Anyone here into Vinyl?

Roasted

Roasted

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I know I'm pretty much jumping on the latest bandwagon but my teenage sister wanted a turntable for Christmas so me, being the tech/audio geek of the family got the job of shopping for it. To make a long story short months later I caved and got one for myself as well..... Yeah, I'm like 50 years late. Anyways, my record collection now stands at a measly 20 records or so but I'm enjoying it so far. The audio quality is good buy I'm not sure if it's the tech or just that more care seems to go into the mixes for Vinyl instead of the whole loudness war, over compressed mixes on many CDs. I guess at the end of the day, who cares, it sounds good so that's what all that matters. But the other thing is actually shopping for music. Going into a record store and actually digging through stacks of Vinyl for music or discovering music by finding some cool looking record from an artist you heard about and either buying it blind or at least looking it up...... This takes me back to my university days when I would hit up beat goes on every week to see what sort of cool used CDs I can dig up. The whole thing just makes me feel nostalgic as hell and beats the hell out of downloading music from the Internet. Who wants to pay for something that you can't hold in your hand?

The downside is, of course, cost. Not just of the records but I'm already contemplating getting a nicer, maybe tube, phono preamp to replace the cheap piece of crap I'm running now. Maybe a better platter for the turntable, etc. Pretty easy to go deep down the rabid hole when it comes to audio equipment. But either way, Vinyl is definitely making a come back and I'm definitely jumping on this bandwagon. :)
 
Read the stats. Turntable and record sales are on the rise while CD sales are going down the toilet. LP's never went away but in the 90s CD pretty much took over and the sales of LP's were in the shitter. Few companies were even pressing LP's because the market was so small. But in the last 5-10 years LP's the are getting (semi) popular again. And hence, since it's popular, I'm calling it a bandwagon and I'm admitting to going with the trend even though I've never owned a turntable my whole life. I'm not one of the few hardcore people that have stuck with the medium the whole time.
 
For older stuff I like my prog rock so Yes, Genesis, Rush, Floyd, etc. Also, most forms of metal, classic rock and post rock. Also been listening to a little Jazz. Picked up the first three AL Di Meola albums and wouldn't mind getting some Miles Davis but I'm fairly new to Jazz.. Also started dabbling a little in Electronic but again...... Not very deep in that genre.
 
My two oldest sons are deep into vinyl now. I still remember the first time they tried an album. I set them up with my old turntable and an AC/DC album. After about an hour my oldest said there was something wrong. The cover says there are 13 songs but it is only playing 8. He looked at me like I was an alien when I told him he had to flip it over to hear the other 7. Years later they have split most of my collection between them (leaving me mostly KTel albums). They have both purchase their own turntables and are branching out in all directions when buying new albums. Sometimes I hear Pink Floyd then Dylan then Sinatra then Ella Fitzgerald (surprisingly good) Its fun to watch.
 
hdsomeday said:
My two oldest sons are deep into vinyl now. I still rememb an album. I set them up with my old turntable and an AC/DC album. After about an hour my oldest said there we are 13 songs but it is only playing 8. He looked at me like I was an alien when I d to flip it over to hear the other 7. Years later they have sp of my collection between them (leavingalbums). They have both purchase their own turntables and are all directions when buying new I hear Pink Floyd then Dylan thlla Fitzgerald (surpr
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Another math wizz lol.
 
I sure am!

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Roasted said:
ReTurntable and record sales are on the rise while CD sales are going down the toilet. LP's never went away but in the 90s CD pretty much took over and the sales of LP's were in the shitter. .
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I agree, many new, not really mainstream bands are releasing vinyls of their stuff.

This is the only vinyl I have but I eventually want to have a collection when I get enough money to start one.

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This is next on my list : Tool - Lateralus

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If you really want to hear what a good turntable is capable of listen to something that's recorded direct to disc. In a nutshell, the band goes into a studio like Sheffield Lab that has a cutting lathe for making masters running straight off the mixing board. No tape hiss, nothing lost from the degradation of using master tapes over and over to cut multiple masters. Just the pure sound coming straight off the mixing board to the master dies. They start the lathe and the band starts playing for 20+ minutes. Reload another disc into the lathe for side B and repeat. The masters are then used to press a run of albums, usually limited to a run of a couple of thousand, as the masters degrade in the pressing process. Once they've do the run the masters are destroyed.

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I can already see a level of snobbery developing in this latest of pastimes. Is nothing immune? I listen to the vinyl cafe from time to time. Also, not on board with the "I sure am!" guy. Interesting thread, I used to have a record player. Good times.

edit, response to FMJ post #13. I know, I'm just being a tool.
 
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inreb said:
I can already see a level of snobbery developing in this latest of pastimes. Is nothing immune? I listen to the vinyl cafe from time to time. Also, not on board with the "I sure am!" guy. Interesting thread, I used to have a record player. Good times.
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There always has been a level of snobbery in audio, Bernie (I've had that album for 30 years, BTW). Some of the $tuff being made by the niche uber high end audio companies is absolutely in$ane. My gear is all hand made, hand written test result sheets n' stuff, and it's considered entry level in their world.
 
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FullMotoJacket said:
There always has been a level of snobbery in audio, Bernie (I've had that album for 30 years, BTW). Some of the $tuff being made by the niche uber high end audio companies is absolutely in$ane. My gear is all hand made, hand written test result sheets n' stuff, and it's considered entry level in their world.
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Please read edited post #12.
 
High end audio is like high end watches, or really pretty much anything high end. A Timex will keep time better than a Rolex. The Rolex is much nicer, more attention to detail, it can be repaired, even decades later, etc. In the end the Timex keeps better time. If the goal is pure time keeping ability the Timex is a better horological timepiece.

Same thing for most of the high end audio gear, if the goal is the accurate reproduction of sound and not the art of the machine itself...

BTW, these are my two main hobbies and I have both high end watches and high end audio gear.... never stopped listening to vinyl. Sometimes art trumps function, just don't be in denial.
 
That tesseract album is pretty good although I'm still trying to get over the fact that this is supposed to be a metal band and the singer sounds like he belongs in a boy band.... Not that he's a bad singer or anything. Regardless though I like the music and the chick in their video for Singularity is hot as hell. ;)

And as for the art vs accuracy.... Yeah, I agree partially if we're talking about analog vs digital or even tube vs solid state but I don't think you can claim that a $100 pair of speakers sounds as accurate as a $2000 pair of speakers. Though once you get into the $10,000 pair of speakers range things aren't so clear cut.
 
Roasted said:
That tesseract album is pretty good although I'm still trying to get over the fact that this is supposed to be a metal band and the singer sounds like he belongs in a boy band.... Not that he's a bad singer or anything. Regardless though I like the music and the chick in their video for Singularity is hot as hell. ;)

And as for the art vs accuracy.... Yeah, I agree partially if we're talking about analog vs digital or even tube vs solid state but I don't think you can claim that a $100 pair of speakers sounds as accurate as a $2000 pair of speakers. Though once you get into the $10,000 pair of speakers range things aren't so clear cut.
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Agree, it appiles more to the electronics end the to the speakers end. The speakers are always going to be listener specific because everyone's ears are a different shape. Having said that once you get into the four figure range, beyond starts to become art over form....
 
Roasted said:
That tesseract album is pretty good although I'm still trying to get over the fact that this is supposed to be a metal band and the singer sounds like he belongs in a boy band.... Not that he's a bad singer or anything. Regardless though I like the music and the chick in their video for Singularity is hot as hell. ;)
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Haha, you'd be happy to know they got their old singer back then. I didn't mind it to be honest, all 3 singers they've had had some serious talent. So having both albums and the ep gives me the best of three world's
 
Vinyl is fun, and I love vintage audio stuff from the 70s..but there's no way its more accurate than a CD or a lossless digital format. There are inherent physical limitations to cutting vinyl..engineers who master for vinyl have to consciously alter several aspects of the recordings to 'fit' them onto a physical medium. The dynamic range and overall range of usable frequencies is second to digital. This is why vinyl sounds "different"... and its for this fact its not a more accurate representation of the real audio, IMO. Perhaps this changes if you listen to a gold plated $10,000 LP on a $150,000 turntable or something lol
 
I find this article does a good job in deconstructing the "vinyl sounds better" argument (and it does assert the same technical limitations with vinyl already brought up): http://www.vox.com/2014/4/19/5626058/vinyls-great-but-its-not-better-than-cds

I definitely prefer the sound from a good vinyl pressing through my tube amp (though my preamp is not). Knowing that tube gear adds their own (pleasing to the ear) distortion, I don't fool myself into thinking I'm listening to the most accurate representation of the sound. I do know I like the sound better!

Has anyone else had to make a decision between a bike and audio gear?
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