Why Vinyl Records Often Get No Respect

[T'Mershi Duween]

Originally Posted by Happy Musicfan

That gives your vinyl record collection a superior edge re: preservation and longevity.

Some of us well above 30 in age have a disadvantage. I got my first 2 albums at the age of 5 or so. 'Tarkus' by ELP and 'Alive' by Kiss. Those albums are now in a storage box, in very rough shape.


Also, some of us are just a little more clumsy than others, and this has a cumulative damaging effect over time.

You know the upside of record wear and tear?

You have to buy more copies of the same album! Re-buying records makes for moving more units and a healthy, living catalog for the record company, artist/band and publisher.

I've worn out, loaned out and lost many records that I've had to replace. For some strange reason I currently have 3 copies of Blondie's Parallel Lines and two copies of Television's Marquee Moon! I guess I played them too much back before I really took care of my records.

I have a GINORMUS collection of vinyl LPs, 45s, CDs, DVDs. I take really great care of them. I have records that I bought as a kid in the 70's and they are still very playable and sound great.

Cleaning records is an art form in itself. If you put the time and effort into your turntable and associated gear, have a proper set up and maintain your vinyl, they will last a long time.

Collecting used vinyl is fun. You can inspect the surface for any real damage, see if they are warped, etc.

If you clean and maintain records correctly they will give you much more sonic pleasure than a compressed digital file ever will. You just have to want to make the effort. If you enjoy music as much as I do, it's worth that kind of effort...

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by T'Mershi Duween

You know the upside of record wear and tear?

You have to buy more copies of the same album! Re-buying records makes for moving more units and a healthy, living catalog for the record company, artist/band and publisher.

I've worn out, loaned out and lost many records that I've had to replace. For some strange reason I currently have 3 copies of Blondie's Parallel Lines and two copies of Television's Marquee Moon! I guess I played them too much back before I really took care of my records.

I have a GINORMUS collection of vinyl LPs, 45s, CDs, DVDs. I take really great care of them. I have records that I bought as a kid in the 70's and they are still very playable and sound great.

Cleaning records is an art form in itself. If you put the time and effort into your turntable and associated gear, have a proper set up and maintain your vinyl, they will last a long time.

Collecting used vinyl is fun. You can inspect the surface for any real damage, see if they are warped, etc.

If you clean and maintain records correctly they will give you much more sonic pleasure than a compressed digital file ever will. You just have to want to make the effort. If you enjoy music as much as I do, it's worth that kind of effort...

Great as Plastic Letters is (oh, wait, you said Parallel Lines -- well, Plastic Letters is great ), if you have 3 copies of that and only 2 of Marquee Moon, I'm thinking you need two more copies of the Television album.


After I had 300 of my most recently played albums stolen (back in '75 but the pain is still vivid), along with my turntable and (reel) tape deck, I found myself in the following years buying multiple (used) copies of key albums I didn't want to get caught without. It's hoarding behavior, obviously, akin to how those who suffered hunger and privations during the Great Depression tended to keep their pantries overstocked. (Although I certainly don't want to trivialize the hardships of those who went through those very tough times.)

[T'Mershi Duween]

Originally Posted by theblue1

Great as Plastic Letters is (oh, wait, you said Parallel Lines -- well, Plastic Letters is great ), if you have 3 copies of that and only 2 of Marquee Moon, I'm thinking you need two more copies of the Television album.

You're very correct about Plastic Letters. I may actually like that one a bit better! I have no idea why I have 3 copies of PL other than one is kinda warped and the other two are highly "playable" with one of those never having been played at all.

And my 2 Television LPs were to replace one that was worn completely out!

[mikymike]

Im 47, started on vinyl, bought records and turntables, new needles and cleaning kits, FOR THE MUSIC. 8 track tape came and I bought an 8 track tape deck and 8 track tapes FOR THE MUSIC. Next: cassettes, same thing, bought for the music. CD's, new format, new medium, new equipment, bought for the MUSIC. It's funny, Ive been a musician my whole life and have had a recording studio in some shape or form the WHOLE time and have never bought ANY music based on sound quality!!! For some reason the sound quality never entered the equation.

[Antoine8]

Originally Posted by theblue1

It's funny, dust, scratches, tape hiss entombed in vinyl, and vinyl hiss were all really familiar sounds to me but there was one sound I'd never really even thought about that sort of slapped me in the face when I finally made the transition to digital: the simple low frequency, broad spectrum sound of the needle in the groove. It was a sound I'd absolutely grown up with and never considered. Drop a needle in a blank groove and just listen...

Yes and this is what makes it great and special!

I will loose it at anybody that touches my vinyl collection!

[gingataff]

I vastly prefer vinyl to cd and everytime I have the chance to compare the two back to back I'm always stunned how much better the LPs sound.

For example a while back I picked up a used copy of Ratt's Invasion Of Your Privacy and it was clear, fast, punchy and most noticeably it had bass! So unlike the cd version which sounds flat and scratchy. The difference between the Classic records Kind Of Blue and the cd is similarly impressive.

That said I have a pretty good vinyl set up (Michell Gyrodec, Dynavector cartridge, heavily modified Rega arm and Tom Evans preamp) compared to a pretty basic Technics CD player, so perhaps it isn't a completely fair comparison

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by T'Mershi Duween

I have a GINORMUS collection of vinyl LPs,

Serious Request :

Please be kind enough to boast about the *British New-Wave / Punk-Rock / Post-Punk circa 1978-1982* vinyl LP's you might have. You know, Numan, Ants, Damned, Human League, Clash, Stranglers, Magazine, etc.

Thanks !

[Batchainpuller78]

Hey Kiwi, I do find it a bit harsh on giving vinyl collectors the image you describe..

I mean sure there is some cool in there, I think a vinyl collection is much more fun to have or to browse through than a Hard disk.
I also like the means of listening to music without a computer.. the little cartoon with the activities is spot on.

and some of us have been collecting and listening to vinyl before CD, During CD and After CD.
I still have a turntable and I still buy vinyl, I still have a cd player, I don't so much buy cd's anymore unless I find something interesting in 3 for 1 pile.

haven't bought an Ipodpadphone or whatever and the computer well I use it to listen to the music I recorded on it or to check the internet for something I might like..

as to better sounding that's subjective, I think for some stuff it does for some it does not and well it's in the whole experience of listening to it that this feeling also is made.

I never got into walkmans either as I prefer not to close myself off from the natural sounds when I'm out and about.. as I use my ears more than anything else to 'see' what's going on around me.

Then there is the music store sadly vanishing but the music store that carried lots of vinyl was a precious place to find new music, and like minded people.. a good store where you went often well the owner knew your taste and would recommend something once in a while that would be a great addition or discovery.. and somehow that felt better than the online shopping with a computer generated 'if you like this you might also like this and this and this'

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by Happy Musicfan

Serious Request :

Please be kind enough to boast about the *British New-Wave / Punk-Rock / Post-Punk circa 1978-1982* vinyl LP's you might have. You know, Numan, Ants, Damned, Human League, Clash, Stranglers, Magazine, etc.

Thanks !

I've actually got a lot of those, as well. I was a huge fan of the Magazine/Joy Division/Buzzcocks/Gang of Four contingent of Brit no wave, even the early Clash (although they got on my nerves after they became big stars).

Originally Posted by Batchainpuller78

Hey Kiwi, I do find it a bit harsh on giving vinyl collectors the image you describe..

I mean sure there is some cool in there, I think a vinyl collection is much more fun to have or to browse through than a Hard disk.
I also like the means of listening to music without a computer.. the little cartoon with the activities is spot on.

and some of us have been collecting and listening to vinyl before CD, During CD and After CD.
I still have a turntable and I still buy vinyl, I still have a cd player, I don't so much buy cd's anymore unless I find something interesting in 3 for 1 pile.

haven't bought an Ipodpadphone or whatever and the computer well I use it to listen to the music I recorded on it or to check the internet for something I might like..

as to better sounding that's subjective, I think for some stuff it does for some it does not and well it's in the whole experience of listening to it that this feeling also is made.

I never got into walkmans either as I prefer not to close myself off from the natural sounds when I'm out and about.. as I use my ears more than anything else to 'see' what's going on around me.

Then there is the music store sadly vanishing but the music store that carried lots of vinyl was a precious place to find new music, and like minded people.. a good store where you went often well the owner knew your taste and would recommend something once in a while that would be a great addition or discovery.. and somehow that felt better than the online shopping with a computer generated 'if you like this you might also like this and this and this'

I enjoyed your cartoon graphic -- and I have no interest in arguing anyone out of their love of vinyl; let's keep those sides out of the landfill (and out of the recycled vinyl chain).

But, I have to say, going panel by panel through your cartoon, I found myself thinking about how computers have arguably improved my life in all the areas touched on.

Listening to music: I have access to almost every song or musical piece I want to hear, on demand, at 320 kbps, for $5 a month through my MOG subscription. (For another 5 bucks I get it on my phone.) And I have it in a play system that is extremely convenient and well-suited to my listening habits. Having a play queue of hundreds of songs from scores of albums I can reshuffle at will sure beats 'random' mode on my old 5 CD changer. (At one point I almost bought one of those 100 CD changers they used to have in coffee houses and such because I like randomized playlists so much. I have literally scores of cassette 'party mixes' of favorite tracks, as well. Mixing up playlists is in my blood going back to the 60s.)

Watching movies and TV: I don't have a TV. But I get to watch a good number of favorites, on demand, when I want, with no commercials via a cheap Netflix subscription. Beats the hell out of my cable set up. (Although the cable setup with DVR was pretty nice. S till, almost all I ever watched were the old movies on Turner Classic... I could have pretty easily given up the rest.) I also have a collection of movies on DVD I can watch on the computer -- and the resolution is better than the TV it "replaced" (though the screen isn't as big, but with an application of dollars, it could be). If I really have to watch the lastest season of Glee or whatever, I can still catch it (although chock-a-block with thoroughly annoying commercials) on Hulu Free.

Contacting people: Skype gives me a dedicated business line for about $4.50 a month with unlimited calling through US and Canada. Hard to beat that. Facebook allows me to stay in casual contact with old friends who've moved to other areas (or are simply busy) in cases where the relationship wasn't tight enough that either of us might have made the extra effort required to stay in touch. I used to be a very social person but after I stopped drinking and clubbing, I fell out of touch. I'm now back in touch with a number of old friend from the scene -- with just about the right level of intimacy/casualness. And email has made my business life, overall, far easier than if I was still mailing letters, invoices, progress reports, etc. And then there's the whole world of communication and online fellowship that really had little counterpart before the BB era led to the world wide web era.

Reading the news: no comparison. Previously, I would read the local paper, which was steadily going downhill under previous management (I finally axed my 25 year old subscription when they printed a totally cooked 'expose' -- that exposed nothing except the paper's own hypocrisy -- on an investigative report from a journalist at another paper that investigated the numerous links between the Reagan/Bush I era Nicaraguan Contras and international cocaine trade). Google news puts news periodicals from around the world on my desktop so I can compare and contrast the reporting from everything from the Washington Post to Fox News to Russia Today. And everything in between. During the lead up to the Afghan and Iraq invasions, online news aggregation was crucial to me staying on top of the details -- and I was not among those surprised when all the Bush admin "evidence" for the invasion fell apart -- because, outside the US, mainstream media was still reporting the facts, even as "liberal" institutions like the NY Times beat the drums for war against Iraq. One downside to the 'net era of journalism: proofreading, particularly in columns and blogs, has really gone down hill. Not that it was great outside the major dailies, anyhow.

Making music: we come back around... no question in my mind, I'm hugely better off. My last analog tape machine, a balky old TASCAM that was continually out of wack (solenoid problems and the dbx NR cards seemed to fail every time you looked at the rack). I replaced it with my first ADAT and was immediately able to synch MIDI from my computer to tape without the trouble and tweaky uncertainties of striping. In the first two months with my first ADAT, I finished more music than I had in a year and a half trying to use the TASCAM, waiting for it to be repaired, etc. Some years later, in '97, I was able to set up my first 8 channel DAW and it was, without any question whatsoever, the most liberating, empowering change to my recording practice since I got my first simulsync deck; it led to a huge burst of creativity for me and I produced some of my favorite tracks ever during the first few years.

[donnylang]

All I know is:

Set up a stereo in your living room with a CD player and a record player. Put a bunch of records and a bunch of CDs on the shelf next to it. Invite people to come over and visit and encourage them to listen to your music while they're there. Most people will choose to play the records.

[Kiwi]

Originally Posted by donnylang

All I know is:

Set up a stereo in your living room with a CD player and a record player. Put a bunch of records and a bunch of CDs on the shelf next to it. Invite people to come over and visit and encourage them to listen to your music while they're there. Most people will choose to play the records.

That's because it's a novelty. And don't forget the nostalgia trips.

For sheer sonic quality? Dreaming. Or if there is a massive difference, there must be some eq or level imbalance, or a poor CD. The quality of CD D/A converters is highly dubious. Try a Benchmark DAC-1 via s/pdif and then see if you still prefer vinyl ...

Lost of hifi listeners - including audiophools - have graphic eqs in their rig anyway. You can definately bring some hiss and a low end bump if that's what you require.

[Jolly Jimmy]

Originally Posted by donnylang

All I know is:

Set up a stereo in your living room with a CD player and a record player. Put a bunch of records and a bunch of CDs on the shelf next to it. Invite people to come over and visit and encourage them to listen to your music while they're there. Most people will choose to play the records.

And most of those people won't be able to answer when you ask them why.

[Syncamorea]

Not long ago, one of my son's 18 year old friends made fun of my turntable. He wanted to hear the Carvers so I turned the system on and let him pick a few CDs to demo. When he wasn't looking, I put on a slab of vinyl and let it spin. He sat there, transfixed and when the side was over, he said:

"That was the best sounding CD I have EVER heard!"

I thought he'd cry when I told him it was a record. Granted, I do have a great table, arm and cartridge, but my CD deck is also moderately high end.

[donnylang]

I don't think it's nostagia if it never really went away. I think it's a matter of older folks gradually discarding their vinyl in favor of cassettes and CDs in the '80s and '90s (and more recently as well), and the younger generations sort of picking things up.

I was born in '79 and grew up in the '80s & '90s listening to vinyl because I was poor and my family could never afford to 'upgrade' to CD. So I bought tons of records at thrift stores and yard sales. 50 cents or a dollar per record was a much better deal than the $10-$15 for a CD.

In my teens and early 20s, I could still go to the record store and buy records for about half the cost of CDs, so I kind of stayed with it.

It wasn't until the last few years that the gap began closing, then CDs tanked and now vinyl costs more.

In addition, if you're a kid (teens-early 20s) now who grew up with downloading (maybe never even used CDs), vinyl is now novel, and therefore appealing with it's physical nature. CD is worse than obsolete, it's irrelevant. And hip bands in their late 20s-40s who maybe picked up all the discarded records in the '80s now have an audience to release music to on their favorite format.

Also, the reissue resurgence is at least partially due to bands and labels selling more vinyl because it's a physical format and you can actually make money on them. I just put out a 7" and I've sold more copies in the last week than I've sold CDs in the last 6 months. And at a higher price for a 5-song EP than full 15-song album.

[T'Mershi Duween]

Originally Posted by Happy Musicfan

Serious Request :

Please be kind enough to boast about the *British New-Wave / Punk-Rock / Post-Punk circa 1978-1982* vinyl LP's you might have. You know, Numan, Ants, Damned, Human League, Clash, Stranglers, Magazine, etc.

Thanks !

It's true, that was an exciting time for music. I bought a lot of new vinyl then!

Just a few of my favorite "new wave" records I bought around then:

The Only Ones
The Records (ironic!)
Lene Lovich
Ultravox
Devo
Buzzcocks
The dBs
Teardrop Explodes
Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Blondie
Talking Heads
Pretenders
B52s
Joe Jackson
Squeeze
The Knack (a seriously underrated band with a lot better songs than just My Sharona)
Echo And The Bunnymen
Joy Division
The Clash (Yep, I'm with theblue1 about them. Up until Combat Rock they could do NO wrong in my book)
The Police
Thomas Dolby
Blue China (obscure Swedish band)
Tuff Darts
Television
The Shoes
The Motels
Undertones
The Damned
Wire
Magazine
20/20
Ramones
Patti Smith

Those are just some of the records that I bought then and love still. A lot of great music was being released around that time.

Also a lot of great obscure RIO (Rock In Opposition) stuff, mainstream radio music, reggae/dub, world music, early rap, R&B. It was a pretty dreadful time for metal and country though, but disco was dying and it's better, dancable elements were adopted by pop/rock and the evolution kept going.

I really do have nostalgia for that time period because that's exactly around the time that I started to develop a good "suspect device" to "suss" things out...

[BSD2000]

I just had to chime in here.

I grew up with vinyl in the 70's, listening to what is now 'classic rock' - back when it was fresh and brand new. I didn't have an expensive turntable and most of the records i did have were hand me downs from my brothers and sister. I would listen to records every chance I got, often wearing them out from so many plays.

Once the CD player came out in the mid 80's, I started buying everything all over again on CD. I marveled at the quiet backgrounds and lack of hiss or vinyl noise. But the more CD's I bought, the more I felt something was missing. I hooked up my first CD player to my Lafayette tube amp that I played my vinyl through and it sounded thin, flat and boring. Even so, I continued to buy more CD's (thousands and thousands of them) over the years, but eventually I found that I really wasn't interested in music any more, at least not how it sounded on CD. I can honestly say that the CD format was killing my interest in music.

By the mid 90's, all of my vinyl was gone; given away or thrown out. My turntable was put in the garage and I began my quest to upgrade my audio system so I could finally hear just how good all of these CD's I was buying sounded, because up to that point, I wasn't convinced. Every new piece of gear sounded a bit better then the last, but I was still looking for a sound signature that just wasn't there. Even after spending tens of thousands of dollars on high-end CD players, DAC's, amps, preamps, speakers, etc.; CD's still sounded flat, boring and 'fake' (overly processed) to my ears.

In the mid 2000's, my neighbor's wife passed away and she had a big collection of LP's that he wanted to get rid of. So, for the heck of it, I went out and picked up a used Rega P25 turntable, just so I could hear a few of the LP's he was selling. I hooked it up, put a record on and dropped the needle. I couldn't believe what I heard.

Everything that I felt was missing on my CD's was there. Some of it was on the technical side, but a lot of what I thought was missing was emotional too. The music seemed 'alive' and real. Like someone else mentioned, the music from vinyl seems to give you a big hug and makes you feel warm and fuzzy. Maybe it's the nostalgic factor, maybe not. CD's have been around long enough and I never feel that way when I listen to them.

Hearing vinyl again renewed my interest in music. Up to that point, music was turning into something I listened to in the background while I did something else. With vinyl, I was drawn into the music, it grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go. Listening to music was an emotional experience, all over again, like it was when I was growing up.

Since then, I've become a vinyl junkie. I visit the local record store as much as I can, walking out with boxes full of vinyl treasures, often paying 50 cents to a few dollars for mint condition, classic records.

For me, I've come full circle in my appreciation of vinyl records and a renewed interest in music on a more personal level, which I found more rewarding and enjoyable.

You can see and hear samples of my turntable on my Youtube channel and on VinylAudio.net.

I'm not against digital formats - not at all. In fact, I'm in the process of archiving my vinyl to high resolution digital files. But what I do have a problem with is what happens between the mixing console in the recording studio and the digital master sent to the CD plant for mass production. Maybe it's the 'loudness war' between engineers and producers, or the over use of digital processing during the mastering. Whatever the cause, something is happening between those two points that is squeezing all of the life and realism out of the music.

Not all CD's sound bad and not all vinyl sounds good - It's give and take. But overall, I find the majority of vinyl records I listen to sound closer to the original source, more alive, transparent and 'real' (IMHO), then the CD release.

[Syncamorea]

Originally Posted by BSD2000

You can see and hear samples of my turntable on my Youtube channel and on VinylAudio.net.

Youtube has an analog channel? Otherwise, wouldn't digitizing it ruin the message?

---

I'm just yanking your chain. I grew up in an analog environment with a dad that designed and hand-built tube amps and preamps, crossovers for speaker systems he'd designed, etc. I had some initial negative reactions to digital and still own over 4000 LPs but to be honest, my current playback systems sound awesome when playing back awesome CDs. Lousy CDs, like lousy LPs, sound lousy. I am trained to ignore noise in both analog and digital playback when I'm in enjoyment mode and to isolate on it when in analytical mode. It's important to lower barriers to our enjoyment mode because so much of life puts us into the analytical box and saps joy.

[mizzle]

Originally Posted by rolo

2. Take you head out of the audio fidelity thing for a sec and look at this P.O.V. There is a big vinyl comeback... BECAUSE of the sound of that medium... including the imperfections of vinyl... call it Vibe... heck call it what it is... DYNAMICS! AND there are actually people out there that enjoy vinyl because you are pretty much forced to hear at least one complete side of music without the ability to fast forward. There ARE listeners that would like to enjoy the complete art form created by an.... ARTIST as the artist intended. wow what a notion, huh? You place a record on the table. Set the needle on the vinyl... go sit your ass down and submit to the artist you are listening to WITHOUT your A.D.D. kicking in... listening to 45 seconds of an mp3, then only to forward it to the next artist... listen to 1min of that and so on.

Sigh... "Rose colored glasses" as one poster said.

A) It is patently obvious that it is possible to skip through songs on an LP. Anyone who has gone through a crate digging phase will laugh at idea of being at the mercy of an LP because you are too lazy to move the needle.

B) Digital audio in standard .wav or .aiff format (44/16) offers a wider dynamic range than vinyl. Thems the facts. Look it up.

[Solidtube]

Originally Posted by rolo

2. Take you head out of the audio fidelity thing for a sec and look at this P.O.V. There is a big vinyl comeback... BECAUSE of the sound of that medium... including the imperfections of vinyl... call it Vibe... heck call it what it is... DYNAMICS! AND there are actually people out there that enjoy vinyl because you are pretty much forced to hear at least one complete side of music without the ability to fast forward. There ARE listeners that would like to enjoy the complete art form created by an.... ARTIST as the artist intended. wow what a notion, huh? You place a record on the table. Set the needle on the vinyl... go sit your ass down and submit to the artist you are listening to WITHOUT your A.D.D. kicking in... listening to 45 seconds of an mp3, then only to forward it to the next artist... listen to 1min of that and so on.

You must be a masochist or something, like to be forced to listen to an entire side of a record whether you like it or not.

Actually, most artists do not intend their records to be listened like the way the songs were arranged on an LP. A lot of the time the slow songs or ballads get to be on the last tracks of LPs is because they cannot put a loud song near to the centre of a vinyl record due to the smaller diameter, hence a reduction in HF, maximum loudness and linear resolution.

Surely groups like Pink Floyd would rather not have gaps between their music, but were forced to because one side of a vinyl record can only hold about 20 mins of music. I'm sure they would have preferred a one piece 'The Wall' than have it divided into 4 parts.

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by Syncamorea

Youtube has an analog channel? Otherwise, wouldn't digitizing it ruin the message?

---

I'm just yanking your chain. I grew up in an analog environment with a dad that designed and hand-built tube amps and preamps, crossovers for speaker systems he'd designed, etc. I had some initial negative reactions to digital and still own over 4000 LPs but to be honest, my current playback systems sound awesome when playing back awesome CDs. Lousy CDs, like lousy LPs, sound lousy. I am trained to ignore noise in both analog and digital playback when I'm in enjoyment mode and to isolate on it when in analytical mode. It's important to lower barriers to our enjoyment mode because so much of life puts us into the analytical box and saps joy.

[bold added]

Words of wisdom, no matter what your playback preferences are.

[jtaylor27]

Ok first things first, I'm 28 years old. You may not think it, but I grew up with vinyl. I started listening to music when I was about 2 or 3 years old. Im not talking kiddie stuff either. My parents had me listening to Paul McCartney, Lionel Richie, MJ, and Huey Lewis.

Up until I was about 11 we only had cassettes and LPs. Plus the fact that my family was relatively poor meant that I would frequently go to the local flea market at that time to scour the lps. Trust me a 9, 10 yr old boy looking through LPs without his parents and buying them with his allowance money was very strange, even in that time.

It was basically the only way to get classic albums (I love(d) 60's and 70s stuff) at that time since we didnt have a cd player and the cd reissue boom had just started up. Even after we got the CD player, I still would frequent the LP racks as it was cheaper for me to buy stuff on LP and the CD stores selection was usually poor.

In fact, I've been playing vinyl off and on my entire life. It's only been in the last few years (maybe since the mid 2000's) that i've had the ability to look online and be able to download stuff i'd previously been able to find only on vinyl.

But I still keep going back to it. Sound quality aside, theres just something about collecting LP's. Its just fun. It's a hobby. It feels like you "own the album" and you can immerse yourself in it. The side break helps you internalize the songs better. I find most of my "favourite albums" I've either owned on vinyl in the past or now.

I now have an AT 440MLA stylus on my table which seriously kicks major butt. I've A/B'd it against the same tunes playing digitally off my computer and while the vinyl doesnt sound better "every time" often it sounds slightly better or the same with noise added. I find most cds sound like they have a low pass filter engaged compared to the vinyl cut, if that puts in ones mind the description of the sound. It's subtle on most albums but some it really is night and day and makes you wonder what the hell the mastering engineer did to make the cd sound like that.

The worst part about vinyl is the noise, and yes even after cleaning some of my lp's have noise. I just block it out usually or try to find a better copy. People who've never grown up with LP's or are not acclimatized to this will probably have trouble with it. I think of it as the trade-off I get for bigger cover art, lyric sheets, extras, better frequency response usually.

Another unique attribute to vinyl can be the noise. Often when hearing the same album over and over, one can anticipate certain noises in between the songs, which are unique to your pressing and while it might sound crazy, makes it cool to me!

[Syncamorea]

Originally Posted by jtaylor27

Another unique attribute to vinyl can be the noise. Often when hearing the same album over and over, one can anticipate certain noises in between the songs, which are unique to your pressing and while it might sound crazy, makes it cool to me!

How do you clean your records? I have an ancient VPI HW-17 and it has cleaned soooo many slabs of vinyl. A proper cleaning with a good quality device can lower the noise floor massively. There's lurve in dem grooves if you can get the crap out of the way!

[jtaylor27]

Originally Posted by Syncamorea

How do you clean your records? I have an ancient VPI HW-17 and it has cleaned soooo many slabs of vinyl. A proper cleaning with a good quality device can lower the noise floor massively. There's lurve in dem grooves if you can get the crap out of the way!

I'm actually hand washing with disc doctor fluid and distilled water. I know I should save up and get a VPI, but i seriously cant stop buying records in order to have the funds to do that

It's an addictive hobby.

[lame pseudonym]

Originally Posted by mikymike

I It's funny, Ive been a musician my whole life and have had a recording studio in some shape or form the WHOLE time and have never bought ANY music based on sound quality!!! For some reason the sound quality never entered the equation.

But I have not bought plenty of recordings because of lousy sound quality.

Come to think of it, I have been rebuying CD compilations of oldies (Gene Pitney, Bobby Vee, etc) because the early CDs sounded so wretched.

Can we get a government grant to put Relic Records back in business?