Is it time to Ditch Vinyl?

[Mikado463]

I just purchased a new Rega P6 turntable, and a new Bryston phono preamp, the BP-2 mm/mc and the Bryston PS2 power supply. I have been playing vinyl for some three weeks steadily and I went back to listening to digital on my Bryston BDP-3 and BDA-3 D/A converter. The digital sounded a little harsh after sustained listening to vinyl. So much for this article. It was definitely written by someone with low fi analog audio.

as those of us that have been at this for a long time know, there's plenty of great analog and digital to go around for everybody. The trouble is it takes more patience , planning, execution and $$ to do analog really good.

 

[gbaby]

as those of us that have been at this for a long time know, there's plenty of great analog and digital to go around for everybody. The trouble is it takes more patience , planning, execution and $$ to do analog really good.

You are right. To do analog right, it takes money.

 

[lovinthehd]

You could shorten that to just "more money"

 

[gbaby]

You could shorten that to just "more money"

Agreed. It's almost cost prohibitive.

 

[lovinthehd]

Agreed. It's almost cost prohibitive.

It depends on how you value antiquity? I sure wouldn't spend much on analog these days, but still have much of my old analog stuff on hand still.....just not as convenient or as clean as the digital stuff for the most part....

 

[3db]

You are right. To do analog right, it takes money.

I disagree. My analog setup is quite modest and tied into my HT setup. I very much like it and so do all of my friends that have heard it. Dumping a ton of money into it will not resolve poor mastering efforts which occur in both the analog and digital realms. Harshness is a poor mastering effort and has nothing to do whether its digital or analog.

F'in snake oil remarks need to be terminated.

 

[panteragstk]

The only record player I ever owned was one of these:

As a kid I had some records that I would listen to on my dad's record player. The old Disney ones with an actual scene from the movie on it. I thought those were super cool.

Once I started buying my own music in the late 80's I bought on cassette and then once CD came out I went all in on that. I still buy CD's today, rip them to flac, and then stream it wherever I want through Plex.

Lol. I had both of those too.

Granted, I did get a collection from my grandparents and my mom says she's going to give me what she has, but the real gem is the 1960's era console player that I'm going to restore some day. Still works.

 

[NINaudio]

Lol. I had both of those too.

Granted, I did get a collection from my grandparents and my mom says she's going to give me what she has, but the real gem is the 1960's era console player that I'm going to restore some day. Still works.

Growing up my family had one of those all in one console units: TV, record player, tape player, and speakers all in one. Thing lasted forever.

 

[panteragstk]

I have 4 decks on the go, two of which are in one system and one each in the other systems for music I cannot find digitally or is prohibitvely expensive to buy. I make recordings using dbx for use in home and Dolby C for my walkman.

Why am I not surprised that you have a functioning Walkman?

 

[Trell]

Why am I not surprised that you have a functioning Walkman?

Tapes are far better than vinyl if you actually want a practical way to listen to music. I grew up with vinyls and tapes , and I made a tape copy of any vinyl I bought. A good tape recording at that time was to my ears pretty good, or more precisely: I thoroughly enjoyed them!

 

[panteragstk]

I'm with 'ya Mr Magoo ! I couldn't give a rats rear end about streaming, tweeting, face booking or any of that other BS !

Found the boomer!

Just kidding (I'm not wrong) as I grew up with all formats so I respect them all. Streaming services (to me) are still not as good as the could be, but I still like them. Simply because I may want to listen to a new album that I don't have yet I can. Any time I want. Wherever I want. It's awesome.

Granted, my personal collection that comes from lots of formats is also available everywhere just because of how I have things set up.

I've got multiple copies of a lot of different albums on multiple formats just to see the differences. It's really interesting what they change when they "remaster" things. @Pogre found that my new Metallica recordings have a lot more emphasis on bass than the originals. Problem is, I can't find my original CDs. Think they got stolen way back when I was in college.

People just need to enjoy the music. Yes, some formats are better, but I just want to listen to good music.

What's really "dead" is the act of simply sitting and listening to an entire album. That's it. No phone, no TV, no games, not even a book. Just the music.

I think that's the hobby that's dead. Music will never die.

 

[panteragstk]

Tapes are far better than vinyl if you actually want a practical way to listen to music. I grew up with vinyls and tapes , and I made a tape copy of any vinyl I bought. A good tape recording at that time was to my ears pretty good, or more precisely: I thoroughly enjoyed them!

Me too. Hell, I couldn't afford a portable CD player so I had to record from CDs to tape too. I didn't care what source I had. Even recoded off the radio too.

Streaming is MUCH better than all that mess.

 

[Eppie]

Growing up my family had one of those all in one console units: TV, record player, tape player, and speakers all in one. Thing lasted forever.

I made the mistake of loaning an LP to a friend with one of those when I was a teenager. The tone arm weighed a ton. Good bye to Uriah Heep - The Magician's Birthday. ;_;

 

[Trell]

Me too. Hell, I couldn't afford a portable CD player so I had to record from CDs to tape too. I didn't care what source I had. Even recoded off the radio too.

Streaming is MUCH better than all that mess.

Except that with streaming you could at any time loose access, forever to whatever you bought.

 

[3db]

Why am I not surprised that you have a functioning Walkman?

Your not??

The thing is that I want access to my entire music library and not have to go without. If I want to listen to an album that I cannot find digitally then I will use the walkman on my commute to work or going for my long walks.

 

[panteragstk]

Except that with streaming you could at any time loose access, forever to whatever you bought.

Nope. Anyone that "buys" streaming music is an idiot. There are a lot of instances where people "lost" access to things they "purchased" because of a licence deal expiring.

I'm more talking about always having stuff available. I still buy for the artists I like, and if I hear something I like on streaming, I'm going to want a hi-rez copy of it.

 

[Trell]

Nope. Anyone that "buys" streaming music is an idiot. There are a lot of instances where people "lost" access to things they "purchased" because of a licence deal expiring.

I'm more talking about always having stuff available. I still buy for the artists I like, and if I hear something I like on streaming, I'm going to want a hi-rez copy of it.

Cool that you clarified as I agree with you.

 

[XDM]

"Just as there are Trumpies who think Democrats eat babies (QAnon), or refuse to accept the fact that anthropological climate change is factual, there are many audiophiles who truly believe that vinyl is the state of the art of audio."

Are there any Americans that don't try to bring Orange Man Bad into everything?

 

[gbaby]

"Just as there are Trumpies who think Democrats eat babies (QAnon), or refuse to accept the fact that anthropological climate change is factual, there are many audiophiles who truly believe that vinyl is the state of the art of audio."

Are there any Americans that don't try to bring Orange Man Bad into everything?

While I really love your analogy, I disagree with your conclusion. I can't say vinyl is the state of the art in sound, but I can say that vinyl is special and it may be too expensive to hear vinyl's true capabilities. To me, vinyl is very easy on the ears especially in the mid and high frequencies. Its just different sounding from digital but you will need a good phono preamp, and a good turntable and cartridge. I'd call it a luxury. But, if you have hundreds of stored LPs, one would need to get back into analog (vinyl) as it is a different sound from digital and ear candy as well.

 

[Mikado463]

Speaking of vinyl, one of the supreme 'marketers' has passed ..........

Jerold 'Jerry' Raskin, 'Needle Doctor' to world's vinyl enthusiasts, dies at 62

www.startribune.com