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Can you imagine a world without vinyl?

Can you imagine a world without vinyl?
I have been into vinyl for 49 years - since the age of 8 & cannot imagine a world without vinyl.
I started out buying 45's & graduated to 33's (what is now considered LP's).
I have seen 8 tracks come & go, still have a kazillion cassettes, reel to reel & digital cassettes - have both the best redbook player & SACD players available, but must listen to my "LP's" at least 2 hours a day.
I play CD's about 6 hours a day as background music while I'm working, but must get off my butt every now & then & "just listen to real music".
I admit to being a vinyl junkie - wih 7 turntables, 11 cartridges & 8 arms along with 35K albums & 15K 45's.
For all you guys who ask - Is vinyl worth it - the answer is yes!
Just play any CD, cassette, or digital tape with the same version on vinyl & see/hear for yourself.
May take more time & energy (care) to play, but worth it's weight in gold.
Like Mikey says "Try it, you'll like it!"
I love it!
paladin
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,491 posts
 
Gregm,

It may be masochism or something else, or both. But, really, believe me, this ain't no nostalgia:)

I think you hit the nail on the head.

Nostalgia is for the Vinyl jackets themselves and the length of time they have been owned and when/where they were purchased. Or reminiscing when playing a song (which can be Vinyl, CD, Radio or whatever)

If I understood correctly, I think what you are describing is a ritualistic behaviour and aesthetic fascination of the beauty and elegance of TT/Vinyl. An engineering marvel that outwardely manifests its beauty rather than technology deeply burried/hidden on a sliver disc and inside circuit boards and software alogorithms (as in CD & Digital).

I can understand that. Music is Art. A beautiful TT is art too.
thomasheisig
568 posts
 
Come on, Albert is one of those who listen and he has his opinion. Other's think different or they link it with spending money. When I started in this "Hobby" I had nothing, no records, no CD's. I compared and I decided to go for Vinyl. Those who listen ---> use Vinyl, those who read datas listen ----> to Digits. This has been a fact 15 years ago, it is the same now and it will be the next 15 years. Unfortunately it is true, a good analog System is really expensive, no way out. But the satisfaction is worth it. Since I use my AirLine Arm I have problems to believe what's in the groove. Really amazing.
I own DCS Equipment and I like it, but honestly, the Software is sooooo bad, it is frustrating. For my limited listening time it is a waste.
albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
Newbee
Upon reflection do you think that your 'over the top' self defense, even in the face of comments by others which are judgmental of your preferred format, might just generate in others with less experience or security a feeling that you are denegrating their choices.

My response was mostly at Eldartford who has attacked LP format almost since the day he arrived at Audiogon. Forgive me if the constant rubbing against my feelings occasionally cause me to cry out. If I were as persistent at visiting digital forums and criticizing everyone's choice, ragging on the flaws of digital and telling everyone it was the wrong way to listen to music, do you think someone might fly back at me with comments?

I think the answer is yes they would. Perhaps I should not defend analog and hide my feelings so those that don't choose it can feel like they have not missed anything.

Thomasheisig
When you say
I own DCS Equipment and I like it, but honestly, the Software is sooooo bad, it is frustrating. For my limited listening time it is a waste.

It sounds as if you agree with me that digital is good but not up to the quality of analog.

As for comments about music, I own 6K records, some CD's and even a few hundred open reel tapes. I even own an iPod. I am a music lover and will avail myself of music any way I can.

Just like dining out, given the choice I will dine at best quality restaurant, (Vinyl) it that's is not available I eat at a midline place (CD). If nothing else is available fast food has to do (iPod).

That does not change the fact that each is a different level of quality. Some people only eat fast food and some all the above.

Analog is superior on my system and of the tens of dozens of professionals I know in the audio business most prefer analog to digital. That may not make it a truth for everyone but it means I'm not unusual in my belief.
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,491 posts
 
Those who listen ---> use Vinyl, those who read datas listen ----> to Digits.

Just like dining out, given the choice I will dine at best quality restaurant, (Vinyl) it that's is not available I eat at a midline place (CD). If nothing else is available fast food has to do (iPod).

Great stuff!

The marketing people at Axe Cologne need your talents... I can see the ad in my minds eye....

Computer Nerd with goofy glasses, greasy hair and a pocket full of pens listens to a CD.

Cut to ->

Slob with iPod surrounded by other slobs eating a mushy fast food burger whilst humming and spitting out bits of half chewed food.

Cut to ->

Tall, slender, dark, handsome male, adjusting his turntable arm, surrounded by bejewelled babes in sleek evening dresses and high heels, holding album covers...

Narrator says ,"For those who know how to listen...."

LOL. More seriously; Nick Hornby wrote an amusing book about this male phenomenon (Boys and their toys) called "High Fidellity"...it is an entertaining and an enlightening read (for any male with a passion for audio, you may find something of yourself reflected in its pages, I know I did).
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
My condolences Albert for the loss of your friend.

I want to point out that as this thread has evolved away from the starting topic, IMO many of the posts have too casually equated analog with the LP record and digital with the Red Book CD. I think disappointment with the Red Book CD gets carried too far as a general blanket condemnation of the potential of digital audio. It's still a young technology by the standards of the LP and its forerunners, but the CD is absolutely ancient by the standards of information technology. Recall the primitive state of the home computer at the time of the CD's introduction, then think about the cost vs. capability of computing power today. Yet the CD ploddingly persists (if no longer predominates in the mass market, where sound quality is the least of consumers' concerns). It's like being confined in 2007 to playing Pong and working in DOS. The theoretical advantages inherent in skipping at least a couple stages of signal transduction on the way from the microphones to the loudspeakers, combined with intrinsic robustness, manipulability, and portability/transmissability as a storage medium, clearly make digital the way of the future, today's audiophile vinyl renaissance notwithstanding. I'll never get rid of my records, but I don't expect them to always be my sonic preference.
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