Vinyl Ahoy!

[Matt Till]

Hey, Anyone here still listen to those huge black (most of the time) CDs that old people listen to? They are wIKkD sWEeT!

I got a record player a while back (I had one before and it broke) so I've got back into listening to records. I don't do it for cool punk rock reasons (which I don't get I've got a friend who collects vinyl even of CDs he has.)

- Vinyl is usually cheaper
- You can get some rare stuff
- In my case, I can swipe vinyl from my dad due to his lack of record player.

It's really cool, I'm getting to listen to the music my dad grew up on, literally. I dig the fact that I can tell the albums he played to death, the covers are beat, the grooves are wore down. Plus, I'm getting exposed to some new bands (well, new to me ) and bands I knew, but only "classic hits" from them.

On that note: BLUE OYSTER CULT KICKS ASS! Screw Don't Fear the Reaper 17 times before judo kicking it in it's pointy head that has been wore down to a disgusting little nub that shall now be used to mop the poop deck. They are incredible. Also, if anyone has heard Metallica's cover of Astronomy (which I loved... until I heard the original), BOC's version buries it... very powerful.

Also, I gotta give it up to Marley's Ghost. I was cruising dad's vinyls and I came across... his avatar. Yep Gentle Giant. Scariest Album cover ever! It's not that creepy in your avatar, but when it's as big as a vinyl cover and carrying the band... it starts messing with your head. Very cool/mellow/quirky ( ) / strange. I can dig, man.

So who here (young/old/in between) still listens to vinyl?

 

[Freaky Fender]

Dude, you wanna know what rules? MCIS on vinyl. Three Record set. third Record is full of B-sides. It rules, so much!

 

[dave_clark69]

Vinyl are the best quality there is. Also, i was listening to a high bit rate mp3 of a song ripped from the cd album. It was around the 300kbps. Then i listened to the vinyl version of the song. Loads better.

Does anyone find that you get a better dosage of trebble from vinyls?

 

[Matt Till]

As a nice gesture, I was thinking of ripping a few CDs from the vinyls. Show my dad that I can do it, then ask him what he wants next. I think he'll be really excited.

 

[dave_clark69]

I have this little piece of hardware that takes the crackles out of the vinyls. You just plug it into the player, it then goes into your usb. So you can start ripping (Yeh thats right) your old Vinyls withouht the crackles.

 

[Against Will]

Vinyls have excellent sound.

I was listening to the Replacements "Tim" on vinyl last night. Later, I downloaded the album off my campus server because I wanted to put it on my iPod; the difference in quality is staggering!

I feel now that any album released before 1994 should be purchased on vinyl to be fully appreciated.

 

[Rhythmalism]

Not better treble, just no bass .

 

[matthewfoote]

The big black CD's rock. I use a Linn Sondek LP12 for my records and it does sound better than all but a tiny majority of very high end CD players.

Most records were recorded using analogue tecnology which allowed all of the sounf wave to be recorded [more highs and lows]. Digital recordings whilst possibly cleaner cut the highs and lows into a square shaped sound wave therefore losing the highs and lows from the recordings.

Given the choice and the availability of records I will chose them over CD's. The main advantage of CD's for me is their portability and ease of finding a particular track etc. But not for sound quality.

Matthew

 

[Adam Barkley]

I listen to my dad and grandmother's vinyls occasionally. I can't tell any quality difference between CD and vinyl though.

I definitely wouldn't buy a modern record on vinyl though; too much hassle.

 

[Nickthebassist]

My dad has an £8000 Hi-Fi, and he swears that 180gram vinyl sounds better than any CD.

 

[Freaky Fender]

Does anyone have The Replacements "Let It Be" on vinyl? if you burn me a copy onto CD, I will love you forever...

 

[Justin V]

I've been trying to assemble a stereo for when I move off campus that will use both vynil and itunes. I've got a record player, but whenever I plug it into my parents' receiver at home (through one of the aux-in RCA hook-ups), it's always really quiet, almost no output really. Is there some sort of special receiver I need for it? (i.e. vintage) I've got a small little stack of vynil sitting in the bay area that I can't listen to right now because I can't get the stupid turntable to play right.

BTW, vynil=teh win.

 

[matthewfoote]

Justin V

Record players need to be played through an amplifier which has a dedicated phono input. Most modern amps do not have this as they cater for CD's as their main sound source. If this is the case you would need to get a seperate phono stage to use between the record player and the amplifier.

Regards

Matthew

 

[DigMe]

I thought this was going to be about a new chips ahoy flavor.

I always manage to find a lot of Gentle Giant on vinyl. That and Gong. There's a lot of good, cheap, obscure stuff on record.

brad cook

 

[discoboo]

i love to buy vinyl albums by bands that i wouldn't normally buy on cd because the price is usually cheaper. i've found some winners (pedro the lion, iron and wine, the shins) and some losers (joan of arc, karate, neutral milk hotel) but even the losers are cool to keep because of the artwork. for some reason i prefer a record to a cd in the wee hours of late night mornings. oh and i raided my mom's record collection and came away with some great beach boys and yardbirds albums. i skipped the peter, paul and mary though.
anyway, vinyl rules.

 

[Hambone]

Here's the vinyl I picked up just last week at $.50 a pop:

SpyroGyra - Access All Areas, City Kids
David Sanborn - Straight to the Heart, Backstreet, As We Speak
Passport - Cross-Collateral
Bob James - 12, Foxie
Chuck Mangione - Children of Sanchez
Earl Klugh - Nightsongs, Late Night Guitar, Wishful Thinking, Whispers and Promises, Low Ride
Earl Klugh & Bob James - Two of a Kind
Stanley Clarke - Time Exposure
Rodney Dangerfield - No Respect
Sadao Watanabe - Rendezvous
The Motown Story - 5 disc limited edition
The Best of the Crusaders
Hubert Laws - Family
Quincy Jones - The Dude
The Ramsey Lewis Trio - Another Voyage
George Duke - Follow the Rainbow
Lonnie Liston Smith - Dreams of Tomorrow
Grover Washington Jr. - The Best Is Yet To Come
Kansas - Vinyl Confessions
Styx - Styx II

You gotta love Goodwill!

BTW, Goodwill isn't just good for records. 2 weeks ago, I picked up a Sunn Magna 2480 8 channel mixer for $23.00. A little high but sweet nonetheless.

 

[DigMe]

BTW, Goodwill isn't just good for records.

You won't get any arguments from Brad Johnson.

brad cook

 

[Hambone]

You won't get any arguments from Brad Johnson.

brad cook

Brad is revered in GW circles worldwide. We speak his name only in whispers.

 

[DemoEtc]

We recently got a new turntable; nothing expensive, but new. I'm glad for scratch and hiphop just for that. If it wasn't for that genre of music vinyl and turntables would've been gone 20 years ago.

But it you're going to research old music to find 'roots and reasons' there's many times no option but to go out and find the vinyl. Lots of old music is simply unavailable, out of print, and you can only hear it on old LPs or 45s. There's huge volumes of music that nobody ever hears anymore, forgotten treasures, and without bringing the past along with us, there's the danger (and reality) of losing the connection and winding up with empty sounding, feel-less, soul-less music.

Vinyl, and the artists who used it, is important and valid - more than valid these days

 

[Motorhead Mark]

I've picked up some 180 gram vinyl...freaking amazing! Well it's obvious lp's are not as convienent as cd's, the sound is superior. I have alot of doubles, buy it on lp, then double it up on cd for the car, pain in the ass, but what can ya do? Alot of stuff I haven't found on cd as well, old punk rock for example. My g/f has gotten used to the fact that if we are driving around on a weekend and I see a true record store, we are stopping in to drop some $$$.