Vinyl Records

[Gerry Attrick]

After some fifteen years of playing nowt but Cd's, I cleared out a corner of Attrick's loft today and dug out some old vinyl stuff. More out of curiosity to see how it sounded compared to the modern medium, I fired up the old turntable. What do you know........it sounded superb. Not like Cd, but like vinyl. Warm, immediate and comforting.

I'm no hi-fi buff, but that sound is good. Like mother's milk, the sound of a kettle on a winter's day, "Family Favourites" on the radio, the cry of a pheasant startled from the hedge. Ah.....nostalgia isn't what it was.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Welcome back!!!

 

[speccy1]

I agree

I`m a great fan of the ol` vinyl, it sounds lovely (you need a decent, or very old turntable though!!)

CD`s are good but too clinical, with a record the crackles make it....total magic!!!!

 

[Gerry Attrick]

My turntable is an old Technics SL1800 which I am told by afficianados is a reasonably good one. All I know is that I am entranced by the vibes emanating from it.

 

[speccy1]

Nice!!!!

Enjoy, I have a similar deck

 

[Dan B]

I could care less about the sound, but the attraction of LPs - admiring the cover art, slipping the disc from the dust sleeve, lowering the needle gently into the groove - is basically visceral. It's like shifting up through a perfectly indexed cassette while attacking a hill, or the perfect skating crossover turn.

If I'd been born ten years earlier I'd have had a decent-sized vinyl collection, but by the early 1990s most LPs were pressed on records thinner and floppier than a rolf harris wobbleboard, and I soon defected to CD. And now even my CDs are in a big cardboard box and my only connection with the physical media is a thumbnail of the sleeve design on my PC

 

[accountantpete]

I never thought I would say it but I have just gone the other way - modern sound cards just offer so much more.

 

[Dayvo]

It always amazed me that when I put my fingernail in the groove on the single/album (don't ask why) I could hear the (unamplified) sound of the song!

 

[Gerry Attrick]

I won't buy an LP from you. Thanks Dayvo

 

[speccy1]

It also works with a compass...I`ve tried it lol

 

[Mr Pig]

I'm no hi-fi buff, but that sound is good. Like mother's milk.

It's a shame that a generation is growing up having no idea what analog music sounds like. I think music is the worse for it. CD can sound pretty good but there is always things missing, even on top-level CD players.

The other week I bought a copy of Fleetwood Mac 'Rumors' on CD so that my son could listen to it in his room. I know the vinyl inside out. I gave the CD a spin on my Hi-Fi. It sounded good, if it had been the only version you'd heard you'd be happy with it, but after the vinyl you knew you were missing lots of subtle but important information. Inflections, micro-dynamics and subtle timing details that make the music human, draw you in. The vinyl is massively more involving.

CD has it's advantages. For a start there is far less difference between players at different prices. Don't get me wrong, CD players can sound very different but price has less to do with it. The difference between a good, cheap CD player and a good, expensive one is much less than you see with turntables.

The problem with CD is that it seems to have a qualitative brick wall that you just cannot get past, it'll only ever sound so good. It'll always be missing that last degree.

With records that last degree is the first thing they do! They can get a lot of other stuff wrong but virtually always sound involving. It's so sad that you can't buy many new records these days. People will look back and say 'how on earth did we have that and let it go'.

And who wants to be a H-Fi buff, if it sounds good it is good ;0)

 

[Dayvo]

I won't buy an LP from you. Thanks Dayvo

I haven't worked out how to do it on CDs - yet!

 

[Dan B]

I haven't worked out how to do it on CDs - yet!

CDs work by shining a light on the disc, so, stare at them. Stare at them really really hard. If that doesn't work, stare some more.

(Disclaimer: this works for anything by Front Line Assembly and probably also Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, but may not be the general solution)

 

[speccy1]

CDs work by shining a light on the disc, so, stare at them. Stare at them really really hard. If that doesn't work, stare some more.

(Disclaimer: this works for anything by Front Line Assembly and probably also Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, but may not be the general solution)

hmmmmmm, ok

 

[Ghost Donkey]

I'm no hi-fi buff but cds are pretty much transparent. My parents had vinyl as it was that or audio cassette but by the time I was a teenager cds were mainstream. Having gone through the recording process using all analogue systems recording on 2 inch tape and also digital desks recording on digital tape standards the cd recording we made and played back through the studio monitors were very good and accurate copy of what we created. I can't for the life of me remember how we created a cd from a 2 inch tape mind. I realise recordings were engineered differently for vinyl as it has different characteristics but I go for accurate depiction all the way. It would have been good if we could create vinyl from one of our recordings for a direct comparison but that never happened.