I have a few CDs of remastered hits from the 30s and 40's. THese are some of my favorite recordings to listen to these days. I grew up in the 60's-70's rock era when listening to most music that pre-dated The Beatles was not "cool". Being the geek I am, I still listened to a lot of classical and some jazz but tended to steer away from the older recordings. Big mistake! I am making up for that these days mostly at yard sales and the Goodwill Store. Luckily, most never learned the lesson I did about recordings from the "golden age". There was a time back in the 80's I would say when I became jaded by limiting what I listened to and found it quite hard sometimes to find new recordings that rally interested me. Now, I'll buy used CDs and vinyl by the dozens just to hear something, anything a little different until I get so backlogged Ijust have to slow down. I feel like I did about listening to music when I was a kid again. Life is good!
Is a vinyl rig only worth it for oldies?
I have always been curious about vinyl and its touted superiority over digital, so I decided to try it for myself. Over the course of the past several years I bought a few turntables, phono stages, and a bunch of new albums. They sounded fine I thought, but didn't stomp all over digital like some would tend to believe.
It wasn't until I popped on some old disk that I picked up used from a garage sale somewhere that I heard what vinyl was really about: it was the smoothest, most organic, and 3d sound that ever came out of my speakers. I had never heard anything quite like it. All of the digital I had, no matter how high the resolution, did not really come close to approaching that type of sound.
Out of the handful of albums I have from the 70s-80s, most of them have this type of sound. Problem is, most of my music and preferences are new releases (not necessarily in an audiophile genre) or stuff from the past decade and these albums sounded like music from a CD player but with the added noise, pops, clicks, higher price, and inconveniences inherent with vinyl. Of all the new albums I bought recently, only two sounded like they were mastered in the analog domain.
It seems that almost anything released after the 2000's (except audiophile reissues) sounded like music from a CD player of some sort, only worse due to the added noise making the CD version superior. I have experienced this on a variety of turntables, and this was even true in a friend's setup with a high end TT/cart.
So my question is, is vinyl only good for older pre-80s music when mastering was still analog and not all digital?
It wasn't until I popped on some old disk that I picked up used from a garage sale somewhere that I heard what vinyl was really about: it was the smoothest, most organic, and 3d sound that ever came out of my speakers. I had never heard anything quite like it. All of the digital I had, no matter how high the resolution, did not really come close to approaching that type of sound.
Out of the handful of albums I have from the 70s-80s, most of them have this type of sound. Problem is, most of my music and preferences are new releases (not necessarily in an audiophile genre) or stuff from the past decade and these albums sounded like music from a CD player but with the added noise, pops, clicks, higher price, and inconveniences inherent with vinyl. Of all the new albums I bought recently, only two sounded like they were mastered in the analog domain.
It seems that almost anything released after the 2000's (except audiophile reissues) sounded like music from a CD player of some sort, only worse due to the added noise making the CD version superior. I have experienced this on a variety of turntables, and this was even true in a friend's setup with a high end TT/cart.
So my question is, is vinyl only good for older pre-80s music when mastering was still analog and not all digital?
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- 147 posts total
- 147 posts total