Vinyl
Jan 2, 2024 10:39:12 GMT
Post by pavane on Jan 2, 2024 10:39:12 GMT
I suppose we all use one or more gadgets for listening to music and I was wondering about other people's views on the "vinyl revival" that is taking place at the moment.
I have a friend who has been suggesting for several years that I should resurrect my turntable. I couldn't even if I had wanted to - I sold it some years ago - but I didn't want to. I was a fairly early and enthusiastic embracer of CDs because I listen to mainly classical music and CDs didn't suffer from all the problems that LPs had. I lived in a timber framed house at the time when CDs came out and listening to an LP meant setting it going, tiptoeing to my chair, and barely moving a muscle till it got to the end or it would jump. Even if I could avoid that, lots of records had various clicks and thumps in them (bought that way, I always treated them with great care) that in some cases genuinely spoiled the listening experience, because you knew that 3 great big loud clicks were going to happen right in the middle of the quiet passage that was coming up.
However, as I've posted elsewhere, I recently succumbed and bought a new turntable. I was surprised at the range that was available. When I sold my old one (which worked but needed more TLC to sort it out properly than I was willing to lavish on it) I considered buying a cheap replacement just so I could still access anything I only had on vinyl, even if only to rip it to mp3, but there was very little choice - some sort of bluetooth thing seemed the most likely option and I didn't bother. This time around, the one I chose was from a range of six models made by a company that didn't exist last time I played an LP.
It's all been quite fun. It's easier now: I live in a house with solid floors so I could jump about if I wanted to (I don't) and the records wouldn't join in. We've listened to some music we haven't heard in years. I think that there really is a benefit in terms of paying attention - pop a CD into a player and mostly it will play itself, often for well over an hour, and if you can't be bothered to change it at the end, you can press a button on the remote control and it will play all over again. With a record you have to get up and put it on and, despite the LP name, they don't actually play for very long, and then you have to get up and do something about it when it ends.
I love the sound of the stylus finding the groove after it hits the record, but after that I'm not sure about sound quality. Mrs P thinks it really is better, but I wonder if it isn't just that we are really listening and have the sound turned up louder. I'm inclined to thing that the famed warmth of vinyl might be more to do with general mechanical hum (plus valve hum if you go all out luddite) but obviously others disagree.
So, I'd be interested to know if other people are dipping their toes in the world of vinyl (or maybe never left the pool in the first place). Do you think it sounds better???
Quite an interesting long article about the vinyl revival here - the article is now over 15 years old, and things have clearly moved on since then.
I have a friend who has been suggesting for several years that I should resurrect my turntable. I couldn't even if I had wanted to - I sold it some years ago - but I didn't want to. I was a fairly early and enthusiastic embracer of CDs because I listen to mainly classical music and CDs didn't suffer from all the problems that LPs had. I lived in a timber framed house at the time when CDs came out and listening to an LP meant setting it going, tiptoeing to my chair, and barely moving a muscle till it got to the end or it would jump. Even if I could avoid that, lots of records had various clicks and thumps in them (bought that way, I always treated them with great care) that in some cases genuinely spoiled the listening experience, because you knew that 3 great big loud clicks were going to happen right in the middle of the quiet passage that was coming up.
However, as I've posted elsewhere, I recently succumbed and bought a new turntable. I was surprised at the range that was available. When I sold my old one (which worked but needed more TLC to sort it out properly than I was willing to lavish on it) I considered buying a cheap replacement just so I could still access anything I only had on vinyl, even if only to rip it to mp3, but there was very little choice - some sort of bluetooth thing seemed the most likely option and I didn't bother. This time around, the one I chose was from a range of six models made by a company that didn't exist last time I played an LP.
It's all been quite fun. It's easier now: I live in a house with solid floors so I could jump about if I wanted to (I don't) and the records wouldn't join in. We've listened to some music we haven't heard in years. I think that there really is a benefit in terms of paying attention - pop a CD into a player and mostly it will play itself, often for well over an hour, and if you can't be bothered to change it at the end, you can press a button on the remote control and it will play all over again. With a record you have to get up and put it on and, despite the LP name, they don't actually play for very long, and then you have to get up and do something about it when it ends.
I love the sound of the stylus finding the groove after it hits the record, but after that I'm not sure about sound quality. Mrs P thinks it really is better, but I wonder if it isn't just that we are really listening and have the sound turned up louder. I'm inclined to thing that the famed warmth of vinyl might be more to do with general mechanical hum (plus valve hum if you go all out luddite) but obviously others disagree.
So, I'd be interested to know if other people are dipping their toes in the world of vinyl (or maybe never left the pool in the first place). Do you think it sounds better???
Quite an interesting long article about the vinyl revival here - the article is now over 15 years old, and things have clearly moved on since then.