Death of the CD and the rise of... vinyl?

[Ryudo Lee]

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/commentary/listeningpost/2007/10/listeningpost_1029

There's been a noticeable increase in the sales of vinyl records as of late, though some *coughriaacough* will deny that up and down.  With these increased sales, more attention is being brought to the quality of vinyl versus the quality of CD's, in terms of the sound of the music being played.  So, could this be a precursor to the death of the music CD as we know it?  Big record companies don't think so, but they've been missing the mark on big trends in music as of late.

Personally, I have very little memory of vinyl.  I remember my brother had a turntable and a few records, but other than that his stereo had dual cassette decks.  When I was growing up, it was primarily cassette tapes, and then CD's eventually started becoming affordable.

Discuss.

[gh0st]

my grand father had a gigantic table type thing in his living room... i didn't know until i was like 11 that it was a vinyl turntable... that and a fisher price turntable is the only contact i've had with vinyls

[Fuyudenki]

Vinyl records have a tendency to scratch(terribly), take up a lot of space, are more sensitive to heat and moisture than optical discs, and have significantly less storage capacity.  They have muddy sound quality, and even a well-preserved record will be rife with pops and fizzing from the random dust that gets into the grooves.

In fact, the only reasons I can think of for holding onto your Vinyls are if you haven't finished ripping them down to some other format, or if you want to go scratch at a rave somewhere.

Note to anyone else who remembers Vinyls, I am in my early 20s, so you're not showing your age by talking about them.

[Tapewolf]

In fact, the only reasons I can think of for holding onto your Vinyls are if you haven't finished ripping them down to some other format, or if you want to go scratch at a rave somewhere.

Two words: 'Cover Art'.

I have a couple of vinyl records, but an absolutely dire turntable.  I mostly have them for collectible reasons, but I do love having a full-size rendition of the cover artwork, and lyrics that aren't in 2-point font.  At one point you used to get weird freebie things in them too.

I would like to get hold of a vinyl copy of 'Brain Salad Surgery' by ELP because I want to hear it in its original form (Karn Evil 9 was so long it wouldn't fit and had to be split in two!).
There are other weird things as well, such as music coded into a loop in the inner spiral (apparently 'Atom Heart Mother' ends with a dripping sound.  Sergeant Pepper has this strange babbling sound).

I just for the hell of it I'd very much like to get Bal Sagoth's A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria.  Rare, though.

One of those optical players would be neat, but ooh, the price...

[superluser]

Good vinyl is better (and it's easy to tell that it's better) than CD.  Bad vinyl is far worse.

One of those optical players would be neat, but ooh, the price...

Yup.

[Fuyudenki]

are you talking about CD/DVD/HDDVD/BLU-RAY/HHDVVBVDVD players, or is there an optical player for LPs out there?

[Damaris]

I LOVE vinyl.  A lot of the classic metal collection that my college radio station had was on vinyl, and there's nothing like an album.  The smell, cuing it up, the pop-whir when you started the table, and the fizz that was found behind the music.  I found it to be such a tactile experience.

Honestly, I would love to get a turntable and start collecting albums.  I know that the sound quality wasn't always the best, but it had a very LIVE quality that just gave the music a second dimension.  It's somewhat like the difference between reading a fifty year old book, or a brand new reprint.  I'll take the old book every time.

[Dannysaysnoo]

He might mean laserdisc, which seems to be dead as a dodo.

[Tapewolf]

are you talking about CD/DVD/HDDVD/BLU-RAY/HHDVVBVDVD players, or is there an optical player for LPs out there?

http://www.elpj.com/

I LOVE vinyl.  A lot of the classic metal collection that my college radio station had was on vinyl, and there's nothing like an album.  The smell, cuing it up, the pop-whir when you started the table, and the fizz that was found behind the music.  I found it to be such a tactile experience.

That is something I missed in my post.  There is something kind of hypnotic about watching it spin...

[Dannysaysnoo]

im in a generation of illegal downloaders, and have never bought a single song, but i still think that vinyls, although dated, are still pretty cool. its the oldest format still available, and just the awesomelyness of them.

[xHaZxMaTx]

I've been meaning to get a turntable for pretty much all the reasons Damaris listed, but I don't really know how to get a hold of vinyl records (besides online) - Nearly all of the music stores I've been to only sell CDs, anymore.

[Dannysaysnoo]

i live in Scotland, which is a bandwagon country, riding on whatever comes by, throwing off things like vinyl and tape cassettes. it really sucks here.

[Damaris]

Well, if you like metal, Hot Topic occasionally carries them, Haz.  Otherwise, a lot of college areas will tend to have record stores.  I think there's one on the north side of my town, although I've never gone looking for it.

[superluser]

He might mean laserdisc, which seems to be dead as a dodo.

Philistine.

The real videophiles use RCA Selectavision, 

I do wonder how the 3D models of vinyl compare to the real thing.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Philistines, the lot of you.

*gets out his wax cylinders*

;-]

[Saist]

Almost makes me want Aopen to bring their "Tube Sound" technology back...

be sorta killer to have an add-in sound card with tube amplifiers with RCA analog jacks from your LP player to your speaker...

[Janus Whitefurr]

We have an old turntable stored away, along with a lot of vinyl the father has in the top of his cupboard.

One of those vinyls is shockingly, mine, a gift from relatives.

Jeff Wayne musical take of War of the Worlds (Y)

[superluser]

*gets out his wax cylinders*

Luxury!  In my day, we had to make do with sounds accidentally engraved in pottery.

Or maybe not.

[Darkmoon]

i... have never bought a single song...

There is something very wrong with you.

[Reese Tora]

My family has/used to have a turn table and a collection of albums for it.

They are fun to throw on once in a while, but were definitely inferior to CDs in terms of fidelity. (on our sound system, and the motor in the turn table was a tad slow... probably from us kids 'manually increasing or decreasing the turn speed for fun and lack of profit)

As an analog medium for sound storage, vinyl technically can have superior fidelity, but disks warp and wear, and some sounds can have wave forms that will actually throw the player needle.

because of the increases of storage capacity and improvements in compression algorithms, digital recordings have/are advancing to the point where it is indistinguishable from pure analog recordings to a human listener.

If you really think that vinyl will improve your listening experience, I've got a $35,000 10' speaker cable I'd like to sell you.

[Zorro]

Vinyl records have a tendency to scratch(terribly), take up a lot of space, are more sensitive to heat and moisture than optical discs, and have significantly less storage capacity.  They have muddy sound quality, and even a well-preserved record will be rife with pops and fizzing from the random dust that gets into the grooves.

In fact, the only reasons I can think of for holding onto your Vinyls are if you haven't finished ripping them down to some other format, or if you want to go scratch at a rave somewhere.

Note to anyone else who remembers Vinyls, I am in my early 20s, so you're not showing your age by talking about them.

There are Laser based Players now that take advantage of the extra dimensions of sound that LPs have without the problems of needles and wear and tear.

Plus lets face it they can't put DRM or a rootkit on a LP and CDs get scratched too.

[RobbieThe1st]

Well, while LPs have very good sound quality, they also bend, warp and cause trouble.
Tapes have reasonable sound quality, are re-recordable, and you don't need digital circuitry to play them.
CDs have good sound quality, but they scratch, and you need digital circuitry to play them.
Harddisk(mp3) players produce very good sound quality, and, while it may not be as good as LP sound, its very good, however you still have the problem of needing digital equipment to play them(in this case, POWERFUL digital equipment). They are re-recordable, and do scratch, though not nearly as much as tapes.
SSD-based mp3 players require the same equipment as the above harddisk-based players, however they are very much immune to shock, no spin-up time, are re-recordable a limited number of times, and do not take much power.

I think the future is in SSD-based MP3 players(mp4 is different). They are pretty cheap, you can copy the music losslessly or play it any amount of times, and theres no trouble with shock. (Plus, for the pirates among us, mp3-encoded music can be pirated easily.  )


-RobbieThe1st

[bill]

i live in Scotland, which is a bandwagon country, riding on whatever comes by, throwing off things like vinyl and tape cassettes. it really sucks here.

yeah im sure nobody else in the world fell for the "compact disc audio system" fad



Also,

i... have never bought a single song...

There is something very wrong with you.

Good music deserves to be bought.

[Darkmoon]

Absolutely. I'm not saying I don't download from time to time, but when I like what I hear, I go out and buy it. If all you do is steal the music, eventually that music is gonna go away, since the artists that make it will stop making it.

[Dannysaysnoo]

the thing is i don't get alot of money, and what money i do get i have to spend on food at school, it sucks.

[bill]

the thing is i don't get alot of money, and what money i do get i have to spend on food at school, it sucks.

get a job

[Dannysaysnoo]

i seriously need one, but all the jobs i can get are rubbish. i might just start asking for money.

[Darkmoon]

Rubbish jobs are a tired and true method of gaining real world experience. Many employers look favorably upon those who have worked retail/food service jobs in the past.

You have nothing to lose, and money to gain, from getting a job.

[bill]

If you don't want a shit job, look at internships, then.

[Dannysaysnoo]

i don't mind retail/food jobs, its just that im young, and my primary choice of jobs are paperboy. and im a bit scared of the streets ever since someone punched me in the nose for no reason when i was younger.