Why vinyl? and The IKEA Effect

vinyl1 said:
I have found that bad digital is much worse than bad analogue. I heard a digital system over the weekend (streamer, DAC, amp, and expensive speakers) that was completely unlistenable. That never happens with any sort of turntable and receiver, never mind a high-analogue rig.
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Oh, I have heard pressings/bad recordings on tables - especially high end rigs... but ok. Cool.
 
All this talk of 'coming back to vinyl' ....................I never left. I have had a record deck (or 2, or 3) continuously in my system since about 1973. I have also had RTR, cassette, CD players and computer based audio.
I like vinyl and I like that fact that it is tactile, fiddly and it sounds good.
 
bonzo4ever! said:
I couldn't stream a song if you paid me to. Not because of my stubbornness towards digital by any means. { child of the 80's }. It's because I haven't taken the time to learn how to. Maybe it sounds a **** ton better. I couldn't tell you. But I live in the country without the hustle and bustle of subways, deadlines or whatever. I have the time to kick back and listen .
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Ellenboro is pretty sleepy, not at all like the ratrace up the road in Columbus. This morning I was almost late for work because there were 6 cars lined up at the red light.
Streaming is all the rage up here, and everybody wants to watch and listen whenever it's done. Until they get bored, and start talking about putting out tomatos.
 
One thing I noticed, when I listen to vinyl I sit and play the entire side and listen. Fully engaged in the music. Always loved vinyl and never got rid of records or a turntable.

When I starting playing CDs back in 85-86 I would tend to get tired of listening, then jack with the remote, then jump around to other songs ... I was basically less engaged in the music. I realized after several years that CDs did not sound good, at least most of the ones I had didn’t.

Years later I realized that it was the poor way they took the original analog recordings and put them on CD. New CDs sounded better to me, but still tiring.

Years later I realized that better CD players playing better CDs sounded pretty good. Then I got a decent DAC and things got better.

I still like vinyl much better but my dislike of digital is gone. I had a long slow learning curve.
 
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I never quit vinyl....had too much invested in it to sell for peanuts on the dollar. Besides, I think it sounds more lifelike if a little less studio measter reference.

I only started buying CDs when titles I was interested in were no longer being released on vinyl. Bought a Technics Mash player and shortly moved up to a Mission DAD5, which I still have and still works, though the belt that moves the tray is broken (I work it manually). Doesn't get much use....I guess that's why it still works.

Vinyl is more fun, but when I'm lazy it's a CD or lately, streaming when there's nothing on the FM dial.
 
DustyOldPile said:
Yes, the durability. I have CD's that are from the early days of the format - mid 1980's, and an unacceptable percentage of them skip, some won't play at all and have developed pinholes in the layering that light can get through. I have run across very few unplayable records. Many of my records are over 50 years old and play like new. .
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Isn’t ironic that the marketing for cds when they first appeared was “PERFECT SOUND FOREVER”??

:rflmao:
 
Let me say at the start I prefer analogue over digital and prefer my LP's to the hundreds of CD's I own but I still buy CD's on the cheap at thrifts. Own both-like both. Prefer vinyl though … simple really. Is vinyl actually better? I don't know and don't care. My already badly damaged body begins to hurt even worse when I read the back and forth between such arguments that detail out in painful (and I do mean painful) minutia supporting their side of the great debate. I to go to YouTube and watch “Funny Cats Surfing Killer Pipelines.” OK, I made that up but you get the idea. But if that is interesting to you then great. Enjoy!

It seems this may be something along debating how many angels can dance on a pin. All of 'em? Some? None of 'em? Now, if you like digital/analogue argument minutia, or funny surfing cats for that matter, then more power to you brother (or sister). Enjoy what you enjoy and debate what you will.

I will say as others have here and on other threads that I feel engaged when listening to vinyl and much less so listening to CD's. Listening to vinyl I recline and listen with intent. Deep listening? When I listen to CD's or any digital at home I find myself thinking how many feet of baseboard do I need to finish the trim in the living room or what should I do first clean the exterior or the interior of the car?

Its all fun. I enjoy locating old CD players that still work and cleaning them up and using them. Most of my TT's were found the same way. As I've said before its all good. Enjoy the music however you prefer it. I know I will.

Gerard
 
I grew up with vinyl, but I have CD's too. I also have R2R, 8 Track, and Cassettes. My oldest 2 kids started with CD's, but have embraced vinyl. One of them is more the 'hipster' type, so that may explain that, but the other one is definitely not-perhaps it's his organic vegetarian girlfriend's influence?

I still find the ritual of vinyl playback familiar and attractive, but there's no denying the convenience of digital.

What I miss the most about playback from the vinyl days is the shared experience of 'what should I put on next?' from whomever I was hanging around with, looking at cover art, and the often convenient excuse to leave a conversation so I could flip the record, or choose a new one. Another thing I miss is going to the record store, sometimes striking up a conversation and one of us saying 'you should check this band/artist out, or 'if you like this, you might like that" kind of exchange. I suppose social media has something similar, but it's just not the same. Like posting here-this is a conversation among music and hardware fans, but it pales in comparison to hanging out in someone's home music room, and sharing.
 
bobins08 said:
One thing I noticed, when I listen to vinyl I sit and play the entire side and listen. Fully engaged in the music. Always loved vinyl and never got rid of records or a turntable.

When I starting playing CDs back in 85-86 I would tend to get tired of listening, then jack with the remote, then jump around to other songs ... I was basically less engaged in the music.
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This is somewhat related to my thought.

Think of a typical album from the 60s to about the mid 80s. Then think of CD-era albums. What is different?

Length.

In the 60s and some of the 70s, an album's length was often around 30 minutes. 70s and early 80s, 35-40 minutes was about average, with some stretching to 45 or even close to 50. But 35-40 was the norm. A single record easily held that much music.

With CDs, artists started realizing they had 70 or more minutes they could fill, and they often did. 45 became 50, which became 55 or 60, and beyond. Thing is, a typical album would have about the same number of hit songs or "good" tracks, but the filler was ballooning. I found it easy to tune out CDs after five or six songs, since there was just so much filler.

It asks a lot of a listener to stick through an entire album when it extends to crazy lengths. 35-45 minutes is about the sweet spot IMHO. That also might partly explain why so many artists put out a new album every three, four, five or even several years, as opposed to a new one every year, or maybe two. In the 60s, some artists were putting out two or three albums per year.
 
I go through phases when I listen only to CDs (via tubes) and then only to vinyl. You need a decent vinyl playback system to enjoy it. Not spendy, just good enough. I also got back to vinyl when it was cheap and CDs were expensive. Now the scene has changed somewhat. I don't know when I last saw a good LP going cheap in thrift shop. You have to pay for vinyl. But you do have the chance to leave it to your family when you go. Try doing that with downloads. And CD quality is superseded by downloads year by year.
 
Life is too short to drink bad beer, or be forced to listen to music you don't even like, ever.

I came to this realization back when there was only vinyl and tape. Since I was only buying music on vinyl I was either forced to endure, get up and lift the tone arm and move to the next track I actually liked, or tape what I liked on the RtoR for later playback. While it is always nice to have an album where every song is pleasurable, face it, it only happens not all that often. I even bought one of those Accutrack turntables so I could program the thing to play just the music I wanted.

When CD's came out, I held out due to player prices, but eventually they came down and I bought a 5 CD platter and never looked back on vinyl again, not until hard drive space price went down and I could rip losslessly. Now I play just exactly what I want, and if a song doesn't fit my mood, with just a mouse click from my listening chair and I move on to something else.

Now I am moving back into vinyl just a bit in search for a bit different sound, for whatever reason. Perhaps it is the way vinyl was mastered was different somehow from CD masters. Maybe it is my cartridge. Maybe it is in my head? And this smooth SQ isn't a guarantee either. Some music comes across better from digital CD's than vinyl. Hit or miss.

But one thing is for certain, gone are the days of hovering over my TT with cleaning fluid, vac attachments, stylus cleaning brushes and more fluids, every time I want to listen to music. Every piece of vinyl I listen to has been ripped to my HD and played through JRiver in the playlists I want at the time, in the order I want it to. I play what I want, skip over the filler and am quite happy with this arrangement.
 
olddude55 said:
I got back into LPs because at the time, used LPs were cheap. I could walk out of Jerry's Records with an armload of LPs for what one CD cost.
After a while, it occurred to me that I just love playing records. There's no romance to clicking on a link or putting a little silver disc into a machine that sucks it in and you don't see it any more.
I like the look, feel, and smell of the LP. I love to watch the tone arm's stately progress from in-groove to out.
Arguments over which format sounds better are meaningless to me.
I have an old iPod which was a trusty companion that allowed me to my LPs while I worked. I've purchased hi-rez downloads and was mightily impressed by quality but all it did was motivate me to go out and find the LP copy.
I agree with DustyOldPile about CD players, at least. Never had one last more than two or three years before they stopped working.
On the other hand, my main turntable was manufactured 45 years ago, sat in someone's attic for 20 years before it fell into my hands, and after a few hours labor works flawlessly. Try THAT with a disc player!
So I don't download. I don't have a dedicated CD player. I don't stream music. I'm an LP guy and that's that.
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I was following until we got to "CD players die every 2 years"...

What? What the heck are you doing to them? I have several, including my dad's original Sony single disc purchased in like, 1991. They all work, zero issues, and some have had hard lives (garage systems, etc). Don't understand!
 
Silentnet said:
I was following until we got to "CD players die every 2 years"...

What? What the heck are you doing to them? I have several, including my dad's original Sony single disc purchased in like, 1991. They all work, zero issues, and some have had hard lives (garage systems, etc). Don't understand!
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I have a Philips CD-101, from 1982. I got it at a thrift shop in the early 1990s, and I have always liked how it sounds. Several years ago, I replaced two Capacitors, but aside from that it had needed nothing. Hard to even count how many phono cartridges belts, and stylii I've been though since the early 1990s!
 
DeeCee said:
I’ll take good digital over bad analog and good analog over bad digital any day of the week!

Just call me the audio agnostic!
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+1 - but I essentially only listen to vinyl and RtR - in audio it is always a war between what is “better” but for me it’s more like saying cookies are better than cake - you’re gonna have people arguing for each and most of the fans of one side will have only have experience with the garbage store bought version and not the boutique bakery for the other. Vinyl makes me happy when I hear the sound so I guess that’s my flavor and I’m sticking to it!
 
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