How I learned to stop worrying and love vinyl
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How I learned to stop worrying and love vinyl
1–10 of 38 posts
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love vinyl
#2I love vinyl too but I don't like spending $20 on a record any more.
It's entirely possible to build a decent collection from "crate digging" and bargian hunting. But most good albums have increased in price.
You can find 192kHz/24-bit rips of vinyl records on torrent sites or convert them using a USB record player.
Then use a proper audio DAC and it's a perfect audio replication without the additional drag of having to switch records every 15 minutes, lug around heavy vinyl or deal with temperamental needles on record players.
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love vinyl
#3I love vinyl too but I don't like spending $20 on a record any more. It's entirely possible to build a decent collection from "crate digging" and bargian hunting. But most good albums have increased in price. You can find 192kHz/24-bit rips of vinyl records on torrent sites or convert them using a USB record player. Then use a proper audio DAC and it's a perfect audio replication without the additional drag of having…
I'm over vinyl too, but it makes a big difference that I started with vinyl as my reference point - so I knew how nice music could and should sound, and the necessary physical interaction with both vinyl and record player helped me develop an awareness of tone and timbre early on.
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love vinyl
#4Vinyl sounds great for increasing one's hipster cred, but last time I heard a vinyl album it sounded like, well, crap.
The author seems to be comparing the sound of the record shop's nicest player to an MP3, of god knows what bit-rate, played through ear buds.
Maybe what he's really discovered is that a nice hi-fi system goes a long way and he should get more disk space for his audio files and go lossless.
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love vinyl
#5I love vinyl too but I don't like spending $20 on a record any more. It's entirely possible to build a decent collection from "crate digging" and bargian hunting. But most good albums have increased in price. You can find 192kHz/24-bit rips of vinyl records on torrent sites or convert them using a USB record player. Then use a proper audio DAC and it's a perfect audio replication without the additional drag of having…
Google 'youtube philip jeck' to see what is possible using 'crate dived' vinyl and a host of vintage record players.
I can remember my first CD - nearly damaging my hearing by turning up the volume as there was no hiss or crackle.
The album art I do miss...
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love vinyl
#6> Determined to see if vinyl truly is the superior format
I just stopped there. This is like the people who try to find out if a model T car is a better car than Civic. "Let's conduct a test and spend time and money setting it up". Well, ok, I don't have to conduct a test, I can tell you a Civic is better.
But, if you happen to own lots of records or own a shop in a hip part of town that sells records, by no means, load up on monster cables and vinyl records. For some reasons when it comes to audio, there is never a shortage of people willing to part with their money over dubious claims. I would want to be on the side selling them stuff.
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love vinyl
#7I love vinyl too but I don't like spending $20 on a record any more. It's entirely possible to build a decent collection from "crate digging" and bargian hunting. But most good albums have increased in price. You can find 192kHz/24-bit rips of vinyl records on torrent sites or convert them using a USB record player. Then use a proper audio DAC and it's a perfect audio replication without the additional drag of having…
I'm over vinyl too, but it makes a big difference that I started with vinyl as my reference point - so I knew how nice music could and should sound, and the necessary physical interaction with both vinyl and record player helped me develop an awareness of tone and timbre early on.
Agreed, no regrets on the time I spent experiencing vinyl or finding rare old records I would have otherwise never heard of.
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love vinyl
#8There are plenty of reasons to listen to vinyl and it's fine if you are doing it to be hip. I do it because of the sound quality. CDs were invented in the 1980s. The digital resolution is simply not very high. Remember what the first digital cameras looked like next to film? That's the CD next to vinyl. And MP3s and AACs are so much worse.
It's like comparing a compressed JPG to an Ansel Adams print on a gallery wall.
In theory newer digital audio formats should be able to get a lot closer to the sound quality of analog soundwaves perfectly preserved in wax and traced by a diamond needle. But I've not heard a digital format yet that quite captures it. Hopefully one day there will be. But we're not there yet, not to my ears.
Listening to digital formats is wonderfully convenient but you are simply hearing a pixelated approximation of your music. You're trading audible detail and richness for convenience. That's no crime.
But if you love music, I mean LOVE it, you owe it to yourself to give vinyl a try.
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love vinyl
#9Vinyl sounds great for increasing one's hipster cred, but last time I heard a vinyl album it sounded like, well, crap. The author seems to be comparing the sound of the record shop's nicest player to an MP3, of god knows what bit-rate, played through ear buds. Maybe what he's really discovered is that a nice hi-fi system goes a long way and he should get more disk space for his audio files and go lossless.
A ton of audiophiles with $5000 stereo systems still prefer the analog vinyl sound over digital if you read the magazines/forums.
It's not quite adventurous or hipster to make that statement.
Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love vinyl
#10I love vinyl too but I don't like spending $20 on a record any more. It's entirely possible to build a decent collection from "crate digging" and bargian hunting. But most good albums have increased in price. You can find 192kHz/24-bit rips of vinyl records on torrent sites or convert them using a USB record player. Then use a proper audio DAC and it's a perfect audio replication without the additional drag of having…
> 192kHz@24bits
I know disk space is cheap, but why 192kHz? Why not encode at 48kHz and use the rest of it for more music, or heck, cat videos.