Music Collection on Vinyl

[JayinLA]

I just got back from a trip to Ameoba Records in Hollywood. I scored some great used records on vinyl, and for cheap. About a year ago I bought a mid-grade turn-table to play some of the records that my dad handed down to me. Really great stuff that would be very tough to find, however I am noticing that vinyl is making a comeback in a big way. And I get it.

 

In the age of digital downloads, singles, ringtones and the "new" music biz, there is something to be said for actually holding a record album in your hands, looking the art over and inside is the treasure at the bottom of the cereal box....the music. Which gets played start to finish, the way the artiists used to intend. This is experience seems to get me closer to the recording, the artists and my mood as it gets influinced by the music.

 

I see that all the major releases are available on vinyl by the big and most of the mid-sized record companies now. They are usually like some "collector" edition that includes DVD's, or digital downloads of the record to PC, or device, so really it's the best of both worlds sonically, plus all the coolness that comes with the ownership of a record collection to thumb through, not just a bunch of digital files in alphabetical order, or catorigized by some goofy genre.

 

The other plus side is the used stuff. I found Chicago Live at Carnagie Hall '71 5 LP box set for $4.99 and Santana Soul Sacrifice Live for $1.99 among other really cool stuff.

 

My turntable has a connector to my pc so everything can be recorded directly to my Itunes library, and from there, it can travel with me. I am having a blast constantly adding to my record collection, and therefore my music library in a long-lost format of real artistry. It is an absolute pleasure to slap on an Otis Redding, or Black Keys record on the turntable, have the real experience of the art that goes into making a vinyl record, and putting it back in the shelf when I'm through with it. A lost tradition of us music freaks.

[cody78]

One of the best days of my life was when I found Time Fades Away by Neil Young on vinyl in a second hand bookshop here in my hometown for just £6 (about $10 or so converted I think). Another was when I found a picture disc (remember them?) of Izzy Stradlin & the Ju Ju Hounds single Pressure Drop in a little record store in Cornwall back in 1993 or so.

 

I've never been fully happy with the modern approach to listening to music and I've always stuck mainly with CD's and Vinyl as I love the package you get. I do sometimes use Spotify and the media player on my laptop, but 99 percent of time use my stereo system as I prefer it.

 

Btw, Ameoba records are fantastic stores. I've been to the one in Hollywood and the one in San Francisco 11 years ago. Bought a promo copy of The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra La La Band album 'This is our Punk Rock' and saw Amy Mann perform at the one in SF. Great memories of that trip.

[JayinLA]

One of the best days of my life was when I found Time Fades Away by Neil Young on vinyl in a second hand bookshop here in my hometown for just £6 (about $10 or so converted I think). Another was when I found a picture disc (remember them?) of Izzy Stradlin & the Ju Ju Hounds single Pressure Drop in a little record store in Cornwall back in 1993 or so.

 

I've never been fully happy with the modern approach to listening to music and I've always stuck mainly with CD's and Vinyl as I love the package you get. I do sometimes use Spotify and the media player on my laptop, but 99 percent of time use my stereo system as I prefer it.

 

Btw, Ameoba records are fantastic stores. I've been to the one in Hollywood and the one in San Francisco 11 years ago. Bought a promo copy of The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra La La Band album 'This is our Punk Rock' and saw Amy Mann perform at the one in SF. Great memories of that trip.

 

Yup I lived on Masonic 1 block from Haight St.

[Riffster]

I never sold my records from the 80s. It took me too much damn work to buy them and I'm never letting go. I have been adding to my collection over the last 6 or 7 years after I finally got all my records from back home to Nashville.

 

While I embraced the CD due to its convenience I never liked them as much as records.

 

Granted, a recording in any format is just as good as the source.

[Aster1]

I still have all my LP vinyl's from the 70's & early 80's. Most all the older ones were replaced with fresh copies after I went heavy into turntables, tone arms & expensive phono cartridges. I even have a LP record cleaning machine (applies 50% distilled water-50% Ethanol mix with a brush and then fast vacuums it off). All are in static free inter sleeves and plastic outer jackets. Yes, they are in new or better shape. Have some EMI releases & Japanese pressings (European was just a notch lower grade vinyl/pressing quality than Japanese released versions). USA was forced to start using some recycled vinyl vs. virgin vinyl (gov-a-ment at it again) and had more noise do to crap. That started in the 80's as I recall.

 

On good gear LP's just blow away CD's (don't even mention MP3,4 or whatever digital storage available). I remember being show at a CES (Consumer Electronics Show summer Chicago) the NEW Sony/Philips CD. We thought they sounded pretty good, but only for lower to mid-fi Hi-Fi. That did hold true all thru the years.

 

Aster

[quapman]

there is something to be said for actually holding a record album in your hands, looking the art over and inside is the treasure at the bottom of the cereal box....the music. Which gets played start to finish, the way the artiists used to intend.....

 

A lost tradition of us music freaks.

 

 

You sound like a young man JayinLA. It's great to hear you talk like that about a record.

Holding the damn thing, reading the liner notes, maybe some lyrics, the art.

Sometimes a poster. Anyone remember Big Bambu?

 

My main ***** with young people now is they don't appreciate music. They are content to have 5000 mp3's

and listen to them through ear buds. No concept of fidelity whatsoever.

 

It's good to hear someone talk about a record as an experience. That's what they used to be for us.

[JayinLA]

 

 

My main ***** with young people now is they don't appreciate music. They are content to have 5000 mp3's

and listen to them through ear buds. No concept of fidelity whatsoever.

 

 

No Doubt man. I hate the over-production of music these days. All the real phonology and fidality is lost to Amplifier modeling and flawless overdubbing. I grew up in a musical family, and my mother, playing flute for some large acts on tour, was exposed to real music and musicians. In the house it was always the greats on vinyl...John Coltrane, Sam Cooke, The Allman Brothers Band, and you really hear the Earthy natural harmonics and fidelity that can't be re-produced digitally.

[rct]

The song doesn't know what is playing it.

 

rct

['Scales]

There's the wind up.... CRACK... it's high...it's long...it's OUTTA HERE!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Oh man, you are on a winner with this I'm sure.

 

other thread idea's include:

 

"Why Tube will always beat Solid State", and:

"I think Beatles are the best band ever"

 

... who says you can't bat 1000?

 

(love me some vinyl too btw)

[quapman]

The song doesn't know what is playing it.

 

rct

 

 

Usually your posts are right on the money. This one I don't get.

Please explain.

 

Who cares what the song thinks.

[rct]

A song is good or it isn't. It puts you right where you were when you first heard it or it doesn't. Or, whatever it is a song does for you, whatever it brings or causes.

 

I've heard it all since it started changing, "warmth", compression, dithering, bandwidth, blah blah blah. I listen to the same songs I've been listening to for 50 years. I haven't bought a cd in years and I haven't owned vinyl since the early 90s when we got our first cd player. I get it off itunes or put it up in the itunes library off of disc.

 

They are all just as good as ever! All of them!

 

The song doesn't know what's playing it. It doesn't need to have some weed cleaned in the cover, it doesn't need any experience of looking at art or reading credits, although it is nice to have that stuff. The songs are the same as they ever were, and if you love them you don't need that other stuff.

 

rct

[quapman]

Ah,, yes,, thank for that.

Now I got ya.

 

So ya, for me as a youngen I did enjoy opening the album, reading the liner notes.

Going to every single friends house and seeing the same Dark Side of the Moon poster on the wall. For me yes that was part of the experience. So what if I was 14. It was great.

Now I may not care about that but whatever. I did miss it when CDs took over.

 

As far as fidelity goes I'm not talking about 'warmth, compression, dithering' or what

ever. I'm talking about sitting between the speakers of a really awesome stereo and listening

to the separation of the instruments and the layers of sounds that you just don't get on mp3s through ear buds I don't care what anybody says. It aint happening.

 

There are very few songs that "take me to a time or place" so that doesn't really apply to me at all. I listen to the music first. I have listened to the same songs for years without

ever knowing what the lyrics are. I almost exclusively listen to the music. Lyrics are a distant second to my care factor. So when I like a song, I want to hear how it was recorded and can appreciate what they did in the studio. One of the things I love about

Zappa is the quality of the recordings. He was genius in there.

 

So I'm not just willy nilly clinging to some romantic nostalgic cream pie love affair.

I truly appreciate high quality audio on a decent system.

And you're right,, the song has no clue. But I do.

[stein]

Records have more information than a 16 bit CD is capable of recording or reproducing. A LOT more.

 

An MP3 file I understand is about half of what a CD can record or playback.

 

A cheaply made CD player can sound better than a cheaply made record player, but a good record player is a lot cheaper to make than a good CD player.

 

That's not nostalgia, that's not snake oil. It's just facts.

['Scales]

Records have more information than a 16 bit CD is capable of recording or reproducing. A LOT more.

 

An MP3 file I understand is about half of what a CD can record or playback.

 

A cheaply made CD player can sound better than a cheaply made record player, but a good record player is a lot cheaper to make than a good CD player.

 

That's not nostalgia, that's not snake oil. It's just facts.

 

 

where do Cassette's fit into the mix?

 

I have some vinyl from when I was a kid, but mainly had cassettes back then as I could use the 'tape deck' in my room where as Dads 'Hi-Fi' was in the lounge where he played his records. I realise the cassettes have likely deteriorated since then but my son has started playing some of them anyway - were they a quality medium?

[stein]

where do Cassette's fit into the mix?

 

I have some vinyl from when I was a kid, but mainly had cassettes back then as I could use the 'tape deck' in my room where as Dads 'Hi-Fi' was in the lounge where he played his records. I realise the cassettes have likely deteriorated since then but my son has started playing some of them anyway - were they a quality medium?

I had a Nakamichi (actually, more than a few) that were capable of recording and reproducing more fidelity than a CD could. If a tape was recorded off of a record, the playback of the tape was better than the same thing on CD.

 

As far as I know, few are using magnetic tape anymore, but it still is the best medium, but the machines have to be tuned. (not to mention mixing). With a cassette, adjustments are super-micro, and when things go out of adjustment, sound quality quickly goes down.

 

Pre-recorded tapes (like buying an album on tape) are recorded faster, and loose some quality. Also, many are compressed, recorded in Dolby, and as often as not aren't played back properly with the right settings. Many aren't recorded with the right settings.

 

In my experience, the best "pre-recorded" cassettes sound better than CD's in most ways, but only some, and depending on how it's played back.

 

Might add, that a cheap cassette player is capable of a lot more then a cheap CD player...in particular, the ones used for auto's and such.

 

Probably more than you asked, but I would experiment with the EQ settings, (70 vs 120), the dolby settings, and enjoy what you can from them. You might find there are things that sound better vs the CD.

[merciful-evans]

I feel a pinch of nostalgia for vinyl LPs but not much.

I still have all of them filling an entire antique sideboard. Apart from one or two oddments, everything was replaced with CDs.

I recall a friend tell me how he once had to go back to vinyl when his cd player broke and how good it was. I could never hear that 'warmth'. To me CDs may sound a little different due to what they are being played through, but I never heard the intrinsic difference. CDs didnt crackle, and to me that was an improvement.

 

Now those cds are all on an ipod. The ipod has one hell of a lot more on it on it than I ever collected in the 70s & 80s

[badbluesplayer]

The thing that sucked about records was that they were expensive and you could only own a few. When I was a kid that wasn't too cool. And they'd get scratched in a couple of days and then you'd hear the same scratches at the same places for the life of the record. And don't get me thinking about them skipping. You'd have to fix the skip by bearing down on the needle enough to regroove the thing right over the scratch. Records were made for adults. I wasn't all that careful.

[kidblast]

interesting topic going on here.

 

I do think this is for a lot of us, more nostalgic than any thing else. at least that's how I read what's in this thread.

 

Remember cracking open the shrink wrap the day you brought a new Album home,, ahh that smell? putting carefully on the turntable, hearing it front to back for the first time, and your parents yelling to "turn it down".... ahh yes,, the good old days..

 

then there's the tedious task of trying to learn songs and lead solos using the queue arm on your turn table. how many albums did we destroy learning Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Hendrix, Beatles, Almann Bros,etc tunes? too many to count for me.

 

I still have a lot of albums from the days before CDs, but I lost most of them when my Air Conditioner leaked condensation on my albums which were under the window in my room I had when I lived with my folks The day I realized what happened was not a good day.. 75% of my albums were ruined, mold/mildew, covers destroyed, some albums I was able to clean, some, not so much. I had a turntable some where, but God knows where it is now. my stereo went the way of the dodo bird, replaced by a surround sound. Clearly not the same as the kick a$$ stereo I once had that would shake my house.

 

now most of my "listening" is on a device connected to a bluetooth stereo speaker array which I have no idea why it sounds as good as it does, but.. oyvhey, I do think I've lost my soul to Pandora and Spotify and iTunes/iPods

 

regarding the argument for fidelity, it's been so long since I've "heard" an album played on a good turn table with a good stereo, I'll take your word for it. Analog verses digital, there HAS to be a difference

 

and I also get where rct is going, as usual I agree with him. when i'm out for a run, listening to some of my favorite music, (not with ear buds, I hate those friggen things) or in the car blasting spotify off my smart phone the nostalgia trip still happens, it doesn't get diminished one bit. Like rct said, the song doesn't know what it's being played on, and I still get swept back in time, so I guess it is that I don't care either.

[surfpup]

I loved the record album - the hours I spent looking at those covers, reading those lyric sleeves, while spinning the discs. The thing is I no longer have those hours to spend. I clung to my vinyl for years, but finally let it go. I just wasn't listening to it. With a full-time teaching job and a small business and kids in the house, I just didn't have time to listen to music at home.

 

Now I'm in the same boat with CDs. I have a couple hundred of them on the wall and we do not listen to them. My hard drives have more music than anything else (including rips of all those CDs) and since I mostly listen to music in the car or while working, the portable, digital formats work for me. I have a few iPods and a new FLAC player full of music, so I can listen to what I want when I want. I regularly add new stuff and remove stuff to fit my moods. A killer album is always a couple clicks away.

[Aster1]

When we ( a couple of partners & I) had our high end audio salon ('75-'83) we had everything to make a a $15k-$35k stereo system dance. This was the Audio Research tube days, Electrostat speakers and $3000 turntable, tonearm, phono cart. days. Again this was the actual late 70's money prices. The turntables are now $5k-$10k and yada yada. Best you could listen to was a direct to disk LP or a direct to tape (Reel to Reel 1/2 track rolling at 7.5"/sec. We had a few that ran at 15"/sec. That's a lot of tape one pass thru as 1/2 track (no flipping the reels over as it used all the 1/4" tape in on pass). Live studio recording onto a demo tape. Yes, both sounded as good as live acoustic music if you closed your eyes. (no electric guitar amps or PA involved).

 

I can listen to things on a boom box but would NEVER say it doesn't matter. I use to listen to my old 8 track tapes in my '64 VW bug and enjoy them but they still sounded like CRAP audio quality speaking. If your speaking of Metal music, or anything heavy amplified & distorted, you're right, it don't make much never mind as you have NO front to back depth, much for left & right imaging, or a very wide frequency range or Dynamic response. IMHO that qualifies for Noise that we listen to and may even enjoy. Pure tones, miked well, good room etc. you can hear much difference (even with my older ears) as Stein says. Not even a close race. Here's a photo of the R to R we use to sell. What a beauty, but was expensive & costly to feed. Boy it could really record a great setup of bluegrassers and make your hair stand up on your neck with the realistic capture!! Revox & Tanberg made some nice pieces (even Teac Pro) but the TECHNICS below was the King:

 

Aster

 

[jdgm]

Box sets and classical on top.

Then A to J.

 

 

K to Z in another rack, 3 shelves.

 

CDs racked upstairs and I still have boxes and boxes of cassettes.

 

It's ALL good!

 

[rct]

As far as fidelity goes I'm not talking about 'warmth, compression, dithering' or what

ever. I'm talking about sitting between the speakers of a really awesome stereo and listening

to the separation of the instruments and the layers of sounds that you just don't get on mp3s through ear buds I don't care what anybody says. It aint happening.

 

If you start a song on a digital system and you use decent headphones and monitors you record it with the same sound scape that you hear in a full on speakers and air system like we used to use. I'd hazard a guess that lots of left/right front/back tricks today are far easier than they were when I was a kid using Fostex 4 tracks. Digital systems today will also preserve lots of things we never heard in them stereos back then, like both guys breathing and Duanes chair moving in Little Martha or Dickey dropping his lighter on one of the Brothers and Sisters songs, I don't remember which.

 

rct

[JayinLA]

I still maintain that my Marantz 120 tube reciever($10 at garage sale) sounds better than my Solid State Denon playing MP3. And If I'm playing analog through it, forget it, the tones and harmonics aren't even close. Even digital in front of it sounds better. (Like putting a tube screamer in front of a vox or tweed fender amp with no efx loop). The other cool stuff about the vinyl that's coming out now is that it all comes with the digital download, and my turntable has a program for the PC to record everything in MP3, so wa-la it's portable.

 

But it's not all those things that I am so fixated on. Its finding a wealth of rare stuff on vinyl at second hand stores, or estate sales, for next to nothing and it's great. I am augmenting my music library by orders of magnitude and having a blast doing so. Plus, yes the feeling of holding the record, taking off, and putting it back to it's propper place on the shelf. I guess we (I anyway) have gotten away from that whole ritual so much, I do miss it. It creates a different listening experience, and my main stereo setup, well, lets just say I have some jealous friends.

[kidblast]

It creates a different listening experience, and my main stereo setup, well, lets just say I have some jealous friends.

 

I think it does create the different experience for sure. way different than queuing up a play list and piping it over the air to your bluetooth device!

 

I also like hearing the songs in the exact order they were on the albums...

[merciful-evans]

Vinyl could never replace a good wax cylinder recording fed through a funnel-trumpet.