Vinyls Big Future

[HypnoToad]

We are a dying breed of people that actually LISTEN to music. The majority just use it for background noise. I still like to sit down at night with the lights off and just listen. You would be amazed how much more you will hear in a dark room. (good and bad) Try it tonight.

I moved my stereo into the bedroom, it takes up and entire wall, Boston Acoustics A200's are not small, I usually only have the light from my amp and SL1200 Mk2 unless I am changing lp's.

I come home from work, take a shower and lay around listening for a few hours. My wife even bought me some incense.

It's just so darn relaxing.

Now to re foam the A150's I have waiting in the wings so I can have a setup in the lounge and the bedroom.

 

[PhunkyPhill]

I agree with a lot of you guys. I'm probably younger (21) than most people on this site who grew up with vinyl as the standard.

I've really gotten into vinyl in the last 2 years. I've gotten to the point where I rarely use my (relatively) new Ipod anymore. I'm left disappointed most times with digital music.

I really cherish the time of the day when I can come home, slap on a record, build a fire in the wood stove, and sit down and LISTEN. My roommate enjoys it. He's a musician so he's always asking "Whoa, who is this?" but he doesn't really appreciate the involving experience of records and turntables.

Every time I have people over at my place, I'm playing records. In general, I would say that people dig it. Even if it's because it's music they've probably not heard before. Most people don't listen to whole albums (side after side) anymore and thus, don't hear most of the songs on an album. By the time people are buzzed and bobbing their heads to the music I doubt they could care less whether I'm playing a record or an mp3, but some people seem to genuinely enjoy the vibe of records.

I've reeled in a couple of my friends. A couple of them even play records themselves and I've got a couple handfuls of vinyl on loan to them at the moment.

It's a conversation piece for sure among young people who barely know CD's. "Is that a record player?" is the one I get the most. Seconded by "Do you actually listen to all those records?"

I think vinyl will always be a niche market from this point on, but if it could stay strong that'd be all we can ask for as vinyl junkies. There will always be used vinyl turning up. I wonder how places like Soundstage Direct are doing amidst these economically hard times when buying records aren't in most people's priority budgets?

 

[Patriot1776]

PhunkyPhill, it is over the net yes, but I'm also working on reeling in a teen friend online into getting into the vinyl act. They've bought a 12" picture single so far, but because of the hard times we're now in, their parents won't help them get the dad's old stereo and turntable freshened up. The last time we talked, we started talking of a test they could try to see if the current stylus on their table is still good or not. The reason for these difficulties is that they are still in high school and do not have a job outside school.

 

[dread31]

I've had people walk up to my rig, staring in amazement at the spinning record, and ask questions like; "That's a RECORD?" or "How do you get all of the noise out?", and the remark that I actually HATE to hear, "That sounds so good, I thought it was a CD."

Dave

 

[JohnVF]

People have such a flawed mental image (sound?) of the sound quality of vinyl. I get weird looks sometimes when I put a record on, but I get even stranger looks when they hear it, and it sounds better than their iPods (and, depending on what they have for stereos, usually better than their CDs). People just think vinyl's going to sound bad because iPods are newer.

 

[treserious]

I've had people walk up to my rig, staring in amazement at the spinning record, and ask questions like; "That's a RECORD?" or "How do you get all of the noise out?", and the remark that I actually HATE to hear, "That sounds so good, I thought it was a CD."

Dave

I hate that....

 

[drail]

Sometimes my wife will come in the room when I'm changing records and say "You know, that's kind of loud." (she's not mad or anything, we're both old stoner hippies) I say "you obviously don't remember what The Who sounded like from the first row...." But my all time favorite remark from people is "That sounds as good as a CD!" AAARRRGGGHHH......

 

[Patriot1776]

I hate that....

Thankfully though, my brother got it right when he first heard my LP version of 'Master of Puppets': 'This kicks the ass outta the CD version. Blows it away!'

 

[minioschall]

I'm 16 and a couple of friends and I have spent the last 6 months listening to vinyl on weekends. I havent seen my ipod for 6 months...

 

[chillwolf]

Ipods, portable CD players and MP3 players are nice and convenient for having music to go. But when I want to seriously listen to music it will be on a TT or RTR. Don't even have a TV in the living room, just my main system. If it wasn't for my wife, I probably would not even have a TV in the bedroom.

 

[Sportlark64]

Vinyl Returns

Music is and has been a cornerstone of my life since the early 60's . There is not a day or night that I don't have on several records and a few cd's .
I can remember buying some of my old albums like Grand Funk Phoenix and getting them when they were released . I got my first copy in 72' ,scratched it and couldn't get the skip out so I used it for target practice . I just got it's 2nd. replacement this past week after 37 years .
I've got around 300+ CD's and less than half that in Vinyl , but I've found a great used music store that has 1,000's of albums most are $4.99-7.99 . Very rarely you'll see an Import or picture album around $20.00 . I'm finally happy with my current system so now I'm investing on rebuilding my collection of vinyl back up .I've got 1/2 dozen "new" albums in the past week ,from Hendrix to Supertramp . I have a list of albums /artists on my desk and as I remeber an album or band I'll write it down .
I like CD's especially in the shop , I can load 5 up and play them in random and not stop every 15 minutes or so to flip an album (but I do have a T/T out there too) .
It's great seeing some of you young guys gettin' bit by the Vinyl Bug . It's like classic cars instead of front wheel drive .
Music is the Soundtrack of your life .........

 

[Edriz]

Well, I gotta chime in again, I too have been into music since the 60's. Ever since seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in 64. Next day my Dad got me my own Victrola and the 1st American release "Meet The Beatles", On vinyl. I still have it, along with every Beatle LP, on vinyl, that has never been opened, still in the original wrapper. I have many other Beatles Lp's that I listen to also.

I also have many Vinyl LP's of the Beatles that I picked up while in Germany that weren't released in the states in the wrapper not opened.

I have thousands of LP's, at last count, 3,725 as compared to 53 CD's and 459 cassettes. I ended up trashing all my R2R's. I left them out in my shed out back. The roof leaked and you can guess what happened to the cardboard box and tapes.

If I do decide to get another R2R, I'll have to start over again in that format. My prefernce has been and always will be records. I love the sound, the look of the platter spinning, cleaning the lp, everything about them, The cover art, being able to read the notes and lets not forget the other use of an album cover, shall we

 

[ARRAY]

I'm 16 and a couple of friends and I have spent the last 6 months listening to vinyl on weekends. I havent seen my ipod for 6 months...

The testimonial Apple doesn't want to hear...

 

[Sam Cogley]

Ipods, portable CD players and MP3 players are nice and convenient for having music to go.

Exactly. Everything has it's place - my iPod is great for carrying almost 8 days worth of music in my car or on vacation. For home listening, it's the TT or TASCAM CD player.

 

[AFpay]

As with many of you, I have been a music lover since the 60's. In the 60's I had enough money to buy the old 45's. In the seventies I started buying albums (LP's) and I have never really stopped. I have had my own turntable since 1971 and used my parents before that.

The fun for me is in the music, but vinyl brings the magic. I like to find used copies of LP's, clean them and then marvel at how good they can sound. It goes without saying that some of the stuff I have had since 1972 has a few pops and crackles, but still, there is so much music in those grooves and my playback system is so much better now.

My only concern with new LP's is that some of them are pretty pricey. I just hope that this does not deter the next generation from trying the format.

 

[gkimeng]

We are a dying breed of people that actually LISTEN to music. The majority just use it for background noise.

I use my audio system for background sound as much, if not more than for "serious listening," and find audio quality to be even more important for background use. In a "serious listening" session, I can drill down through surface noise and even distortion on some of my really old out-of-print pressings and still appreciate the performances, but if background sound is bad I spend all my time being irritated about the lousy sound instead of doing whatever the music was supposed to be the background for.

 

[MichaelJ]

At work, I listen to FM radio (NPR) most of the day or play one of the 800 or so cd's I have at the office. I listen to CD's in the car. Although I have large CD collection at home, they are almost never played. Every night when I get home I spin Vinyl or listen to my reel to reel for an hour. For me, nothing tops analog. In particular, nothing tops vinyl. The entire process is more involving and somehow, more Human, more Musical, flaws and all. I'm very pleased it's become easier to find.

 

[JohnVF]

At least in the city, Vinyl is not a 'what is that?' format with many of the younger people. In Chicago, there is a big independent music scene, and many of the kids have TTs. I still think there is a lot of missed opportunity because I hardly ever run into decent set-ups. I think they're listening more for the tangible aspect of vinyl than the sound quality, because frankly, even in the vinyl stores a lot of their setups barely sound better than MP3s, if not worse. I can tell they're running records on worn out stylii, cheap cartridges that aren't tracking well. There's one in Lincoln Square here who's setup sounds like an AM radio...but they sell a ton of vinyl for some reason. I'm guess it's because the music is tangible, but I'm afraid that the message isn't getting out the vinyl can actually sonically just destroy MP3. Once they realize that, maybe it will move from being a fad/retro-cool thing to something even more fulfilling.

 

[shimniok]

There's something special about breaking open the seal on a new LP or cleaning up and spinning a used one that I've been wanting. Every play is an event.

Maybe it is their fragility, rarity, physicality. You can see the music! And you can see the disc spinning. And they sound great...

I haven't listened with anyone in awhile. My wife just isn't big into music. I've had too few friends that I've listened to music with.

But... I do have a friend who is big into U2... I am hoping to at least make an impression on him with my copy of Joshua Tree. I also have a friend who is a maniac Rush fan... I am hoping to lure him over to spin my MoFi Permanent Waves (and others). Hoping to make an impression...

Despite the pita of cleaning, flipping, etc., I still prefer to listen to an LP.

 

[greenmark59]

Not pointing fingers at anyone, BUT MP3s can be typically found for FREE! This makes it very easy to collect this form of media. I use MP3s as a means to listen to many, many artists (typically jazz) and then once I find someone new that I like, I then go out and purchase the album on vinyl. Not many jazz radio stations around to listen to so that I can get a feel for the music out there, so I resort to listening to MP3s. I typically listen to music 5-6 hrs per work day and MP3s make it easy to do so from my laptop/USB headphone combination. Because I can "try out" different jazz artists, I now am beginning to collect albums - new and used. For Christmas, I got 2 Grant Green albums and a Cal Tjader album and all because of being to sample stuff on MP3s. I have a whole list of about 20-25 albums that I now want to buy.

BUT BOTTOM LINE.... vinyl is preferred (I own about 300+ albums and 250+ 45's).