Vinyl Snobs UNITE!!!!!

[Dr Fate]

Do CDs just plain get on your NERVES??? That glassy, metallic audio- and those tiny, brittle cases...

Does digital "re mastering" seem like a bunch of baloney to you??? Its a HOAX a tells ya!!! All you need is a half-way decent turntable and a clean record...

Ever heard ELVIS PRESLEY's voice on record? If you have not, then you ain't heard Elvis.

Ever heard Bob Dylan? Not if you've never listened to it on vinyl!!!

Why can I hear instruments and vocal nuances on record that are inaudible on CD???

What bands do you think sound particularly good on record? I'll tell you that most old Country is MUCH better on LP... Ike and Tina, Bo Diddley and R.E.M....hell, it ALL sounds better on record to me...

Vinyl snobs UNITE!!!!

[Whitacre D_WI]

1. Hell, it's not about being a snob...

...it's about having aesthetic standards.

[madrchsod]

2. ya and where`s

the cover art on those little plastic crap cases. give me the "wheels of fire" cover art any dam day!!!!!! oh ya..do cd`s come in a cloth bag like the king biscut album? i don`t think so.........

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Yep I agree...midtones are everything...and they are superior on vinyl

When I got the CD versions of my favorite Ella albums, I was ANNOYED by the horns I had always loved on songs such as old recordings of "A Tisket A tasket" and "Don't Fence Me In" I'd turn it up when she sang and turn it down for the horns....pierced my eardrums!

Even a lot of old disco sounds better on vinyl.

[buddhamama]

6. Ella on vinyl

is the stuff. I've heard Ella in Berlin on CD, doesn't come close to my vinyl.

gotta agree on the Disco too, i have a lot of disco on vinyl and some on CD, no comparison.

there's a warmth to vinyl that lends itself to the music.

[Dr Fate]

7. Yes- Disco, R &B and Funk is great on record...

You can get good copies of all of Stevie Wonder's Tamla recordings for under $10-

There is an old Atlanta R & B band "Brick" that sounds particularly good on vinyl...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

8. Yeah and OLD Staple Singers stuff

Heck half of the great stuff they did is not even available on CD..another thing I hate about CD's......greatest hits but NO lp's or if they do, like with "Dusty in Memphis" one of Dusty Springfield's greatest recordings, they ADD tracks that takes away from the continuity of the original LP...they did the same thing with PETSOUNDS too!

[Dr Fate]

9. I would like to get a Mono Pet Sounds...

I have a stereo LP version that is killer...

[Lefty48197]

4. Vinyl Rules!

Besides I can't even read the tiny writing on CD cases, let alone see the "art work".

[Dr Fate]

5. CDs? What am I, a time traveler from the future??

Compressed music played by "lazer beams"??? Sounds like comic book stuff to me...

The needle on the groove is the only way to get the live sound- everything else is robot music...

[Kahuna]

10. I like vinyl. CDs are much more fragile than vinyl.

CDs scratch too easily.

[Dr Fate]

11. If you just take care of your records, they stay perfect...

It's true. I've got fat, shiny records from my grand-dad's time that play like new...

If you take care of your records, they do not get scratchy

[stopbush]

12. While I agree that 12" album art is more satisfying,

I disagree on the sound quality issue. Well-produced/mixed/mastered CDs leave LPs in the dust.

Now, I don't know about pop music. I basically listen to classical music which is a reproduction of acoustic instruments, not electronic instruments. I owned over 10,000 LPs at one point. Today, I don't even own a turntable. My LPs collection was given away over the years and finally cleared out when I relocated. The LPs have been replaced with over 10,000 CDs. The only LPs I've held on to are the few high-end 180-gram LPs of classic recordings, and even those are for the packaging and nostalgia more than anything else - I find the CD versions of the same albums equal to or better than their LP counterparts.

The above said, I tend to view classical recordings as a unique and separate entity to live performances. Recordings can NEVER replace the live thing. At best, they are very close representations of live music. Some classical performers recognize this and make adjustments when recording, and that can make for a more-satisfying recording that is unlike a live performance and an art unto itself. But that doesn't happen very often.

I've spent a good part of my life singing on the opera stage, playing in orchestras (oboe), conducting, teaching...and producing and marketing recordings at various times for various labels. I've run into very few performing musicians who don't find CDs superior to LPs, but I'm willing to accept the possibility that my experience is unique and not indicative of truths found in other fields of musical endeavor.

[Dr Fate]

13. It is a matter of personal taste, I guess...

There is no doubt that there is a "difference" between the two. For old Country, Rock & Roll, Jazz and Blues, it sounds better in the original format...

[stopbush]

20. I'll take your word for it.

My opinion is also colored by my days working at an OOP record store in NYC. Our customers were a bunch of self-appointed "golden ears" rich kid types who had money to burn. They all owned the $150,000 stereo system (built from stock parts, of course!)...and all of 10 demonstration-quality LPs that they played over and over again. Their solution to getting great LP sound was simple - invest in a six-figure stereo system. Funny, but half of them always failed the Lp vs CD blind test. The ones who got it right usually went on nothing but the rumble and swish from the LPs which they described as "warmth".

Some of their observations were brilliant, like when one of them stated that a Japanese pressing of a certain 3-LP set was no good because "the whole thing was transferred an octave too low." When I pointed out that such a low-pitched transfer would have required more than 3 LPs to contain the recording, he just stared. When I asked him if he knew the definition of the word "octave," he fled the store.

There was another guy who didn't like CDs because his ears were so good that he could "hear the steps" in the sound wave's curve. In other words, the digital reproduction of the analogue curve could never be as "smooth" as analog as digital is basically an off-on proposition. He claimed he could hear when it was "off," and that those aural gaps ruined the recordings. I wondered if he ever managed to turn off the voices in his head.

Ah, those were the days.

[Dr Fate]

21. My stereo cost about $200 bucks...

...but I know the type of people you are talking about!

I can certainly hear the difference between my records and CDs...

I have plenty of CDs that sound great, but vinyl sounds better to my ears- funner to collect too!!!

[trogdor]

25. Rumble and swish?

My latest hobby is transscribing LP's to compact disc and MP3.

I went and bought me:

a THX-certified sound card.
a Stanton straight-arm turntable (the kind rap DJ's use).
a good cartridge with an eliptical stylus (the one that came with the turntable was good for scratching, but it tears up your records).

My wife think's I'm nuts. Nevertheless, I now have two dozen new CD's that sound like records played on good sound equipment.

[mr blur]

14. Give me vinyl any day

It's like the difference between film (LP) amd video (CD)

[yorgatron]

15. it's like guitar players who need tubes in their amp

like me.BTW my mono only record player has tubes,i think it sounds great.

[BiggJawn]

16. Vinyl is for blow-up girlfriends. SHELLAC is where it's at!

Now we'll hear from an Edison "Amberol" fan about how "Wax is Hot!"

:7

[Dr Fate]

18. No way dude- I need CYLINDERS!!!

And a crank. It sounds like crap without the CRANK!!!

I also wear old-timey clothes while I listen...

[jpgray]

17. Some people like the Sistine without the grime, some like it with (nt)

[Dr Fate]

19. I clean my records...

...no pops or skips- people always say- "Man your stereo sounds good"-No one knows its "old records" until they see it...it's a standard cheap-o Sony with standard Sony speakers.

If you have clean records and a good needle, there is no grime...

It's a personal choice- I'm just being silly anyway- I have hundreds and hundreds of CDs...

[jpgray]

23. What I mean is, it's still a work of art either way

It's just that the medium makes a small difference (i.e. CDs compared to records), and therefore some people will prefer one version, and some will prefer another. I don't mean to imply one is "better" or "worse" than the other. :hi:

[Dr Fate]

24. good point...

...I wonder what they will try to sell us next- how much better can they make it sound???

[BiggJawn]

26. Ah-HAH! i knew there was a method to your madness!

What's your cleaning method? Years ago, I had a special brush made by Watts that I use with soapy water. Don't have that brush anymore, so I don't clean any but the filthiest, and that's with a soft toothbrush...

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. Couple hours in the oven to soften the grime,

then go at it with a wire brush.

Oh, wait - that's for grill racks. Nevermind.

[Dr Fate]

31. Water mixed w/ windex...

and a soft, clean cloth- go with the grain. No biggie.

[Burma Jones]

30. I use one of those fancy schmancy record vacuums (n/t)

[ButterflyBlood]

22. hell yes, vinyl is awesome!

and this is from someone who doesn't own a single vinyl made prior to 1990.

[Heyo]

28. me either...

But I have about 500 pieces or so...

All underground breaks, and trance, maybe a little jungle..

Spent years collecting them, and hardly even spin anymore..

Had a short residency at this sleazy dive on South Beach years ago called Fabrik... despite the seedyness of the environment, it was tons of fun to get up and mix for a club crowd.... ah my younder days...the mostly hazy rave years....

Now I'm lucky if I mix a CD here and there throughout the year..just to jam in my car.. I also havem't bought a record in a long time.....and there is dust on my JX-305

But, I will never part with my wax... even if for unforseen reasons I sold the rest of my equipment.. too much time and effort went into collecting them..

My prized musical possetion is the 12" Rabbit in the Moon "Phases of an Out of Body Experience"....also one of the first records I ever got...

-Heyo

[Burma Jones]

29. Vinyl Rules - SACD is a close second

Everything is better in vinyl. However, the difference is particularly noticable in Jazz and Chamber Music, or Folk, or Country, basically acoustic music. I have just obtained SACD player and about a dozen disks and it's awfully good.

I also have a Victrola, and some stuff really does sound good on it, like Django.