OK, so many vinyl fans, but who's just DONE with it?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by head_unit, Jun 8, 2018.

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  1. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    I was thinking about this at T.H.E. show, where a lot of demos had wacky-looking and wacky-priced turntable setups playing. Some very nice sound...inevitably with SOME degree of snap crackle and pop, even cleaned well, and with commensurately wackily priced cartridges, phono stages, amps, the whole shebang. One demo played an orchestral piece that was lovely until one part simply had distortion of some type.

    These experiences pretty much killed any nostalgic ardor I had for vinyl, especially considering these setups were far in excess of what I would spend in money, not to mention time fiddling around and space* for the equipment and records (whose quality is another bedeviling variable). I'm not against vinyl by any means, and still enjoyed the demos. I'm simply hypersensitive to crackles and pops (everyone's hearing differs) and it takes me out of the music in a way that discs or reel-to-reel don't.


    *does vinyl take up more space than CDs? Post your measurements and calculations please! I'm curious. I "felt" so, but it's quite possibly not true...
     
  2. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    If you're hearing surface noise, it means the music isn't connecting with you.

    Nobody has to like everything, and maybe vinyl isn't for you. It's okay.
     
  3. JNTEX

    JNTEX Lava Police

    Location:
    Texas
    It's like a "monthly confessions" column.
     
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  4. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    There's plenty of people who are just DONE with vinyl - just go into any vinyl-related thread and look for the inevitable threadcraps.

    I don't get why deciding vinyl isn't to one's taste to be this big serious thing. People act like they're losing their religion or something. Vinyl is one of many ways to listen to music, and if you don't want it, you've got plenty of other ways to listen to music and get great sound and dynamics and all the rest. Nothing really to complain about - people who really like vinyl will continue to do so, and you'll listen to other things, and everyone should be happy with what they choose.
     
  5. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    This thread makes no sense. Don’t we all have hundreds of records that have never been and never will be released digitally?
     
  6. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    I gave all my LPs away to a local community radio station, to do as they saw fit, either put them in their library or sell them at their annual record sales. (There weren't that many, maybe 25 or 30 LPs that had accumulated in the time between deciding to start rebuilding my collection and the time when I decided to go CD.)
    I could not be bothered with the hassle of trying to sell them, and it seemed a nice way of supporting the stationm as opposed to simply "subscribing" (i.e. donating money).

    Quite often one of the announcers makes a big song and dance over the fact that they are playing something from VINYL! We are supposed to freak out with delight. Real black plastic! The radio reception is good enough so that all the clicks and pops come through quite plainly.
     
  7. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    No. Maybe you do, and maybe people in your circle of friends do, but I don't and nor do most people I know who have any kind of music collection. They have vinyl for one reason only; because they got the vinyl when that was the only medium available, they have a turntable that still works, and there is no compelling reason to get rid of their turntable and their vinyl. They are done with BUYING vinyl; they still listen to the vinyl they own, because why wouldn't you. Same as with me and cassettes.
     
  8. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    I rarely play vinyl anymore.

    Not getting rid of it either.
     
  9. padreken

    padreken Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego
    Yep, and finding more all the time. Michael Fremer mentioned a Julian Bream album, An Evening of Elizabethan Music in a gear review recently and I found a copy on discogs for $4 (plus shipping). Sublime music and nary a pop or click to be heard on my copy. Never released in any digital format.
     
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  10. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    Yippee...the vinyl bashers get to tell us once again about all the clicks and pops that seemingly appear non-stop on every record ever produced.
     
  11. uberlyle

    uberlyle Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    Totally. And I'm still finding them on a regular basis. Every time I step in a record store it's like I'm on an unknown treasure hunt without a map. It's one of my favorite things!
     
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  12. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    And why not? The thread title asks who is done with vinyl. For me to say I am done with it, and to give reasons why, is not threadcrapping, it's on topic. To visit the thread and complain about so-called "vinyl bashers", though, it would not be much of a stretch to say that IS threadcrapping.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2018
  13. Guth

    Guth Music Lover

    Location:
    Oregon
    I’ve been listening to and buying vinyl for for more than 45 years. I’ve never taken a break from it and I doubt that I ever will. Unless my hearing totally goes or I simply end up in a situation where I just don’t have the room should some heavy duty “downsizing” set in. (I’m sorry sir, but we don’t allow vinyl collections here in the nursing home.)

    But if something catastrophic were to happen to my vinyl collection, that would likely be it for me. I wouldn’t look forward to starting over. Quite a few of my albums are practically irreplaceable while others would cost far more to replace than I would want to pay. Plus my collection is in incredibly pristine condition. I almost never have a vinyl listening session really degraded by extraneous noise due to imperfections.

    It’s surprising that someone would choose records in that poor of condition for a show. Then again, I’m often surprised at what one of my local shops will throw on their turntables for demo purposes. I can only guess that this sort of thing bothers me more than it does others.

    For these reasons I highly value my vinyl “collection”. While tithe odd assortment of albums that I’ve assembled over the course of many years wouldn’t do much for a truly avid “collector, to me it’s more or less priceless. It’s somewhat like a reflection of my life — I doubt that I’ll be done with it any time soon.
     
  14. Vignus

    Vignus Digital Vinylist

    Location:
    Italy
    Fact is, I gave up vinyl ages ago and moved to CD's, then moved to FLAC. All along the way I always felt some sort of regret, as if I was missing the "real experience" and I always felt tempted to go back to vinyl.
    In my memories, vinyl came with pure enjoyment that was never to come back. I had erased all the pops and cracks and only kept the good part of the memory (always do that).
    Then I started listening to vinyl again (friends and shops) and the pops-cracks thing came back... still there.
    Also I realized that, at least in my case, the big vinyl charm was mostly due to covers - being able to religioiusly hold them.
    I also found out that digital has more dinamics to it... and no pops.
    Now my vinyl addiction is almost totally gone and I'm glad I switched to digital.
    Just my experience, not trying to establish some objective truth.
    If I still had vinyls I would be happily listening to them, but I would not start re-buying them anymore
     
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  15. Guth

    Guth Music Lover

    Location:
    Oregon
    I can totally understand why some would choose to abandon vinyl and I personally don’t have a problem with that. I’m not sure if I can remember the last album that I myself purchased.

    But I do tend to hang on to stuff in general. I still have all of my cassette tapes as well for that matter. Lots of treasures there too like those tapes that I bought at shows many years ago or the Dead concert tape that I received as a Christmas gift from the guy who was dating the sister of my girlfriend at the time. Now I’m not a huge Grateful Dead fan, but this guy recorded it, made the artwork for it, etc.. Awesome. Sometimes it’s about things other than the sound quality for me.

    One of my favorite threads around here is over on the Music Forum where everyone tries to come up with an album they own, that no one else is likely to have. There are no shortage of entertaining contributions. (At this moment I’m listening to a compilation album from the early 70’s titled “Michigan Ricks” on the Seeds & Stems Records label. No doubt someone else here has this one. But my copy is perfect and I get a kick out of the artwork.) Good stuff!
     
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  16. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    I wish I could be done with it. But until they make a digital download that sounds like a 6 eye stereo Kind Of Blue..or an ABC original pressing of Cant Buy A Thrill...or an LH first press of Harvest?....Im not done.

    While I admit to some nostalgic smiling from the vinyl lp experience, it is simply a fun cherry on top of the listening experience.

    Pops and crackles? I dont like em. I dont like non-fill, warps, off centered lps either. Or sending them back for replacements. But I seem to have a pretty good average of these type things occuring. For instance: I have only had a handful of issues with the Music Matter and AP Blue Note jazz 45s and 33s Ive purchased. Thats out of 150 or so titles.

    I dont get the idea that defectiveness is some sort of overwhelming issue with vinyl lps. I sense its probably an overblown gripe.
     
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  17. snowman872

    snowman872 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wilcox, AZ
    +1 ... same experience as you. I tried it again a couple of years ago and immediately hated all the flaws and annoyance again. I have a few records left that I will eventually transfer to digital and be done with it forever. If I can find those records out there on CD already (which usually is the case), I won't bother. No more vinyl for me ever. I am very glad I switched to CDs back in 1983.
     
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  18. Guth

    Guth Music Lover

    Location:
    Oregon
    Yeah, that’s how memories so often work in general eh? Now I don’t know anything about you, but I think you’ve already got the perfect title for your hard-hitting autobiography: My Life, With All The Pops, Crackles and Static. I might even be tempted to buy a copy.
     
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  19. Dominick

    Dominick Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    My records rarely crackle or pop.

    Vinyl is not for every one and does require patience and a love for it all.
     
  20. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    That's the other thing - the covers, the liftouts etc, those are what I miss. The package that came with the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, for example.

    In the early days of CDs the makers seemed to decide to give up on all that, assuming that people would buy the CD for the superior sound rather than the cover art and inserts - which they did, for a while. CDs that I bought at the dawn of the CD era mostly came with only a single insert with the cover art on the front, the track listing and credits inside, and usually a whole page of blurb about the nature and the benefits of the new compact disc medium. Belatedly, some artists have realised that listeners find all those extras like lyric sheets and booklets to be that stuff important as well as the music, so people like Steven Wilson put out "Digipacks" with lots of art, glossy booklet etc, which probably goes as far as you can to duplicating the LP experience given the size limitation imposed by the CD.

    In the age of downloading and streaming, it has become more important than ever to devote attention to the packaging of the physical product, if you want people to buy your music i that form.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2018
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  21. rene smalldridge

    rene smalldridge Senior Member

    Location:
    manhattan,kansas
    You certainly do and so do I.
    But I am not certain at all that all of us do.
     
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  22. G B Kuipers

    G B Kuipers Forum Resident

    Location:
    Netherlands
    Hardly any crackle and pop here, sorry.

    When people say they are very sensitive about crackle and pop on vinyl, I have to wonder are they perhaps listening to a system that is just a little too analytical, too much focused on detail?
     
  23. Newton John

    Newton John Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cumbria, UK
    I thought I was a couple of months ago. My LPs were all copied to high res flac files on my NAS and stored in flight type boxes up in the loft with the CDs. I was researching the value of my turntable with the intention of selling on ebay or trading it in against an upgrade to my amp and speakers.

    I'd been planning all this for nearly a year but found I just couldn't do it. I'd put my turntable on its own support to photograph it for ebay and realised it just sounded fabulous. This lead to a change of heart and I humped all the LPs back down from the loft to their shelves in my listening room.

    In the last few weeks, I've acquired twenty or so more new and second hand vinyl LPs. One or two of them sound better than the digital versions. If finances permit, my next upgrade will be a new phono stage that I've already ascertained would be worthwhile. So I'm not done with it yet but it was a close thing.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2018
  24. Claude Benshaul

    Claude Benshaul Forum Resident

    I did. Twice. But I never threw the records, I just stopped listening to them.

    The first time was when the CD revolution started. I saw no point in keeping records when CD sounded just as good' were portable and required less TLC. The second time was in 2004 when I got fed up with what passed as decent entry level turntables and went all digital download.

    I'm less dogmatic today. I listen occasionally to records, they are not my preference but it's nice to hold in my hands a physical media and marvel that everything I hear is recorded in tiny indentations and grooves that I can look at with the naked eye.
     
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  25. enfield

    enfield Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex UK
    But lets be honest 99% of what was released on vinyl is readily available on CD..I'm sure not many people that use a digital front end has an expensive vinyl set up just to play the few albums that have not been released on CD..In contrast many vinyl fans have a CD player as a secondary format in order to play the (many more) CD's that are not available on vinyl.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2018
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