Why do classical fans seem to hate vinyl so much?

If the limitations of Vinyl constitute a loss of soul, call me Faust.

 

The exact reasons I sold all my vinyl two years ago. I kept trying to like classical on vinyl but it never worked for me given the reasons you stated. Solo piano recordings were the worst. Some stringed instruments sounded "warmer" on some recordings but they were few and far between. I had a moderately expensive TT also. I tried to hear what others told me were the benefits to classical on vinyl but I never got there.

 

Noise

 

I'm a classical musician, too, and I disagree that it's "all about the accuracy". It's also about the feel, the phrase, the moment, and especially the tonal palette of colours.

Having just put on a brand spanking new 8MZ stylus, and having played it tonight for around 3 hours (so it is starting to "break in"), I am hearing new bits of information that I have never heard before (Leonard Bernstein saying "one, two three" during the second movement of his 60s recording of Music or Strings, Percussion and Celeste, for instance). And the FEEL and the TONE COLOURS! These are what classical music is about, and these are what digital rarely gives me.

On a tangential side note, I also like vinyl because I have been learning a lot about my viola bowing technique, from......my tonearm and cartridge. Honestly, I haven't improved my playing this much since I began dragging my guitar to open mics and singing Kinks and Beatles songs in public (I'm not sure if this has been more terrifying for me or the audience!), and before that, from Jeanne Lamon when she used to come and lead my orchestra and gently guide us through improving our period practice performance.

 

There are Classical vinyl fanatics out there, I am among them. Mainly folks who are monophiles and early Stereo fanatics. And also lovers of vintage performance practice, I am one of those folks.

 

I'm mostly a rock/pop vinyl person, but have a healthy respect and admiration for classical: specifically, chamber music, and solo and duo pieces. However, my dad had a sizeable classical vinyl collection. So, I have many of his pieces, as well.

The thing, for me, is that it became very frustrating to purchase seemingly mint classical records only to get them home and discover they were incredibly noisy, almost moreso than my rock/pop records; even after cleaning. Of course, that could be attributed to the style of music and quiet passages, but I do feel that I encounter a lot of particularly noisy classical vinyl.

Back to my dad, he also moved to cds in the 90s. So, I do have some nostalgia for classical CDs as well and I will buy them on the used market today.

If I had to say which format I prefer for classical, I'd have to go with CD, but - as with anything else - a blanket statement isn't helpful. Some vinyl classical recordings may sound better than thier CD counterpart, and vice versa.

Also important - as it is in any genre - is availability. Many wonderful classical CDs from the 80s-2000s are just not available on vinyl.

 

I love classical music and vinyl, and buy the former on the latter whenever possible.

 

I'll poo poo vinyl all day long: too much noise, too much work, too much space taken up, hard to get them in good condition, hard to keep them in good condition. Cd's are a Godsend. Convenient, easy to take care of, I can rip them to my computer and never have to touch them again and the sound is awesome.

I'll buy vinyl if I can't find it on cd, but I expect it to be a little noisy, and I will transfer it to my computer so it's easier to deal with.

I have done like maybe 3 digital downloads my entire life. I just can't bring myself to doing that if it's available on Cd somewhere.

These are my preferences, I know there are people reading this with smoke coming out their ears wanting to damn me for dissing vinyl, but victory for me has always been record companies reissuing long lost Lp's on CD's.

 

I have just returned from Barnes and Noble and am pleased to report - and the OP will be pleased to hear - that there were numerous classical releases and reissues sprinkled among the A-Z racks (not relegated to a "classical" section).

Don't remember them all, but do recall some Yo-Yo Ma releases (one w/ Morricone), current DG releases, Nigel Kennedy's "The Four Seasons" from 1989, some Callas, and several Bernstein reissues (Carres and Te Kanawa's "West Side Story" albeit a condensed 1 disc version.)

But, how do they sound, right?

 

Sometimes I listen to my original Living Stereo, Decca, London LP's... yes, they best ones sound very charming, but many SACD reissues leave the LP's in the dust. The nostalgia is not always the best reproduction. I prefer the most realistic sound of classical instruments and not the charming colorized sound of LPs! The most expensive LP playback can't reproduce the full dynamics of a big classical recording!

 

I have some two thousand classical lps, but was lucky to work in a second hand classical record shop for the last ten years of my working life, so 90% are in perfect condition.
I could take as many records as I wanted of a favourite record home and try them, I admit it must be hard for most people.
Got a couple of thousand classical CDs mostly stuff not on vinyl, I tend to play them while doing something else, for serious sessions it is always vinyl.
I can't explain it, it's just the way my head works. Solti's Ring, CD is the way to go, my first label Decca set, great as it is, but designed for automatic turntables so side 1 is followed by side 6.

 

If anyone is truly and actually depressed by the simple reality that classical music tends to feature much larger dynamic fluctuations than most other genres of music and thus the surface noise of the typical LP is distracting to the point of changing one's preference for physical format, then I would posit that one should seek psychiatric help.

I would also be happy to post more run-on sentences to make my point, but I don't believe that should be necessary.

 

Surface noise is the last thing I think of when putting on a record, it seems to have become a fetish for some people.

 

Fundamentally, I stopped being interested in vinyl when there were no new classical releases. In other words, vinyl walked away from me, not vice versa.

Since then, with most of my collection now on a server and almost all of my newer acquisitions in multichannel, the door is closed.

 

Classical music is actually recorded and mastered well in digital format (unlike popular music).

 

I don’t want to go deep into vinyl vs cd audio quality discussion (it’s an endless and dead end topic, I will only say that I have spectacular, average and bad examples of both), but I want to focus on another important side of our hobby – collecting. Many classical music lovers are also passionate collectors, and their main interest is not to have all possible pressings of one LP, but as much as possible works from certain composers, in as many as possible interpretations. Speaking of myself, I collect mainly opera recordings and operatic vocal recitals, and I have all operas from the main composers, and (almost) all recorded and issued on CD performances of each title (many of them are historical recordings or live broadcasts never issued on vinyl). Also to me the CD format is perfect for collecting – not too big, but big enough to be convenient when you search for a particular title/performance (you can easily read the spines). Also very durable – I have many CDs from the 80’s, and they look as new and play perfectly without any special care. Many of them have really nice booklets with much information, essays, full libretti etc. in far more convenient format compared to the big LP boxes. Actually if only my opera cd collection will transform miraculously into a LP vinyl collection, there would be no place for a chair at home, let alone audio gear.

So at least for me there’s no question, the CD is the perfect format for collecting classical music (if one still needs a physical format, and I do and enjoy it)

Of course I have some modest orchestral and operatic vinyl collection and it’s a real pleasure sometimes to listen to it, but it’s just not an option for serious collecting.

 

nothing like a super quiet moment being ruined by some pop which is louder than any note

 

Good point, @delmonaco. there's nothing wrong with having the same copy of something on cd and vinyl. It's also about - as you say - the collecting; this is supposed to be fun!

 

I feel like @delmonaco and @classicaldan hit parts of the rationale- I think both sound and storage are an issue where digital media are superior. Others have mentioned this too, but the third problem is that new classical recordings generally aren't being put out in vinyl. Yes, you can get the recent Deutsche Grammophon releases on vinyl, but you're mostly stuck listening to recordings made between the early 50s and mid-80s (mid 40s or earlier if you're willing to accept diminished sound). There were plenty of great recordings made then, to be sure, but there are a lot of great recordings that continue to be released, and only a small fraction of them are on vinyl. The mid-sized independent labels is where most of the action is on recent recordings, and BIS, Channel, Chandos, Hyperion, Challenge, various orchestra labels, and so much more are releasing recordings at a fever clip - often on SACD or high-res download, but only rarely on vinyl. And the engineering standards on these recordings surpass anything that was done ever before - and they take full advantage of the possibilities of surround and the dynamic range digital allows for. To be a classical fan who mostly listens to vinyl in this era is to limit yourself to old recordings, and that's a darn shame.

 

"No classical lover I know prefers CDs to vinyl."

I guess you got one here. I was never so glad to ditch my classical LP's. Got rid of them in 1983 and never looked back. No more procedure(s), or trips to the store for exchanges. no more pop's and click from supposedly virgin vinyl, no more flipping sides after only 20 minute, no more wow / flutter, no more "inner groove" distortion, no more vinyle cleaning procedures. Just listening to outstanding music. The only thing I missed was the large graphics and that was it. . . . . . . . Classical CD's and tube playback equipment a marrage made in heaven.

To me vinyl was and is the weak link in the listening experience (your mailage may vary).

 

With orchestral recordings, it always seemed like the sound on records got "cloudy" on climaxes. Distortion like an increasing fog, not blatant but noticeable. This can happen with cheap electronics playing CDs, too. But I think probably CDs can handle the strain with more aplomb, less apparent IM distortion, than vinyl. If you're playing chamber music, or solo piano, it's not so much an issue. With vinyl you're dealing with a mechanical system, which is evidently stressed by the groove excursions of an orchestra playing full tilt. I can live with surface noise if it is of the low ocean-roar variety, not scritchy-scratchy sandpaper or lots of tics and pops.

CDs might be missing some last bit of detail, some last bit of reverb decay compared with the best LP reproduction. But they are also missing pitch instability, and aforementioned IM distortion and surface noise issues.

Six of one, half dozen of the other. I have classical LPs I bought long ago, and I don't despise them. Some I have replaced with CDs. Given the trade-offs, I'd take CDs. It's always a trade-off. I don't hate classical vinyl at all. I would hate to pay the prices for new classical vinyl, though. Not with so much classical music on CD available new and used at bargain prices.

 

An interesting dilemma with the new Analogue Productions RCA Living Stereo Series: they are offered both on vinyl and SACD. Both would be superb playback, but which do you pick? I'm having that difficult decision to make now. Wanting to buy a copy of Analogue Productions Solti - Venice - Royal Opera House Orchestra, 200g vinyl is $40 and SACD is $30. Not sure which way to go.

 

I would not rely on other people's opinions. Buy both, compare them and then decide for future releases. If you sell the one you do not want to keep, you might get your money back.

 

I would assume that the very dynamic nature of classical music would be more enjoyable on CD, especially during the very quiet moments. A low noise floor during quiet passages allows you to hear the music more clearly without surface noice.

 

That must be exhausting.