[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4metta /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm too broke to buy vinyl so I won't.

Heh, you know..I used to think this as well, but if you can source a used tt with a decent cart you could be on your way to a world of music on the CHEAP! This weekend, I hit a pawn shoppe that had just received a few boxes of mint albums. $1/LP. Boxed set of 4? $1. Boxed set of 6? $1. Now, right above the boxes of LP's were bins of used CD's. Bottom price? $5. Heh. $5 for a used CD or $1 for the LP. I walked out of there paying $24 for 40 odd records because of the boxed sets.

Now I do realize this won't work mostly with new releases, which tend to be higher priced (though often enough in the indie rock/pop/rock/punk scene...the LP's are cheaper by a few dollars.

Don't sell yourself short on a world of music never to be released on CD. Search the forums, search other audio sites, audiogon, ebay...or head out to your local pawn shoppes, put ads on craigs list or the local equivalents. You can likely source a decent tt for 50, get it serviced for another 50, buy a Grado cart and a Little Rat phono from Radio shack all for about 200 USD.

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by eyeteeth /img/forum/go_quote.gif I gotta go with that statement, which BTW favors neither format. Vinyl vs CD? Which ever had the superior source tape and the superior sound engineer will sound better.

CD's are great because unless the case is broken, one can expect to receive a pristine copy, no scratches, ready to play with the push of a button (Rootkits notwithstanding

). With vinyl...you have to hope the LP is not warped to all hell, scratched or plagued with residue from the pressing process. In many ways RBCD et al is far superior.

I have some CD's that sound better than their vinyl counterparts, and vice versa. The best reason to get into vinyl is new music and/or cheap music. Honestly, if one is interested in classical...nothing beats vinyl. For some reason classical records on the used market are in good condition and dirt cheap. I have a about 200 classical/opera LP's and I've paid anywhere between 125-150 for all of them. Maybe less.

 

[jamesb]

dont forget the big artwork.
cds cases just aren't the same

i freely admit that a lot of what i love about vinyl is the ritual and the aesthetics of it

though i own cds - i dont listen to them - i have them all ripped to my computer in lossless, so for me the cd is just a method of getting the data to my computer, in the future the internet will (hopefully) do this job just as well as the cd (bitrates are too low and drm is too limiting at present)

so the cd looses out to the computer in conveniance and looses to vinyl in appearance and (arguably) sound quality - depending on which type of distortion you find most acceptable

i do agree that a lot of the problems people associate with cds are not down to the format but the poor mastering - and its just more difficult to get away with that on vinyl, the record just ends up misstracking

in the end, i enjoy both analogue and digital, both can sound great and there is music that is only available on one or the other

remember:
in the end it's all about the music

 

[Thelonious Monk]

both are failures when Slim Devices exists.
















but seriously, just get BOTH! $500 on a ready-to-play turntable package, $200 for a good phono preamp, Goodwill/Pawn Shop, and you're set! with digital, just invest in a decent universal player for your fix of CDs, SACDs, and even DVD-A's!

why can't we just all get along? both of them are a "hassle" in my book, i'd rather not have to use a medium that can easily be damaged and ruined forever. then again, with music servers you have to burn everything from optical media... so that's an even bigger hassle.

 

[Thelonious Monk]

both are obsolete compared to music servers.



































seriously, why can't we all just get along?!?!? sure vinyl may come in scratched, but CDs will eventually become scratched, and there's a chance you'll lose everything if you don't backup your digital media. you can't skip tracks on vinyl (easily), you still have to change CDs when you want to listen to different performers with optical, and with digital you've got to burn all of your stuff onto a computer to get it working in the first place... the best solution of course is to have all 3! i can see myself living with a $700 TT setup ($500 for turntable ready-to-play, $200 for phono stage), a nice universal player and then something like a Transporter as the DAC for the universal player and the music server. all formats have their own distinct advantages- just... well, take advantage of them! you can get vinyl for $1 a record, you can get almost anything on optical, and on digital you can get everything from CD except you don't have to switch disks ever.... unless you count the agonizing task of burning your collection onto a computer and praying your harddrive doesnt fail (cough cough backup).


and like the above poster said, just enjoy the music. i for one could easily spend the rest of my life listening to an iPod + SR60. i just don't have to so i'm free to blow all of my money on this hobby.

also: shouldn't this be in source components?

 

[BoxBoxBox]

I moved into vinyl for about 3 months now.

To me the analogue difference is obvious, I am there to stay.

However lately I realllllllly miss having all my songs in an ipod for whenever I need. I burned CDs and blasted them in my car and enjoy them just as much as vinyl... so I am thinking about re-downloading MP3s for convenience... but also keeping my analogue set-up as a sort of 'music shrine' after those long days of work you sit back and put the headphones on and listen to music's apex

So I'm both!

 

[Thelonious Monk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoxBoxBox /img/forum/go_quote.gif I moved into vinyl for about 3 months now. To me the analogue difference is obvious, I am there to stay. However lately I realllllllly miss having all my songs in an ipod for whenever I need. I burned CDs and blasted them in my car and enjoy them just as much as vinyl... so I am thinking about re-downloading MP3s for convenience... but also keeping my analogue set-up as a sort of 'music shrine' after those long days of work you sit back and put the headphones on and listen to music's apex So I'm both!

it's kind of nuts to have nothing but a vinyl rig... not so much as a standalone home rig, but you've gotta have SOMETHING in the car, man!

 

[LFF]

It's all in the master source and who engineered what. I really LOVE the convinience of the CD. However, on a good rig, there is just something special about vinyl - the process, the cleaning, the playing, the flipping it over - it's all more involving and fun but YMMV.

As for sound - both can be great. Recently the CD is getting a really bad rap because of the crap mastering they put on most of them. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nat King Cole, Sinatra, The Beatles - all great artists with crappy sounding CDs. Compare a CD of The Beatles to a mint of vinyl copy of the same album and there is no contest - the vinyl wins every single time.

I have been frustrated by this so much recently that I have to buy my favorite on vinyl and the get the vinyl transferred to CD. It sucks and it costs an arm and a leg but the resulting "hybrid" CD is amazing.

Now - please - if you disagree - please let me know and post.

 

[Aman]

I have a much larger vinyl collection than CDs. I listen to a lot of music every day, and I find that vinyl doesn't wear me out as much. I think this is due to the lack of the inaudible high-frequency ranges. Even though we can't hear them, the brain still TRIES to process them, which leads to higher fatique.

A lot of music simpy is only available on CD, and a lot of music is simply only available on vinyl. Therefore, I own both. However, I enjoy everything about vinyl more. If all music that were on CD were on vinyl as well, then I'd only buy vinyl records. There's nothing about the convenience of CDs that intersts me, because I don't own a car (city dweller) and I could always rip the music I wanted to any portable device (but the only portable music player I use for work when I want a client to be able to demo their tracks).

 

[Joshatdot]

To me Vinyl has more warm/personal feeling, while CD's are friggen great & convenient , but more stern/cold feeling. If I had a choice of Vinyl or CD's .. Vinyl hands down.

 

[Sleestack]

For me it is simply an issue of mastering. IF CDs and other digital formats are mastered properly they provide more transparency and better sound quality to my ears. Unfortunately, that is a big IF. I appreciate vinyl for the available library of LPs and especially 45s. I think it is a shame that labels seem to be reserving many their properly mastered releases for vinyl, as I think greater fidelity could be achieved through digital formats.

 

[robm321]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thelonious Monk /img/forum/go_quote.gif it's kind of nuts to have nothing but a vinyl rig... not so much as a standalone home rig, but you've gotta have SOMETHING in the car, man!

I'd agree. Although vinyl is king, I need a CD player for backup at least.