Vinyl in a digital age

Never understood that start to finish mentality. When I had a turntable, I was solely into rock, and other than Pink Floyd, there was rarely an album worth listening to from start to finish. I ruined more than one album trying to just play individual tracks.

Now I am listening to my rock playlist on the Lumin. At this point I am a bit over 500 songs on the playlist, and everyone is a favorite. This is how I listen to music. It gives me a sensory overload to hear one good song after another uninterrupted for hours. No way a record player can even come close to that level of pleasure.
 
100% agree with that article.

Listening to vinyl is a far more interactive experience than mindlessly shuffling through iTunes or Rdio (R.I.P.), as there is more required of you than merely hitting play.


Music and albums are to explore from start to finish, but not necessarily always at the same sitting. A totally enriching experience.

 
I have said it before and it still stands, I would give up this hobby if vinyl was the only source. Too much hassle for at most minuscule reward. The inability to easily skip mindless tracks would lead me to the nearest bridge.
 
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BlueFox said:
Never understood that start to finish mentality. When I had a turntable, I was solely into rock, and other than Pink Floyd, there was rarely an album worth listening to from start to finish. I ruined more than one album trying to just play individual tracks.

Now I am listening to my rock playlist on the Lumin. At this point I am a bit over 500 songs on the playlist, and everyone is a favorite. This is how I listen to music. It gives me a sensory overload to hear one good song after another uninterrupted for hours. No way a record player can even come close to that level of pleasure.
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do you skip chapters when you read a book or fast forward to the 'best' scenes in a movie and overlook the rest? the predilection of only playing certain demo cuts and skipping through songs on an album is IME an audiophile affliction and not why some prefer digital over analog sources.
 
still-one said:
I have said it before and it still stands, I would give up this hobby if vinyl was the only source. Too much hassle for at most minuscule reward. The inability to easily skip mindless tracks would lead be to the nearest bridge.
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Hahahaha!
 
Good essay. I like the line, "Music becomes a far more personal experience for me on my home stereo with my turntable spinning, and that sense of intimacy brings me closer to the heart and emotion of the songs."
 
Golucid said:
Good essay. I like the line, "Music becomes a far more personal experience for me on my home stereo with my turntable spinning, and that sense of intimacy brings me closer to the heart and emotion of the songs."
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David, this article is total music lover porn.. and we love porn!
 
I don't doubt it for a second. After mindlessly shuffling through his iTunes library all day his vinyl collection must sound wonderful. iTunes sounds like crap to me, so anything up from there has to be a thrill.
 
puroagave said:
do you skip chapters when you read a book or fast forward to the 'best' scenes in a movie and overlook the rest? the predilection of only playing certain demo cuts and skipping through songs on an album is IME an audiophile affliction and not why some prefer digital over analog sources.
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No you walk out of a movie if it has too many crappy scenes. You give up on the book it isn't interesting. You don't eat food you don't like because a chef puts it on your plate. You walk past the art in a museum that isn't interesting and stop at the pieces that grab you. Skipping crap isn't "an audiophile affliction" rather just a wise use of ones limited minutes on this earth.
 
If all I had to listen to was digital, I would sell all of my gear and buy a Bose system and be done with it. :P
 
So much "wrong" with that blog article I would hardly know where to begin, although others have already made a good start. One of my biggest objections to LP's is that they are too short; 20 minutes or less is often too short IMHO. I listen to a lot of live concert recordings, pretty much a non-starter for an LP. And how many LP's are there where skipping a track or two wouldn't make for a much more enjoyable listenig experience; some cuts aren't "deep", they're just crap. And as Bud quickly pointed out, it's not possible to make a spur of the moment playlist on LP; the best you can do is the old "mix tapes" most of us used to make. I could go on, but Mark is probably already nauseated...
 
It seems that digital is mainly about convenience for many people. I will gladly put in more work for better sound.
 
I will listen to some things start to finish, but prefer random shuffle on a playlist. Just today I played the 13 string quartets of Shostakovich in numerical order, start to finish. I had created the playlist a while back. It was very nice, hours of uninterrupted music. Some I listened to as background, and some as more detailed. Actually, I never finished them all, but next time will just start at string quartet 6 or 7.

Time to return to rock for the last time until next Friday. This has been a good Thanksgiving weekend.
 
mep said:
It seems that digital is mainly about convenience for many people. I will gladly put in more work for better sound.
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If by convenience you mean access to more of the music I prefer, then I plead guilty. I'm sure I've posted before that well under half the music I listen to is available on LP (to me at least; there is a whole bunch of music recorded analog that has only been sold in digital formats). More, the amount of money I would have to spend to get what I consider better sound via analog would be a huge percentage of my current equipment expenditure; and there's a very good chance I would get more musical satisfaction spending that money on something else, were I willing to spend it at all.

Also remember that we (I think) are commenting on the blog article and his justifications, which I think are bogus in a general sense although obviously meaningful for him (the writer).
 
[Tongue-in-cheek analogy] A 976 line will get you where you need to be, but if you want the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up, nothing beats a beautiful woman whispering in your ear. Sure you've got to wine and dine her, open the car door, shower her with jewelry, promise the world. lol. And, admittedly some vinyl isn't that attractive, and has a bad cough from too many cigarettes, but, well you get the point.
 
rbbert said:
So much "wrong" with that blog article I would hardly know where to begin, although others have already made a good start. One of my biggest objections to LP's is that they are too short; 20 minutes or less is often too short IMHO. I listen to a lot of live concert recordings, pretty much a non-starter for an LP. And how many LP's are there where skipping a track or two wouldn't make for a much more enjoyable listenig experience; some cuts aren't "deep", they're just crap. And as Bud quickly pointed out, it's not possible to make a spur of the moment playlist on LP; the best you can do is the old "mix tapes" most of us used to make. I could go on, but Mark is probably already nauseated...
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You do realise vinyl actually plays on both sides :D at the end of each side its a great opportunity to go get another beer, go to the boys roon. Digital is great to do housework to.
 
Some of the points put forward in an attempt to rationalize and justify the expense and effort required to play a record are just ridiculous. I want to listen to music, not frack it. Quit trying to belittle and marginalize my musical lifestyle, and I will do the same.
 
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