Analog.
I've been buying records since the 70's, and have always concentrated on early/first pressings, and will upgrade to better condition or earlier pressings whenever I have the opportunity.
I've got over 3000 records, and whenever the "Latest/Greatest" digital gear comes out, I demo them with the best digital copy I can find to an original/early pressing of the same recording. Invariably I prefer the analog.
Same goes with "audiophile pressings". I guess they're just fine if I can't locate an original, but they're usually not up to the original, especially if the remastering is done in the digital domain.
I have nothing really against digital. It would be nice if the convenience of digital would come with sound closer to analog. I listened to digital at work (headphones and an Onkyo
DP-X1A) before covid and in the car. Now that I'm working from home, I haven't used a digital source except in the car. |
regarding analog - i cannot express how disappointed i am with the modern, high end LP reissues
such poor quality, such high prices
we analog lovers, past or present, are being punked
shameful |
Suppose you, meaning everyone, have everything in your system the way you want it--amps, preamp, stands, power, cables, speakers, subs, the room. But, you need a source, a front end---don’t have one at all, have to start fresh, don’t even have albums or CDs. Let’s say you have an amount worthy of your system to spend--say $35K to allow for various levels of gear, but you have to buy everything that is needed to play music, minus the albums, CDs, streamers, etc. You have a separate allowance for music, let’s say. Would you go with vinyl or digital?
This is a great question! Assuming I had my current knowledge of what both media are capable of, I would find another hobby to put that 35K into and just stream digital through my phone over my HT systems. Not that you can't build a satisfying analog hardware system for 35K, the problem is the software. A lot of the current issues/reissues are digital masters or are digital remasters, which kind of defeats the purpose of using them to cut records. |
Of course top-line analog rigs will sound amazing... they better! But if I'm starting out in this hobby and my choice is having easy access to 80 billion digital albums overnight vs owning zero records at home, the decision is made for me. This is today and is not going to change.
Once the turntable/vinyl aficianados start moving to assisted living facilities, it's over. In ten years, good luck trying to sell a turntable rig on the used market, along with Elvis memorabilia, classic cars, and pianos. Kids today use TikTok, YouTube, and Spotify, and they don't have ANY nostalgia for vinyl. |
Vinyl is ok for someone who want to listen music 15 minutes...And being bored want some gymnastics between each tune or 2....
There is no vinyl version of the opus Clavicem ballisticum of Sorabji that is almost 5 hours in duration lenght.... :)
I listen sometimes 5 hours in my chair without to be in the obligation to lift myself to change the vinyl each 30 minutes then 10 times.... :)
And suppose i owned 10,000 vinyls ....I need a house with one room for the vinyls and one room dedicated to my audio system with his not so simple acoustical embeddings....Yes i like classical,jazz, Indian music, persian iranian music, and unclassified other one, at the end that is adding to more than a couple of hundred best.... :)
I will sell tomorrow for a smaller house i do what?
Vinyl is dead already my friends and some dont know it.... :)
For popular music of the sixties and seventies it is perfect tough, a couple of hundred vinyl will do the job.... I dont listen to them at all, then......:)
Try to buy a vinyl in Indian music or persian music, good luck.... Even in classical the vinyl choices range is restricted now....
But all the rock and roll is on vinyl for sure....My thesis is rock amateurs prefer vinyl, and they can , but those whose listening range is more encompassing dont want vinyls purchase limitations at all... I dont even speak about too much used needle, complicate adjustment, bizarre noises, and not even a true sonic advantage at the end except perhaps in prohibitive costly system....
Vinyl is dead sorry.... |
