Why do they still make vinyl records?

[tjohnston]

I was flipping through ebay and found some records for sale. I was surprised to find records of new and recent bands. Wow, I wonder why people would want a record over an cd? Dont know, so tell me.

[subtractor]

I think you have to own turntables to understand.

Kinda like that old harley saying
"If I have to explain, you wouldn't understand."

[LocusLarsen]

Very well put, subtractor.

[A Reel Person]

and mostly from "boutique" or small-label concerns. F/I, I just scored a NEW vinyl LP of "Iggy Pop Live..." - at the so-and-so auditorium. It's an older recording, of an older show, [can't remember the date], but it's a NEW LP/vinyl record.

I don't know why LP's or vinyl records are still being produced, since it goes against current trends, but it's okay with me. I still have my turntable hooked to my stereo in the "studio", in my case the home-studio is also known as the "office".

Nowadays, vinyl records seem "different" and "cool", and they're definitely harder to find & not as common as they used to be. Still, that 12"x12" cover art can't be beaten! 5"x5" CD cover art just can't compare to the splendor of 12"x12"-LP cover art!

You heard it here first!

[LocusLarsen]

There are a LOT of underground 7"s that are only on vinyl.

[tjohnston]

How do they sound?

[LocusLarsen]

I don't know.......they are from the underground. They don't have much production value

No really......I have a good deal of "newer" records. Some PearlJam and GreenDay and Nirvana. I can't compare them to the CDs though because I don't have both. I take that back......I do have the HeartShapedBox 12" and the InUtero CD, but I haven't listed to the 12" is years. But it does have Merigold on the B-side. Thats a song with Dave Grohl singing. I can't remember if they swapped guitar and drums.......anyways.......

I am looking for the new JohnnyCash on LP because I found out it has 2 songs not on the CD.

Starting to get the picture?


Thought so.............

[LocusLarsen]

I must say though.......newer LPs sound better than ones that got recorded back in the 70's and 80's.

[Sen]

I was at my friends place who I didn't know had a great stereo system, turn-tables and everything..he pulled out some records from mid-80s of some of my fave music...THESE RECORDS ROCKED man...I swear, all of them sounded better than CDs, except for a few "record clicks" which are normal....OK, the guy's got a good system, but still...records rock!!

[toadies]

i buy them to display.

[tjohnston]

[QUOTE]THESE RECORDS ROCKED man...I swear, all of them sounded better than CDs,

I was waiting for someone to say that

[GROOVEJIVEY]

The day that CD's appeared on the scene, music in general died a little bit, IMO. CD's were developed for one reason & one reason only, not to improve the quality of music, but to make it more difficult on the pirates/bootleggers to steal it. Plus, records just sound better!

[LocusLarsen]

How did CDs make it more difficult to bootleg?

[GROOVEJIVEY]

Locus, I threw that out there out of nothing more than sheer buffoonery, trying to instigate a few more opinions out of anyone else that might be looking at this thread; I wonder as well why anyone would want a record over a CD. I'm old enough to remember thinking how cool I thought it was that one of my childhood friends had an 8-track that could also record! So, that puts me in that age group of people that remember all the great cover art, the liner notes, lyrics, etc., that were part of a 12" LP collection. I also have quite a bit on CD, but I definitely hear a difference between the two, & I have to say that I just like the sound of LP's better. Don't ask me why, that's just what I prefer, but I do appreciate the audiophile quality of a CD as well. As far as the comment itself, I do think that anytime you have a digital media that enryption & anti-pirating technology can & is used, but I'm also realistic enuff to understand that technology being what it is, what one man can devise, another can dissect... Hell, I don't even know what the f**k I'm talking about...

[A Reel Person]

and my LP collection topped out at just over 400.

I still have my turntable, hooked up right over there, on my normal stereo system. Granted, the turntable has not seen much action since about the mid 80's, when I glaumed onto CDs and started collecting CDs in a big way, but I still have all those records and the turntable, and I enjoy a very occasional spin of the vinyl LPs.

There's only a few really obscure LPs that I have not duplicated on CD issue, but overall I've mostly duplicated my entire LP collection in CDs, and then some. I have about 400 vinyl LPs and about 8-to-900 CDs, give or take a few.

[GROOVEJIVEY]

... and about 500 LP's. I like alot of the old stuff, & I'm currently looking for a high-quality turntable to replace my old one, which is about to go tits-up at any time. I haven't even started converting the LP's to CD for auto use, as I haven't really had the time or capability ("new toy!") to do it. What do you recommend for that, by the way?

[A Reel Person]

if you run the turntable through the reciever, which usually has a Phono preamp, then you can use the reciever's "tape out" jack to route the amplified turntable signal to your standard soundcard on your 'puter, [with RCA-1/8"-Y-cable]. On the 'puter side, you'll need audio recording software and cd layout & burning software. Anyway, that's on the 'puter.

On the other hand, you may wish to score a standalone audio CDR recorder, which simplifies the process considerably, down to the relative level of operating a normal cassette deck.

[Lt. Bob]

I'm so excited that this subject has come up.
My collection is running around 5500 albums.
Something like 65% of all music that comes out is still available on vinyl for a couple of reasons.
First....in Europe there is a high licensing fee for CDs so they are expensive (about twice what a LP costs) so that over there lots of people still use vinyl.

Another reason is that until the very latest advancements in CD playback, vinyl often offers superior sound to CD.
Now before you go throw something on your technics piece of crap and tell me it doesn't sound better to you, you need to understand that you have to have a high-end turntable and cartridge to hear what I'm talking about. But with $1500 (or much, much more) invested in a good turntable and cartridge, I guaruntee you that you would hear it because I have shown many, many people from musicians to kids and they all heard it.

Suprisingly, vinyl actually has a greater dynamic range than 16bit/44.1k has. I forget the numbers exactly but it was something like a 98db total range on 16/44.1k and about 105db for vinyl.

Don't misunderstand me......I'm not suggesting that everybody should run out and go back to vinyl,....people won't and besides...the new technolgy such as SACD and 24bit/96k has finally eclipsed the performance of the vinyl disc. But it is much better than you can realize if you've only heard it on a direct-drive plastic turntable even if it's fairly expensive. It needs to be belt-drive with a very dense and inert plinth and a well-damped arm and all of these things are expensive. About the minimum to get into a turntable that can make you a believer is about $500 to $750 bucks and the ones I'm drooling over now run 5 to 10 grand!
Oh well....dream on.....dream on........

[A Reel Person]

[Haha].

Anyway, no doubt, you're one of the most avid vinyl junkies I've ever heard of!

Me, I'm happy with my POC Technics SL-6, with cheapass AT cartridge. The SL-6 was one of the first 'programmable' straight-line-tracking turntables that Technics offered, and I'm sure I've had it since the early 80's,... roughly since 1982.

[Lt. Bob]

Hey Reel....yeah, I'm into it pretty good.
Didn't mean to insult your turntable BTW....I was just making the point that folks who've only heard vinyl on mass market turntables don't really know what it's capable of. But any decent turntable is a fun thing to have. Lots of music out there at flea markets and antique shops for $1 each.

[A Reel Person]

and as this post stated, there's a few small label concerns actually still releasing vinyl records. Hey, more power to 'em. I still listen to vinyl records, when the mood hits me, and very few select albums I have only on vinyl,... like the one sitting on the TT now,... "Gary Myrick & the Figures" -debut album, [think: "She Talks in Stereo"]. It's a way-cool album, and I've never seen it on CD.

[tjohnston]

damn, bob knows what he's talking about.

[LocusLarsen]

Hey Bob,

Whats this SACD stuff?

[subtractor]

I have around 800 records. I don't buy them much anymore just because I keep myself out of record shops. They're somehow addictive.

[Lt. Bob]

Originally posted by LocusLarsen
Hey Bob,

Whats this SACD stuff?

SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) is a new two layer disc they have out. The top layer is standard 16bit/44.1 digital but if you have a SACD player, it reads the second layer which is a whole different way of recording. I don't totally understand it but I do know that the sampling rate is an astounding 2,822,400 times a secong where a normal CD is only 44,100 times a secong. Also instead of PCM (pulse code modulation? ) recording it uses a 1-bit Direct Stream Digital or DSD.
Since it has such a fast sampling rate, it has a potential freq response out to 100,000hz while normal CD stops at 20,000. Plus it has a much higher dynamic range than even vinyl. I checked and a CD has 96db of range.....vinyl can get up close to 108db but SACD gets a full 120db of dynamic range across the whole audio spectrum.
I haven't heard it yet but it's supposed to sound really excellent.