Call me old-fashioned, or just call me broke...

[Pat K]

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".

[Patrick]

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.  

[<<<<<]

Is this new?  I thought vinyl had been fashionable since the mid-nineties.

[KickTheBobo]

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"

[jamesp]

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."

[masterofsparks]

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.

[AllisonLeGnome]

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.

[kimota]

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.

[Pat K]

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.

OK. I will admit, under duress, that that does indeed looks like it sounds warmer than a CD.

[Gilly]

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.

[emdasher]

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.

[Sarah]

I just want it to stay popular enough that I'll be able to replace my record player when it breaks.

[A.M. Thomas]

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.

[A.M. Thomas]

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.

These are cool, but they will destroy your records.

[Phantom Hugger]

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 ) pursuit?