Vinyl Records Are Making a Huge Comeback in 2014

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
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Call it retro, call it nostalgia, but the fact is there is a resurgence of vinyl records going on. To take advantage of the renewed interest in vinyl records, companies are responding with new and improved turntables to accommodate the new trend.

The market is clearly defined by nostalgia for music from past decades, but that does not mean the niche can’t continue expanding for quite some time.
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I noticed this in my local Barnes and Noble. I was very surprised to see new vinyl on display!
 
Vinyl in good condition does not "scratch, skip, crack". It wasn't until DVD-Audio/SACD that digital music came close to vinyl sound quality. Unfortunately, that format war killed high resolution digital audio on disc.
 
I have a metric crapton of original vinyl from the 60s and 70s. Wonder if now is a good time to dump it.

I have a mint condition Marantz rack too with amplifier, cassette player, equalizer, record player, the works. The super old ones with the tubes.

Makes me wonder what its worth to hipsters.... Hmmmmm....
 
Ducman69 said:
I have a metric crapton of original vinyl from the 60s and 70s. Wonder if now is a good time to dump it.

I have a mint condition Marantz rack too with amplifier, cassette player, equalizer, record player, the works. The super old ones with the tubes.

Makes me wonder what its worth to hipsters.... Hmmmmm....
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Same boat. I have about 350 LPs all packed away. Haven't seen them in years. Last time I went through them about 10 years ago I transferred about 20 of the rare ones (not reissued on CD at the time) to CD.

I took my component stack apart about 2 weeks ago. It kind of hit home that I had not used the cassette deck, or record player, or even the DVD player in years. They have just set there looking neat and nothing more (Poe). The belts had rotted to goo on my Sony cassette deck, so belts are on order. I lost a classic Pioneer 70's vintage receiver to a burglar in '85. I always hoped that 60lb behemoth gave that bastard a hernia as he carried it out.

Everything I have now are FLAC files on a hard drive. And time marches on.
 
Ducman69 said:
I have a metric crapton of original vinyl from the 60s and 70s. Wonder if now is a good time to dump it.

I have a mint condition Marantz rack too with amplifier, cassette player, equalizer, record player, the works. The super old ones with the tubes.

Makes me wonder what its worth to hipsters.... Hmmmmm....
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I found out the equipment is worth more then the media. You can buy some random bum player from a garage sale, make sure it works, dress up the ad on ebay and it will SELL.

But to me, Vinyl is cool to put on walls.
 
freeloader1969 said:
CD's sound like shit. I'll take vinyl any day over a CD. Just MHO...
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Really? I'd argue that CDs and vinyl sound nearly identical when both are mixed and mastered the same. I understand from a theoretical standpoint that vinyl has the potential to sound better because it is analog, but I don't think that actually translates to a real world difference in sound quality. Even if vinyl actually sounded better than CD, it would take very expensive audio equipment that your average vinyl-buying hipster does not own to even tell a difference.
 
jfreund said:
Vinyl in good condition does not "scratch, skip, crack". It wasn't until DVD-Audio/SACD that digital music came close to vinyl sound quality. Unfortunately, that format war killed high resolution digital audio on disc.
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Total myth. This has been (repeatedly) debunked. The facts are: SACD added nothing human-detectable to recordings over classic Red Book CD. CD audio was designed to be a future-proof format that would never need replacing, and it is. Poorly engineered, highly compressed (as in dynamic range) recordings are what give CD and other modern formats a bad name; not the formats themselves. Vinyl is often preferred by listeners due to its warm, pleasing sound - and to the fact that recordings on vinyl were better engineered, having predated the loudness wars, but absolutely not due to any additional fidelity.

I know it's bad form to drop a doozie like that without citation, but it's getting late and I'm tired. But Google it if you're really interested. The videos at xiph.org aren't a bad place to start either.
 
I enjoy certain music on vinyl because the low-level analog hum/noise, to me, makes it sound better. The sheer silence of the quiet periods in digital music is disconcerting. If you're at a concert, you hear all the background noise, if you listen to the radio, you get FM hiss. Yes, there is plenty of music that DOES sound better pristine, but there is also plenty that sounds better with just the tiniest amount of "noise". Acoustic rock, to me, always sounds better from vinyl, as does jazz, and old-school R&B. Modern rock, electronic, etc? Yeah, digital is good there.


As for the nostalgia of vinyl, now the nostalgia of tape is coming back (as evidenced by the release of the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack on tape, although independent labels have been doing it for a few years as "throwback hipster cred.") No, I won't be buying anything on tape (even though one of my cars does still have a tape player,) but I do still buy the occasional vinyl album, even new. And hell no I won't be nostalgic for 8-track. I was glad when that shelf space finally disappeared and went to CDs.
 
CharonPDX said:
I enjoy certain music on vinyl because the low-level analog hum/noise, to me, makes it sound better. The sheer silence of the quiet periods in digital music is disconcerting. If you're at a concert, you hear all the background noise, if you listen to the radio, you get FM hiss. Yes, there is plenty of music that DOES sound better pristine, but there is also plenty that sounds better with just the tiniest amount of "noise". Acoustic rock, to me, always sounds better from vinyl, as does jazz, and old-school R&B. Modern rock, electronic, etc? Yeah, digital is good there.


As for the nostalgia of vinyl, now the nostalgia of tape is coming back (as evidenced by the release of the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack on tape, although independent labels have been doing it for a few years as "throwback hipster cred.") No, I won't be buying anything on tape (even though one of my cars does still have a tape player,) but I do still buy the occasional vinyl album, even new. And hell no I won't be nostalgic for 8-track. I was glad when that shelf space finally disappeared and went to CDs.
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I agree with you that music shouldn't be perfected. The reason why bands went to producers was to perfect the sound of their song, not mix it and run it through software removing every nick of noise/sound it just loses a lot. That's the reason I don't listen to any main stream hip hop anymore, absolutely garbage, might well type the lyrics in a computer, hit compile and release that.

But I will disagree that this is because of digital/cd's. I have plenty of older cd's that contain plenty of studio/recording noise. What's at fault is over producing the music to the point of making it stale. I really liked upgrading my early hip hop and punk albums to cd's when they were released, didn't lose a step.

Current/remastered garbage is all the fault of producers being perfectionists.
 
Aaron11 said:
Really? I'd argue that CDs and vinyl sound nearly identical when both are mixed and mastered the same. I understand from a theoretical standpoint that vinyl has the potential to sound better because it is analog, but I don't think that actually translates to a real world difference in sound quality. Even if vinyl actually sounded better than CD, it would take very expensive audio equipment that your average vinyl-buying hipster does not own to even tell a difference.
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Normally I'd say people are hearing things. But CD could have been better than it is, by going to 18-bits, then almost no one could tell the difference between professional analog and CD. Turn tables ain't professional analog, though. I guess at 20-bits you would pretty much have all the freaks of nature who could tell the difference. So although not necessarily worse than vinyl, CD's could have been better.

The other thing is a lot of material was 'remastered' when it went to CD and not reproduced but someone re-did the mixing and thought they knew better. A lot of music got f-ed up by producers trying to leave their mark on famous old music.

The last thing is supposedly if someone knew what they were doing, but I guess this was rare, music was made to compensate for the imperfections of vinyl, like the wobble of a needle or crosstalk of left and right. Some of These compensations may have been imbedded in the masters. So even if the mix wasn't molested a perfect reproduction transferred compensations that weren't needed.

The last two things basically are that the music wasn't originally mastered for CD, it probably didn't translate well, so this gave CD a bad rap vs. vinyl. But CD could be better than it is.
 
I am sitting this one out waiting for cassette tapes to make their comeback.
 
Not sure what the point is. Anything recorded in the last 20-30 years has been digitally mastered.

Perhaps the DAC used for vinyl production is much better than the one in your typical CD player but the advantage is going to be small and go to nil if there is any wear and tear on the record or the turntable

I a lot of people must be comparing vinyl to low bit rate MP3s on their phone
 
Maybe there will be some extreme hipsters and put a turntable in their vehicles with some kind of super vibration/bump system installed! :D

I like new technology and don't miss 8 tracks, records, tapes, or cd's. I just need my phone and I am good.
 
I have always preferred vinyl and analog tube amps. But finding new vinyl is pretty hard. I'm glad their releasing more vinyl, but the selection isnt the best.
 
hellokeith said:
scratch, skip, crack.. no thanks
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This.

Hello Wow and Flutter; something eliminated by digital recordings.
Hello NOISE; record pre-amps are very high gain so this is inherent.

Vinyl records became obsolete for a reason.
I seriously doubt there will be a REAL resurgence of the high end turntables of the past.
The cost to built to that level of quality will be very expensive now a days.

This is kind of like giving up my comfortable, fast, fuel efficient car for a model T.
nostalgia must go a LONG WAY for some people.

Someone post a FACE PALM meme quick.
 
freeloader1969 said:
CD's sound like shit. I'll take vinyl any day over a CD. Just MHO...
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Have your hearing checked.

The ONLY format in vinyl that was anywhere near the spec of CD was the rare Direct to Disc recordings. These were closer to studio masters than a "mixdown" LP records which was for mass consumption.
 
Vinyl with tube amps.. The sound comes out a bit warmer compared to CDs IMO. Some might contend that lossless is the same thing though.
 
Trimlock said:
I found out the equipment is worth more then the media. You can buy some random bum player from a garage sale, make sure it works, dress up the ad on ebay and it will SELL.

But to me, Vinyl is cool to put on walls.
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Have to say; 99% is hipster retro-cool.

Old audio gear (tube or solid state) is noisy junk compared to modern gear. The main reason is the advancement in quality of components. Now a days they typical (quality) audio OPAMPs in pre-amplifers can deliver 0.005% THD. And easily 100+ dB SN ratios. Numbers unheard of in older equipment.

The equipment isn't really the issue. The problem is most people "music collection" is a collection of MP3 from different sources.
Pull out a pristine vinyl record played back on a descent system and it will sound outstanding. This is why people think vinyl sounds better. What a joke. :rolleyes:
 
Where's the best place to sell this stuff ya think? I don't know where hipsters shop these days.
 
With todays over bassy tunes and compressed audio spectrum does it really matter?
 
Trimlock said:
I found out the equipment is worth more then the media. You can buy some random bum player from a garage sale, make sure it works, dress up the ad on ebay and it will SELL.

But to me, Vinyl is cool to put on walls.
Click to expand...

I sold a couple of technics mk1200 a while back for like $250 each. Wish I kept them, they go about twice that nowadays.
 
Stoly said:
With todays over bassy tunes and compressed audio spectrum does it really matter?
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Yeah, now a days music is studio mixed for MP3.

So studio work is to make it sound like Sh*t. This is why people pine for analog recordings where it was mixed with a relatively flat response so the listener can tweak the bass and treble to their liking.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Yeah, now a days music is studio mixed for MP3.

So studio work is to make it sound like Sh*t. This is why people pine for analog recordings where it was mixed with a relatively flat response so the listener can tweak the bass and treble to their liking.
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and crappy iphone/ipad/ipod, speakers/headphones
 
jpm100 said:
Normally I'd say people are hearing things. But CD could have been better than it is, by going to 18-bits, then almost no one could tell the difference between professional analog and CD. Turn tables ain't professional analog, though. I guess at 20-bits you would pretty much have all the freaks of nature who could tell the difference. So although not necessarily worse than vinyl, CD's could have been better.

The other thing is a lot of material was 'remastered' when it went to CD and not reproduced but someone re-did the mixing and thought they knew better. A lot of music got f-ed up by producers trying to leave their mark on famous old music.

The last thing is supposedly if someone knew what they were doing, but I guess this was rare, music was made to compensate for the imperfections of vinyl, like the wobble of a needle or crosstalk of left and right. Some of These compensations may have been imbedded in the masters. So even if the mix wasn't molested a perfect reproduction transferred compensations that weren't needed.

The last two things basically are that the music wasn't originally mastered for CD, it probably didn't translate well, so this gave CD a bad rap vs. vinyl. But CD could be better than it is.
Click to expand...

There has been a on going debate about the merits of higher bit recordings.
The facts are that most people can't tell the difference between a 16bit 44Khz recording or a 24bit 96Khz recording.

There was a double blind with a lot of "golden eared" audio professionals; the same material was played in each format. NONE of the professionals could tell the difference enough to choose which was high bit and which was low bit.

This is why the more expensive high bit formats never caught on.

In the case of old recording captured on studio tape, mixed on analog equipment and then "copied" to CDs, this will yield your worst results. That is a AAD CD.

Most everything nowadays will be a DDD. Digitally recorded, digitally mixed, and the digital result on the CD. This is where the format shines.
No residual noise (tape hiss) from old analog equipment. Very little compression of the dynamic range because the CD format can handle it.

Sadly much of the so called music produced today does not lend itself to subtle nuances.
A lot of it is jarring noisy synth sounds (dubstep) and other things in this style.
So it is mixed and mastered to be LOUD and thus dispensing with the benefits of high quality recording. Squeeze out a MP3, it sounds about the same.
 
Even today when you listen to a vinyl you could just hear the difference between chopped up sequences of digital compared to a full analog sin wave of a vinyl. For me i can hear the difference in the way it sounds like how tubes sound better than just stale solid state. Analog is the true epitome of sound as our ears hear it that way in the first place.
 
Joy Bliss And Happiness...

I welcome with open arms, wow, flutter, low S:N, crosstalk, lower freq range, and snake oil salesmen offering magic analog cables.
 
jfreund said:
Vinyl in good condition does not "scratch, skip, crack". It wasn't until DVD-Audio/SACD that digital music came close to vinyl sound quality. Unfortunately, that format war killed high resolution digital audio on disc.
Click to expand...

Ummm nooo. Universal format players were becoming quite common.

What killed hi end audio was the ubiquitous flooding of the market with cheap (or free) mp3s. 99% of the people didn't have the gear or ears necessary to hear the difference hi-bit audio offered.
 
The best thing about vinyl is the gigantic slips that you can prop up as artwork.
 
Stoly said:
I sold a couple of technics mk1200 a while back for like $250 each. Wish I kept them, they go about twice that nowadays.
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They are a favorite of DJ's at clubs. They are getting harder and harder to find now a days.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Yeah, now a days music is studio mixed for MP3.

So studio work is to make it sound like Sh*t. This is why people pine for analog recordings where it was mixed with a relatively flat response so the listener can tweak the bass and treble to their liking.
Click to expand...

To a true audiophile, analog treble bass controls are a no-no as they introduce phase shift. That's why you see a bypass feature on most high end audio gear. (Which bypasses the processing between the preamp and amp)
 
Conker said:
Even today when you listen to a vinyl you could just hear the difference between chopped up sequences of digital compared to a full analog sin wave of a vinyl. For me i can hear the difference in the way it sounds like how tubes sound better than just stale solid state. Analog is the true epitome of sound as our ears hear it that way in the first place.
Click to expand...

Exactly, in audio terms the more analog the better. There's a reason guitarists still use all tube amps.
 
Conker said:
Even today when you listen to a vinyl you could just hear the difference between chopped up sequences of digital compared to a full analog sin wave of a vinyl. For me i can hear the difference in the way it sounds like how tubes sound better than just stale solid state. Analog is the true epitome of sound as our ears hear it that way in the first place.
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blah ha ha ha.

You do know the output stage of most DACs is repeated 256 times and passed through a cap/inductor circuit that naturally recreates a sinusoidal transition between data points? There's nothing 0/1 about it between sample points.
 
People who think you can't hear the difference between CD format and higher sample rates.. well I definately can hear it recording at home.. 96/24 would be optmial digital audio format to replace CD's IMO.
 
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