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Sony plans to make vinyl records again

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#181

Post by dragonwriter »

gmarx wrote: post #173
cranjice wrote: post #81

I collect my favorite artist albums on vinyl for a few reasons: * Big artwork and liner notes. I have shelves on my wall to display my current favorite albums and change them out over time. * Conversation piece. Friends can actually browse a collection and talk about common interests. It's fun to hang out and listen to records with people. * Vinyl requires some heavier duty stereo equipment. Regardless of how you thi…

I love that you call it a "hi-fi" which is what it would have been called the generation before mine. We always called it a "stereo". I've always been amazed by how rare it is for a person to be interested in a system that makes the music sound better. The difference between an iPhone with the default earbuds and a $5000 stereo rig with speakers is astounding but only a tiny fraction of the listening public cares

> The difference between an iPhone with the default earbuds and a $5000 stereo rig with speakers is astounding but only a tiny fraction of the listening public cares

Without optimum room design, even half-decent earbuds are better than pretty high-quality speaker systems, if you don't need multiple simultaneously listeners.

And I don't think it's that most people don't care, I think it's just that most people have a utility function where the additional utility of high-quality sound gear is far too low to ever be justified by the cost of the gear (and the necessary environmental improvements to make sure that the effect of the gear isn't wasted.)

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#182

Post by flavio81 »

cr1895 wrote: post #143
mitchellshow wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, since most everything is recorded digitally these days, there are almost no "true analog" mixdowns, which means you're pressing a stair-stepped digital frequency onto vinyl. With the exception of wealthy purists (read: just Radiohead), that vinyl you're listening to is actually the digital recording pressed onto vinyl, not an analog recording pressed to vinyl.

>With the exception of wealthy purists (read: just Radiohead), that vinyl you're listening to is actually the digital recording pressed onto vinyl, not an analog recording pressed to vinyl. I'm not even sure Radiohead do AAA. Even the new OKNOTOK is supposedly sourced and remastered from digital. Not that there's a thing wrong with it, supposing it's done well.

The problem is not digital audio, the problem is CD- quality digital audio. It isn't as good as state of the art digital audio.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#183

Post by [deleted] »

bcrescimanno wrote: post #144

As someone who started collecting vinyl about 3 years ago, it's about the difference between passive and active involvement in music. So much of our music consumption these days is a largely passive activity. We have music in our headphones while we work. We have music on in our cars while we drive. We have music on in the background of social events. While modern digital formats have given us true ubiquity of music…

[deleted]

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#184

Post by empath75 »

bcrescimanno wrote: post #144

As someone who started collecting vinyl about 3 years ago, it's about the difference between passive and active involvement in music. So much of our music consumption these days is a largely passive activity. We have music in our headphones while we work. We have music on in our cars while we drive. We have music on in the background of social events. While modern digital formats have given us true ubiquity of music…

This is the only explanation for this that I could actually understand. Anyone telling me that they think it sounds better just triggers eye rolling.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#185

Post by Symbiote »

aaronarduino wrote: post #46
hashkb wrote: post #14

As long as nobody is claiming they sound better, and it's just for fun and nostalgia, I'm all for it. It really bugs me when vinyl buffs try to argue their rig sounds better or warmer or whatever than the same rig with a digital (or non-vinyl analog) source.

Better sound quality can be debated endlessly. Although being a part of and having friends in the recording industry for over six years, I can assure you that the consensus is that vinyl does sound better. If a record is pressed well it does sound more pleasing.

Play the vinyl, and record that onto a CD.

Now play the CD. You have exactly that "pleasing" sound.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#186

Post by flavio81 »

wowtip wrote: post #17

Why not instead focusing on reinventing the LP? One side disc, large format, laser pickup, analog recording. Bring together the good parts from both LP and CD / DVD.

Phillips already experimented with an audio laserdisc in the late 1970s.

It requires the audio to be modulated (using FM) and thus this introduces serious barriers to the sound quality.

On the LP, the audio is baseband. It isn't modulated at all.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#187

Post by sosuke »

vertex-four wrote: post #163
sosuke wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've hit on a very big part of listening to music that appears largely lost today. Composers would know that they had a captive audience for so long a time and would be able to create large narratives in their music that just can't be pulled off today. I have a hard time imagining just sitting down to listen to music. Not listen to music and converse or eat. Not listen to music and browse the web. Just listening to…

There's still a lot of narrative-based music, it's just not heavily pushed in music stores and on the radio. A lot of it sits on bandcamp - the New Albion trilogy, The Mechanisms' sets, etc etc.

Thanks for the leads I'm always looking to expand my horizon.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#188

Post by kazinator »

bcrescimanno wrote: post #144

As someone who started collecting vinyl about 3 years ago, it's about the difference between passive and active involvement in music. So much of our music consumption these days is a largely passive activity. We have music in our headphones while we work. We have music on in our cars while we drive. We have music on in the background of social events. While modern digital formats have given us true ubiquity of music…

You can walk across the room, thumb through a CD collection, pull a disc out of the case, and put it into your 2U rack-sized CD player.

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#189

Post by the_af »

amartya916 wrote: post #150
bcrescimanno wrote: post #144

As someone who started collecting vinyl about 3 years ago, it's about the difference between passive and active involvement in music. So much of our music consumption these days is a largely passive activity. We have music in our headphones while we work. We have music on in our cars while we drive. We have music on in the background of social events. While modern digital formats have given us true ubiquity of music…

This is very nicely framed, thank you. At the risk of going slightly off track, do you think this argument about active involvement also fits (physical and not electronic)books?

Interesting! To me, it does. Now I'm no luddite: I own a kindle and use it a lot. It's convenient. But to me the experience is definitely different from reading a paper book, in multiple ways: I read randomly, going back and forward a few pages multiple times, and this is currently cumbersome in an e-reader. Also, I enjoy book cover artwork -- I enjoy the look of a book -- and while it is displayed in the book list of my e-reader, it's just not the same. I want to see the book cover every time I pick the book, and in full color. I want to smell the pages. To me this is part of the experience of reading.

Still, the Kindle is so damn convenient. It's just that it's not the same pleasurable reading experience for me. It's not true that the Kindle "disappears" like Amazon claims -- or maybe, it actually disappears too much!

Re: Sony plans to make vinyl records again

#190

Post by kazinator »

sosuke wrote: post #151
bcrescimanno wrote: post #144

As someone who started collecting vinyl about 3 years ago, it's about the difference between passive and active involvement in music. So much of our music consumption these days is a largely passive activity. We have music in our headphones while we work. We have music on in our cars while we drive. We have music on in the background of social events. While modern digital formats have given us true ubiquity of music…

You've hit on a very big part of listening to music that appears largely lost today. Composers would know that they had a captive audience for so long a time and would be able to create large narratives in their music that just can't be pulled off today. I have a hard time imagining just sitting down to listen to music. Not listen to music and converse or eat. Not listen to music and browse the web. Just listening to…

> You've hit on a very big part of listening to music that appears largely lost today.

The big part that is lost today is the music.

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