Is vinyl still worth the cost and inconvenience?

[Helmut]

I mostly got into vinyl for the artwork and because I missed physical media

/strokes beard
/eats smashed avocado on artisanal sourdough

I went in it explicitly with idea to only by select albums that mean a lot to me and that I enjoy in their entirety. This was 2 years ago, I now own about 80 records and a beautiful white Planar 3 as part of my modest system.

Most of my daily listening is still Spotify or streaming (lossless rips of maybe 800 albums or so).

But once or twice a week I sit down properly and put a record on, no iPhone, MacBook or iPad to distract me. And I absolutely love it. I don’t see why one needs to come at the expense of the other.

 

[Mike Reed]

There's a lot more information on vinyl than even the best turntable can extract. My current TT digs out more music than the very best available could have done when I started collecting LP's and I'm pretty confident that more progress will be made in the future.

I agree with your former statement but really think we've reached the mechanical and electrical peak of what can be extracted. Like many things, hifi is a process of diminishing returns. It still strikes me that supposedly antiquated valved amplification and electrostatic speakers can and do compete with other formats. As the room is a complete variable and has such an effect on s.q., I can't see too much actual progress in transcribing the LP record except in the fields of recording,mastering and production of same.

 

[lencotweaker]

Vinyl is ESSENTIAL to run alongside a streaming set-up. In my experience, when the network is playing up, or the computer needs yet another software update or its just not working because it never does on a Wednesday, then its time to pour yourself a glass of wine, drop the needle on the wax and put your feet up....

 

[vintage60]

Would be nice to hear peoples' thoughts in new (modern re-issued) vinyl versus original pressings from back in the day. I've not had a good experience with new vinyl. For some reason, the majority of the ones I have bought are warped, in some cases so badly that I dare not try them out for fear of breaking my cart.

I don't remember old vinyl being quite so defective unless they were neglected, but lots of new vinyl that I've bought are warped and in some cases, give off quite a bit of surface noise so I wonder whether there are production quality issues at play.

I just bought Christine and Queens album from two different retailers, one in the UK, one in France. Both are warped, but playable. The French one has intermittent "whooshing" surface noise in some parts, whereas the UK one is completely silent on exactly the same songs and the same place of the song where I hear the surface noise on the French record.

As for running vinyl alongside streaming, I do that, but almost always default to vinyl because I think the sound from vinyl (the old pressings) has more emotion and character...I don't even wait until the streamer is out of action due to a software update or a software update that "freezes" my unit due to some glitch.

 

[Yank]

I have not had QC problems with new vinyl. At all. Not even once. My main complaint with new vinyl of old releases is that the master tapes today are not in as good condition as they once were, and sometimes there's a loss of "vitality" compared to original pressings, even if some "hi fi parameters" have been improved with the new mastering.

 

[Chops54]

I'm sitting here listening to Shpongle on a Lenco 75 I've built up for my son. Fantastic and well worth the effort.

 

[Nic Robinson]

My current TT digs out more music than the very best available could have done when I started collecting LP's...

Some of that old stuff can do amazing things.

 

[Julf]

There's a lot more information on vinyl than even the best turntable can extract

Really? Isn't the limiting factor the cutting head and the vinyl material? The former limits frequency, the latter signal-to-noise ratio.

 

[yeti42]

When I heard my first CD player I decided to upgrade my turntable instead I was so impressed with it. Digital is a lot better now but I’ve not lost the vinyl habit and I’m certainly not inclined to jack it in for even the best digital I’ve heard. In fact I’ve just replaced my Elite Rock and Aro with an Artemis SA-1 and Schroeder Reference using the money I was planing to put into a NDS or similar level digital player. If I was starting from scratch I’m not sure I would, as I wouldn’t know what I was missing. I don’t know how far I’d go with the rest of the system with only a digital front end either, probably not as far as I have on the back of vinyl.

 

[1964meb]

No. If I had my time again it would not be vinyl.

Also, As it happens I'm really hacked off with my lp 12. It sounds shite.

These things could be linked.

M

 

[tricky1]

Not for new vinyl. It's overpriced and alot is not good quality. For collecting/ listening to 2ndhand vinyl, I think it's worth it. Discogs is a great resource for cheap vinyl. Charity shops have mostly got on the band wagon and charge over the odds.

 

[Gaius]

Vinyl Was Dead! by Mark Digman, on Flickr

 

[rdf]

Would be nice to hear peoples' thoughts in new (modern re-issued) vinyl versus original pressings from back in the day. I've not had a good experience with new vinyl. For some reason, the majority of the ones I have bought are warped, in some cases so badly that I dare not try them out for fear of breaking my cart.
.

Yep. Virtually everything I buy these days is at least a little "dished", but the Acutus clamp can flatten most things. The records it can't flatten are 180g. 180g, IMO, is BS: simply a way to make the consumer think they're getting more, as justification for charging more.

Surface noise on new pressings is often very bad. Clicks, pops, even continual "whooshing". Most people, I guess, don't notice because either they think records are SUPPOSED to sound like that, or, despite what they might think, their tt/cart/phono stage aren't very good, and the clicks and pops, along with all the HF detail, is buried in that "warm" "analogue" sound.

 

[monty]

I love LP's and Tidal. I listen to Tidal more, simply because its easier, but I prefer the sound of my records.

The pain with vinyl for me is the turntable. Belt drive, takes ages to start and stop, record clamp, checking the speed as temperature in the room adversely impacts accuracy etc etc.

I'm upgrading TT soon and seriously thinking LP12 for ease of use. Radikal keeps the speed right, no record clamp, lightweight dust cover etc etc.

 

[Nero]

Putting an LP on is always a treat for me. A little religious moment. When I think that the signal from a diamond tracing a bit of vinyl, going through a passive pre to active speakers is producing such a wonderful sound, it acts as an antidote to digital technology generally. Yes, I know the music was more than likely recorded digitally, but it seems somehow so...simple.

 

[S-Man]

There's a lot more information on vinyl than even the best turntable can extract. My current TT digs out more music than the very best available could have done when I started collecting LP's and I'm pretty confident that more progress will be made in the future.

I think the progress to be made in the future will be rather limited. I believe we have already seen a convergence of technology for LP replay.
Same for digital, 16/44 is superb if done right.

 

[wylton]

LPs? Buy 'em, clean 'em. rack 'em, play 'em!

I don't see the inconvenience TBH, especially compared to streaming, whereby I've lost two servers already! I have an Auralic Aries MIni now with a huge SSD, so hopefully, the longevity of that will be better. Also, regarding which media to use, you have to remember that not all music is available on all the variants, so if you're really into your music, you have no choice but to go multi-media and that's what I do, but I do love my vinyl and no need to pay the earth either! My Lenco 88 cost £1, shot blast and repaint cost £12 etc...

 

[Mike Reed]

I'm upgrading TT soon and seriously thinking LP12 for ease of use.

You don't have to go to a fruit box; there are plenty of no-clamped decks out there with accurate and reliable speed. Furthermore, you don't need to stop the platter with a clamp-less deck. I went from clamped Orbe (14 years) to Nott. Analogue (no clamp). As this has a low-torque motor and 20+ kilogramme platter, you really wouldn't want to stop it !

 

[Mike Reed]

In well over 50 years at the vinyl face, I still never cease to be amazed at how such a wondrous and all-enveloping musical performance can emanate from a wiggly groove and a diamond. Somehow, the same feeling never occurs to me with my CD replay, despite it frequently being on a par with my LP transcription. Both are extremely analogue-sounding.

 

[leroyd]

Yesterday I got hold of the much lauded DCC remaster of Van Halen's first album on CD. I A/B'd it with a the Vinyl pressing from 1978 and Vinyl trounced it.