2. analog
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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?
solman989
minormist
1 posts
 
I think dollar for dollar, vinyl consistently beats out CD regardless of when the recording was made. Certainly, I prefer analog recordings to digital, and 30+ years ago, all recordings were analog, but even with current stuff I prefer vinyl. I use a vintage Thorens TD-125 which I've restored and modified, and though its nice, I wouldn't call it a high end table. Still, I'm consistently surprised by the quality of sound it produces, and it trounces CDs over and over again. Sure, a $10K CD rig might best it, but a $2000 one has a tougher time keeping up.
handymann
380 posts
 
It took me a long time to "give-in" to going back to vinyl. I had to circumvent my acoustical feedback/rumble problem. I have a suspended floor and it took a while to figure that one out. Clearaudio's top of the line would be grand, but alas, I will never see it. My front end isn't the quality the rest of my system is, but I have tried a few medium priced tables and think the cart is the most important ingredient in reproducing good sound from records. As long as your TT turns a constant speed, and doesn't pick-up rumble, all is good. I will also wash them on a semi-regular basis, zap them with a Zerostat and I'm ready. Most, if not all of "Mo-Fi" albums are very good, as well as half speed masters, but they are hard to come by. I try to buy 180-200 gram LP's but the weight really doesn't effect the quality-at least I haven't found it to. I have several 120 gram records that sound just as good, but they are 30 years old-at least. As with any medium, some sound better than others. I have purchased new LP's that arrive with a few pops, but the ambience you get is worth it. I had to laugh when I first went back to albums. I was listening to an LP and reached for the remote to skip a song. That was a special moment. Stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck on dumb I guess...
rodforshort
1 posts
 
Back in the early seventies my brother brought back an Akai reel to reel (don't remember the model) from his tour in Vietnam. My friend purchased a new release of Grand Funk Railroad's Closer to Home. I dubbed it to a tape. Years later I found an Akai GX635D in a pawnshop cleaned and tuned it. Played the tape of Closer to Home and was blown away. Bought the CD version then compared it to the tape. The tape has so much more information than the CD, which now collects dust. I have around 100 LP’s of first pressings from the 70's to the 90's. They are such a joy to hear. I never play an LP unless I clean the dust off with an Audio-technica vintage cleaning system. I also tried converting LP’s to CD's by computer and CD recorder. It lost so much of the feeling I was there.
sada10
1 posts
 
try the decemberists "the king is dead" album from 2011. its a stunning piece of vinyl.
aball
2,016 posts
 
Yes, a lot of vinyl of modern music sounds terrible. A friend of mine LOVES his vinyl but he agrees that most of the new pressings are of very poor quality, worse than your typical CD. In fact, some of them are completely screwed up and unlistenable. The range of quality is huge so it's always a crap shoot. It is clear the market warrants zero money or effort to make them - it's weak marketing at best. It is much easier to find a good-sounding CD version of the music and go with that.

Older vinyl can sound great if you have an expensive and fancy record cleaner, and yet, it will still often be noisier than the cheapest amplifier you can find. If an amp made as much background noise as most vinyl, it would be considered broken and thrown in the garbage.

I have heard vinyl sound fantastic many times, and I've tried it 3 times myself, but in the end, it isn't worth the hassle, room and expense of cleaning, or having it wear each time I use it, or all the extraneous noise, wow and flutter of the record, or dealing with the delicateness of the cart, nor the cost of all the stuff it takes to make it work well, not to mention the space for it all. Maybe if I was older, was not a mechanical engineer, and already had tons of records, I'd be more into it, but at face value today, it simply doesn't add up for me.
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