FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: emdasher on July 09, 2008, 05:47:02 AM
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Is it wrong that I feel unhip and behind the times for not owning a blu-ray player and not reverting to vinyl as my preferred method of listening to music? That shit seems so hott right now!
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Is it wrong . . . ?
Yes.
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Don't know if you're seriously after A/V advice. Regardless, this may be stating the obvious:
Blu-Ray will probably get a lot cheaper in the next year or so. Also, unless you have a massive HD tv, it won't improve the experience much. Wait on it. Chances are good that if the economy continues to tank, you'll find other things to worry about/spend money on.
As for vinyl, it's a very inexpensive way to buy old stuff. Also, shopping for LPs is more fun than the iTunes store. A decent used record player will set you back a couple hundred bucks, maximum, and will keep on giving.
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the problem with jumping on the vinyl bus now is that its going to get expensive. had you been "in-the'know" prior to the vinyl revival, you would have gotten a lot of good stuff for cheap. but we all know thats all this is when it comes to vinyl: a pissing contest.
i wouldnt worry about either of those things, emdasher. youre not missing out on anything you'll regret later.
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Honestly, why does it matter how you listen to music? Isn't it just the songs that matter?
And blu-ray is hardly mainstream. I think you may be overthinking this. Just enjoy your music and movies however you want to and don't worry about bein a techno-hotty.
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I give vinyl two years TOPS before the vinyl revival backlash starts and we start reading articles in the NYTimes Styles section where people are like "Elizabeth Altschul, an intern at
the New York Times Styles section a trendy fashion magazine, relates her personal odyssey with the problematic platter: 'I tried to get into vinyl and go with the crowd,but it's too unwieldy! It won't fit anywhere on my bike and if I leave it on the window sill all day it warps. Sorry, vinyl, but I'm going back to digital!'
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Honestly, why does it matter how you listen to music? Isn't it just the songs that matter?
i know what youre getting at, erika...but it really can matter. i suppose it depends on preferences.
otherwise, i agree with JJ.
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the problem with jumping on the vinyl bus now is that its going to get expensive. had you been "in-the'know" prior to the vinyl revival, you would have gotten a lot of good stuff for cheap. but we all know thats all this is when it comes to vinyl: a pissing contest.
i wouldnt worry about either of those things, emdasher. youre not missing out on anything you'll regret later.
I guess it depends what you're after (and probably where you live). If you just want to build a collection of good, mainstream stuff from the 60s/70s/80s - stuff like Elvis Costello, David Bowie, Talking Heads, etc. - vinyl is still pretty cheap.
I don't bother with new stuff on vinyl, for just the reasons that Junk specifies!
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I don't have a lot of space, so I've been drifting back and forth on getting a record player. I live a block away from the flea market where Small Change is selling his record collection, and I can see that getting really dangerous.
That said, there was a recent study (please don't make me go dig it up) that the human body really can tell the difference between analog and digital sounds, and prefers analog. I don't know what that means, really, but it makes me want to go to live shows and listen to vinyl.
And Junk, an article like that in the NYT Style Section would actually mean that the vinyl backlash is over.
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We've mentioned this before, but if you're going to have physical formats vinyl is the only way to go now. There is nothing about ugly-ass CDs, from sound quality to artwork, that can't be reproduced with digital files one way or the other. CDs are this half and half format, I've got no use of them.
I've also got no money for silly collectable vinyl. And you can still find cheap vinyl at thrift stores, though maybe not in cities with large hipster infestations.
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I'd especially not worry about Blu-Ray since new movies in the format cost like $30, compared to like $15 to $20 on DVD.
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Vinyl takes more effort to build up a collection but it's much cheaper.
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Part of switching to vinyl for me was to curb my music consumption. Anything I buy on vinyl I have to really like and take the time to sit down, listen and flip the side half way through. Plus big ol' artwork and liner notes (goes along with loving what you buy).
For one off 'Kung-Fu Fighting' type novelties, iTunes will scratch that itch.
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I'm a cheapskate. I grew up listening to a shitty walkman play songs I taped off the radio. Between basement shows and amateur fireworks displays, I lost a lot of my hearing as a teenager. Although I do (barely) prefer the sound of vinyl, I regard sound quality as a luxury.
Records are easier and more fun to manipulate - I miss cleaning up my apartment while listening to instrumentals at the wrong speed. And CDs were always a hateful scam.
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Although I do (barely) prefer the sound of vinyl, I regard sound quality as a luxury.
I'm with you. Does my used-from-craigslist, barely-functioning cabinet/record player sound better than the $80 computer speakers I bought from Staples? Not exactly.
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Is it wrong that I feel unhip and behind the times for not owning a blu-ray player and not reverting to vinyl as my preferred method of listening to music? That shit seems so hott right now!
It is wrong.......it's absolutely worth paying 4 times as much for cumbersome vinyl because it just sounds so much warmer. Yeesh!
I'm actually pro vinyl, for many of the cost-related reasons mentioned above - old stuff is cheap and abundant, and lots of times new albums on vinyl are cheaper than CD or digital, which is nice. I'll gladly pay $9.99 for a new LP than $18.99 for the same CD if I can. I just hate it when vinyl partisans use the argument that "it's so much warmer" than CDs. Fuck "warmer" - us hardhats ain't got extra money to blow on "warmer".
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i have seen and read countless comparisons between vinyl and digital. and truth be told unless you have a decent stereo you are not going to be able to tell the difference. but getting a record player as an edition to your stereo is a wise choice. there is plenty of music that was never released on CD and if you lucky enough to live near a used vinyl store take advantage of it, im sure you could find great stuff in the dollar bin. ebay is also a fantastic source of used and even new vinyl. i have bought multiple copies of the first 8 Black Sabbath albums (i kinda have an ebay problem).
i say spend the money and get a good used record player and start collecting records. you could spend 50 bucks for the player and make sure you get a good needle that will make the difference.
vinyl is the future of music, more and more labels are making albums available for free legal download with the purchase of the vinyl.
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Is this new? I thought vinyl had been fashionable since the mid-nineties.
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I have to thank vinyl for helping me avoid the Electroclash trend (for the most part, I did like that one Barcelona tune) because I had fished a record player/ tuner/ speakers / stack of LPs from the alley behind my apartment, and pretty much spent 18 months listening to worn copies of:
The Kinks - "Word of Mouth"
Best of the Hollies
A live Buddy Rich record with an awesome version of "the beat goes on"
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Is this new? I thought vinyl had been fashionable since the mid-nineties.
"Vinyl records are just a small scratch on the surface when it comes to total album sales--only about 0.2%, compared to 10% for digital downloads and 89.7% for CDs, according to Nielsen SoundScan--but these numbers may underrepresent the vinyl trend since they don't always include sales at smaller indie shops where vinyl does best. Still, 990,000 vinyl albums were sold in 2007, up 15.4% from the 858,000 units bought in 2006. Mike Dreese, CEO of Newbury Comics, a New England chain of independent music retailers that sells LPs and CDs, says his vinyl sales were up 37% last year."
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Is it wrong that I feel unhip and behind the times for not owning a blu-ray player and not reverting to vinyl as my preferred method of listening to music? That shit seems so hott right now!
It is wrong.......it's absolutely worth paying 4 times as much for cumbersome vinyl because it just sounds so much warmer. Yeesh!
I just hate it when vinyl partisans use the argument that "it's so much warmer" than CDs. Fuck "warmer" - us hardhats ain't got extra money to blow on "warmer".
Haha, this totally annoys me too, especially when it's someone who goes to lots of shows and doesn't wear earplugs. Folks who've ravaged their hearing pretending to hear the nuances of vinyl vs. CD vs. whatever is amusing to me.
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I love vinyl, but I refuse to get into the collecting stuff (especially after today's Gaslight Anthem fiasco, which really can't be attributed to genuine fans trying to buy one copy each). I don't really care about differences in sound- even if they do exist, the contrast between my iPod/earbuds and the speakers/turntable is large enough that any improvement would be entirely attributable to the equipment. It's more an aesthetic thing- to put it stupidly, it looks a lot cooler (with the artwork, etc.), and I'm really attracted to the idea of having the music physically right there were I can literally see it. So often music is such a throwaway sort of thing- I feel like having a real object that I can hold gives it the significance it deserves. I'm not into proclaiming grand cultural trends, but I think a lot of the current popularity of vinyl is a direct response to that. More practically, it's cheaper than CDs a lot of the time, and since I'm using my iPod for mobility anyway I might as well have the cooler of the version I'm not carrying around with me.
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I saw one of these in an issue of Grand Royal and have wanted one ever since. I guess it would make your vinyl more portable but I wouldn't trust it with anything too special.
(http://www.slipperybrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/vw.jpg)
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I saw one of these in an issue of Grand Royal and have wanted one ever since. I guess it would make your vinyl more portable but I wouldn't trust it with anything too special.
(http://www.slipperybrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/vw.jpg)
OK. I will admit, under duress, that that does indeed looks like it sounds warmer than a CD.
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I love vinyl, but I refuse to get into the collecting stuff (especially after today's Gaslight Anthem fiasco, which really can't be attributed to genuine fans trying to buy one copy each). I don't really care about differences in sound- even if they do exist, the contrast between my iPod/earbuds and the speakers/turntable is large enough that any improvement would be entirely attributable to the equipment. It's more an aesthetic thing- to put it stupidly, it looks a lot cooler (with the artwork, etc.), and I'm really attracted to the idea of having the music physically right there were I can literally see it. So often music is such a throwaway sort of thing- I feel like having a real object that I can hold gives it the significance it deserves. I'm not into proclaiming grand cultural trends, but I think a lot of the current popularity of vinyl is a direct response to that. More practically, it's cheaper than CDs a lot of the time, and since I'm using my iPod for mobility anyway I might as well have the cooler of the version I'm not carrying around with me.
That's exactly the reason I go vinyl. It's more fun. I subscribe to Rhapsody and listen to a lot of music and buy it on vinyl if I really like it and then go to used record stores and shows to fill in the classic stuff I want to have in my collection. But, I'm not a collector, because I could care less about having limited edition records just because they are rare. I might pay good money for first pressings or mono issues but that's more to do with the sound of the record than because it's collectible.
Truth is, I wouldn't have any vinyl at all if I didn't get a good turntable for free. The station I work at got rid of the turntables and I asked for one and they gave it to me. Vinyl is worthless on a crappy record player and you really have to spend 300 bucks on a player to make it worthwhile plus you should have a good receiver and preamp if your receiver doesn't have phono inputs. It's a pretty pricey startup cost. But, it pays off if you know the right places to go to buy your records and if you are ok with slowly building a collection up.
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Opinions on the future of vinyl really seem to run the gamut. I guess it mostly comes down to personal preference, though I am curious to see if vinyl sales will continue to rise in the coming years.
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I just want it to stay popular enough that I'll be able to replace my record player when it breaks.
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Trends are meaningless. Collecting records will always be fun, but I hate the Gaslight Anthem and any moron that buys a record just to resell it on eBay.
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I saw one of these in an issue of Grand Royal and have wanted one ever since. I guess it would make your vinyl more portable but I wouldn't trust it with anything too special.
(http://www.slipperybrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/vw.jpg)
These are cool, but they will destroy your records.
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A question for all you vinyl aficionados/collectors: do you listen to your picture discs????
::)
I do.
......are picture discs just a child's (metalhead's >:( ;D) pursuit?
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I had a vinyl collection for a while. I loved it, but when I stopped djing at parties and started moving more, it began to become obvious that I was hauling around a lot of my vinyl collection for two terrible reasons, sentimental attachment to the objects and the idea that someone would look through my collection and make the decision that I was cool. If you are buying your music and its not inconvient for you to go to stores that sell vinyl (or you like the inconvience) than vinyl is the way to go. But I don't buy that much of my music.
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Is this new? I thought vinyl had been fashionable since the mid-nineties.
"Vinyl records are just a small scratch on the surface when it comes to total album sales--only about 0.2%, compared to 10% for digital downloads and 89.7% for CDs, according to Nielsen SoundScan--but these numbers may underrepresent the vinyl trend since they don't always include sales at smaller indie shops your yard sales and your local Salvation Army, where vinyl does best.