I'm filming a segment for an HBO doc. on the resurgence of vinyl. Questions for you..

I never really gave up on vinyl. This forum and finding local record shops that sold cheap LPs only fueled my interest and kept it alive.

 

Great question...I am 33 now and at about 25 I had been used to watching my father sit and listen to music through his advents and carver amp since I was little and I remember him selling off all his vinyl when I was maybe 20. He still kept his Dual turntable (which was in like-new condition) and a select stash of records that he still liked to listen to, though he was mostly into cds. I bought myself a dual 1219 and hitched a Grado cart to it for not too much and purchased Classic Records' Band of Gypses, Steve and Kevin's Moondance, and had inherited some of my uncle's original grey label Capitol mono Sinatra albums. The sound blew me away and the bass from that 1219 was startling. I essentially stopped listening to cds on my main system at that point. A Rega, Dynavector, and Decware tube amp plus about 2000 records and here I am, half an audiophile!

 

My parents had a record player when I was a kid but I only had a few records - my parents would give me cassettes and later CDs when they came along as records were too easily damaged by kids. I used to love listening to a few of my parents old records and looking at the cover art - though I didn't really like most of my parents music.
I'm a huge fan of a certain band (not allowed to name names) so when they started a fan club a couple of years ago and issuing exclusive tracks on vinyl, I guess I started collecting vinyl, though I had already picked up a few along the way, mainly by said band and some others.
My parents gave me their old Garrard turntable/Pioneer Amp combo but it needed some work so rather than fixing it, I went out and did some research and picked up a new Pro-Ject turntable in August last year and have been a vinyl junkie ever since with an ever growing collection of records.
Although I have always loved listening to music and still listen to CDs, MP3s on my phone etc, listening to vinyl just feels and sounds "right" and I quite like the routine of cleaning the records, changing sides, lifting/dropping the tone arm etc.
The only thing I haven't liked so far is having to replace my 2M Blue stylus after only about 6 weeks after it was mysteriously bent at a 45 degree angle while I was at work and there were teenagers in the house!

 

I never gave up on vinyl.
In 1985, we got our first CD player and I'm happy with its clean sound and dynamic range when playing newly recorded classical music but when I compared Bob James/Earl Klugh's "One On One" Vinyl vs its CD counterpart, I decided to keep all my vinyl.
Vinyl wins in sound category . There is something in the sound of vinyl that the CD cannot match.

 

Didn't play records from about 1978-88. Moving around, getting married, etc..
Finally, settled down and bought a decent CD set-up.
Totally underwhelmed by the Joni Mitchell, Bob Marley and ZZ Top CD's I was listening to.
Had heard these titles sounding great back in the day.

Bought a used Linn Axis and pulled out the 10 boxes of records I had hauled around for years.
What a relief and I was back into vinyl!!

Hit the garage sales where many were dumping their vinyl.
Picked up many great sounding titles at the used record stores before prices went way up.
In the 1990's bought a ton of new releases that came out in very limited quantities on vinyl.
Started buying used LP's off early eBay.

Blue Notes, Mosaic sets, MoFi, etc, etc...a ton of great titles/pressings that have stood the test of time.

 

I grew up with casette tapes and cd's (24 years old) and I now listen mostly to vinyl rips of my cd's because of the difference in mastering. Even though high res downloads are the future (hopefully) it really doesn't have the charm of owning a collection of lp's, I think.

 

The turning point for me was hearing how much better "Brian Wilson Presents Smile" sounded on vinyl compared to the CD. After that I became obsessed and proceeded from that point on the buy all my music on vinyl. That was in 2004. To this day I can't remember the last CD I bought. I'm 32 so I'm not sure if around here that counts as a youngster.

 

I was in college and went into the CD age reluctantly around 1988 but never abandoned records. As a matter of fact, in the late 80's and early 90's, I took full advantage of the decline of the LP to pick up some tremendous bargains on great records I might have not otherwise have got into. I experimented and took a lot of risks. I purchased stuff unknown to me. I took the opportunity to expand my horizons and purchased music in genres I was unfamiliar with. I grew up listening to rock 'n roll, but during this time I expanded my collection to jazz, country, classical and easy listening. I discovered some of the music that has gone on to mean the most to me as an adult. For example, I got into Tom Waits around this time. I have his entire catalog on LP and never paid more than $3.99 for any record. I picked up just about all of Frank Sinatra's capitol LP's in excellent condition for 25 cents each at a church bazaar. I also got a lot of stuff that might be considered valuable to the right collector. For example I have excellent condition mono Beatles LP's I got for 50 cents each at a yard sale. People thought I was eccentric and use to give me their collections they had stored in the attic.

Now that LPs have become more popular and more expensive I have actually reversed this strategy and am picking up great deals on used CDs. I'm filling in the blanks on a lot of 90's music I missed during the 90's. I have basically caught up with the entire Seattle scene on used CD for peanuts.

Of course I want the best sounding version of a recording and have a nice little collection of Hoffman mastered CDs and a couple of LPs. As well as some MFSL titles, etc. But given my heavy music habit, getting the maximum amount of music for my dollar is key.

 

Steve, this Documentary sounds fab, simply fab.

Cheers to a great career.

 

Always had vinyl, never gave it up.

 

Steve, I worked in an independent record store from 88 till 96. It was my first "real job" at 17 ha! Music has always been a crucial thing in my life. I started out listening to Pink Floyd Animals on my parents console wood cabinet Zenieth through headphones before catching the afternoon bus to kindergarten. I saw the death of Records, Cassettes, and boom and bust of Compact Disc's. I gave up on buying records when the belt on the old Techniques TTable started to stretch out and speed issues during playback became an issue during the early 90's. I always said I would wait to sell my precious little collection when the time was right. I came close after my second child was born and my family was going to move to a larger house. The thing is, I needed to bring them along. They were more a "photo book " of my life than actual Polaroids. Mind you, I was buying into the CD hype during the in between time. I started to feel like my time had come and gone. All the bands I loved had broken up or passed on. The music styles were changing and I was just not excited by a lot of New music during the 2000's. I would buy remixed,remastered, repackaged, etc of the old stuff. Those discs sounded all well and good at the time, but I began to notice a bit of ringing in the ears at the end of a day. I would not allow myself to become "old" in the sense that I only wanted to listen to what I had established as being good. But I must admit that all the new versions of old stuff needed to be played louder for some reason. For the life of me I felt the need to crank up the volume while in the car. It would start out loud and become loudest by the last track. This had become my listening envirorment. It became brutally loud and yet, I just couldn't really hear what was going on in a mix. I gave up and declared I was "sick of it all" and became old. Fast forward a few years, on a winter vacation, close to nowhere, I spot a little mom and pop music store. To kill time, I persuaded my wife to have a look. We open the door and are hit with the smell of an anti static ozone machine and the sound of an old blues record playing. (cue time travel music and a gentle "Welcome to Willoughby") Even though there is a pop or click, I could hear dynamics again. I wanted to cry. The mix and tone was right to me even though it was an old lofi recording. I swore I could hear the tubes in the artists amp buzzing. Then a little CSNY is put on and to hear soft passages gradually build loud and vice versa was like my muse whispering in my ear to come back. I bought a few Verve Wes Montgomery albums that day and Birthday by The Association on vinyl. Arrived home and ordered the Denon Turntable so I could reproduce that fat warm sound. I have not looked back, the music just sounds right, dynamics and separation are the key. You can notice subtle detail in a mix. I enjoy listening again. It is an art that I forgot how to do for a long time, and the ear ringing has for the most part gone away, pending my coffee addiction. Also, I never did sell those old records, lost a few along the way but that is a different story.

 

i had a few records when i was growing up in the 80s but i was mostly a tape/cd kid. i got into neil young when i was 16 after borrowing some of my mom's tapes. i read interviews with him where he talked about how great analog sound was, and that inspired me to start to seek out records on my own when i was about 19 (1993). i lived in rural indiana so i'd pick up records at garage sales and thrift stores. i never stopped buying records, and over the last 2 or so years i have probably doubled my collection since i finally got a decent setup.

 

About 8 years ago. Had purchased my last piece of vinyl in 88- U2's Joshua Tree. Then 18 years of CDs then computer files. I never got rid of my collection of albums (about 500 of them)- couldn't bear to part with them. Like any photo album, they told a story or I had a memory attached to them. There was a warmth to them that had absolutely nothing to do with the way the vinyl sounded. That's what's missing from my 4mb lossless file. One day out of the blue I plugged in my old turntable and threw on steely dans Aja. Pure bliss. Never looked back.

 

I still have a lot of the vinyl I owned from the pre-CD era. I still occasionally buy and play vinyl, but it represents less than 20% of the time and money I spend on music.

I mostly buy CDs but I'm gravitating more towards Hi-Rez downloads.

 

Record Store Day 3 years ago. I've been buying both formats since then. There were so many great vinyl only releases that I had to cave and start buying records again. I started buying CDs in 1985 and gave up records totally in 1990. I still refuse to download.

 

I sold most of my beloved 3000 record collection sometime around 1990, moving to CD's. I never could really warm to CD's, and despite building a large collection, thought nothing of ripping and selling them after learning about lossless digital files.

I pulled out an old turntable about four years ago to play the few records I still had, and was blown away at the dynamics and warmth - my wife walked into the room and said (unsolicited) "that sounds so much more real". Like you, it was some old jazz records that ignited the flame more than anything else. I had literally forgotten how great music could sound.

I've put together a modest but very nice sounding vintage system, and am again building an ever growing record collection, with much more attention paid to stuff I never gave a single thought to the first time around, like deadwax etching, matrix numbers, pressing plants, etc., etc.

Just another in the long list of monsters this forum has created.

 

I ripped all my Vinyl to Hard drives and then sold all my Records in the last few years. I 'm glad to see it making such a nice comeback especially with younger people who didnt have the pleasure of growing up with LP Records

 

Several years ago, after 15+ years with CD's as my main physical format.

One major reason: The Loudness Wars and the possibility of some alleviation from that.

 

I, too, never left. I guess I've continually been simultaneously behind, and ahead of, the times.

 

Hmm. I always thought records were just cool. I remember my cousin had a record played and I didn't, and I used to go over and listen to "Rock Candy Mountain" ...

One day many years later I was perusing through some give-a-way piles and there were some records. I picked out some interesting-looking ones and resolved on getting a record player. And then the never-ending battle for perfect audio fidelity began ...

On a side note, my parents threw away their hundreds of albums just a couple years before I decided to start collecting ... all their Pink Floyd, Neil Young, that kind of stuff, right in the junkyard ...

 

My albums and turntable had "moved" with us three times over the last 13 years even though they had not been listened to/used during that time period as I had succumbed to the "crackle" free world of CD's.
About 4 years ago I got very interested in Jazz and I suddenly found myself listening to music more frequently. I can't say for sure why, but one day I decided to listen to a record and was pleased that my long idle Denon was up to the task. Too bad the DL110 with a bent cantilever wasn't. That led to information gathering for a new cartridge which rekindled my interest in stereo equipment. With a new cartridge mounted I was ready to try again.
I had forgotten how I enjoyed the "process" of playing a record...perusing the lp spines waiting for the right one to jump out at me...the cover art and liner notes...carefully placing the record on the platter of my DP-37f that I have always found pleasing to look at (yeah, that sounds a bit weird)...dusting the record with my trusty Discwasher brush...and then the HOOK when the needle hit the vinyl, "Blackjack" by Donald Byrd. Warm, rich, beautiful music filled the room and I remembered what it was like to take a break from the bustle of the day, sit still and enjoy music as the main focus not just something playing in the background. I haven't looked back since. My record collection has grown from roughly 100 to over 400 now. CD's are for the car. Vinyl is for serious listening enjoyment!

 

I grew up on vinyl (born in 1976) and I've never left it.

 

They just sound so darned GOOD. I tried for 20 years to get my CDs to sound like that. Not even close.

An acquaintance gave me an old turntable and I found a copy of Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz for $2. I put it on and BAM - There was the sound I had been looking for all that time: Warm, dynamic, natural.

 

I never stopped buying vinyl either; pretty much steady since the mid 70's. In the late 80's I got into the whole digital thing and started buying lots of CDs, but I continued to buy LPs as well. Lots of stores were getting rid of stock by 1990, and I managed to pick up a lot of great stuff during that time at bargain prices. In 1991 I upgraded my Dual 604 to a Linn Sondek, which is still going strong.

 

Never got out of vinyl, always has been my favorite format. However, there was definitely a period of about a decade (say 1993-2003) where I did not buy all that much new vinyl, simply because most of the good music (OK, the music I liked) was not being released on vinyl, especially in the US. So the resurgence of the format is certainly welcome.