In some peoples eyes, Vinyl is a far superior musical medium then CD’s, period! I for one am one of those who do subscribe to this point of view. Being a musician, quality should always come first. Sure, CD’s might be easier to carrying around or they might be simpler to exchange from one user to another, but are they really better sounding then vinyl?
I got the idea for this post from another almost extinct form of communication – the newspaper. It was from an article in The Toronto Star in the Entertainment section called Have you Heard?. I’ve see this topic being thrown around in the media almost weekly now. Are people honestly trying to revive this former superior sound medium, vinyl, or are they just filling out space on a page?
It gets me thinking about vinyl’s more and more every time I see the word “Vinyl”. Am I the only one who has this effect when seen in print? Upon seeing this word, I can’t help but reminisce about going to a buddy’s home when I was younger with my favorite vinyl albums under my arm. It not only brings back great memories, but it makes me yearn for THAT GREAT SOUND! Do you know what I mean?
Going to Ken’s place, and putting on some YES on his impeccable turntable was the best! The control knobs were in the middle position, yet the sound, no matter what the album was on the turntable, was always incredible! I think he always used a “concord” stylus/cartridge on his table. He also had this Phase Linear TUBE amp that COULD NOT BE BEAT! As for his speakers, I think they were basically Cerwin Vega.
Our collection of vinyl is fairly modest, in comparison to some collectors out there. It covers many genre’s of music as well as some regional indie bands and the odd one hit wonder. Most are in good condition, but they are constantly calling out my name for attention! The stereo we have is an old Akai Stereo that is solid state, I got rid of my tube stereo ages ago, no room. When I have put on an album, it has a certain resonance in my mind. It just sounds more full and warmer then my CD player!
Our CD stockpile, that I’m looking at now, is quite vast! In our JVC XL-MC222 CD carousel we have 200 alone. We should have picked up that 500 one when we had the chance. The amp is a Panasonic SA TH400, that has this synthetic Quad sound that is not all that bad, but I’ve heard better. We also have a Pioneer DV 563A DVD player that plays SACD’s.
So what is your take on this subject? Do you think vinyl is really making a comeback? Do you still have your old turn table and if so, what is it!
Keep on Jammin’
Don’t forget the joy of looking at those amazing album covers while you listened!
I hope vinyl returns, but to be honest it will always just be a fad.
The technology has moved so far away from quality, it’s difficult for me to take it seriously. Yes we have editing capabilities with digital but as it stands, the frequency range of a CD only goes up to 22.05k in the highs… and then e went a step lower, they said lets compress it to make it smaller and transporter, and we lost some more quality. Some people in the early stages of MP3 format had the audacity to say it was better than anything… they could now hear clarity.. but in truth it was because they had never heard decent audio played on real equipment and because the compression algorithm crunched it down it removed some of the music.
Look, I love the sound of real audio, I long for the days when I used to sit in the sound lounge of where I worked listening to recordings of things like Ralph Towner, Mick Goodrick and Pat Metheny playing a vinyl ECM album with a Sonus Blue Cartridge, A linnsondek, a Crown (Amcron) PreAmp and Equaliser, A Crown 300 Power Amp and a pair of AR 9’s, the massive Klipsch speakers wider than a fridge and a whole lot of other speakers…
But really for vinyl to sound great, we need really good quality audio to go with it. I’ll put up with the crackles and pops any day. I still don’t like digital, even tough I have a house full of digital recorders I’ll stay that way…and you’ve reminded me, get a a new Stylus and Cartridige and play those hundreds of guitar albums I haven’t heard for years.
Tony Hogan
I can’t believe I forgot about that fantastic bonus feature that came with the old Vinyl beauty’s!!!
Very nice catch, or should I say nice EYE’s on ya, with that particular comment in mind there Windyridge!
Tony, I don’t know which one to thank you for?! It’s either for your UNBELIEVABLE comment for this post (BTW this is the kind of QAULITY and indepth response I would kill for) or your own site (http://acousticguitarist.wordpress.com/), WOW!
I think that you put more into your comment then I did for my post! I had the same level of sincerity in writing it as you did on your comment but I just thought it would fall on deaf ears. You’ve shown me that there still are true believers out there and I applaud you for revealing yourself to us!
As for your site, WOW! To my faithful readers on this site, if your an acoustic player then YOU MUST SEE HIS SITE if you wish to enhance your inner acoustic guitar player in you.
Thanx Tony