[Hershon2000]

As someone who grew up & hated vinyl in the 60's solely because the records didn't sound as fresh after several playings & they were eventually scratched up as well as I had to get up & put on different tracks which scratched things up more, I'm totally confused with what seems to be this love affair with vinyl on this & other boards. My beef with vinyl isn't in regards to the original sound quality but the scratches & wear down of the records & having to manually life the arm to skip tracks or being forced to listen to stuff you don't want to hear if you don't want to manually lift the arm. Maybe there have been some advancements or something I'm not aware about since I got rid of my record player 20 years ago.

Also, it seems like the CD revolution led to alot of reissuance of rare & deleted recordings that probably would never had been issued on vinyl if the CD market didn't come along.

 

[cotdt]

i think the people that switched from CD to vinyl just likes to listen to "exotic" equipment. it used to be commonplace but now i think it's valid to call vinyl exotic. a high end DAC makes CD sound analogue just like the vinyl sound, so i don't get the point of using vinyl equipment today.

 

[Sleestack]

Not this again.

For the record, I can't stand vinyl either. I grew up with it and tried to revisit it a year ago.

I think some people simply prefer the sound of vinyl. Others point to the poor mastering techniques onm todays CDs as the reason they turn to vinyl. Others actually believe vinyl is the superior format. Others like the huge library available on vinyl.

I have found plenty of music on digital formats to keep me happy. To my ears, a properly recorded and mastered CD, SACD or DVD-A has far more transparency than vinyl. The only reason I would go to vinyl again is to listen to rare LPs that haven't been remastered for CD or to listen to old 45's.

 

[Davesrose]

I didn't grow up with vinyl, but I agree with Sleestack. I just got a vinyl rig to add on to my nice digital rig. The main thing I like about vinyl is being able to find out of print records at my local LP stores. Just old rock and jazz....classical is so much nicer on CD or SACD: no hiss and more transparency.

 

[AndyKatz]

Don't forget that our vinyl was ubiquitous. The quality varied, but most of it wasn't that great: tonearms that didn't track and weighed more than a VCR, needles instead of cartridges, single-unit players, monaural speakers, etc...

While today's vinyl is a specialty, audiophile niche. Even if the LPs are vintage, the turntable is probably something nice, $1000 and up, with separate tone-arm, cartrigde, phono-stage, etc...

It follows, naturally, that people with that kind of equipment spend more time cleaning and maintaining their LPs, so physical wear may be as big a factor as it once was.

Matter of fact, remembering how much time and effort I used to spend cleaning LPs is a big part--along with the long-suffering spouse's imprecations--of what keeps me from trying to rediscover vinyl.

Andy

 

[smeggy]

I like rcords because they are black. Also, if look carefully, they have a really cool wiggly line that goes from the outside nearly all the way to the middle. They go a really long way if you throw them like frizbees and make a great smashing noise if they hit something.

CDs are really only good as mug coasters, records let you hold a complete dinner plate! If you put one in the oven to heat up you can warp it to make a sweet roller-coaster for your needle and watch it swoosh up and down while it plays. How neat is that!

Records rool.
Besides, have you seen the size of a CD? It's much smaller than a record and only has music on one side so it holds much less music than a big double sided LP. LPs also go slowe so the music lasts longer. I tried a CD on my record player and frankly it sucked, all I got was a scratchy noise and my needle flew off the edge.

 

[derekbmn]

Why ?? Because it sounds good ...thats why.

 

[Todd R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hershon2000 /img/forum/go_quote.gif As someone who grew up & hated vinyl in the 60's solely because the records didn't sound as fresh after several playings & they were eventually scratched up as well as I had to get up & put on different tracks which scratched things up more, I'm totally confused with what seems to be this love affair with vinyl on this & other boards. My beef with vinyl isn't in regards to the original sound quality but the scratches & wear down of the records & having to manually life the arm to skip tracks or being forced to listen to stuff you don't want to hear if you don't want to manually lift the arm. Maybe there have been some advancements or something I'm not aware about since I got rid of my record player 20 years ago. Also, it seems like the CD revolution led to alot of reissuance of rare & deleted recordings that probably would never had been issued on vinyl if the CD market didn't come along.

I have records that I bought when I was 15 yrs old that still sound great today...without scratches!
I actually took care of my vinyl

I kept my greasy fingers off the playing surface, made sure my stylus wasn't worn, & set my tracking weight properly.

This was 30 years ago, before I ever heard the term "Audiophile" and my system probably wasn't worth over $150.

OTOH, some people didn't care about the records they owned.
I'd go to my friend's house and see the records lying on the floor, out of the sleeves, stacked on top of each other, or whatever. I'd see them pick up the record, putting fingerprints all over them. I'd see the pennies taped to the tonearm in an effort to get it to play over the skips. Of course they never cleaned the records or the stylus. Needless to say their copy's didn't last too long.

Tapes were perfect for those friends, but the same people tended to leave the tapes in the back of the car during the summer and would ruin those too. Guess how many times I heard "Hey Todd, my tape is screwed up. Will you make me another copy?" Since I was the guy with the clean records, the word got around.

Come on over, I'll play you the CD then the record on a properly set up & maintained turntable.
It will be obvious why people still love records.

 

[proglife]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hershon2000 /img/forum/go_quote.gif As someone who grew up & hated vinyl in the 60's solely because the records didn't sound as fresh after several playings & they were eventually scratched up

I don't have this problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hershon2000 /img/forum/go_quote.gif as well as I had to get up & put on different tracks which scratched things up more

An record side is not very long. I'm a fairly attentive person and when I'm bothering to play a record, I'm sitting down and paying attention. If I want to multi-task and do other things, I'll probably use an Airport Express.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Hershon2000 /img/forum/go_quote.gif My beef with vinyl isn't in regards to the original sound quality but the scratches & wear down of the records

Again, my records don't get scratched up. They come off the platter and go right in their sleeve. I've had no issues.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Hershon2000 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also, it seems like the CD revolution led to alot of reissuance of rare & deleted recordings that probably would never had been issued on vinyl if the CD market didn't come along.

There is also a lot of music being produced today that doesn't come out on CD.

Why do I like vinyl? My experience so far has been very positive. Every CD player or DVD player I've had in my system has been bested by a Rega P3 with an inexpensive AT440MLa cart and an inexpensive Parasound phono pre. The difference is less subtle than any other component change (short of drastically different speakers) I've made.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Count me in as a hater of today's digital (for the most part). The loudness/compression/limiting and the intrusive denoising are only part of the problem; bad EQ (making everything sound way too bright) is the worst problem of all in today's digital (re)masterings in general.

Vinyl, on the other hand, isn't perfect either. I have run into bad mastering on vinyl, as well - and that's not to mention the substandard quality of some of the vinyl used in records.

 

[cotdt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver /img/forum/go_quote.gif Count me in as a hater of today's digital (for the most part). The loudness/compression/limiting and the intrusive denoising are only part of the problem; bad EQ (making everything sound way too bright) is the worst problem of all in today's digital (re)masterings in general.

this is mostly a problem with bad DACs. the best DACs today actually sound pretty analogue, and have better detail retrival.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cotdt /img/forum/go_quote.gif this is mostly a problem with bad DACs. the best DACs today actually sound pretty analogue, and have better detail retrival.

Nope. I have heard the excessive brightness even with the very best DACs - which indicates that the mastering job itself is to blame.

 

[cotdt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nope. I have heard the excessive brightness even with the very best DACs - which indicates that the mastering job itself is to blame.

on these kinds of extremely bad recording, vinyl has the same problem too.

 

[Hershon2000]

Again, I'm not talking about the initial sound but the wear tear & hassles.

Unless they've improved record players in the last 20 years- maybe they have for all I know, you have to manually get up & pick the record arm up to skip tracks that you don't want to hear unless you're willing to sit through that stuff which I'm not. I.E, Sorry I don't want to listen to the Beatles Sgt. Pepper & listen to George Harrison indulge himself on Sitar on "Within You, Without You", nor do I want to get up & change sides of a record. I admit I'm one of those people who had records lying around out of sleeves, etc., but even when I did take care of them, they sucked after about the 4th or fifth time & had pops & scratches from lifting the tracks up.

Almost every recording I've ever wated- I listen to mainly 60/70's stuff, has been available on CD & the few recordings that haven't like Bo Diddley's Beach Party (a live recording) I bought & paid $40 & had it professionally transferred & remastered to CD.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cotdt /img/forum/go_quote.gif on these kinds of extremely bad recording, vinyl has the same problem too.

Actually, I have heard significant differences between formats, even of the same recording: One sounds too dull, another sounds too bright, and a third is somewhere in between. It's the mastering engineer doing the transfers that applies the EQ - and the one doing the transfers to digital is seldom the same engineer as the one who transfers the same recording to vinyl.

By the way, the only valid way to make such a judgment is to listen to the actual master tape(s) themselves. If a CD, even played through the best DAC, sounds noticeably brighter (or duller) than the master tape played back through the proper tape playback EQ, then the mastering engineer has futzed with the sound during the transfer.