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Vinyl set to outsell CDs for first time since 1986

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Re: Vinyl set to outsell CDs for first time since 1986

#221

Post by benologist »

Tempest1981 wrote: post #103
echelon wrote: post #49

As much as it pains me to say this, I think I'm a hipster. I put a lot of attention and care into my audio and vinyl setup, but now that you can find albums at Walmart, the hip factor has been sucked out of it like a vacuum. I've recently been downsizing, and this might be something that doesn't stay with me. I'll keep my signed albums, but maybe not the rest.

How long until future "hipsters" start seeing CDs as nostalgic? Although I kind of doubt we'll see a CD revival in 2035 or 2040.

Linux floppy-disk edition for installing from a $300 thunderbolt3 3.5" or 5 1/4" floppy disk drive.

Re: Vinyl set to outsell CDs for first time since 1986

#223

Post by linuxftw »

rcoveson wrote: post #200
linuxftw wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The LP format encourages you to listen to an uninterrupted, un-shuffled 23 or 46 minutes of music You can do this on a CD with superior audio quality. > Album artwork and lyrics are presented at a scale where it doesn't hurt the eyes to look at them. There's nothing stopping someone from celling a CD in a vinyl-sized case. > Maybe when it comes to something like music, that's not the most important thing. In fact,…

I don't think you're understanding the gist of what I'm saying. Of course it's _possible_ to recreate the exact _audio_ experience of vinyl with a higher fidelity medium like a CD. But it's not about just the audio. It's the tactile, visual, and cultural experience around the audio. Just like food isn't just about the flavor. And with your closing comment, I don't think you're describing as great a percentage of viny…

> But it's not about just the audio. It's the tactile, visual, and cultural experience around the audio. Just like food isn't just about the flavor.

I see what you're saying, but I don't buy it. Nobody has a record player just laying around unless you're 'into' vinyl. It's like saying it's more fun to watch videos on VHS because the tapes look cooler. It's just nonsense.

Re: Vinyl set to outsell CDs for first time since 1986

#224

Post by OJFord »

avip wrote: post #217
dredmorbius wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which part is false? "Feels more real" or "sound quality isn't better"? I suspect you mean the latter, though with modern audio tech, well-mic'd and mastered recordings can easily sound ... if not better, then more intense, than live performances. Though there's nothing like seeing the music being performed live.

Yes, excuse the ambiguity. To me a philharmonic concert sounds... very different than recorded audio. I'm confident I can double-blindly 100% tell the difference. And so can everyone else. This is one experiment I'd be happy to participate in.

I don't even really listen to music and I could do that.

And the obvious difference: live 'rock' etc. is still coming through speakers.

Re: Vinyl set to outsell CDs for first time since 1986

#226

Post by ghaff »

runarberg wrote: post #214
tzs wrote: post #71

Is anyone working on a reasonably priced turntable to play vinyl discs without degrading them? In the mid '80s, Finial Technology announced such a turntable, and had a working unit at CES in 1986. It had a stylus that contained laser interferometers that could very accurately and precisely measure the distance from the stylus to the grove walls. It kept the stylus near, but not touching, the groove, getting the audio…

I don’t really see why you’d need such a thing (apart from marketing to audiophiles—who are willing to pay the buck—or for research/archiving purposes—who are also ready to pay the buck). If you want supreme sound quality you don’t play from a vinyl. A CD (or even FLAC file) will always “sound” better, even from first play. I, at least, don’t really care about the minor degrading my mid-range turn table does to my re…

Disclaimer: I don't actually mean the following seriously. But one almost wonders if you could "play" a vinyl record that came with all the accessories of a vinyl record like sleeve/album art/etc., but the actual audio was coming from a "lip-synced" digital copy.

Again :-)

Re: Vinyl set to outsell CDs for first time since 1986

#227

Post by Lio »

filmor wrote: post #194
aibara wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CDs are just... awful. Nice booklets? You mean small booklets with tiny pictures and even tinier text. And they come in what I consider one of the most horrible containers of all time: the ugly and easily-broken jewel case. Like vinyl, CDs can be scratched, but they sure don't degrade gracefully: the nice pops of vinyl becomes jarring skips on a CD up to the point where the CD just becomes unplayable. Nowadays I have…

Unless you happen to have scratched your CD really deeply to actually damage the data layer (which requires grooves of 1mm in depth), it's fixable though, a scratch in a vinyl is not. Also, the last few albums that I bought did not come as jewel cases but instead "fancy" cardboard cases.

When I worked as a DJ back in the 1990s I observed that if a 12” or LP skipped you could momentarily turn off the tone arm bias and the extra inward force would usually ride over the scratch as of it wasn’t there. With CDs you were toast.

If a CD skipped then there was nothing you could do except stick another on ASAP.

CDs are a very fragile medium. Especially so if you scratch the top printed surface.

These days you’d do it all off a laptop with no moving parts and no skipping.

Protip number 2: always run your club system in mono. You can’t hear stereo in a club and combining the L+R channels cancels out most feedback coming through the stylus. Happy days.

Re: Vinyl set to outsell CDs for first time since 1986

#228

Post by gnusty_gnurc »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #93
gnusty_gnurc wrote: post #65

During EE undergrad I learned about DSP, math and other theory involved in digital audio reproduction and it's clear to me that it's technically superior. There's some truly marvelous engineering behind digital audio. And the best part is that it enhances life: now playing an album isn't "a ritual", I can do it anytime without needing physical, wasteful storage for a degrading format. I'm absolutely baffled how peopl…

I agree to you mostly, but I do have some vinyls if my favorite all time albums. Maybe 50 or so. However the analog priests are wrong about superiority of vinyl both technically and philosophically. However, I do love me some 70s and 80s punk music on vinyl which makes it even a little bit dirtier and less refined

It usually goes over peoples' heads that "hearing the difference" in vinyl is probably distortion, if truly audible and not just a delusion. In terms of reconstructing a signal, it's simply inferior. But distortion can be good, just like food has variability and nuance and we sometimes love it for that!

Re: Vinyl set to outsell CDs for first time since 1986

#229

Post by [deleted] »

parsimo2010 wrote: post #151

CDs are dying, but they are mostly being killed by streaming services, not by vinyl. Digital music formats are still the king by far. The vast majority of people don't even care that their streamed music is lossy and they lose out on high frequencies that their ears can't hear and their headphones can't reproduce. Vinyl appeals to hipsters and dumb audiophiles (there are smart audiophiles, but they aren't buying viny…

[deleted]

Re: Vinyl set to outsell CDs for first time since 1986

#230

Post by chucksmash »

SomeOldThrow wrote: post #33
tyingq wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nostalgia and appearance. Old cars drive like crap and are unsafe, but popular for the same reason.

Vinyl is way more popular than old cars.

It's pretty clear if you think it through a bit.

You can buy Pet Sounds, a classic album recorded in 1966, on vinyl:

- Distribution: you can buy it from Amazon, the same distribution channel as more modern media

- Price: for $18 (very small premium over digital media in absolute terms)

- Condition: in perfect, newly manufactured condition

- Substitutability: a functionally perfect substitute good for the artifact manufactured in 1966 (even available in original mono!)

- Supply: from a growing supply of records (record company always reissuing classics!)

- Maintenance: with the same maintenance requirements as an LP of a 2019 album

Consider the equivalent for a classic car, say a 1966 Corvette:

I want a 1966 Corvette. "Old Corvettes have a soul that new Corvettes lack, there's just some ineffable quality I prefer, y'know?", yadda yadda yadda

- Distribution: Can I walk into a Chevy dealership and buy a 1966 Corvette? Nope!

- Price: Can I buy a mint condition 1966 Corvette for substantially the same price as a 2019 Corvette? Nope! DDG says perfect 1966 Corvette value would be $82k, 2019 Corvette would be $55k and I suspect the difference would be even greater tbh. $30k+ price difference!

- Condition: Can I buy a newly manufactured 1966 Corvette at all? Nope!

- Substitutability: the 1966 Corvette is substantially different from the 2019 Corvette

- Supply: the number of well-maintained 1966 Corvettes is constrained. They aren't making any more!

- Maintenance: Entirely different beasts. No common parts.

So if I want a conversation piece in my living room, I can buy a $100 record player and spend $8 more for the LP

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