Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
A decent belt drive suspended subchassis deck should rekindle your interest
Thinking about giving up on Vinyl
- Thread starter 337alant
- Start date
Tony L
Administrator
That is always the big question! My suspicion is that it has had it’s ‘dip’ in the ‘90s and is now back as a strong niche format. Two key points: record condition is not a constant, so even if the market does decline so does the number of mint examples of a given title/pressing, secondly a lot of the people buying vinyl now are far younger than those who bought it originally, i.e. this isn’t old folk revisiting their youth now they are wealthy (though that is a demographic of its own). It is more like the wristwatch or guitar market where the classics of the past are now highly sought after and getting ever rarer. Most of the original buyers of early Blue Notes, Impulse etc are now dead, as are a lot of those who bought Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Yardbirds, 57 Strats or Les Pauls etc, yet these items all still hold great value. Like any collector market time will sift content, so the collectable stuff will be the stuff that stands the test of time but was initially fairly niche/scarce, e.g. you’ll always get far more for a Throbbing Gristle album than a Val Doonican. I suspect a genuinely good record collection will increase in value pretty much indefinitely, but ultimately it is your personal taste that is being priced, not the format!
PS I’m far less convinced by CD, but I am stockpiling the good stuff as I like them and certain niche areas are already highly collectable (very early pressings mainly).
Robert
Tapehead
A decent belt drive suspended subchassis deck should rekindle your interest
Jezza, you're such a 80s man
Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
Robert
Tapehead
My concern there is the transports.
In 20 years people will still be manufacturing turntables. Not so sure about CD mechs.
I suspect those wanting to play CDs will will scouring the used market and scavenging for stuff that barely still works.
Cyrus bet the ranch a few years ago to develop and build their own but it took several hundred £K which is a huge investment for a small company. I hope the gamble pays off.
Tony L
Administrator
Likewise. Especially so for SACD, of which I have a hundred or so, some fairly valuable. I’m encouraged by how many Rotel 965s are still going strong 30+ years on and there are a lot of players out there where it’s really only the drawer mech that has failed. My main system transport is a Rega Apollo-R chosen because its small and Rega have a great attitude to service. I’d be tempted to buy another at the point they jumped ship from the CD market, assuming they ever do.
I’m far more concerned with SACD and I’m planning to drop a couple of £k on a decent player at the point when they start to get really scarce, e.g. a high-end Marantz or whatever. Something I’d certainly hope to last 10-15 years minimum. I don’t smoke or live near a dirty road so lasers don’t just die the way they can in dirty environments, nor do I leave anything powered-up 24/7, so I’m hoping a lifetime’s playback is possible.
I’m also a retro computer geek and watch countless YouTube channels of folk rebuilding/restoring old 8 bit and 16 bit computers, and to be honest even 386-era CD ROM drives still tend to work ok. I don’t think it will ever be impossible to play CDs in our lifetimes, but I’d certainly advise anyone who loves the format to have a few decent players boxed up for the future.
Current stockpile:
Rega Apollo-R
Marantz SA8005 SACD player
Cambridge 752BD multi-format player (Blu-Ray, SACD, DVD etc).
Cambridge C651C (very low use, boxed up as a spare)
Sony SCD-940 QS SACD (lovely machine, but needs a new laser I think, it skips/won’t read some discs of either format, though plays others fine)
Some ancient budget Marantz DVD player (worked last time I tried it, but pretty naff)
Some plastic Technics budget job that came in a lot from the auction when I bought the nice early-70s Sony amp and tuner, it worked last time I tried it so I hadn’t the heart to chuck it out.
A ‘90s Sony Discman, still works perfectly.
Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
Wait ten years and "the yoof" will be seeking out "retro" CD's....
Tony L
Administrator
They haven’t yet hit their ‘nostalgia’ phase yet, i.e. the kids who grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s who fondly remember them and want to recollect in their middle ages, plus streaming is a total crap-shoot mastering wise so not really a reliable source for audiophiles.
From what I can tell the journey from mainstream to cult/niche has several stages. My guess is vinyl has gone through it all now. This is a mature format that has been around since 1948, it’s long gone through the nostalgia stage and is firmly back in the long-term audiophile/music collector market now. Cassette is far younger and is currently hitting the ‘nostalgia’ phase with vintage cassette decks and NOS tapes at an all-time high right now. CD is the youngest format and my best guess is we are currently in the ‘obsolete/tired’ phase vinyl was at in the late-90s.
I’m not expecting CD to bounce back to the level of vinyl as it has far less history and the covers/packaging aren’t usually as cool, but I’m certainly expecting the top-tier stuff to be a very good long term investment if bought cheaply now (targets, black triangles, VDP, VDJ, 32DP, silver to centre West German pressings etc etc). They are all selling for good money now and will unquestionably hold a niche.
gavreid
Pretty Words...
I still buy lots of CDs used, just like you do I'm sure. Cassette is shite, especially the cheap stuff, always was (you copied records for your mates or recorded off FM), I think that's a fad. I can't imagine that you're buying 70s and 80s albums on the record label cassettes are you? I agree CD is the best source of cheap music just now. There's also a whole bunch of stuff that's only digital and I totally agree about the best transfers, but they exist somewhere digitally so CD isn't necessary for playback. I'm unconvinced myself but I keep everything I've ever bought.
337alant
Negatively Biased
Jez unfortunately I dont think it will, a few years ago I sold my LP12, Mitchel Gyro, and RP3 because my PLC590 and 401 where so much better IMHOA decent belt drive suspended subchassis deck should rekindle your interest
Alan
Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
Rumble 'n all from that 401!? To think that I turned down free 401's and 301's a long time ago cos I didn't rate them! Still don't rate them but could have had fun with the proceeds of selling them...
Stuart Frazer
pfm Member
Well you missed out big time on those non-scores. People love those 401/301/TD124 Decks nowadays and they go for good money almost in any condition.
I think some CD Players will have a similar renaissance.
337alant
Negatively Biased
Jez TBH I dont hear any rumble from my 401, anyway its not that my Vinyl system doesent sound good that I am considering moving it on, it does sound very good, just not better than the rest of my sources
Alan
topoxforddoc
pfm Member
Alan,
Nothing its going to sound better than a 15 IPS tape on your Studer A810 - that will always bring a smile to your face. If you end up buying more tapes, the that will soon take up more storage than your 400 LPs. Sorry to hear about the job situation - hope that improves in due course.
Charlie
Nothing its going to sound better than a 15 IPS tape on your Studer A810 - that will always bring a smile to your face. If you end up buying more tapes, the that will soon take up more storage than your 400 LPs. Sorry to hear about the job situation - hope that improves in due course.
Charlie
retrospective
pfm Member
I'm the same very rarely listen to vinyl or cd these day's Spotify via my mobile phone is just too convenient..though an equipment rack looks weird without a tt on top of it!
might have to get rid of that as well,i'm also veering towards receivers for convenience and less clutter.
might have to get rid of that as well,i'm also veering towards receivers for convenience and less clutter.
Funnily enough I recently sold a TG album for £150
JemHayward
pfm Member
I went down this route some time ago, and I am content with the final solution. I was a very late adopter of the CD and refused to buy a CD or CD player until an album I wanted wasn't available on LP. I immediately jumped to a Meridian CD mech and an Arcam DAC. I replaced the DAC with an Audio Alchemy, and eventually bought a Naim CDS. LP was LP12 ARO, listening was 60/40 LP to CD. New wife and smaller house, and this probably shifted to 30/70 and then we discovered streaming.
We ripped CDs, sold the CDS to Japan at a good price. Did some upgrades to LP12 (PSU, cartridge etc) and got both digital and LP to a very decent level.. We tended to buy LPs as default until we got sick of paying a premium for something badly made, surface noise etc, and got excited by the inclusion of 'free digital download', so we gave up buying LPs. As we listen to our new music more than our older stuff we found our digital vs LP was now 95/5.
So the LP system was mainly decorative, so we sold the LP12, bought my aesthetic fantasy a Transcriptors Skeleton and moved a whole LP system, to the barn along with all the LPs - Radford SC22, Quad 57s - retro 70s vynil at it's best.
We ripped CDs, sold the CDS to Japan at a good price. Did some upgrades to LP12 (PSU, cartridge etc) and got both digital and LP to a very decent level.. We tended to buy LPs as default until we got sick of paying a premium for something badly made, surface noise etc, and got excited by the inclusion of 'free digital download', so we gave up buying LPs. As we listen to our new music more than our older stuff we found our digital vs LP was now 95/5.
So the LP system was mainly decorative, so we sold the LP12, bought my aesthetic fantasy a Transcriptors Skeleton and moved a whole LP system, to the barn along with all the LPs - Radford SC22, Quad 57s - retro 70s vynil at it's best.
pickwickpapers
pfm Member
it's often said on this forum, but the music you're interested in, and the masterings available on the different formats thereof, should play a large role in whether you keep a vinyl set-up?
I have a very modest botch-fest of gear, but some of my (few) lps just sound transcendentally better than any digital version I've been able to find. I mean astonishingly so.
It's all relative obviously, but I suspect, on balance, there is truth in the concept that some recordings simply sound better on vinyl, as things stand.
I have a very modest botch-fest of gear, but some of my (few) lps just sound transcendentally better than any digital version I've been able to find. I mean astonishingly so.
It's all relative obviously, but I suspect, on balance, there is truth in the concept that some recordings simply sound better on vinyl, as things stand.