Vinyl records

[Dok Zombie]

I recently started collecting Vinyl with the intention of getting a new hifi setup complete with turntable just as soon as I've paid off my credit card debt.

Mostly got prog and classic rock so far, Floyd, Rush, Mike Oldfield, Beatles etc... But I picked up some Dr Dre EP's too. Raided my parent's loft the other day as well, now I've got quite a decent stack!

(Just need something to spin the fuckers on now!)

 

[Matt_LRR]

Just redicovered how nice vinyl records sound. Been rocking to Bowie, Queen, Clash and The Creatures all morning!

Anyone else here have a fondness for this format?

Yes. There's reasons why it hasn't died:

* Clean, well looked-after vinyl is better audio quality than CD
* The fact you can drop a needle right into the middle of a track without messy forwarding and cueing makes it the perfect DJ format, CD players still haven't reached this level of user-friendliness
* The big art makes vinyl an excellent promotional tool

But how does vinyl compare to pure digital audio formats, such as FLAC and other lossless formats?

The research indicates that analogue audio actually triggers a different psychological response in the brain, and stronger feelings of pleasure.

As it stands, high quality digital audio and high quality analogue are fundamentally indistinguishable on a conscious level, but analogue "feels" better.

-m

 

[BonsaiK]

Just redicovered how nice vinyl records sound. Been rocking to Bowie, Queen, Clash and The Creatures all morning!

Anyone else here have a fondness for this format?

Yes. There's reasons why it hasn't died:

* Clean, well looked-after vinyl is better audio quality than CD
* The fact you can drop a needle right into the middle of a track without messy forwarding and cueing makes it the perfect DJ format, CD players still haven't reached this level of user-friendliness
* The big art makes vinyl an excellent promotional tool

But how does vinyl compare to pure digital audio formats, such as FLAC and other lossless formats?

With lossless MP3 formats such as FLAC, the real question is "what was the audio compressed from?". The quality bottleneck is in the original digital media that the file existed in before it was FLACed. So if you make an FLAC encoded MP3 out of a CD, it may preseve 100% of the fidelity of the CD, but it's not going to sound any better than the CD either, and CD isn't as good quality as vinyl. No commercially available digital format released so far comes close to vinyl. Give it 20 or 30 years and maybe we'll have something close.

 

[Tiny116]

They do have a sound that just can't be replicated, good old records XD

 

[Weaver]

I'm a DJ so I have a big stack of them
They're a very fun medium!

 

[Uberjoe19]

Just redicovered how nice vinyl records sound. Been rocking to Bowie, Queen, Clash and The Creatures all morning!

Anyone else here have a fondness for this format?

Yes. There's reasons why it hasn't died:

* Clean, well looked-after vinyl is better audio quality than CD
* The fact you can drop a needle right into the middle of a track without messy forwarding and cueing makes it the perfect DJ format, CD players still haven't reached this level of user-friendliness
* The big art makes vinyl an excellent promotional tool

But how does vinyl compare to pure digital audio formats, such as FLAC and other lossless formats?

The research indicates that analogue audio actually triggers a different psychological response in the brain, and stronger feelings of pleasure.

As it stands, high quality digital audio and high quality analogue are fundamentally indistinguishable on a conscious level, but analogue "feels" better.

-m

May I see a report that elaborates on your claims? Also, I only really listen to death and black metal, which don't really work well on vinyl.

 

[Uberjoe19]

Just redicovered how nice vinyl records sound. Been rocking to Bowie, Queen, Clash and The Creatures all morning!

Anyone else here have a fondness for this format?

Yes. There's reasons why it hasn't died:

* Clean, well looked-after vinyl is better audio quality than CD
* The fact you can drop a needle right into the middle of a track without messy forwarding and cueing makes it the perfect DJ format, CD players still haven't reached this level of user-friendliness
* The big art makes vinyl an excellent promotional tool

But how does vinyl compare to pure digital audio formats, such as FLAC and other lossless formats?

With lossless MP3 formats such as FLAC, the real question is "what was the audio compressed from?". The quality bottleneck is in the original digital media that the file existed in before it was FLACed. So if you make an FLAC encoded MP3 out of a CD, it may preseve 100% of the fidelity of the CD, but it's not going to sound any better than the CD either, and CD isn't as good quality as vinyl. No commercially available digital format released so far comes close to vinyl. Give it 20 or 30 years and maybe we'll have something close.

But what if you have terrible speakers? Doesn't your claim of higher quality assume one has good speakers?

 

[Sronpop]

Currently no, but as I grow older I will amass a vinyl collection the likes of which have never been seen. Its a cost thing, I need to be able to enjoy it properly. I will wait till I have my own house and build a music lounge, then stuff it full of the most amazing audio equipment I can find and enjoy the music properly.

 

[Sneaky-Pie]

I wish I had a vinyl player. I can just imagine it now having all those great albums played by music gods.

I can dream...

 

[BonsaiK]

Just redicovered how nice vinyl records sound. Been rocking to Bowie, Queen, Clash and The Creatures all morning!

Anyone else here have a fondness for this format?

Yes. There's reasons why it hasn't died:

* Clean, well looked-after vinyl is better audio quality than CD
* The fact you can drop a needle right into the middle of a track without messy forwarding and cueing makes it the perfect DJ format, CD players still haven't reached this level of user-friendliness
* The big art makes vinyl an excellent promotional tool

But how does vinyl compare to pure digital audio formats, such as FLAC and other lossless formats?

With lossless MP3 formats such as FLAC, the real question is "what was the audio compressed from?". The quality bottleneck is in the original digital media that the file existed in before it was FLACed. So if you make an FLAC encoded MP3 out of a CD, it may preseve 100% of the fidelity of the CD, but it's not going to sound any better than the CD either, and CD isn't as good quality as vinyl. No commercially available digital format released so far comes close to vinyl. Give it 20 or 30 years and maybe we'll have something close.

But what if you have terrible speakers? Doesn't your claim of higher quality assume one has good speakers?

No. Vinyl through bad speakers sounds better than CD or MP3 through bad speakers. As for whether vinyl through bad speakers sounds better than CD or MP3 through good speakers, well that depends on what type of audio fidelity you prefer. The better speakers will obviously reproduce more of the frequency range of the music, regardless of what the format is that is put through them. But that's not really the issue, we're comparing apples and motorbikes here.

The weakness of digital formats is in the sample rates that are used, they're too low to accurately reproduce high frequencies without harshness. The 44.1KHz sample rate which is standard for CD means that for a pitch which is near the top of the range of human hearing you're getting a very "jagged" digital representation. Also keep in mind that lower pitches also contain higher harmonics, and it's these harmonics that are not accurately captured on CD format. Better CD players try to tiptoe around this issue with the use of "oversampling" but that just creates its own unique jaggedness. Some people are realising this and starting to release music in formats with higher sample rates, however this isn't the industry standard yet, and even when it is, it's only a small step and it still won't sound as good as a pure analog waveform. Of course, most people who listen to music probably wouldn't care less about things like this and in fact some harshness in the mix may indeed be a desireable thing if you're listening to black metal etc. However there's no escaping the fact that vinyl is the superior commercially available format when it comes to conveying the most accurate recreation of whatever it was that was recorded in the first place.

 

[imnot]

my dad has about 100.

 

[Matt_LRR]

Just redicovered how nice vinyl records sound. Been rocking to Bowie, Queen, Clash and The Creatures all morning!

Anyone else here have a fondness for this format?

Yes. There's reasons why it hasn't died:

* Clean, well looked-after vinyl is better audio quality than CD
* The fact you can drop a needle right into the middle of a track without messy forwarding and cueing makes it the perfect DJ format, CD players still haven't reached this level of user-friendliness
* The big art makes vinyl an excellent promotional tool

But how does vinyl compare to pure digital audio formats, such as FLAC and other lossless formats?

The research indicates that analogue audio actually triggers a different psychological response in the brain, and stronger feelings of pleasure.

As it stands, high quality digital audio and high quality analogue are fundamentally indistinguishable on a conscious level, but analogue "feels" better.

-m

May I see a report that elaborates on your claims? Also, I only really listen to death and black metal, which don't really work well on vinyl.

as I am at work, I have neither the time nor the wherwithal to go hunting for psychological jorunals at the moment, but I'll tell you where I came by the info.

I came accross this information on a radio show calked "the ongoing history of new music" by Alan Cross, one of canada's foremost music music historians, on an episode either about recording technology, or human response to music, (I don't recall which). He quoted the study with regards to the vinyl vs digital debate, and he's pretty good about stating his sources, so he likely included the researchers' names and the university at which the study was conducted. If you have some time, you should be able to trace my steps back to the source study.

You should also listen to OHNM, because it's an awesome show.

-m

 

[Uberjoe19]

as I am at work, I have neither the time nor the wherewithal to go hunting for psychological journals at the moment, but I'll tell you where I came by the info.

I came across this information on a radio show calked "the ongoing history of new music" by Alan Cross, one of Canada's foremost music music historians, on an episode either about recording technology, or human response to music, (I don't recall which). He quoted the study with regards to the vinyl vs digital debate, and he's pretty good about stating his sources, so he likely included the researchers' names and the university at which the study was conducted. If you have some time, you should be able to trace my steps back to the source study.

You should also listen to OHNM, because it's an awesome show.

-m

If it's not available online, I won't be able to listen to it, as I'm in the state of Kentucky. Around 2000 or so miles from where you are.

 

[Matt_LRR]

It has previously been online, but being at work I can't confirm that the full episodes are available, as I can't load the flashplayer.

It's here, if it works:

http://www.exploremusic.com/ongoing-history-of-new-music/

-m

 

[darkonnis]

The most accurate representation of a song is the first time a vinyl is played. With sampling and other digital techniques like stepping MP3 whilst the most popular blows by comparison. Being honest i'd gladly have to switch CD's halfway through an album if the quality was able to bridge the gap between cd and vinyl.

 

[newfiegirl 110]

I have a ton of old records downstairs, both mine and my parents, so they go back to the 60s. Although I adore the sound of vinyl, the convenience trumps sound unfortunately. Plus, the one thing I don't miss is when an album is scratched and starts skipping. Nothing could make me crazier when I was a kid. Used to put a stack of pennies on the needle to prevent it from happening. Good times