Vinyl record story

[nofi]

for no particular reason but i thought of this today. back in the day i was one of those guys that would sell records and pawn gear to make rent. i also sold alot of records on ebay and at record shows. as financial life improved i decided to recollect EVERY record i had ever owned that was not a strictly for sale item. so every weekend for the next four years i went out and did it. i got 'em all. surprisingly i have a good memory for this sort of thing, what i had for breakfast not so much. anyway i now have all these records and i begin to sort out the keepers from the rest. tastes change so the rejects were recycled back to local stores for store credit. now i am left with several crates of music that pretty much chronicle my life. it was fun but i'm glad it's over and it becomes just another record story.

[Highlander]

Still got a lot of vinyl, but my story is a switch to CD, which is now going over to MP3... (sure I just heard someone shout "heathan...!" )

My wife still has all her old country albums, much of which has not re-appeared on CD - even people like Lorretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, etc, who are respected names...

[Dave W]

The only reason I buy old vinyl is when it's the only way I can find an obscure song. But I then convert to mp3 and sometimes CD too. Not sentimental about it at all.

[Pilgrim]

I'm not a bit sentimental about vinyl, although I still have the 100+ albums I've had for a couple of decades.

As an ex-dejay, I know exactly how fragile vinyl is and how difficult it is to keep it in good condition, especially at the start of a cut.  Repeated cueing at the start eventually (or immediately) results in frying bacon sounds for the first few seconds.  Most of the albums I've used in radio have this problem.

CDs are undeniably more portable, easier and much less space-consuming to store, more resistant to wear from playing (WHAT wear??), less susceptible to environmental damage from heat or dust, and to my ear sound every bit as good as vinyl.  I see no advantages - not a single one - for vinyl.  

I think most of the discussion about the audio merits of vinyl is nothing but psycho-acoustics; people want it to sound better, so they perceive it to sound better.  But if there is any difference, it would take a high-end stereo to hear it.  I've never owned one of those and never will - my sound systems are based on receivers costing $500 or less new, and speakers that are decent but bought used or in pawn shops.  The result is very nice sound, but it's not a $10,000 system - and I'm not interested in spending big bucks for stereo.

I do like to have a physical medium to store, and CDs are in a sweet spot as far as I'm concerned.  Anything reduced to a computer file tends to be transitory and can disappear too easily.  I'll store my CDs and pull music off them as needed.

[Highlander]

The reason I keep some of the vinyl was more to do with the packaging... the gatefold for "The ABB... At Filmore East", with the original pink Capricorn label and the big chunky US cover just can't be replicated as a CD, but the re-issue with all the extra tracks and those that originally came from "Eat A Peach" just knocks any view of "warmth" into a cocked-hat... The early Blue Oyster Cult LP's all came with inner sleeves (well, most did) which have not been replicated, and so on...

There was something about them, but like the 78, their time is past...

I agree with Al about having the CD... only things I have as MP3 only is because that is what it is (and I back-up my back-ups...)

[Hornisse]

Some of the old obscure Northern Soul 45's are selling for 1K on ebay these days.  Some people love their vinyl.  I like finding lost gems in thrift stores.  2 that come to mind are an Emmylou Harris Christmas LP with a rare cover that I bought for $1 and sold on Ebay for $137.  Another was a $2 vinyl "Lost Cabin Sessions" LP by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils that went for over $200.  That one has since been released on CD though. 

[nofi]

there is a difference between digital and analog sound but i'm not going to debate it here. there is a bit of sentiment that goes with certain records but if i didn't like the lp it would be gone.

btw my best ebay sale was a 2.00 record i sold for 500.00. i also have a first pressing of misfits, bullet 7" but that's one of those sentimental things.

[Highlander]

I have a copy of the "Killer Kane" ep that is supposed to be worth something but I've mislaid it... typical me...

I had the original private release singles by Iron Maiden and Def Leppard - long since sold on...

Still have my original 12" Motorhead, which I keep for sentimental reasons...

I didn't know about either of those LP's Robert - gonna get them (someday) as CD's

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

My vinyl story was over in '75 when my collection was stolen. Alas

As an artist I gotta agree--I miss the art of the album covers.
Also nice to be able to read the liner notes & personnel & so forth without needing a magnifying glass.

[Grog]

About 15 years ago, I rebought a few of my albums that were either lost or stolen, at a local used album store. I didn't think "West Bruce & Lang" Why Doncha or Mountain Flowers of Evil would ever be sold on CD. About five years later they were. I still have a few oddball recordings that may never get digitally remastered. I keep my turntable around for them. I did give up on my pile of 8-Tracks........they sound like crap!

[SKATE RAT]

 i still have over 2000 lp's & 12"s and maybe 3000 7''s. i still think they sound better.but thats only part of it. i love the look of the covers,lyric sheets big enough to read,shit i even love the smell. i wouldn't sell my records unless i had no choice. CD's have a limited shelf life,when they get real old they flake off even unplayed ones and they scratch way easier than vinyl.i also have about 500 cd's and a few boxes of tapes. and my lone 8 track of Black Sabbath's Paranoid. i put all (or most) of my cd's into my itunes.so i can listen to 'em in my ipod. but thats only for riding the subway.at home i play records.i am a collector for sure. i have multiple copies of things because of different pressings. i have 3 versions of the first Clash lp. U.K.,U.S. & canadian(blue cover).i have tons of records worth big bucks but i'd rather have the record.most of the stuff i listen to is obscure anyway and most likely not reissued on cd.but vinyl is making a come back.lot of new stuff is being pressed on vinyl but comes with a coupon for a free download of the same record so you get both.
i also like to collect books.the problem with digital stuff is that its not real. turn off the power and you've got nothing.you keep your ipods and Kindles i'll keep my smelly old books and records.

[Dave W]

i also like to collect books.the problem with digital stuff is that its not real. turn off the power and you've got nothing.you keep your ipods and Kindles i'll keep my smelly old books and records.

You have a valid point about books, but your vinyl records won't play with the power turned off either. Sure, a record is a physical object and an mp3 isn't, but the physical object is nothing without an electromagnetic cartridge to convert the info in the grooves into voltage.

[ack1961]

I've had to start my LP collection over as well.  I used to have about 400 albums, but lost 90% of them in the "100 year flood" in 1988. The flood waters were so nasty that there was no getting that crap out of the grooves.  I had all of the albums in thick vinyl covers, but most LP's, jackets & sleeves got ruined. The town I was living in (Alice Springs) just happened to have a really good used record store, so that made starting over a bit easier.  I only have about 250 today, as I've gone digital like most people.

My wife got me one of those LP to MP3 converters for Christmas, so they'll all be gone soon.

[Highlander]

... the physical object is nothing without an electromagnetic cartridge to convert the info in the grooves into voltage.

Westheimer... Agent Westheimer... 

[Psycho Bass Guy]

but the physical object is nothing without an electromagnetic cartridge to convert the info in the grooves into voltage.

...just to be a nitpicker: tape heads are electromagnetic; turntable cartridges are electromechanical, using a piezoelectric system. You can spin a record with the power off, and if the needle is in the groove, you will hear sound off the cartridge.

In regards to vinyl sound versus CD, it's unfortunate that so many uninformed and incorrect myths persist about which format is "better." It's apples and oranges as each format requires its own set of mastering techniques, which means that identical recordings end up being different depending on the format.

I never really fooled with vinyl much until buying the Pearl Jam limited edition set, which has material only available on vinyl for my wife, and had to add a turntable and preamp to my stereo setup, which is far from being audiophile approved (though I'll wager mine's better than most "audiophile" setups.) Records DO sound different, and after scavenging through thrift stores just picking up whatever interested me, I ended up with some stuff that duplicates my CD collection. On several tracks, there is no contest; the vinyl tracks are more dynamic, and just plain sound better, but IMO, it's because the subsequent CD releases were mastered by engineers who had much less understanding about what they were doing and not the format itself.

Being a crusty old engineer myself, I tend to chalk it up to the 'kids don't know what to do with it, but ain't that new toy shiny' in regards to uncompressed digital audio. All it takes is a listen to some early 80's CD's that were mastered on BASF 1630 digital videotape to hear that.