Vinyl in a digital age

Nothing is more subjective than the topics of the average audiophile. I don't think anyone's OPINIONS (mine included) on this discussion would hold up in a court of law.
 
BlueFox said:
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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Although I think (hope?) that it's not true for most posters here, most of the justificattions I read about for listening to LP's make me think it's no longer about the music. There's just no question that the advantages of good ​digital make my enjoyment of music so much more than it was 30+ years ago.
 
Here we go with another analog/digital food fight! :amazing: We really don't need excuses or rationalizations to justify what we want to hear and how we want to hear it. As long as everyone is happy with the choices they made, it's all good.

Now please pass me some analog because I'm starving for great sound at the all you can stand digital buffet. :hungry::hungry:
 
I listen to both digital (because some things are ONLY available on digital and some things DO sound better on digital) and Analog (because I don't have it on digital and it CAN sound a lot better). Both have their pro's and con's in my book.

And R2R adds another dimension yet again.


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The beauty of this conversation is that we have choices.

I sold my Linn LP-12 along with my vinyl collection back in 1998. Recently I've considered getting a TT but decided not to move forward with analog. I would be buying the same music for the 3rd or 4th time. And, while analog sounds fantastic, I am quite pleased with the Lumin S-1 and the convenience of selecting tracks as I listen to match my mood.

But, as I wrote at the beginning of my response, isn't it great to have choices?
 
mep said:
Here we go with another analog/digital food fight! :amazing: We really don't need excuses or rationalizations to justify what we want to hear and how we want to hear it. As long as everyone is happy with the choices they made, it's all good.

Now please pass me some analog because I'm starving for great sound at the all you can stand digital buffet. :hungry::hungry:
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We certainly don't! But the thread topic and the OP is yet another description of just such a rationalization... For whatever reason, some people still feel compelled to explain the unexplainable :sigh:
 
I have used both and my main problem is with vinyl is the surface pops and having to keep cleaning the record and stylus. with digital there is alot more hit or miss with the actual material recorded, imo. yet if the whole album is good, which is rare, then vinyl wins. If its most of the current pop music then yeah digital wins. both is needed and appreciated depending on the mood and moment. if it wasn't for Tidal I would probabley ditch digital and get a A/D converter.
 
CPP said:
This thread reminds me of this song by one of my fav artist.

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The great irony here is that this album was recorded digitally with a heavy hand on the compression knob. Too bad Joe didn't put his money where his mouth was and record this album at an analog studio. And yes, I own the LP and it sounds "ok" and nothing special.
 
mep said:
The great irony here is that this album was recorded digitally with a heavy hand on the compression knob. Too bad Joe didn't put his money where his mouth was and record this album at an analog studio. And yes, I own the LP and it sounds "ok" and nothing special.
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True Mark, the song is not about recording in analog, And Walsh admits it was recorded digitally.

" Can you tell us the album’s name, or is that a secret?

I’m gonna call it ‘Analog Man.’ I know in the past I’ve had screwy album titles, but I decided to call it ‘Analog Man’ because my generation of musicians, we grew up analog. And now it’s a digital world, and we had to learn it, you know? Everything’s totally different. There’s no record companies — who knew that would happen? (Laughs) They were so powerful, you know, when I was young. It’s all digital now, and that’s a different way of recording. We’re old analog guys — well, not old — we know all about tape recorders, none of the young musicians do and it’s a shame.



So did you record the album in analog?
No, no, this was my first real experience doing my music digital, and I had to learn it. How you record is different. In the old days there was more of a tendency to just set up the band and mic everything, record the band playing together and when you got a good take, that was it. You couldn’t go in and make everything perfect. It seems to me nowadays, music is constructed (by) layering things on. Musicians come in and play their part one at a time, you know? There’s a magic of a band playing together that I think is a little bit lost in the digital domain. It’s just the way things are done. That spirit and that feel is another part of ‘Analog’ that I’m referring to. ""


PS: I just enjoy the music
 
Mike said:
I listen to both digital (because some things are ONLY available on digital and some things DO sound better on digital) and Analog (because I don't have it on digital and it CAN sound a lot better). Both have their pro's and con's in my book.

And R2R adds another dimension yet again.


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Mike, Well put!!
 
I have both.

With classical music i prefer CD - and with Jazz/Soul I prefer vinyl.

I never get tired listening vinyl - but CD's on some days give me an instant tinnitus. :(

No doctor can explain me why - so I gave up asking them. :scholar:

On those days I only listen to vinyl....:D
 
I've never understood the arguing about this topic, people like what they like! Why get upset over someones choice in format.

I own and use both formats, and I love them both!!!
 
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 me to the nearest bridge.
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This IMHO only REALLY became an issue w/the advent of cd's, and the 75 mins max length available. Suddenly, we went from bands who would create a double album once or twice in their career, to bands pumping out the equivalent of a double album EVERY release. Even the filler had filler when we went from 35-40 mins to 70-75 mins!
 
MDP said:
I've never understood the arguing about this topic, people like what they like! Why get upset over someones choice in format.

I own and use both formats, and I love them both!!!
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This is my first "real" post here after the Introduce Yourself thread.

I would just like to say that I agree 100% with Mark's post above. It's the same argument as tube vs solid state, single ended vs push-pull, Class A vs Class AB vs Class D, balanced vs unbalanced, single wire vs bi-wire, single amp vs bi-amp. The majority of those are pure opinion or matter of taste, though balanced vs unbalanced is really more of requirement for distant signal cable runs or an extremely RFI/EMI rich environment.

On that note, I have both analog and digital, and love both. As far as I'm concerned, they both have their place and I will always have both in my system(s). I have multiple copies of some albums in CD, digital download, and on vinyl. Depending on the mastering done for each format, one may sound better than the other. There are some albums that sound great and lively on digital but dead on vinyl. Others sound wide and dynamic on vinyl yet very flat and bland on digital.

There are times when I go through phases and just don't feel like screwing around with vinyl, having to brush the record and stylus, having to get up and flip the record, having to move at all really. And there's other times I just listen to the digital for pure convenience. I very rarely skip tracks through an album, digital or not. I just never have, unless it's a new-to-me album and a track or two absolutely sucks, then I'll skip it. Usually though, if a track comes on that I don't particularly care for, I pay a lot less attention to it and do more reading/writing during that track.

For me, a few of the things that keep vinyl and turntables in my life are the memories from my childhood, sitting there on the weekends or late at night during the week with my father or one of my brothers listening to records. Those to me are good memories. Not only that, even though this is an old technology, it still somewhat amazes me the amount of sound, detail and stereo separation that comes from such a tiny little line carved in plastic and a near microscopic point on a rock, all transferred up a single tiny hallow tube.

Anywho, just my two pennies. ;)
 
I really need to give myself the digital push. I promise to do that when my second pre-amp arrives.

Have this hooked up to a Siltech 770i Ready to go. http://www.korg.com/us/products/audio/ds_dac_10r/. I think I'm going to commission a quiet PC for this purpose, on standby ready to go.

Hope that it is just as easy as making a cassette recording. :)
 
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