Vinyl is getting more and more sales. I just can't understand why. OK. A vinyl album in perfect condition can sound really good. Vinyls manufactured today can surely sound very good with good remastering and pressing in not too large quantities. But historically - how many of your favourite albums were good pressings? Unwarped and perfectly centered?

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Matt
Vinyl is getting more and more sales. I just can't understand why. OK. A vinyl album in perfect condition can sound really good. Vinyls manufactured today can surely sound very good with good remastering and pressing in not too large quantities. But historically - how many of your favourite albums were good pressings? Unwarped and perfectly centered?

Most of my vinyls, pressed before the oil crisis in the 70s are still excellent- sounding. My first pressings of The White Album and John Wesley Harding are still sounding better than the 180g pressings of today, imo – although some of them sound fantastic as well.

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Matt
Vinyl is getting more and more sales. I just can't understand why. OK. A vinyl album in perfect condition can sound really good. Vinyls manufactured today can surely sound very good with good remastering and pressing in not too large quantities. But historically - how many of your favourite albums were good pressings? Unwarped and perfectly centered?

It's not only the question of sound. These day and age when most people listen to the music digitaly vinyl is a great collector's item. It's bigger than CD, it looks better than CD, the artwork is bigger than on CD and some vinyls come in different colors or picture discs. I know many people who LISTEN to the music digitally but they BUY vinyls for their collections. So to me it makes perfect sense that vinyls are coming back because many people need some physical contact with the art which is not possible through streaming and downloads.

Plenty of the thin flexi 70s albums sound fine as well..

That said...

Last weekend I was listening to the Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald recordings made in 1956 & 1957 ...and wondering exactly when it was that we then forgot how to record music.

The Beatles 180 gr Mono-LP-box is Worth the Money...sounding fantastic..just as most of my LPs made 1954-1991...

The two that sounds worst is 'Are you experienced' and 'Rubber Soul' and both in Stereo...horrible stereo and quality on them original pressings...

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Come On
The Beatles 180 gr Mono-LP-box is Worth the Money...sounding fantastic..just as most of my LPs made 1954-1991...

The two that sounds worst is 'Are you experienced' and 'Rubber Soul' and both in Stereo...horrible stereo and quality on them original pressings...

UK or US originals?

Bought in Sweden on Parlophone UK and probably Netherland Polydor...Jimi's next album Axis bald as love on US Track Records sounds fantastic...

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What do you reckon of Voodoo Lounge, Bridges to Babylon and A Bigger Bang, quality wise? Records produced in the nineties, like Time Out of Mind, tend to be rare.

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KeylockSanchezandCo
What do you reckon of Voodoo Lounge, Bridges to Babylon and A Bigger Bang, quality wise? Records produced in the nineties, like Time Out of Mind, tend to be rare.

Bridges To Babylon sounds excellent, VL pretty good and ABB awful. No Security also sound very good.

That goes for cassettes as well, but there VL sounds as good as the others. ABB still sounds rotten..

Nothing wiromg with the vinyl or pressings....but the recording , brick wall compression & digital mastering are terrible.
[Getting progressively worse over those albums in my opinion]

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Spud
Nothing wiromg with the vinyl or pressings....but the recording , brick wall compression & digital mastering are terrible.
[Getting progressively worse over those albums in my opinion]

I'm pretty sure it's both the mix AND the mastering that make ABB sound so bad.

Strange panning of instruments, a muddy mixdown and the infamous brickwalling, where all instruments seem sky-rocketed to eleven don't help and the digital transfer to vinyl didn't help, of course.

However, even a single instrument, like the intro of Won't Take Long, sounds bad.

I'm really pleased that vinyl is enjoying a re-birth... but I'm still very sad about our apparent loss of ability to record music with natural dynamics and any real sense of a recorded acoustic.

The bottom line I suppose is that most listening these days happens on your i-pod or similar...so that's what the market caters for.

Anybody purchased the ABKCO "Classic/Clear Vinyl series" ?
I think 6 albums to date....not sure if more are to come.

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jlowe
Anybody purchased the ABKCO "Classic/Clear Vinyl series" ?
I think 6 albums to date....not sure if more are to come.

gottem...have my doubts that they'll release more, as it's been some time since the last group. As well, they seem to have a bunch unsold, and a few months back paired them with autographs and I believe framed if memory serves.

an ultra-niche market i think.

I got a lot of them. Not all. And not too impressed by their sound quality. Lots of pops and hisses. Doesn't seem like a high quality pressing. Usually, colored vinyl is sub par.

As someone from the 'download generation' I got into vinyl predominantly because I wanted to have a record collection. Downloads serve a purpose but there's nothing like having a physical copy.

I agree that vinyl records seem far more like 'artworks' than CDs and downloads. Plus, I think the act of listening to a record on vinyl is more fulfilling than listening to a song on PC/MP3 player. I'd liken it to the difference between eating a ready meal vs eating a freshly prepared meal - some ready meals can be great and really high quality but nothing beats eating a properly prepared meal!

Personally, I think the reason for the resurgence is that downloads/MP3 players have meant that portability isn't really a factor anymore for physical formats. It's not like you have to carry around the original with you in order to listen to it - especially as most vinyls these days contain a download link and some a CD as well. I mean to be honest I mainly listen to stuff on my computer/MP3 player as my vinyls are back home at my mum's place as I don't have the space at uni.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2016-02-08 19:40 by Seb91.

The plural of vinyl is "vinyl" not "vinyls", ferchrissakes.

As a record store owner, every time I hear that, I automatically profile the speaker as a poseur.

I get ya Javadave ..... One can only imagine what it's like for sheep farmers when tourists visit



ROCKMAN

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DandelionPowderman

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KeylockSanchezandCo
What do you reckon of Voodoo Lounge, Bridges to Babylon and A Bigger Bang, quality wise? Records produced in the nineties, like Time Out of Mind, tend to be rare.

Bridges To Babylon sounds excellent, VL pretty good and ABB awful. No Security also sound very good.

That goes for cassettes as well, but there VL sounds as good as the others. ABB still sounds rotten..

A BIGGER BANG on vinyl was just... a CD put on vinyl. Nothing about the process of a full digital recording can improve on vinyl. That's just a money grab.

[www.rollingstone.com]

Check this out, in part because of vinyl

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Javadave
The plural of vinyl is "vinyl" not "vinyls", ferchrissakes.

As a record store owner, every time I hear that, I automatically profile the speaker as a poseur.

...but the singular for the band the Divinyls is with an 's'.

Hmmm...maybe the English vocabulary has evolved?

I'll just put out there that I love my vinyl collection, and all those individual vinyls.

I buy all my music in CDs.

An album that I particularly like, I will buy on vinyl.
Yes sound plays into it, but mainly I want a solid, physical version that allows me to relish in the process of actually sitting down and listening to an album from start to finish.

Number one reason I prefer vinyl over digital because of it's sound range. I find vinyl to have a broader range in tones.

Funny thing about new releases on vinyl is you seem to have to pay more depending on how popular the artist is. I recently order two vinyl albums. One Bowie's Blackstar and the other Mono by the Mavericks. Bowie cost $29 and the Mavericks was $15, bot appear to be on the same quality of vinyl.

But Bowie is far more popular so they can charge more.

I have really been back into vinyl now for a few years and really appreciate the warmth and textures you miss with the digital binary platform. I think you loose some of the dynamics when the digital can't discern between the more quiet subtle sounds, like a long cymbal sustain, or quiet notes.

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GasLightStreet

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DandelionPowderman

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KeylockSanchezandCo
What do you reckon of Voodoo Lounge, Bridges to Babylon and A Bigger Bang, quality wise? Records produced in the nineties, like Time Out of Mind, tend to be rare.

Bridges To Babylon sounds excellent, VL pretty good and ABB awful. No Security also sound very good.

That goes for cassettes as well, but there VL sounds as good as the others. ABB still sounds rotten..

A BIGGER BANG on vinyl was just... a CD put on vinyl. Nothing about the process of a full digital recording can improve on vinyl. That's just a money grab.

but after a few listens, the scuffs that ultimately start appearing will lead to some wonderful crackles and pops.

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whitem8
But Bowie is far more popular so they can charge more.

I have really been back into vinyl now for a few years and really appreciate the warmth and textures you miss with the digital binary platform. I think you loose some of the dynamics when the digital can't discern between the more quiet subtle sounds, like a long cymbal sustain, or quiet notes.

You repeated pretty much what I said - you pay more for the popular artist.

The whole vinyl thing, IMO, for the most part, is pretty stupid. Mainly because there ARE some who actually care about the vinyl, have a good system, really appreciate the sound. Those people are doing it the right way.

Everyone else? Let's cut the crap, you are either convincing yourself it sounds better, or you're a younger person that thinks its "hip" to get vinyl that you'll listen to maybe once. Sure, I went through my vinyl phase as well. I'm young, and about 10 years ago my friend and I would get vinyl all the time. Here's the thing, the vinyl was like $2-$5, so it was essentially just cheaper than buying the CD, and yes I enjoy packaging and original stuff so it was cool. I was only looking for original pressings, and you could find some excellent stuff.

Nowadays, I have friends that buy vinyl and its for a stupid amount of money and for no reason whatsoever. I'll never understand the appeal of buying something that came out 40 years ago on new vinyl. I have a friend that buys the Bruce albums remastered on vinyl. Why?! Look for the original vinyl for 2 bucks and it sounds just as good if not better. Why would you for any reason want a repressing of an old vinyl? Literally JUST to say that you have it. Cause in the end it'll sound the same as the CD, and on top of it it costs as much if not more than a CD.

I used to love looking at old vinyl. Now? Everything is at least $7 in most record stores, even the crappiest of records. Every now and then I buy a few $2 records. But 10 years ago, before it really got popular again, I could spend $20 and walk out with like 5-7 records. Can't do that anymore, so in that case you might as well just hear it on Youtube cause you are spending just to have the record. To hear it over and over again you'll need it on your iPod anyway.

I don't know. A short little mini-rant I guess but I just don't understand the whole fascination with vinyl. I had a friend who just recently found an old copy of David Bowie Heroes in a record store. Didn't care if it was original or anything, and bought it for $15. If you just wanted to hear the music, you could get it for a third of that price and in much better sound quality on a CD.

RollingFreak, I have to agree with most of what you said. I'm 59 so vinyl has always been the first choice for me since I started buying music. My collection is now over 3,000 albums and although I don't listen to every one I do play at least 1 or 2 a day. My system is old but reliable and the sound is great to my ears. Like you I enjoyed buying things I had passed on earlier when everyone was going CD over vinyl and the prices were very low. I can still find some good deals now but like you said many prices have jumped up to or over the price of the original pressing. But I have to disagree that a CD or a download sounds as good and people should just go with that. Huge differance in overall sound in my opinion.

I love my records. I took care of em and crackle or pop here n there is mighty fine with me!

I agree with rollinfreak . I don't care about vinyl. It was great in the 70's because that's all we had . But today, are you telling me I have to get off the couch every 15 - 20 minutes to turn the record over, or if it's a single get up every 3 minutes. Forget about it. They get scratched , dropped , friends handle them roughly, and don't put them back in their sleeves. Don't even mention having to keep kids away from the delicate turntable and stylus. Today I don't care what format it is , I just want to hear the song ! I can't play vinyl in the car or take them on holiday with me. Moving house they weigh a ton. I am loving spotify , every album in the world in my pocket , with access to them all wherever I am. Strangely, every stones album seems to be on spotify except love you live. Vinyl does sound the best no doubt about it, but it's not convenient any more I haven't mentioned YouTube yet everything is on there too as well as many bootleg recordings. And finally say I hear about a new band or album , in the old days you would have to go to a record shop or wait for the mail to come , now the minute I hear about something new I can hear it immediately , it may not be vinyl quality but I have it this instant Buddy guy has a new album out , I read a review of it , sounds interesting , one minute later I am hearing it on spotify. Now that's livin