Why would someone chose buying a record over the HD Audio counterpart?

[haraldo]

vinyl LP is the most durable medium ever introduced.

Definitely more so than streaming, say Tidal!
There are several of my favorite songs (Too Mutz Blues Band) on Tidal that has been taken away and now seem to be unavalaible through streaming platforms, so much for reliability with Tidal streaming services

 

[highfigh]

That is absolutely true, at least the part about reground vinyl. They did not even take the label off and ground it into the mix. Over time this paper comes to the surface, causes pops, and also can get the stylus stuck in the same groove. This process continues for years. I still have some discs from that period, with paper still coming up and protruding. That was a bad time for the LP. It was much worse on US pressings. I have to admit a few UK pressings were prone, but they stopped. I made a habit in that period of only buying imported European pressings. The Germans and Dutch did not get involved in this practice. US EMI Angel label pressings were very bad for this.

I have never heard of the compressed air, and I suspect this may have been thought by some to be the cause, but it was paper in the mix.

I had one LP with a piece of corrugated cardboard that left a hole when I poked at it. The stereo store where I worked also sold LPs, so I just returned it and grabbed a different copy. This was in 1978.

How would the paper move if the plastic has cooled? I know the definition of 'plastic', but if that can move so much, it's a wonder that the whole LP doesn't end up looking like the clocks in Dali's 'Persistence of Memory' painting.

 

[Mikado463]

to TLS's comment of LP quality and care of, just played my 50 year old copy of Steely Dan's 'Aja', still sounds superb with nary a pop or crackle !

 

[highfigh]

to TLS's comment of LP quality and care of, just played my 50 year old copy of Steely Dan's 'Aja', still sounds superb with nary a pop or crackle !

Hate to rain on your parade, but Aja was released in 1977.

 

[Mikado463]

LOL, ok, I was off by 5 years , regardless, still sounds great !

Regarding the album, it was remastered/re-released 30 years later(Geffen/Cisco) and I bought it, again, sounds no better than my original

 

[TLS Guy]

I had one LP with a piece of corrugated cardboard that left a hole when I poked at it. The stereo store where I worked also sold LPs, so I just returned it and grabbed a different copy. This was in 1978.

How would the paper move if the plastic has cooled? I know the definition of 'plastic', but if that can move so much, it's a wonder that the whole LP doesn't end up looking like the clocks in Dali's 'Persistence of Memory' painting.

I have no idea how it migrates, but it certainly does and still is!

 

[cpp]

I like my LP's and streaming, and even my CD's, SACD's. Enjoy them all. And I pretty don't care what others think.

 

[sterling shoote]

I purchased close to 90 LP's this year and my experience with them has been so underwhelming and heartbreaking that I have decided to abandon records for good. I've been collecting high resolution flac and DSD files ranging in quality from 24bit/96Khz, all the way up to DSD128 & SACD for the last 5 years or maybe slightly more. The majority of today's records are pressed from these exact digital sources. Mostly, gone are the days of high quality record pressings with a pure analog audio path. You need to buy records pre 1990's to start getting the lack of a digital audio path.

I hate to break the news to you but the majority of the music listening public is not doubling down on Jazz, Classical and Blues.

To me, the entire reason to buy a record is to listen to the artists unaltered pure analog sound without much or any manipulation. Yes, it's purely psychological. I want to live in that experience for the moments I have with the record because it's an even to play a record with all the cleaning and flipping required.

However, I just bought Neil Young's 180gm reissue of Harvest that is supposedly all analog. Great, that to me seems like the perfect reason to buy a record. Except... the record is mostly plagued by static and crackles. I gave it something close to an hours long wash in the Degritter Ultrasonic record cleaner and the noise is still there. The crap is in the pressing.

Same with several other records I bought this year. One in particular, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Beat The Devil's Tattoo was supposed to sound incredible due to it's recording and pressing but has far too many crackles and pops. Again, scrubbed the sh!it out of it for a long time in the Degritter and still sounds trash.

Other records are pressed off center causing them to swish in crackling.

Unfortunately, the bulk of my collection sounds this way. Not every single one, but most. All are new and sealed with no used titles at all. I can say that my equipment is not to blame since I have the 180gm Led Zeppelin titles pressed in Germany and they are fantastic. Clean and dynamic. The latest remaster of KISS - Destroyer on 2LP 180gm is amazing as well. So too are some others.

But not nearly the percentage of successes I need to justify keeping this hobby alive.

What irks me most about this is, I have the HD Audio versions of nearly every record I own and they are all superior to the records in every way. So what's the point really? Why would anyone today buy a new record when the 24bit/96Khz or greater edition can be bought on any of the several online stores for cheaper and sound way better with the proper gear?

With the amount of money people invest in turntables, stylus' that wear out, analog playback gear, tubes... I'm convinced that money could buy an amazing DAC and give you just the same or better results, especially considering LP's limited dynamic range. There's irony in those records you buy because they are already sourced from the digital files you can buy cheaper than the record probably cost and still not sound as good. There is this placebo effect that limited dynamics somehow creates a smoother more analog sound. The lack of clinicalness in the recording somehow sound more natural. Wrong

Who is still buying new records and what's your justification for listening to the vinyl pressing of that digital source file?

Please understand, this poll is about HD Audio with a minimum of 24Bit/88.2Khz, not MP3's or CD's. Technically, if one where to debate things to death, an audio CD could be considered lossy due to the fact it is the baseline minimum recording at 16Bit/44.1Khz and theoretically, could, under the proper circumstances sound inferior to it's vinyl counterpart.

Ditto’s. I am done with new LPs because all and I do mean all I have purchased in the last 4 years have been defective, mostly pops and ticks which distract just too much to enjoy the music presented. It’s a conundrum for sure because I typically perceive vinyl to sound more life-like than other media, but now all of my money is going into stereo and 5.1 SACDs.

 

[Mikado463]

I like my LP's and even my CD's, SACD's. Enjoy them all.

Me too and given the fact, like a few others here, I've been into 'black pizza' for well over 50 years my LP's that I have are (for the most part) all analog through and through. I've mentioned this before, for those that enjoy David Rawlings and Gillian Welch they still employ an all-analog path.

 

[TLS Guy]

Ditto’s. I am done with new LPs because all and I do mean all I have purchased in the last 4 years have been defective, mostly pops and ticks which distract just too much to enjoy the music presented. It’s a conundrum for sure because I typically perceive vinyl to sound more life-like than other media, but now all of my money is going into stereo and 5.1 SACDs.

I have not bought any new LPs since the mid eighties. Nearly all my LPs are from the analog era. There are a few from the DASH tape days prior to the CD. I have bought a very few used LPs over the years. I can not see any point in buying a newly recorded and produced LP. To me that seems totally pointless, and you all know how much I value my turntables.

 

[KenM10759]

I have a good number of new LP's, probably 60 to 70 of my 452 current total, pressings from several different labels. Remarkably, none have had to be returned or refunded, and only a couple have needed a cleaning on my ultrasonic machine to be pristine, mostly because of excess static (and I haven't yet bought a Zero Stat.)

Yes, I have 3 now which are the Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Ultradisc One-Step records. They state right on the packaging that the source is DSD. The pressings are exquisite in quality, on Supervinyl. That's the stuff that's black but when you hold it up to light it's translucent. They play dead quiet, and with my new Luxman direct drive PD-121U turntable and Hana ML moving coil cartridge, they're a joy to listen too.

My DAC, a Gustard X16, is capable of converting DSD up to 512, but I own no disks and no transport or other player for them. I can and DO play digital PCM files through my Bluesound Vault 2 out to that DAC X16 from my own ripped library of 570+ CD's and downloaded FLAC files, or stream Qobuz and Amazon Music HD.

Playing records, good clean ones with barely any clicks or pops, is part of my engagement with the music and the artists who performed it. That interaction of getting the LP out, placing it on one of the 2 turntables, giving it a quick dust-off and setting the stylus down is all part of the experience for me. When using digital media I'm far too likely to poke at something else on the tablet in my hand, skip around, rarely playing the full album. The vinyl record experience is far more likely for me to sit and listen to the whole album, as the artist and their label chose to produce it. In most cases that was the artist's choice and I want to enjoy that.

 

[flippo]

I Still use my Thorens TD320 That I bought At the Rhein Mein Audio Club in the 80's. Don't use it a lot but do have albums that are not avail as cds

 

[sterling shoote]

I have a good number of new LP's, probably 60 to 70 of my 452 current total, pressings from several different labels. Remarkably, none have had to be returned or refunded, and only a couple have needed a cleaning on my ultrasonic machine to be pristine, mostly because of excess static (and I haven't yet bought a Zero Stat.)

Yes, I have 3 now which are the Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Ultradisc One-Step records. They state right on the packaging that the source is DSD. The pressings are exquisite in quality, on Supervinyl. That's the stuff that's black but when you hold it up to light it's translucent. They play dead quiet, and with my new Luxman direct drive PD-121U turntable and Hana ML moving coil cartridge, they're a joy to listen too.

My DAC, a Gustard X16, is capable of converting DSD up to 512, but I own no disks and no transport or other player for them. I can and DO play digital PCM files through my Bluesound Vault 2 out to that DAC X16 from my own ripped library of 570+ CD's and downloaded FLAC files, or stream Qobuz and Amazon Music HD.

Playing records, good clean ones with barely any clicks or pops, is part of my engagement with the music and the artists who performed it. That interaction of getting the LP out, placing it on one of the 2 turntables, giving it a quick dust-off and setting the stylus down is all part of the experience for me. When using digital media I'm far too likely to poke at something else on the tablet in my hand, skip around, rarely playing the full album. The vinyl record experience is far more likely for me to sit and listen to the whole album, as the artist and their label chose to produce it. In most cases that was the artist's choice and I want to enjoy that.

Yeah, I get it. That’s to say I understand your passion for vinyl. I prefer it just because I think it sounds better than other media which has digitized the analog tape production. But thing is I am very sensitive to pops and ticks. They distract me from the pleasure of vinyl. So, I just don’t buy it any more.

 

[KenM10759]

Yeah, I get it. That’s to say I understand your passion for vinyl. I prefer it just because I think it sounds better than other media which has digitized the analog tape production. But thing is I am very sensitive to pops and ticks. They distract me from the pleasure of vinyl. So, I just don’t buy it any more.

I'm rather averse to that as well. And I have NONE.

 

[MrBoat]

My vinyl does impart a very powerful effect via it's however you want to classify it, SQ. It's like comfort food compared to gourmet. I reconditioned all of mine and revisited them recently. I really thought I would be unmoved by it because I love CD. But now they were all like brand new again and it was so ultimately and intimately familiar, 30 years on since I last went thru them. These were old friends and I knew them still like that back of my hand. I found a pic of my ex in a bikini from 1988 in a SRV album when we were in our 20s. We have been divorced 20 something years by now and this really stopped me in my tracks in a most melancholy way. With the added sound of the album. . .the experience just can't be replicated or bought, anywhere else.

War's "The World Is A Ghetto" on original vinyl is just something to behold if you are from that time. As far as posing to be trendy or something, meh. I understand people who have their original collection. That and FM radio are all my oldest bro listens to and yet listening at his house is still worth doing. We both know where we have been with all of this and these records are so much of what enriched us, when nothing else could.