The Hollies on vinyl = good god!

M

MusicDirector

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I'm just finishing up The Hollies - Distant Light on vinyl....holy cow!!! I'm playing on my main system.
Not only is it a fantastic LP, but I did not know the bass went that deep on Long Cool Woman! I think my speakers have shovels coming out of the bottom digging holes in the floor...uh, ok, maybe not. I'm playing this album on used original vinyl and it is really detailed and just sounds fabulous. I played Hollies sing Dylan just before again on 1969 vinyl or whatever and it sounded just as nice.

I'm not a "vinyl only" guy, but wow! Some things are just too good on vinyl. This is all $2 used vinyl from decades back that I cleaned. Either I'm hammered or....no, that's not it, I don't drink. I must have done something right to get this little moment from the audio gods. I can just imagine if the room was better.
 
This is so awesome Eric! I need to experience this for myself. I'm happy you were blown away by the music!
 
Eric, I have experienced those little moments with Paradigm speakers when they gel with the room & deliver cavernous but tight bass. I have a demo t/t arriving tomorrow, can't wait....
 
Eric... A relative recently tearfully conceded, "I really forgot just how good vinyl was."

The reality though is that playback equipment is better today than the day your newfound vintage pressing was first spun.
 
sharkmouth said:
Eric, I have experienced those little moments with Paradigm speakers when they gel with the room & deliver cavernous but tight bass. I have a demo t/t arriving tomorrow, can't wait....
Click to expand...

The kicker is that I was playing at low volume too. I don't like it loud anyway and since I happen to live in an apartment it works out.
Yes, funny thing about the Paradigm reference line, they tend to adapt themselves to nearly any room you put them in to a degree. I'm guess it has partly something to do with their 98db efficiency. Of course they can't make a bad room sound good, but they can focus. My room is horrid and speaker placement is dictated. I think they are too far apart and off axis, they are and if it weren't for Audessey, I'd have to use headphones all the time and I'm not a big fan, I use them when I need to or just in the mood, but it's rare.

However, I feel it's always the source or recording that makes the biggest difference. I don't have a $20k TT or a $1k+ cartridge and my TT was not set up by Michael Fremer. (It was set up by me which is always scary.:). It's just a Denon DP47f with a Ortofon 2M Bronze running into a Phonomena 2 preamp.

The fact that these are used records from back in the day and not current mass market re-issues kind of sweetens things perhaps, I don't know. One thing I know for sure is that I have a CD copy of Long Cool Woman and it sounds nothing like the vinyl! The CD sounds thin, the bass is there, but doesn't reach that low and is kind of too far to the back. The vinyl version has the bass reaching way low, almost sub-woofer territory and is more in the spot it should be. Not only that, but the vocals are fantastic, clear and present. On the CD version they are kind of blended in if you know what I mean.

It astounds me how vinyl record which does not hold as much data as a CD can sounds more detailed and stronger. One thing is, enter our nemesis called compression, but I wonder if that is the whole story or not?
 
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