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A bit off topic, but I'm a tad...jealous, of those of you who kept your vinyl collections!
I sold my late 70's/early 80's punk/hardcore collection as a young mother (needed the $$$ for baby stuff). I really regret losing my complete original Big Boys collection and I hope whoever has my translucent BLUE vinyl "The Faith" album is a deserving owner. ~sigh~
Brighter news: I recently picked up Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert at a thrift store for 50 cents a piece. Luckily I still have a turntable.
So, for you vinyl fans: best place (on line) to purchase needles???
I still have some old vinyl classics, but they rarely get played. I bought a Sony CD jukebox stereo a few years back. Load 50 CDs, relax and fire away on the remote. This is no high end audio system, but it sounds just fine to my ears - I'm not an analog purist. Most of my vinyl records had their better days when I was a teenager in the 1960s and 1970s, and are a bit worn and scratched up by now.
The bigger question might be why people want to play MP3 in their cars or homes instead of listening to CDs? (answer, they probably got the tunes for free). If someone doesn't like the quality of digital music recorded on CD, than MP3 must sound like trashcans to the ear. The digital compression ratio used on MP3 is exponentially lower than on CD. Yet MP3 has taken over the world.
Im not saying CDs are absolutely terrible. I do listen to CDs when I just wanna casual listen.
When I REALLY want to listen, I crank up the old hi fi.
CDs do have their advantages. They are easier to take care of, and portable. They dont scratch as easy.
But the myth is they last longer. They in fact, dont last a long as vinyl. They can also get scratched and damaged.
Its just that vinyl is easier to scratch. One swipe of the needle and yer done.
I don't even touch my CD's anymore. I ripped them all to 320kbps MP3's and they sit on a server. If I want a CD, I just burn it.
Believe it or not, if you rip at THAT level it's pretty much lossless. Most people don't because it takes up more space. Most people don't even know how, lol. They rip at the default 128 or 192 setting instead.
Now my CD's will last forever simply because I don't have to touch them anymore
Analog records, and reel-to-reel tapes are #1 and no digital conversion can sound better, a copy is always less than the original. A poorly maintained recording will sound bad, but you can't compare any digital recording to a clean original. There's a full range of frequency, up to the 20KHz a human can hear, more or less, and analog captures all the harmonics in between. Digital WAV files can come close but the sampling rate has to be high. Please bring back the vinyl record!
Back in the 70's, while living overseas in Japan and Okinawa, I purchased many hi-fi systems with turntables. I remember spraying the albums and using a velvet brush to clean the records (people didn't use the term vinyl back then) and buying expensive needles. I also remember having a reel-to-reel tape deck and the first cassette deck that had a "reverse" feature (Akai had an arm that would grab the cassette flip it and put it back in...precursor to two heads). As far as function goes, I was happy when CD's came out as you could go right to a certain track you wanted to hear. I think that "vinyl" is best for classical music. Pop and Country music can stay on CD's.
As far as function goes, I was happy when CD's came out as you could go right to a certain track you wanted to hear. .
I really like that feature. Sure beats playing around with that needle.
OTOH, I used to really enjoy the whole new album ritual, going to the store, buying it, coming home and poring over the pictures, the liner notes etc etc.
Now you either have a little square of plastic, or you just have a track from I-tunes (or wherever.)
I agree with you on the vinyl. I especially like the big covers. But they're high maintenance and so are turntables themselves. I do like to pull out some old records and spin them just for fun occasionally, and there's a lot of out-of-print stuff I have on vinyl that I'd never part with, but for the most part I'm an iPod junkie. Having an entire collection in something that fits in my pocket is too good to pass up.
However, I fear that by having instant access to a digital music library I might be losing that intimate connection to individual albums. You know, the ones you spun over and over listening to every note, every lyric, every groove, and every glorious imperfection. But after many years of collection CDs and LPs, many out of print, it's nice to just hit 'shuffle' on the iPod and let it fly! All 6000+ of my favorite songs.
Everyone knows vinyl is better, so why do people buy cds?
I have a great hi fi stereo at home and play records only. They sound so much warmer and richer than compact discs. You can hear the music the way God intended with the mid range frequencies being more prominent.
CDs are harsh sounding and you only get the high and low end.
Plus, CDs compromise the fidelity of older recordings.
Vinyl is the way to go !
I agree vinyl is the #1 choice followed by a high quality reel to reel. I think you'd need a pretty big dashboard nowdays to load your 10 L.P. changer though. Like another poster said it was great to go out and buy a new "ALBUM". Sometimes you'd get a poster or photos in the sleeve or a sheet of song lyrics maybe even a decal or a patch. Not so with CD's.
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~sigh~
