Why do classical fans seem to hate vinyl so much?

Because they don't own any "hot pressings" of the RCA Living Stereo Shaded Dogs. Don't clean their records before each play and don't own a high enough quality turntable. I have not been bothered by much surface noise.

 

BTW, I've seen something interesting by a German label recently, that came up with an idea to deal with the limitations of vinyl. For a piece like the Bolero they pressed the record in a way, that it starts playing in the center and moves outwards as the music gets louder. Though saying it "plays backwards" makes you listen for satanic messages.

 

Naxos has done well out of selling CDs.

 

I suspect that some of those classical fans haven't heard this (and I don't even own a great turntable!):

 

Bonus: classical music on vinyl is cheeeeapp! I buy a bit of baroque music on vinyl box sets and it's like $8-$10 for 3-4 LP sets. And the pressings are usually quite good. With a cleaning I'm rarely bothered by pops 'n' ticks.

 

...plus not uncommonly even still seeeealed! :O)

...I've found the Brahms/Kubelik box above just last week, in NM+ condition, for a dollar... Killings are to be made at the thrift stores with classical LPs...

 

I, for one, prefer pure analog LPs. They have a greater sense of realism than even the best digital recordings to my ears and on my system. The main downsides are a lack of convenience and they are more easily damaged than CDs/SACDs.

 

Classical music is performed on acoustic instruments that are meant to sound in a definite way. Thus for the classical listener the distortions created by the vinyl medium do not enhance sound but degrade it. For classical music the CD provides a faithful representation of sound, which is what is sought. Popular music is synthetic in nature, thus it may benefit from distortion according to taste. The CD also offers much better dynamic range and sound stage, which are congenial for classical music.

 

I have just today received my first Sandor Vegh CD, we'll a 4cd set of the Beethoven violin sonatas with Andrea's Schiff, a Japanese set from 1986, really great sound and playing.

 

I find groove-cramming to be depressing.

 

I don't want to listen to classical music on vinyl because I don't want to hear a bunch of pops and clicks. Classical and much experimental music sounds best on CD. It's bad enough to hear coughing during quiet passages of live recordings. I think people wait until the quiet passages then cough loudly on purpose.

 

The CD feels like it was made for Morton Feldman's works.

 

Noise

 

How do you guys feel about actual live classical performance? Would you still prefer a CD because of coughs and other noise distractions? Asking for real!

I prefer CD to vinyl for classical. But it's 6 of 1, half-dozen of another. Just like with rock. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a CD/digital other times I'm in the mood for an LP. Surface noise is more distracting with classical than rock n roll, most definitely. But as others have said if you're lucky enough to find a clean shaded dog, or living presence, London CS, or DG Tulip.... some of these records really are worth the hype. And I never pay more than $3, often much cheaper.

 

Arguably my favorite Haydn string quartets on LP, a long time favorite.

 

They’re not into the groove. That’s why they play classical music.

 

Snap, crackle & pop during quiet passages that usually get hidden with pop music instrumentation.

As for classical fans having large vinyl collections, that is probably true and probably collected before CDs came along, with various releases/performances out of print and unavailable on CD. Old dogs, many of them.

 

Or Keith Jarrett . . .

But we know it was actually designed around Beethoven's 9th and the DIN cutout of car dashboards !

Back to the original post, CD was a godsend for classical afficiandos: no surface noise, huge dynamics, speed and pitch stability, 70:00+ playing time, no inner groove distortion, no warps, clicks, pops, off-center holes, etc. And the ability to perfectly cue (and repeat without wear) a passage via track and index points was a welcome novelty, too.

 

I started buying Classical music around 12 years ago and I only buy records and have no digital Classical music at all. I maybe an outlier in this but I find Classical music and vinyl records + tube amplification to be a match made in heaven.

 

Not all of the Nonesuch pressings are bad. When they abandoned US Decca, and pre oil crisis, those were fairly good. Case by case basis.

 

Or for that matter, EMI UK, EMI Germany.

 

Not just hate vinyl, but so much.

 

I just started listening to more classical music. Of course, having read that classical is bad on vinyl made me first focus on getting classical on SACD's and streaming. However, I found that I did not listen to them much. Then I decided to get some AP RCA living stereo releases as add-ons to my Jazz purchases at Acoustic Sounds and lo and behold, I love classical on vinyl!

The clicks and pops were distracting at first, but I got used to them. And I have a SweetVinyl SC-1 mini (click and pop remover) if they get too much, like for my just acquired $4.99 Shostakovich Columbia six-eye mono

 

The reason I got into classical music is directly tied to my reason for getting into cds. I greatly prefer cds (and SACDs mostly) to lps for classical music.

 

Basically, too much noise, distortion, popping, clicking, etc.
You get the idea.