I Changed My Mind About Vinyl, Here's Why.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- Wrapping on 2022 I started to get more into vinyl. 2023 will bring a ton of new content and now vinyl content! Subscribe!
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The main difference I find with vinyl over digital is the way you listen to albums. It is far more likely that you will listen to a record from start to finish than when you are listening on a digital medium. It is very easy to just skip tracks digitally but if you have to get up and lift the arm and move it each time you probably won't bother. The result is that some tracks, which initially may not grab you, start to grow on you in a way that you would never discover when streaming or listening to IPods or CDs.
That is so true. I just did that today. Couldn't bother to get up and move the needle, so I actually sat and enjoyed the whole side of the album. Never would have done that with digital... In fact I have been 'hearing' some of those songs in my head all day! Lol.
I feel this way about cassette tapes you fast forward the song only to find a hidden track or a cold verse
Welllll, unless you have an ELP turntable, then you can kinda treat it like a CD 😅 I don't know anyone who'd buy one, even if they could afford one -- so that's not me (although I'd like to experience one at some point).
I find the opposite sometimes, I'll forget to actually flip the record and listen to side B!
@@RAAZR- You're missing the point completely. Something that you thought was rubbish on first listen may well grow on you, but you'll never know if you don't give it a chance. Greatest hits is like ignoring the vegetables in a meal and going straight to the dessert.
Vinyl albums had a great consumer experience. Browsing through the racks, the big artwork, double LPs with inserts, getting stoned ,reading the lyrics & sharing the hidden meanings with your friends, an actual physical object that was encased in what was often a work of art in its own right.
Physical media makes you appreciate an album as a whole way more than streaming can. Putting on a record is like going to a concert
THIS!
This is the thing right here.
@@RAAZR- congrats!
@@RAAZR- i call it OWNING my own stuff ;) don't get me wrong digital music is easy. And even more easy to get it illegal.
Here is where stuf go's wrong.
If you want to BUY music digitaly for example on Beatport, you can only download it once unless you get their subscription...if you lose ur songs "drive failure" or w/e you need that shit...if i want to support the artists il buy it on vinyl. Screw digital i love to HOLD vinyl records its a different experience. Also have you tried it? If not sush ^^
Exactly 🙂
I'm 77 and have been collecting vinyl records since 1965 and have a large collection of 45 and 33 1/3 rpms. About three years ago I learned to clean and maintain my collection by using wood glue. The wood glue cleans the grooves very good. The static is almost removed more than 98 to 99 per cent. The vinyl recordings sound wonderful. Hoorah.
I've seen the wood glue trick and I've wondered if it was a fools errand, 41 and spending way too much on records and equipment, thanks for the confirmation.
I doubt the tiniest pieces all were removed. A cartridge “recognizes” as small relief as 1/10 of a length of a green light. Impresses, doesn’t it?
I'm 61 and have been collecting records since the age of 13 so I am definitely biased. I have always preferred the sound of vinyl, yes it may be dynamically inferior technically, but it's the overall warmness of the sound that I love. I work from home a couple of times a week and for a couple of years during the lockdown and play music all day whilst working. Vinyl is the only format that doesn't make my ears tired by the end of the day. CDs and streaming get very shrill and exhausting after eight hours or so, but my records just keep spinning and spinning. There is also the pleasure of going out record shopping and finding new albums to add to the collection, that thrill has never left me. Then there is the whole ritual of maintaining your equipment and the whole process of playing a record, you can't beat that for me.
I agree that modern records can sound awful - they look very appealing with all the fancy colour variations but a lot of them are sloppy digital transfers. Vinyl mastering is an art itself and a lot of labels just don't bother - although they charge a premium price for their product; and that is getting out of hand. I'm not sure what I would think of vinyl if I was a youngster today, so I'm glad I'm older and have so many vintage records that sound amazing to me. Great video. Happy New Year.
Right on David, I'm 66 and feel pretty much the same.
@@alltheworldsastage899 agree. I’m 57.
Now at 60 and done the same as yourself I went back to vinyl and is pretty much all I listen to. I went down that rabbit hole looking for the highest quality I could find I now listen to the music not the format or the system played on.
Dynamically inferior? Somebody show this man Steely Dan on vinyl
@@SoundlabStudios63 You can't fool physics. It's impossible to get on vinyl the dynamic range of CD. Sure, the analogue versions might (and do) sound better. Primary because analogue requires different mastering process which has to take into account lower dynamic range.
The Vinyl experience is very different , ex: Artists were known to strategically place songs in specific order Side 1 or Side 2 , The listener may have a tendency to listen to a full side
rather than getting up and physically changing songs. This allows a chance to discover a wider appreciation of the artist / album .. IMO
I would say the thing that makes some records sound better than digital files is the way they are mastered. The same song sounds different on each format it is released on because you need to master a song to conform to the cutting head of the record or master the MP3 to sound good on ear buds.
Yes, it all comes down to the mastering. A well mastered cd or lp sounds just as good as a hi-def digital source. I have dual formats for many of my favorite albums and sometimes the cd will sound better and on other titles, the lp sounds better.
Outsourcing produces trash albums.
It’s worth bearing in mind that vinyl really shines at a higher budget. Digital can be achieved to great effect at a much lower price point. When you get to mid/high end vinyl playback with a decent phono preamp and MC cart, I believe it can often sound better depending on release. Some releases though sound better digitally and some sound better on vinyl anyway. You can’t spend say 500 bucks on a system and expect the vinyl to outperform the digital imo…the costs are far greater and also to manufacture.
Couldn’t agree more with what you’ve said! I went from a mediocre $500 Sony turntable setup to a $4,800 MoFi turntable setup paired with $8k worth of Bowers & Wilkins speakers and HOLY SH*T is there a difference! It’s hard to beat a high quality vinyl pressing on a high-end system! But until you’ve listened to quality vinyl pressings on a high-end system you’ve never truly “heard” vinyl in the capacity it’s capable of! It’s a very 3-dimensional live sound that really envelopes you and at times can make you have an emotional or physical (chills) response. 👍🏽
I think it is all about making music a hobby. I like records, cd and streaming they all have their place. Physical media is just more enjoyable than pushing a play icon on your phone.
Careful going down the audiophile rabbit hole, you'll end up listening to the equipment instead of the music!
I grew up with vinyls and cassette tapes, and I ended up hating vinyls with a passion because of my own ignorance on how to take care of it. CDs were also a godsend to me, the clarity of sound, no noise, no nonsense, BUT shortly after, the hi fi industry started to change for the worst so as the music industry to the point I was no longer able to listen to music for longer periods of time due to ear fatigue. The newer equipments sounded like crap because they were aimed for casual consumers and music trends.
So I got back to Vinyl because one day I was walking by a record store, decided to look in, check the records to see if I find one to decorate my room, so I picked one and the owner offered to test the record on his modest equipment and suffice to say, I was blown away!
I felt like finding something I lost so many years ago, a real connection to music through the warmth of sound. Dynamic range doesn't matter because we only can hear some frequencies, and our senses can be oversaturated with excess info, which is where I see the problem resides with modern digital formats and equipment's for streaming, headphones, portable devices. You lose a whole world of sound. Less is more.
Also, listening to music became something so casual, so disconnected to the art form. Vinyl and analogue showed us why art and music are so great in the first place.
I think the record industry has a different approach to a CD today. they might think they who listen to a CD is someone who has a cheap stereo. so maybe that's why they reduce the dynamics a lot and turn up the volume on the recordings. While the same album on hi-res or vinyl in practice can have better dynamics in between. Because the record companies might think. Whoever buys Hi-res or vinyl has a more expensive stereo or is more picky about the sound. or it is simply that they make a CD that is both for radio stations and private individuals. with exactly the same mix. Note Refers to pop music and other music for the top charts
There are those who go to the big electronics store, then there are those who read reviews about audio devices before they buy them. Then there are speakers and amplifiers that don't go well together sonically
You didn’t grow up with albums as you claim. You have to be a millennial as nobody who grew up with albums and 8 tracks called albums vinyls like you. I actually watched a guy who played in bands in the 60’s professionally kick a millennial out of his massive record shop for calling albums vinyls😂
@@flyingburritobro68 I call albums / records - vinyls. because: 1. English is not my first language. 2. I use words that are commonly used to avoid confusion and misunderstanding. Especially here on YT full of people from different places and of different age.
If someone wanted to kick me out from a record shop I'd kick back... hard 😉
It is also nice to support the artists as well.
Yes, but I do think this reason is over inflated. Of course it varies immensely but from what Ive seen even with vinyl the artist gets less than 3% of sales. For a $25 vinyl that equates to ~150 spotify streams which for a 10-15 song album doesnt seem like an insane amount.
On top of that I really dislike this shift the blame to the consumer mentality. The idea of for just $25+s/h you can help feed a starving artist. Blame the recording industry for paying poorly and setting up poor contracts with spotify and others.
Probably one of the best sounding vinyl albums for me is Supertramp - Breakfast In America from 1979. There's so much dynamics in that recording.
I played this record last weekend and I do agree. "Crime of the Century" is also an absolute masterpiece music and sound wise.
Thanks for the suggestion
@@gjg8766 you're welcome.
Breakfast In America is of the best sounding and most affordable albums from the 80s that can be found for $10 or less. Others on that list are Genesis Abacab, The Cars Candy-O and ABC's Beauty Stab. Duran Duran Rio is also on that list...except that one has gone from a $4 record to $19+.
@David Mander I'll bet it does.
Nice video. One of the greatest things about vinyl is how much it financially benefits the artists versus streaming.
Vinyl is something that you can collect and years later if you decide you want to sell it, you can. Try that with streaming or digital.
Nice! I think one aspect that's underappreciated is being able to listen to more vintage samples the way they would have been listened to and they're originally made, '60s for example. It's not like someone has a vintage photo of New York City and you say "why would I want to look at that, I could just look up what it looks like today" horrible analogy but whatever lol
Old timer here. There was something with vinyl. I remember going down to my favorite record shop, Sam the Record Man, for those who might have known that store. I got to talk to the employees who were quite knowledgeable, then it was perusing through the LP's, something I could spend an afternoon doing. Then buying one, two or more records. When I got home I got to sit down, look at the covers, back and front, opening one, taking the record out and putting it on my turntable. While listening, I was checking out the insert where you had additional art, lyrics and such. For my money I had something real and tangible in my hand that I could replay for as many times as I wanted, something you don't get with streaming. The magical thing is that after all these years I still have my LP's. If anything, I can now buy new copies made on 180 grams (or more) of pure vinyl.
Trivia: During the oil crisis of the 70's record companies would melt down unsold records in order to make new ones. They were thin and didn't sound all that good.
Vinyl sound is the real sound. Yes digital media sounds clearer etc. but it’s not what the musician intended it. Dig!
You need a better cartridge for sure. You will be amazed at the difference. I have audiophile records that I love and I often also get the hi-res downloads for more convenient listening.
Most modern vinyl isn't mastered for the limitations of the format. This is why new vinyl usually sounds worse than the digital version. It's basically the digital mix stamped onto a piece of plastic and it just doesn't work. Some artists do take the time to make different mixes for different formats. The vinyl version of Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories" was given different mastering than the CD and the FLAC versions and sounds amazing. "An Evening With Silk Sonic" is also killer on vinyl. Not sure if it got a separate mastering though.
I only have digital but when I want that authentic vinyl sound I pour milk on Rice Krispies 😜
Good one
For me it was my 4 years old girl that I love so much. I want her to hold music in her hands and have this experience that I know she will remember forever. I cant play anything so for me a turntable is a music instrument.
As far as a good turntable/cartridge upgrade goes, I think for you an Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge would probably be a great upgrade for you and keep your turntable if it's working the way it's supposed to.
A 2M Blue will indeed increase the experience of listining to vinyl by 500% yeah got one too upgraded from a old Shure... the sound was AMAZING.
Another vote for the Ortofon 2M Blue. It sounds ridiculously good, especially for its price. A complete game-changer.
Agreed I upgrade from the red to the blue on my debut carbon, much quieter.
Here's the way I see it:
There's no particular reason to listen to records, but it's fun! It makes me feel good to do! The big cardboard sleve, colorful plastic discs, watching it spin, it' great! I have a $400 Digital Music player with a quad-DAC that sounds probably as good as my records, but man if you only ever did things out of necessity, what a boring life you'd lead. I also love CDs and Cassettes, each for their own reasons. I hope to add a Minidisc player to my hi-fi someday.
I am happy that you are exploring the great world of vinyl. If you upgrade to a better quality turntable ( even a Rega), you will discover even greater musicality of your vinyl records.
I love flipping through records and finding what I want. I d*ck around with my phone, etc all the time. Music is important to me and sometimes when I stream I feel like I'm just scrolling through netflix or youtube reels. It's nice to use streaming as a way to discover new music for sure. It's wonderful to be able to put that down and just enjoy.
Unless you’re like me. I have a decent home hifi stereo set up I’m happy with using digital sources. I went into Vinyl thinking it was a great hobby to regain my love of music that had escaped me the last few years. During the pandemic, many artists were releasing and re-releasing vinyl albums and along with my increased use of Bandcamp, found that purchasing a CD or vinyl copy of an album on the site also included downloads and streaming for sometimes only a few bucks more than just the digital version. So, I accumulated some new vinyl, helped fund some artists and bought a good turntable, only to find out that my home’s AC power is ultra dirty and neighborhood is poisoned with RF noise. I tried everything to minimize or get rid of the interference that is ruining my vinyl playback experience to no avail. So back burner the idea went.
I think that vinyl you are holding was digitally recorded and pressed to vinyl. So you are listening to a digital recording on vinyl. You have to have an all analog process AAA. Recorded in analog, mixed with analog, played with analog?
The digital file mastered for vinyl still sounds good on vinyl because it is mastered for vinyl. The all analogue recording and pressing will sound good because it is mastered for vinyl. The limitations of the vinyl medium are being addressed in the mastering and, the engineering of the sound by a good mastering engineer will make either digital or analogue sound good on vinyl. On better equipment you can hear the differences between analogue and digital master tapes more clearly but, technically digital recording is superior to analogue across the board and its full potential far exceeds what we imagine because we listen to music mastered for use in the “real world”. Often mastering is done for earbud listeners out and about in the streets or on buses and trains. Compressed and equalised to maintain intelligibility in noisy environments. Vinyl records are mastered for listening at home and that will sound better and more realistic. Vinyl gets the benefit of being used indoors in quieter environments and that allows better more sympathetic mastering.
I like my vinyl, they sound good with my setup. The feeling of changing sides is cool. You listen to everything.
Vinyl mastering (and pressing!) is an artform in its own right. For someone who grew up listening to digital formats, hearing familiar songs on vinyl might be an eye opener to how much the "loudness war" has really affected mastering and the overall sound, since the limitations of vinyl requires a different approach to mixing/mastering.
For me, what I like about vinyl is how it forces me to focus on the music. It's like a ritual to pick out a record and put it on. A welcomed break from the digital noise. It's a conscious effort that establishes an emotional and personal value to the music.
Plus I love knowing that my vinyls will still be playable after the solar storms finally hit earth and erased all digital information from all digital media on the planet. ;)
For digital, there's dolby atmos music I think?
I’m obsessed with Celebrity Therapist, one of my top 5 albums of 2022, its truly amazing to know theres someone also into HiFi gear who love this kind of music
The first time I heard Come Together by the Beatles on Vinyl, I was sold. I have tons of CDs and a decent amount of vinyl and just enjoy listening to music these days. What a concept!
5:18 You place the brush gently and without pressure across the record as you did, you let it do its job (attracts dust) and then you just pick it up. Don't swipe because the lateral move can create friction from the moving bristles and probably make scratches to the grooves
My journey with vinyl and hi-fi audio has drastically shifted over the years. I came into the hobby just before the big waves of hype and resurgence, and my only sources of information I listened to at the time were the various vinyl-centric channels here on TH-cam. I didn't have a lot of exposure to the broader hi-fi and audiophile community, so I completely bought into the misconceptions of vinyl being superior in every way possible and analog music being objectively better to digital. So I've grown to actually understand a lot of the actual science and the tech behind hi-fidelity audio and have a different relationship with my collection of a couple hundred records.
I now listen to them more as a way to physically engage with my collection and purposefully take time out of my day to just listen to the music and not distract myself from experiencing it. And it's actually really fun to have different cartridges and different amps to play around with the tone and timbre of the music. It lets you experience the music in a more personal and colorful way than just listening to the clean and well mastered digital tracks.
I've always hated vinyl records, even when I was a kid, that is why I tried to make a tape recorder in the fourth grade, I didn't succeed obviously, but at least I tried! The ticks, and pops, plus surface noise, and the eccentricity of vinyl records drove me (when I had enough money), to purchase a used teak A1500U, reel-to-reel tape recorder, but I could easily still hear the difference between "source and tape", the dreaded tape hiss. In 1978 as an engineering consultant for the "Great American Sound Co., I traveled to Japan to visit GAS dealers and the Tokyo Electronics Show. In the Sony booth at that show, I saw for the first time, a model PCM-1, 12-bit digital processor playing music from the video track displaying thousands of black and white, undulating bits on the monitor, from the same SL-8200 Beta max VCR I had at home, I had to own one of these! In 1983 I attended an AES meeting featuring Marshall Buck who was presenting his new "coaxial two-way" loudspeaker he had designed for Cerwin-Vega! In his demonstration he was utilizing a "vocal-only" recording of a female singer that sounded fantastic with an incredible "dynamic range" and no background hiss. Immediately after Marshall's demonstration, I walked up and asked him what equipment was playing back his recording of this singer? He pointed to this diminutive silver box, and said I'm using a Sony PCM-F1, 16-bit Digital Audio Processor and a VCR. I said how much for the PCM-F1. He said $1,500.00, and I said sold! I built a portable recording rig that included the PCM-F1 and other custom-made equipment that I utilized for various musical performance recordings made on location and I won an Emmy for an outdoor performance of the opera Faust! I've been a digital advocate ever since, if you wish to learn more about my current endeavors, search TH-cam with the following: "JBL SYNTHESIS CREATOR", and ALSO: "HOWTOHOMELIFE". If you have questions, feel-free to call me @ 818-314-7275 Pacific time. David Riddle
Ego surge, 100% I feel so special with each copy, especially when you're hunting for the best copies out there, it's such an addictive side to it. Hunting for original copies of 60s records, hunting for those limited editions, audiophile versions, it's so much fun!
The best sound format is reel to reel analog tape and it is expensive to buy the pre recorded high quality record label tapes along with a good reel deck that can be expensive as well .Anything analog has to be heavily thought about the quality of every component and the link of it ,..Turntable quality can vary a whole lot and the cartridge being used and the shape the stylus is, the amp and the speakers and the quality of the wires all in all have to be totally in sync to achieve the best sound .
Stay with me here, it’s kind of like a Gibson Les Paul vs and Epiphone or a Les Paul copy you can tell which when you listen to them. The Gibson Les Paul has a warmth that the others don’t. Like with digital amp modeling vs a tube amplifier, again there is an organic warmth to those analog tubes. Same with CD’S and vinyl, for me it’s the warmth of vinyl especially older records that were analog recorded.
It’s the mastering. It’s made with much more care because the format demands it compared to digital/CDs where they can just hit the limiter and push it up to 11 and be done with it.
Not that there aren’t terribly mastered records (cause they do exist). But I’d say for 80 to 90% of *newer* popular music today, Vinyl is always the best option sound-wise, now if you add cool colors and better looking artwork it’s just a no-brainer, I think.
Not really, you're forgetting the inflated prices for vinyl. Only this year has the INCOME for LPs just outstripped that for CDs. So CDs are still outselling LPs in terms of units. And that's not taking into account the secondhand market.
Also that bad pressings still exist, warping, dishing, scratches etc etc - read any Amazon product feedback or numerous forums when a big new release comes out. The same old problems we had decades ago. I have about 1000 LPs and roughly 3000 CDs - there are just as high a proportion of badly mastered LPs as there are CDs. You're right that the whole "loudness wars" thing aka compression did serious harm to the CD format. But it's possible to learn which will be bad and which will be good - by period, by label etc. For those of us that really like to explore music, to collect, it's a wonderful time to buy CDs.
I seriously believe that what we're really looking at with vinyl is a fashion thing. Various factors have come together to condition people to think that CDs are uncool, inferior blah blah.
NOPE, what is uncool is nitwits paying £30 or so for scratched up old LPs that aren't even rare - just so they can put them on a shelf and point at them. Don't think this doesn't happen - it REALLY does.
My mantra, it's not about the format, it's about the music. If somebody wants to pay £50 for a coloured vinyl edition of commonplace music that you could buy as a CD for a couple of pounds - more fool them.
Vinyl won't go away now, nor should CD - unless you're the kind of wally who got rid of his vinyl 30 years ago and wishes they hadn't. I didn't, and I'm not getting rid of my CDs either.
@@legrandmaitre7112 I’m talking about the mastering of current *new* Vinyl records vs *new* CDs. Not all Vinyl records are better mastered and neither are CDs. It’s a case by case scenario, and most of the time, the Vinyl pressing sounds more dynamic, that is a fact proven by numbers on the DR database.
Now, are there plenty of poor Vinyl pressings? Yes, many. Are they getting ridiculously expensive? Of course. Are there people who just buy them to display them in their studio? Sure, even Steven Wilson admitted to this recently. Is the “better” artwork a bit superfluous for $25 to $50 USD? Sure, maybe. But none of those facts changes that the physical format itself limits what mastering goes into it, and it tends to be better than most CDs, sadly. I say sadly because personally I still prefer CDs, I tend to buy more CDs, but if there’s an album that I personally love and it’s trashed in mastering for CD I might try the Vinyl if it’s not insanely expensive, why not?
Also, Vinyl has many issues but people survived on MP3s for almost a decade, I think things could be a lot worse TBH. To each their own.
@@legrandmaitre7112 says "not even rare " then proceeds to say that viynl is a fashion and noit abouyt the music. oh the irony. all i hear is jealousy. sorry some people value the original format of there music tastes , and rituals that help them enjoy the media. sorry that i like getting myself a classic album every week because its a small pirce to pay for the happiness it brings me . keep hating loser
@@sefarba Yes, unfortunately lp's are better mastered than cd's these days, but a well mastered cd will always have greater dynamic range, signal to noise, less distortion, more accurate speed of playback and better frequency response in the useable range. The problem is so many cd's are mastered by idiots who are attempting to make them sound loud on cheap equipment for people who view music as any other cheap commodity and are used to mp3's, streaming or SiriusXM. I'm like you in that I buy titles on cd unless the mastering is horrible and then, and only then, if I really love the album will spend the insane prices for the lp. Which gets me to another point, almost no one called it vinyl back in the day when lp's ruled. They are lp records pressed on vinyl. When my friends say that they bought something on vinyl, I mock them by telling them that I bought the title on aluminum polycarbonate.
@@rft2001 This precisely, is my approach to LP Records/Vinyl nowadays. Many times it does sound better but the format is a worse delivery than CDs could be (like back in the early 90s) for sure, there’s absolutely no doubt there. But I think, I’m guessing, labels are aware of this by now, that records are the “New Hi-Fi” and exploit music fans with their insane prices. It won’t last forever though, I don’t see people paying $150 USD for a new record, not any day soon.
Look! I always preferred the sound of an LP to any CD but there have always been some exceptions! I mean take for example the music made by Madonna. She's always making sure that all of her music no matter on cassette, LP, or digital would give the highest quality possible, and many other artists wanted just that so as you probably know, the bitrate of a CD is 1411kb/s compared to over 1900 kb/s for most vinyl! Of course, it depends on the type of sound system you listen to your music with but I can assure you that every time I'm playing an LP, people are so incredibly amazed just like if the band or artists were there giving a show live!
Records do not have a bitrate, it is analog.
@@davidspendlove5900 Apparently you know nothing about music because the range of frequencies is WAY higher from an LP (vinyl) than a CD. Well of course it also depends on how the primary print was made but some artists insisted so their music would be offered at the highest quality! You really need to hear it to understand but as I said, CDs have 1411 kb/s while LPs would go above 1900!
Nnno. The measured statistical quality of freshly pressed vinyl is at about 1000 kb/s. Average is around 600.
The theoretical maximum information density for single molecule precision groove for pure vinyl is around 1500 kb/s (36 micro metre wall deviations).
Where did you get the 1900kb/s?
In the 70s, album vinyl only came in one color, black...I always loved the noise on vinyl...it enhances the experience to me...and the album cover makes a great rolling tray...but I grew up in the vinyl era...also 8 tracks...I still have some 8 track tapes too...now that was a wierd format...my least favorite, especially when it changed tracks in the middle of a song...you're song faded out, you hear 'KA-CHUNK' & then the song fades back in...Lol! but when it became obsolete, it was cool that I still had an 8 track player in my El Camino because it was not only different, but nobody wanted to steal my stereo because it was practically worthless! Lol!
there is something more organic, wholesome, about spinning a record. and, I have cassette tapes that have deteriorated, and cds that won't play for a list of unknown reasons, but records, even ones I have from the 60's? Yup, still play. superior (with caveats that you need to take care of your collection)
I'm 65 years old and I collect music in all formats. I presently have around 1500 CDs, around 1100, vinyl records and I also collect movies, Rock concerts and Rock documentaries. I have around 1200 movies on DVD and Blu-ray. Of those 1200 about 120 of them are nothing but Rock concerts and Rock documentaries. I also collect reel to reel tapes. I have a Pioneer RT-1020L reel to reel tape deck connect to a Yamaha 7.2 A/V receiver and also connect is a Music Hall turntable and two Tascam CD player/recorders. My speaker source is a Klipsch 7.1 surround sound system.
I listen to deezer, and when I see a statistic to what I listen the most, then I decide if its worth buying vynil. It is an awesome experience I usually listen to the whole album, like a concert. And I like to hawe it in phisical shape on the shelf. Plus the sound is raw direct from phisical vibrations of the needle, no conversion. And I doo agree that some are composed realy bad.
I wonder how many people sit down in their living room and just listen to music these days. I went a long time without playing my records, but since I got back into vinyl I'll sit and listen to an album or two at least once a day. Prior to that I tended to just listen in the car or on the train or, maybe sometimes just as background ambience. I can't say I ever sat and listened to an album on my iPod or my Rio in the house. Maybe it's because the TV dominated my time at home and now I'm retired I have more time to be discerning. For whatever reason, it is something I missed but I didn't really realise how much until I started doing it again.
The Pickering XSV3000 is a fantastic moving magnet cart, though I would question running a 40+ yo stylus on it for sure as it is likely worn past its usable life by now and could potentially cause record ware if it is worn enough. Id probably recommend getting a good replacement stylus for it as with a good stylus they will easily outperform anything on the medium range of moving magnet carts sold today. Though Its also worth trying out different carts, as they all sound a bit different to find one you really like the sound of, all part of the never ending vinyl rabbit hole.
That's what I've gathered, the XSV3000 is really good. I think it sounds fantastic. The needle looks pretty sharp, it was my dad's turntable and I honestly cant remember him ever busting it out and playing records growing up so I figure its been unused for at least 20 years.
I used to listen to vinyl on my TV at max volume just to barely hear it until I hear of preamps, then I could listen to it on the TV at normal volume lol. I miss not knowing anything.
I have been buying vinyl records since I was 7 and I'm 60 in a week, a relatively new difference to buying vinyl happened around 10 years ago, this is actually doing vinyl down because it is spoiling the point "or at least one of them" of having vinyl.
The albums which were released on CD only, but then they started to release them on vinyl, but it seems they are trying to make up for this by making it a double album, not more music no, same number of tracks but only two or three per side, so now we have a situation where you get maybe 12 minutes of music and you have to get up and turn the record over or put on side three which is even shorter because you can only get "on a properly recorded album" 42 minutes usually, but now you have double the space to put your 42 minutes of music on to, on these occasions I have CD or record the album to minidisc, the sensible artists have side 4 etched so there is a more sensible amount of music on each side, but this is expensive to do for smaller artists.
Have fun enjoying your music and rediscovering the music you love :)
It's nice to see younger people buying vinyl. BTW, the resurgence of vinyl isn't recent, it started to overtake CDs in sales around 2007 or 2008. I was in college at that time, and one of my class projects was music. I researched, and found out about the CD/Vinyl sales totals.
The vinyl I got into, were ones I grew up with, including heavy metal.
Best thing you can do is update that cartridge. There are many great cartridges on the market. My old Dual 1229 got a new Ortofon 2m blue for just over 2 hundred. It was like a brand new player. Good luck
The problem I still have with vinyl is quality control. I have a decent Sony turntable and recently bought the Olivia Newton John Greatest Hits - Deluxe colored 2 LP vinyl (Target Exclusive). On the first play, there were pops all over the damn place. I bought it as a collectors item, so I will never play the vinyl again, but that convinced me to stick to CDs for the most part.
Simply(or not simply), subjective arguments aside, its the the total immersive experience that vinyl gives you that attracts vinyl users, The best mastered CD will always sound better and perform better than the best mastered vinyl. You get to go to a store, sift through different albums, look them over, bring them home, open them up, go over the material, go through the process of placing a record on the platter, give it a clean, and start to spin. Then you can kick back and peruse the jacket and sleeves, and any other content at your leisure! Now tell me what other media gives you that?
The Pickering cartridge is an excellent cartridge. Look into replacing the stylus. The cartridge itself doesn't where out, but the stylus will. You need to update us on your system so we can give more objective suggestions...
For me vynils just sound so much more natural and warm compared to digital a good cartridge and preamp can make a huge difference if you want to get the most out of your vynils
Add a high end turntable with a high end MM or MC cartridge, and you will not believe the difference. That's when you begin hearing things in the music that wasn't there in the digital. I own both because I use the streamer to listen to much more music than buying every album (CD or record).
Great video, also I noticed all the Khemmis vinyl and your shirt and checked them out, now I'm a fan! So thanks for helping me find a new awesome band!
Vinyl has a much better sound especially with electronic music. The lows just have a richer sound that digital can't do
I can see the beauty of having large full album artwork with LPs, also the "cool factor" of see in the record actually play. As far as sound I find it sensible to believe that the sound primarily depends on the DA conversion used and how the recording was mixed.. It is aksi important to note that recordings such as the one mentioned in the video are relatively new, so they would be originally recorded in digital, not analog, and the digital music is pressed onto an analog format., DDA. An old recording say from the 70s used exclusively analog in the recording method, so it a true 100% analog, non digital sound.
heres a valuable thing to know, if the album was recorded digitally with modern tools, buy it on cd or stream it. if its recorded analog/old school tape machines, buy the vinyl
If you are looking to upgrade cartridges I would highly highly recommend an audio technica vm95ml. Everyone will reccomended an ortofon blue but I just switched from a 2m Bronze with maybe a 5% reduction in sound quality while adding better tracking. Not to mention less than half the price. Thanks for the video!
Don't get to caught up in the audiophile disease. People love vinyl not because of quality but because it's more entertaining. People forget music is about entertainment. If you go down the equipment upgrade route you will never be satisfied, you will always be chasing a better sound. Learn to love what you have, be humbled by the music and allow yourself be entertained.
Free up some space to dance. Get rid of the listening chair positioned equally between the speakers and push those speakers back up against the wall again. Music is supposed to move you.... not make you sit down and concentrate over nuances.
Music should free your mind and body not turn you into an audio nerd.... so drop the needle on your favorite disk and just let it work it's magic... Or.... you may as well just stay digital and suffer analysis paralysis.
Well said
Seeing the album without a protective sleeve, and being handled, made me wince, not gonna lie
I have REALLY gotten into vinyl over the past few years. It's an amazingly rewarding hobby :)
I buy vinyl, I buy cd’s, I buy downloadable media, hell, I’ll buy an 8-track if I can find it!
I love all the different versions! Always have, always will!
I have seen 8-track's in a charity shop
@@00wrongun
Okay…I think. It’s always great to remember what our ancestors had to put up with to make their music portable.
I still use mini-discs to make mixtapes! Some technology doesn’t get old.
The reason why you buy vinyl is because you want to feel the music. Analog music gives you so much more frequencies and tones, that you wouldn't have in the digital world. For sure, a good digital quality can near the analog quality, but by its nature it's simply impossible to reach the same level. The feeling of music especially applies to Maxi Singles, because they are made for discos with large sound systems: You have only one or two songs on each side, what result in wider grooves, so you can get more sound out of it in comparsion to an album where the grooves are put tinier together.
Also, vinyls can last for centuries. Try this with CD's ;-)
Mastering differences and choices is probably the main reason for auditory differences between vinyl records and digital formats, mainly dynamic range. Nearly everything is digital anyway. Digital formats have the potential for greater dynamic range but since the mid 1990s everything is being mastered loud to the point of constant clipping. Those loud masterings just makes me want to turn the volume down or off - even if the music's great. Some LPs are more dynamic than their digital counterparts for various reasons, and I think that also is part of the appeal. Looking at the numbers on Dynamic Range DB, In The Court Of The Dragon has a digital DR average of 6. The LP version has 11.
When I was a child there was really only vinyl, cassette or reel to reel then into my early twenties CD came along. It was wonderful being able to listen to a whole album without getting up, no cleaning the record, no fiddling with the turntable just plug and play but to say people listened to the whole album in a go is not correct. Most of us made compilation tapes that we could listen to without having to go through the palava of vinyl or we bought singles. Albums were expensive so it was a huge risk to buy and unknown album and then find that there were only a couple of tracks you liked no matter how many times you listened.
The resurgence of vinyl is like the resurgence of mechanical watches. There is a perceived romance to it that for many of us who remember the birth of CD or quartz does not exist, the convenience outweighs the romance and I swear a great deal of why people think vinyl or mechanical watches are better is down to romance and nostalgia and especially amongst the young who seem to yearn for the romantic past rather than the real past.
Personally I have heard good digital beat poor vinyl hands down and to get really good vinyl reproduction costs a great deal more than good digital I have found.
The one thing vinyl does do better though is the album artwork and liner notes, much easier to read and to enjoy.
If you are dipping your toes into vinyl then you must get Jeff Wayne's war of the worlds. Not only is it beautifully recorded nothing beats the original vinyl albums artwork, a true feast for the eyes.
But please, though Vinyl is good, don´t over romanticise it.
True. Cart change, preamp change, all makes a different sound.
Yeah, vinyl have surface noise cracks and pops, we suffer through it because the mastering for a vinyl record is much different than for digital anything.
It's the mastering that you're listening to.
There are two main reasons why vinyl "sounds better" than digital
1. The mastering process is different (vinyl mastering cannot exceed 0 VU, whereas mastering for digital goes way more than this, thus resulting in less dynamic range). So, for example
same album mastered for vinyl would sound more open, because it's not maximized. But, if you'd have the same master for vinyl but transposed on a CD format it would sound the same.
2. The process of reading the information from vinyl induces micro distortions from the cartridge to phono preamp and then to speakers. These micro distortions are perceived as "warmth"
None of them are "better", they are just different.
Congratulations on finding out the magic of vinyl. 🥳💥⭐️ I’ve got a nice digital set up in my system, but I’ve also been listening to vinyl for 30+ yrs. I listen to both, but primarily vinyl 90%+ of the time.
YourPickering XSV 3000 is a great cartridge. It’s better than many introductory carts You may just want to replace the stylus, but there are still quality replacement styli available from companies like JICO or LP Gear (who carries JICO).
Also properly setting up your turntable may be the issue also. The platter and plinth need to be perfectly level to get a proper reading on your vertical tracking force (VTF), otherwise known the downward pressure of the stylus. A digital VTF gauge for under $10 may be worth adding to your arsenal as well as a small circular bubble level for $5 or so on eBay.
Again, congrats on your dive into vinyl! Best of luck to you in the new year! 👍🔊🎶⭐️😊
The cheapest upgrade for your turntable is an Audio Technica AT VM 95 e. You should buy it ready-to-play mounted on a headshell, when you are a beginner in the world of cartridges. No justage and brandnew elliptical needle !
Look at TH-cam, how to prepare it. There are enough videos ! Maybe you'll need a cheap gauge.
Your Stanton 500 cartridge was good. In the 80s !
Welcome in the wonderful world of vinyl ! Go the way of self experience...
Your reasoning seemed to center primarily around the tactile 'the user experience', rather than any improvements to sound quality.
Fair enough.
mastering, loudness wars, etc contribute to which sounds better. I personally prefer CDs from the very early 90s and 80s. After that timeframe digital tends to have poor dynamic range. However, on vinyl sometimes it still sounds pretty good. Maybe just because of the way it's put onto the format. But I think personally that CDs can sound better as far as potential as a format. If they didn't mess it up with loudness and compressed dynamic range. Luckily for me my favorite music is from the 90s backwards.
My "If-could-only-take-one-record-to-the-island" choice of vinyl album would be 40 yo "Avalon" from Roxy Music (especially b-side track 1 "Main thing"). An album that imho neither on CD nor streaming (even as lossless) has nearly the same warmth and smoothness nor dynamic range than on a good turntable.
I think your cartridge is ok it is a well known brand, I also have a cartrige of 40 years old and it still sounds fantastic it is a moving coil cartridge SATIN 117 G have fun with your elpees and cds 🙂
I liked your perspective, that it sounds different, not better or worse. It all depends on the album and mastering. I also liked your reflections on the difference in the experience of listening. You definitely have to be more purposeful with a vinyl album.
I think vinyl is cool, and there is a certain magic to sound coming off of that groove. But for me, the reason I don't know that I will ever go vinyl is storage space, and the nagging feeling that my music is slowly degrading with each play. I've got nearly a terabyte of music stored on a micro-SD card and backed up on a SSD. So my storage space is roughly the size of a pack of gum.
Sweet shirt. I had Court of the Dragon on vinyl. It does sound better than the first download I had of it. The digital was super compressed.
I'm 47 and been collecting since age 4 because of my older brother. I am glad that many people are now getting into it again the downside is that record prices are going up. hard to get rare soul records at an affordable price
I just prefer records myself, not only does it hold a sentimental value, if you've grown up with records and going to the record shop waiting for the album to come out or you just managed to get hold of the last copy is somewhat satisfying. I do like CDs as well however it all depends on the source of reproduction. Also the art work is more pleasing than a CD inlay, you can sit there appreciating the media alas they don't cut records the way they used to, yes you'll find a heavier vinyl but really that doesn't make that much of a difference. Ultimately the experience most young people get with records are a lot of misconceptions. There are less than few cutting station around at best you'll find one or two if you're lucky maybe a new business sprung up however it's nothing like the old days where record cutting was a specialist craft that was shared through father and son and so forth. That all stopped when CD starting making a scene in the 80s. Records have been the longest running music medium going back as earliest to 1860. CDs cassettes they haven't reached that mile marker yet. I guess even with the wear and tear with records and click pop that comes with it records are something to cherish
I think as the general public re-learns about music formats and what modern records really are, we're gonna see the total market annihilation of CDs in the same way that records have been massacred. most people jumping into vinyl have no idea they're buying digital CD-quality masters pressed onto a format that is objectively not as optimised for detailed playback. a lot of them frankly don't care and simply want the big printed artwork and a vinyl disc that looks like it's made of melted skittles which is absolutely fine, but for those that genuinely want the optimal price to performance with their physical music you should be looking at expanding your CD catalogue before it's too expensive again
The goal of an audiophile is to reproduce the intended sound of the musicians. I am certain that they did not include pops and hisses in the original reproduction. Neither did they intend to brighten their sounds as red book CDs do. The best format I have ever heard is the SACD driven by DSD. You have everything needed with DSD. Vinyl is all just all hype. I’m not buying music for its appearance, I’m buying it for sound quality!
You need to hear your favorites on the SHM format, which are compatible with any CD player, they’re a bit pricier than a std CD, but are remastered by JVC’s engineers. Overall they have more clarity, more focus & detail of nuances, you’ve likely never heard before. Vinyl sounds smoother, not in your face, but with a dynamic range of only 58db vs 90db, they’re a serious trade off. Forget streaming, limited choices of artists, & the monthly fee leaves nothing in your hands.
I grew up in the vinyl age. The 70's and early 80's vinyl was the thing to have at home and cassette where for on the go. The biggest thing about listening to vinyl is that you put it on to actually listen to it. Not as background noise. When you pop in a tape or CD. You just don't sit there and pay as close attention to it as you do with vinyl. The loudness wars of the 2000's really killed the CD for me. There are now vinyl albums coming out of 2000's CD's that was okay to listen to on the radio, but the CD itself gives you major ear fatigue, but the vinyl now allows you to enjoy those albums without that problem. The whole mastering process is different between the types of media used as well. The thing you can do on a CD or cassette will not go over well on a record. I am far from being an audiophile, and will never claim to be one. I am a music lover. And I collect all the formats that have the music I love on it. All of my equipment is 2nd hand and was cheap. I am really happy with the sound of my system. Between my music collection and the equipment. If I bought it all brand new. I would have over $250,000.00 invested. But honestly. Over 20 years I might have about $5000,00 in everything. In music alone I have about 15,000 albums on CD, Cassette, and Vinyl. Listen, Love, and Enjoy the format of your choice, and don't be a snob about it. Music is ART that is accessible to everyone that wants it.
Only used albums pre digital are analog.
Just went to see Khemmis live. They are really good, and so is Callous Daoboys. They will be blowing up soon.
Truth be told! When I listen to vinyl, I always make it into a ritual. I fetch my favourite drink, I set the chair in the direction of the speakers, I look at the album art, and choose the perfect record for that specific moment. In a sense, vinyl is the closest I will ever get to meditating. I am not a music snob, I listen to whatever I find catchy. I unapologetically own six Duran Duran albums and my turntable is something straight out of an audiophile's worst nightmare. Music coming out of it is neither high fidelity nor particularly sophisticated, but it is fun to listen and observe it in spinning action. On the other hand, I use Spotify as a background filler while commuting to work or for setting the mood at a possibly awkward introduction to a dinner party. For me, digital and vinyl work on two completely different levels, both with their own benefits. :D
You hit the nail on the head....You bought an album you really liked, and listened to it as a fan of music, not some analytical process. That's the bottom line. Plus, that album slaps in so many different ways it lends itself to the medium.
Loving the khemmis shirt and album. One of my favorites of the modern metal era!
Glad you are enjoying vinyl, I have been listening to vinyl since birth 48 yrs ago. Your turntable looks like a quality table, with quartz lock. What is your receiver/ amp and speaker set up?
I think havin a physical media to listen music is way better than streaming or downloading. But CD and SACD are physical formats too.
The biggest problem for CD is caused by the loudness wars that made the dynamic awful on a media with a huge dynamic range.
The mastering of an LP can't be made like the CD. So because of this sounds better.
I started listening to vinyl, with any frequency, in late July 2022. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, I started listening to vinyl on the very day the MoFi scandal broke, which was both deeply confusing and highly educating for a newcomer. ("What's a master tape? What's an all-analogue process?...Oh...)
I started out with a cheap ceramic cartridge piece of crap, went up to a Rega Planar 1 and then upgraded the cartridge to a 2M Red. What have I found so far?
First, I have found that I personally cannot hear a "generic" difference between digital and analogue. I do not have an amplifier; instead I plug my Planar 1 into the aux in socket in the front of my Sony mini hi-fi CD player. This makes it very easy for me to A-B between CDs and LPs when I happen to have the exact same release on both. The sound goes down the exact same cables to the exact same speakers. And when I do this, I cannot personally hear "analogueness" the way you claim here.
That is to say, to me a good sounding CD and a good sounding LP are good sounding in the same way. I cannot hear the famous "warmth" or grain in the analogue sound, nor any coldness or whatever in digital sound. I may change on this view as time goes by and I get better at listening (and get actually decent equipment).
Second, I have found many examples so far of the LP of a particular release being superior to the corresponding CD. These examples are numerous enough to make vinyl a viable upgrade choice in some cases - but not all! I listen to a lot of jazz and old records from the 60s, and these early pressings can sound so much better than the CD that I sometimes find it isn't even worth A-Bing. I just stop because the difference is so extreme. (At other times the superiority is so slight that I think no normal person would regard the vinyl as an "upgrade" as such).
Examples I have found so far of the LP being superior: John Coltrane Quarter Plays, 1965 first pressing, far superior to CD release of 1997. Keith Jarrett Bremen Lausanne 1973 first pressing far superior to CD release of 1990s. Beatles Magical Mystery Tour 1967 UK mono first pressing EP far superior to 2009 mono CD aside from the tracks The Fool On The Hill and Flying. Miles Davis Nefertiti MOV repress 2010 slightly superior to CD except title track.
Third, I have found significant numbers of examples where the vinyl version is NOT superior to the CD. These examples are also numerous enough for me not to be able to regard vinyl as any kind of automatic upgrade, or even a good gamble. What I'm saying is, check reviews and go for LPs that have a good reputation. With first pressings, you may indeed have to gamble!
Examples of the LP NOT being superior: Jimi Hendrix Axis Bold As Love 2010 all analogue family repress, mostly same as CD with some tracks being slightly superior on LP and some superior on CD. Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool white vinyl, pretty much same as CD. Miles Davis My Funny Valentine LP repress of 2005, same as CD.
Fourth, even with the limited experience I have had with upgrading, an upgrade to your analogue equipment does in fact have an improving effect on the sound. While one might be sceptical, I did seem to perceive a large improvement moving from the cheap ceramic cartridge turntable to the Rega, and then another smaller improvement when upgrading to 2M Red cartridge, and then more improvements as I taught myself to align the cartridge better and better.
In this way trying to introduce a newcomer to vinyl may well be counterproductive as they are turned off by how things sound on cheap equipment. I know that the John Coltrane first pressing mentioned above sounded much less impressive until I upgraded and realigned the cartridge.
Fifth, I am already a historian type and collect antiques. The same pleasure I get from repairing and oiling a book from 1749 is what I get from trawling used record shops for old Deutsche Grammophon records from 1966 - even with the risk of poorer sounding records and having to do extensive cleaning.
Yes, in the book world I could get a brand new paperback of Gullivers Travels and not have to deal with repairs and cleaning. But to me that would suck balls.
The equipment you are using does not have the resolution to be able to hear differences.
Noticed you had Blackwater Park in your collection. Clearly you are a man of great taste 🤌
It's not about it being a vinyl that makes it sound good or bad, it's about the mastering.
Quite often the mastering is not the same as the digital version, the whole loudness thing where the audio clips.
If the vinyl version is just the same source, then it's utterly pointless.
There is a guy out there on the interwebs that does high quality vinyl rips, and they sound better than some of the studio transfers. For older stuff it's usually is better because the audio equipment they did the original transfer on was kinda crap, then they feel compelled to do a "remaster" where they just miss the mark.
I have some reel to reel versions of things that are a different master than the Vinyl. I did actually manage to find someone who did digital transfers of some of the master tapes they found in a record studio, hope that guy didn't get in too much trouble for doing that, but that's some high quality stuff.
I have qualifications in music technology, and have always championed vinyl.
It's not because it is somehow 'better' when you look at the technical specifications of the format.
Vinyl has distortion, noise, and other imperfections. But, those imperfections actually 'add' something which is not 'bad'.
Perfection of other digital formats on a purely technological measurement, does not make them 'better', it makes them sterile and cold.
Distortion is always seen as a bad thing, but electric guitars have been recorded with varying amounts of distortion since the 1960's, and nobody has ever said that it doesn't 'add' something nice, or good, to the sound.
I grew up with vinyl. I do not miss it one bit.
Welcome to the club. It doesn't matter if digital has better frequency response or signal to noise ratio if it is not taken advantage of. 90% of what you hear as better in a vinyl versus digital, coming from a vinyl fan, is EQ and compression differences. Yes you can train yourself to hear the analog difference as well, but the thing that immediately grabs people is the fact that most digital files now are made to be played on a cell phone. And even the high res ones suffer from what I consider to be poor EQ and poor dynamic range. With a vinyl, EQ and dynamic range becomes important. You can't fit 20 minutes on a side if you're cutting it at Max DB for the entire album. I think now that you've gone into this rabbit hole you will slowly learn what albums to expect better from and what albums to not expect better from. And I think you'll find that sometimes that OG press that you find at a thrift Market is really going to open up an album that maybe you underappreciated.
You said it you want / like both mediums
The photography industry is having the same kind of growing pains with the resurgence of film same thing both mediums should be available
It's about the "human" physical experience and the record covers that showcase the art. I'm 45, and I remember the nostalgia. I have about 350 vinyl records myself. Unfortunately, vinyl is not portable. Which is why I love cd's as well.
The only reason I listen to Vinyl & Reel-to-reel is to avoid Digital as much as possible. Most modern like 90% (somthin' like dat) of all Vinyl records are digital, so I'm not too big on those.
CD is also a great format, especially with current second hand values and the signal goes through a DAC.