vinyl, with it's limitations, still offers that experience. Perhaps it's like crossfeed in a headphone amp (where's your crosstalk specs now? ), or maybe it's similar to tube stages (that's for another time/argument). The added euphonics, psychologically, outweigh the drawbacks. Digital measures the signal while analog follows it. There are limitations and drawback of either approach. But why the obsession with it. If there are both formats, just listen to the one you like and be done with it.

It's more like a solid state amp vs a tube amp...solid state dry but detailed...tube amp lush but sometimes less detailed(especially edge detail)

Both can be as good, depending on the design and used components...

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leporello /img/forum/go_quote.gif One of the problems being that analog tape is in very short supply. Quantegy - one of the majors - called it quits a couple of years ago. I don't know, there have been rumous that they are in business again - does somebody know about this?

The supply crisis is an ex-crisis, now: Quantegy is indeed back in business - and over here in Europe, the Dutch RMG company (http://www.rmgi.nl) has aquired the remainders of BASF/Emtec technology and is now in production, too...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Girlsound /img/forum/go_quote.gif Anyhoo, I still think that analog is better sounding than digital. Numbers be damned.

My theory is that digital technology allows more flexibility for engineers to really screw stuff up good.

See ya
Steve

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tourmaline /img/forum/go_quote.gif For digital you need conversion TO analog, in this segment, the analog signal isn't that analog anymore

How is that any more difficult to accomplish well than to convert electrical signals in a wire into mechanical sound that you can hear? Do you believe that acoustic transmission (two paper cups and string) is more accurate than electrical because the sound is never converted away from being physical vibrations?

See ya
Steve

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tourmaline /img/forum/go_quote.gif See how much record sales have raised those days...alot of people are getting a record player again...they use it next to their cdplayer, so i suppose these people are still "missing" something in a cd/cdplayer.

What are you talking about? The Salvation Army stores are full of turntables and vinyl. I don't know many people aside from hardcore music collectors that have turntables any more. But my 83 year old mom has a CD player.

See ya
Steve

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by drarthurwells /img/forum/go_quote.gif Anyone who says ICs can't make a big difference in sound quality, and who make similar statements denying sound quality differences between sources, amps, etc., should be aware that their false misconceptions are being laughed at by others who know better (from more experience and discriminating tastes).

consider the source considered!

Sheesh!
Steve

 

[bigshot]

Quoted: According to figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the number of 7in singles sold rose from 178,831 in 2001 to 1,072,608 last year.

Do you know what the market is for 7" singles? It's not the average record collector... it's a niche market for jukebox collectors. You might as well say that jukeboxes are on the rise too.

In the 60s and 70s, there were more than a million copies of a *single song* pressed on a regular basis.

See ya
Steve

 

[Febs]

Steve, have you considered using the multi-quote feature?

 

[Jigglybootch]

Is it safe to say that this thread has been beaten to death?