I was just thinking - What makes vinyl a beautiful sight

I was just thinking..............

How many of the people on this forum get excited when they see the site of a beautiful record. I was going through my record collection this morning and I pulled out my white label promo copy of Bob Seger "Back In '72" and was looking at the Near Mint vinyl and thought to myself "this is just beautiful."

I don't know what it is but that shiny black slab of vinyl is just a beautiful sight to me and to know that it contains such a great sound makes it even more appealing. And it doesn't matter to me what album it is or what artist, I just love the sight and sound of vinyl.

 

Changed thread title to a less ambiguous one.

 

I also love the look of a shiny new LP. It's hard to describe.

 

Good plan. I had no idea what I was getting into.

 

Non-vinyl types will never experience the tingle that comes with pulling an $2 pick out of its sleeve at some run-down shop and seeing the LP is virtually unplayed and unmarred..

 

A CD is just a shiny little piece o' metal. Looking at an LP, one can see the texture of the sound impressed in the grooves. You can distinguish the loud and soft parts of the music before ever dropping the needle onto its surface. Also, having a nice 12" slab o' plastic as opposed to a tiny, shiny CD makes you think that you've got something substatial and worthwhile in your collection. Before you get the record out of the sleeve, it's also nice to be able to appreciate the cover art, too.

Cheers,
Chris

 

I just stare at my newly found Kiss 1st pressings. They are so cool.

 

It's weird what that full, lustrous look of MFSL or classical vinyl does to my emotions.

 

Let me count the ways...

It's not only the look of the Lp itself, but the cardboard's smell and feel to the fingers.

Fetichism??? If there's a cure for this, I don't want it.

 

Re: I was just thinking..............

Shouldn't your last sentence read...

I just love the SOUND and sight of vinyl.

The sight of something you have been looking for and then the kill ... when you get home to play it.
JG

 

Something about the lust for that ol' piece of plastic.

Especially when you can hold it and call it your own.

Kinda unexplainable.

 

Sometimes I love the idea of hearing something on the very medium that someone originally would have played it on.. I think that's why a lot of collectors covet 1st issues, almost like with book collectors. It's a way of reconnecting with the newness and freshness of the music. And the whole asthetic experience adds to that immensely - the vintage labels, the heavy cardboard stock oversized art, having to use extreme care an patience in handling, etc. That's a great reason why the AP re-releases have been such a pleasure - all the elements of the original experience are there with the HUGE bonus of hearing this material as if listening to the master tape.

Here's an example about cover art - seeing Coltrane's Giant Steps cover on vinyl is the ONLY way to get the feel for what they were trying to accomplish with that cover photo. He IS a giant in that shot.. The MFSL & stock CD look so puny and unimportant... Not soundwise, but asthetically speaking.

 

I'm definitely in this camp. There's something about those black circles that excite me in ways that CDs never have.

 

Would you rather look at any Beatles album cover in the 12" vinyl format, or the 5" CD format?

And let's not even go into the difference in sound quality!

Evan

 

Evan - you forgot to mention that album covers are great for getting rid of stems n' seeds. You can't do that on a CD!

(sorry, couldn't resist!)

 

To sum it up for me, it keeps me young.

When I play a record, the 14 year old in me that used to secretly save his lunch money for 2 weeks just so he could buy a new record comes back to life. Life is simple again, and it's just me, the music, and the album cover (and inserts, lyrics, etc) for a short time.

It still gives me a warm fuzzy inside

 

Re: Re: I was just thinking..............

I'd go one further:

I just love the sound, sight and SMELL of the vinyl.

I could go even one further than that:

I just live the sound, sight, smell and TASTE of the vinyl...

... but then you guys would want to have me locked up...

 

I doubt the shiny silver disc will ever raise goosebumps on me, vinyl does this perhaps because I grew up listening to it and gave it up for a while when "Perfect Sound Forever" was introduced. I was brainwashed by the shiny silver pushers that vinyl was a dated and lesser medium, sonically inferior in every way.
In those days I new something wasn't right with what I was hearing, the music lost it's vibrancy, high frequencies sounded fuzzy, low frequencies were dull, etc.
I stopped buying the silver discs for a while and placed my turntable back in its rightful spot. I still buy CD's, but very few these days.

For me, picking through my collection, reading the liner notes on LP covers, carefully removing the record from its inner sleeve and finally placing the needle in the run-in groove adds to the vinyl experience. Heck, without a magnifying glass I can't read anything on a CD cover. A special feeling always strikes me when I pull out a UK Beatles 60's pressing LP, mainly because as a youngster growing up in the UK, I couldn't afford LP's, singles were all I could afford.
Sorry I went on and on....but, hey, my moniker says it all about me.

 

Go easy on that stuff, Gary. Look what happened to me.

This afternoon the sun shone brightly in Toronto and my VPI 16.5 sits right under the window. The sight of some 30+ year classical albums was gut wrenching. A few moments more and all was much better. The sun gods and vinyl gods are on my side.

Can't wait to spin a few during some football game tonight!

Brian

 

Another thing I love about vinyl is watching it spin on the turntable. The colored labels going round, the shine on the record, the arm swaying softly, ..

Fetishistic? I guess, but it's just too late now .

One thing I'm coming to dislike about vinyl is calling it 'vinyl'. Does anyone feel the same way? It's not like other people are going, 'Hey, I got the new Limp Bizkit polycarbonate!'. I prefer to call them records, LPs or albums.

My sister once said her friends thought I was weird for calling CDs 'records' (are they not?).

 

Yes, I confess, that I covet my vinyl. And thy vinyl!

Yes, I smell of the new releases and all that stuff. I thought SACD would let me be rid of my vinyl jones, but alas, they routinely are unable to capture the sound the way I like, like, like vinyl!

It's not the medium (SACD), just like 44/1/16 bit is not inherently evil and capable in the right hands (we know who the capable ones are).

 

Or albums . As in 'have you heard the new record from xxxxxxxx?'.

I actually find myself using 'album' to refer to older records. Make sense? As in 'Pepper's was a great album'.

I don't get me.

 

I agree with you here Gary. I just bought some new vinyl recently.I forgot the thrill of opening up the shrink wrap and the accompanying new vinyl smell. Much better than new car smell.

Sean