RIP Rick Parfitt

[Highlander]

Ever read The Man In The High Castle, Michael...?

... but it is a major issue for me as a bassist - is the quality/focus of the bass frequencies ...

I've said it before, you discuss the nuances of audio like a fine wine expert discussing the relative differences between two adjacent vineyards in the same growing region...

[westen44]

I haven't read that, but anything by Philip K. Dick has got to be good.  Amazon has a TV series based on the book that I keep seeing being advertised, although it would be my guess it most likely differs from the book. 

[uwe]

I always hated how vinyl started to sound thin if you exceeded, say, more than 18 minutes playing time per side. "Short" albums - like the Ramones' debut or Kiss' Destroyer - always sounded so much better sonically. And the increasing distortion of the track grooves closer to the center drove me mad too. No track "in the middle" of an album ever sounded as good as the opening track. Vinyl had horrible inherent shortcomings - other than the larger sleeves and the division between "Side A" and "Side B" and the more conscious listening that went with it, I miss nothing.

[westen44]

Here is an article typical of the ones I lost over the summer.  I had some that got into more detail, but this one is still good.

http://www.mcelhearn.com/do-vinyl-records-sound-better-than-cds-spoiler-nope/

[Basvarken]

The first time you play a vinyl record with a good turntable and good needle it sounds beautiful. Everything is there, bass included.
But it's all downhill from there. With every spin you give that record, it'll start to wear out, collect dust, get scratches.
And the needle will go blunt too.

It's fun to play old records now and again. Actually, I just did that on new years eve with a friend. And that was good fun. But most of my LPs sound like total crap because I played them to death when I was a teenager...

[Chris P.]

Long story. Sorry. Not for squirrel aficionado

I think I posted something similar before. I had a theory and that seems to be right. Sound is not the reason for people buying records, although they say so. Maybe nostalgia counts a little bit, but not even that.


My generation bought band t-shirts (*) to support a band and to show your taste. And of course my wall of CDs was a sign of my taste too. Youngsters buy records as support, as piece of art (of course big sleeves are much prettier), to show their taste and they buy them at concerts for signatures, if possible. Most modern albums have a CD included or they have a download link. And of course there's spotify. So only 70% really play a vinyl album and 30% play it often. Most kids buy them and listen to the songs on spotify or other streaming services at their cell phones.


The people I know bought one of those cheap modern record players with a crappy built in speaker and a needle that can't handle 180gr vinyl, so the sound quality can't impossible be better than their laptop computers.


I really think vinyl sounds better. My former father in law had a Super Audio CD Player, with very expensive preamps, speakers, etc and that sounded so good... but all way too expensive. What Rob says: A new album on a decent record player has a real good sound and I think it's like a tube amp and a solid state one. A tube amp sound more organic. Your ears can handle it better. And with a good needle, a decent player and a good record it will sound well quite a while, but detoriation is a bad thing...


Having said that: I listen to spotify a lot, as a paying member. With normal, not that expensive headphones. I want to hear a song. In the past it was alright on cassette. It was alright on crappy mastered CDs. It's okay on a crappy car stereo. If the song is good, the mix is good and the sound qualitiy isn't too crappy I'm happy quite easily. My Generation used to be exciting on a crappy 60s record player with one crappy speaker and it's exciting on hand built 5000 euro speakers.


(*) A Dutch female blogger got a bit infamous after she said she had two 'Metallic' (without the A) shirts, which looked so good on her knee high boots. Of course it was a Metallica shirt bought at H&M or a similar shop. A friend wrote a CD review about the new Metallica CD which started a bit as follows:

'Of course Metallica is famous because of its clothing brand but not many people know they make CDs too.'

Not many people understod the joke...

[slinkp]

I've always been a bit puzzled about why people wail about the supposedly terrible quality of digital downloads, or even the inadequacies of CDs, yet didn't we all used to spend countless hours listening to cassettes?   not to mention hyper-compressed radio?   

Tangent: Neil Young can flog his better-than-CD digital format all he wants, but 99% of us, myself included, will never be able to notice any difference worth paying extra for... and personally I never trust the audio quality beliefs promulgated by people who have spent decades destroying their hearing on stage and in studio.
I once saw a billboard ad for headphones designed to Lou Reed's specifications.  Umm... thanks but no thanks.  What's next?  Hifi speakers with a  Pete Townshend endorsement?

[gearHed289]

'Of course Metallica is famous because of its clothing brand but not many people know they make CDs too.'

The same could be said for the Ramones and Misfits.

[slinkp]

The Misfits have to win the prize for ratio of people who can recognize a Misfits T-shirt vs. people who can recognize (or have at least knowingly heard) a Misfits song

[Pilgrim]

Perhaps I've never spent the required amount of money on a stereo system to be able to hear the difference, but to my ears there has never been an audible difference between CD and vinyl. But as a former radio DJ, I know how fast vinyl goes downhill when cued up, how easy it is to scratch or mess up with fingerprints, how fragile it is when exposed to higher temperatures or later stress in storage, etc.

CDs aren't bulletproof, but their durability, smaller size, resistance to careless handling and (to my ears) equally good sound quality make it a slam-dunk to give up on vinyl. I haven't bought a vinyl record in probably 30 years, but I've bought a lot of CDs.

Good point above related to cassettes. They were invented to take dictation, and only Dolby's technical improvements made them acceptable for musical use. I sure played a lot of cassettes (once I upgraded from 8-track) over the years.

[Dave W]

I preferred the charm of 8-tracks switching tracks in the middle of a song.

Then again, I'm old enough to remember where the term record album came from: an actual album containing 6 sleeves with a 78 rpm record in each.

[slinkp]

Whoops, we've gone off the rails again, as usual. Apologies to Rick Parfitt fans, I mean no disrespect by hijacking your mourning with my snarky comments about audio!

I never knew about Status Quo, but now I do, so thanks for that.

[Highlander]

Then again, I'm old enough to remember where the term record album came from: an actual album containing 6 sleeves with a 78 rpm record in each.

Damn, my dad had one of those... also had a 10" Marlene Dietrich "LP" with 8 tracks that ran at 33rpm... must have been one of the first LP's I presume... regret getting shot of that one...

[uwe]

I'm sure Rick won't mind, he was amply celebrated and remembered here.

I liked the bulkiness of 8-track - it gave them a Tonka car-type handling feeling.



And you had ten of them in the car and your beetle was full. 

Interesting, Dave, about the "record album" origin, I never knew!

[Dave W]

Interesting, Dave, about the "record album" origin, I never knew!

My folks had some.

From a quick image search