Why vinyl?

I've had both analog and digital in my stereo system concurrently since 1983. I prefer vinyl for high-end sound, but can enjoy cd's too. Some pieces of music have never been available on digital (usually orchestral or jazz from the classic era), and some more contemporary music has only been ava ilable on cd. The point I'd like to make is that I'd r ather see people sit down and listen to music and get themselves involved in it, understand it, do their homework about the artists and pieces, and truly enjoy it, no matter what the medium. To say that one medium is more modern, wont be around in the future,or is bandwidth-limited, misses the point, IMHO.--Mrmitch

Mrmitch,

You mirror much of how I feel on the topic.

Back in the early 80's I was getting into the hobby and of course the LP record reigned supreme for the consumer. I began to read up on digital though and the CD and was pulled into it by its hype and marketing. Yes it sounded different, it had a cleanliness to it and combined with the hype of telling us what we cannot hear (clicks and pops) we were told that it was Perfect Sound Forever. I have said here in earlier posts that I was hooked into digital not realising what I was losing in terms of vinyl. By the fall of '86 I had switched to CD's 100%. My old turntable and a few dozen LP's were boxed away and some even sold off.

It remained for me until just after Christmas 2002. I began to read online about vinyl and record players being made. I found my old JVC LA-11, vulcanised platter mat, bent Shure cartridge stylus, a slipping belt, and my remaining LP's. Hooked it up and cued up some Alan Parsons Projects. Um it was like being hit in the head with a book. I realised even with this wonky old setup was playing something I had not heard in 16 years.

Soon I had bought a new turntable in my case to wet my appetite it was a Music Hall mmf2.1 and began shopping thrift stores for used vinyl. Reading up online trying tweaks etc. and a rebirth to vinyl for me.

It was so revealing for me I had to then get a better CD player. Soon I had a new Cambridge Audio D-300se and even though it still lacked something compared to my vinyl rig it was close enough for me to still enjoy throwing in a CD when I wanted to.

You are correct some LP's are not available on CD and many CD's will never be made on vinyl. I was originally turned off my CD's once I got my mmf2.1 but the D-300se helped get me to accept CD's. Time and other tweaks along with just not getting to anal about it all has helped me see that hey a well made CD (sadly most made in the last 10 years suck in how they are recorded) can sound very good using decent gear. Some CD's are not much off an LP version and lets face facts not all of the millions of LP's pressed were well made. I have a few DOGS!

5 years down my rebirth into vinyl I kick myself for losing 16 years of its fun, feeling and sonic pleasure. But I can't change that now. I have really reshaped my mind into thinking more about that it is about the music and a good CD on a nice player can sound great. Yes, I prefer vinyl most of all, from the sound to the hunt of shopping thrift store and the ritual of playing vinyl. It is one of the best parts of this hobby BUT! I am more than happy to have and use CD's too. Recently after doing reading online I took an old PlayStation unit and did some tweaks to it and discovered that it can be tweaked into a decent ol' CD player. In fact I was happy and thrilled enough after I tweaked it out a bit to sell my D-300se to put that money into other electronic toys for my system. Honestly to me the PlayStation unit tweaked sounds almost analogue-like. The D-300se had a better overall sound but the PlayStation has a more precise sound and I like it. BTW tweaks include a full tear down and cleaning making sure all parts are cleaned, shielding is in place and a full flat black painting to help keep out stray light. I used differing materials to pad and dampen parts that can rub and resonate. I drilled out more holes for added cooling and for making home made spiked feet. I built a sprung iso platform to seat the unit and its spike feet onto and the spikes sit into brass plates. It truly sounds pleasant and it cost me next to nothing to tweak.

Anyways back to your point. I can enjoy good CD sound and good vinyl sound. As I said, I prefer vinyl first but am not averse to using my CD player. I to have taken it to bring back by buying a nice 3 head cassette deck into my system for the fun of cassette recordings. I have a stand alone Pioneer CD recorder and it is used to make digital copies of my fav LPs etc. but I wanted to return back to using a good cassette deck to make good analogue copies of some of my fav. vinyl. Along with having another source to playback the multitude of use cassettes at trifts too.

Now I can shop for vinyl first and foremost, CD's as a second choice and analogue cassettes as a third.

As time progresses for me it is about having pleasant sounding gear and maybe playing the upgrade game over time for each.

Les, my priorities are close to yours; vinyl first, SACD or DVD-A second, CD third, LossLess Download fourth and that's it, no tape for me, anymore. I think Dolby screws up good recordings and I gave up on costly reel-to-reel decades ago. Those high speed tapes make $50 LPs seem cheap.

Within a year or so I'll have a hard drive music server with true hi rez digital archiving and wireless transfer throughout the house. It's not available today at a reasonable price, but it will be very soon. Of course, I'll keep all my old LPs, CDs, SACDs, DVD-As, etc.

Dave

Well I am definitely a fan of vinyl. For a number of years I, too, only bought CDs (well a few records here and there). I know this is a familiar story but I just listened to music a lot less as time went on. When I got back into listening to music part of the reason was that I was back into vinyl. A new amp and speakers and now I listen to music all the time.

I was lucky in that I never sold my TT or my records so I still have them all.

That said I still listen to CDs, they still give me great musical experiences. I just prefer vinyl, it just sounds better. Oh, and the fun of having vinyl and taking care of it is part of the experience too.

DS

Les, in a sense, analogue also suffers from resolution limits, for example, the tape that is used cannot resolve the sound to smaller discrete packages than the size of the magnetic particles on the tape. And, of course, the playback of the tape is really just an integration (reassembling)of discrete particles of information into a coherent ensemble. The math behind the digital is superior to the 'mechanical' method of integration used by analogue.
Nyquist theory, anyone?

Bob P.