So where do cassettes fit into your little history lesson gramps?

Vinyl??
PFFFFFFFT!!!

Ever notice vinyl is always 'making a comeback' without ever actually coming back?

Bukharin: Ever notice vinyl is always 'making a comeback' without ever actually coming back?

No, it's more like every 3 months an article on this story gets greenlit.

It's making a comeback in the same circles of people who have better taste in music than everyone else.

Because I *like* my music to sound like I'm listening to it through a piece of scratchy tin. It demonstrates my ineffably good taste and appreciation for the finer things in life.

El Chode: It's making a comeback in the same circles of people who have better taste in music than everyone else.

Yeah! I see vinyl records all the time when I go to Hot Topic.

Victrollowned.

ShiniBents: So where do cassettes fit into your little history lesson gramps?

And 8 track tapes?

Pocket Ninja: Because I *like* my music to sound like I'm listening to it through a piece of scratchy tin. It demonstrates my ineffably good taste and appreciation for the finer things in life.

That's only if you have a bad needle and speakers. Some stuff sounds just plain different through vinyl, and it's not compressed like MP3s, and the artists actually arrange songs to fit the album format, so you have an opener and a closer for each side.

SACD pwns vinyl.

However, NOTHING pwns The Divinyls.

Vinyl > CDs > MP3s

If you have a quality turntable, a good sound system, and take care of your records, there is no comparison.

Nestea Plunge: A vinyl record played for the first time has comparable quality to CDs, but every play after that degrades the sound more and more. CDs made LPs obsolete, so they're good for DJs or novelty or collectors items. Even most DJs have switched over to CDs and MP3s.

I don't like mp3s because they compress the shiat out of the music and it sounds like tinny crap.

Many small labels now offer you to purchase any album on vinyl and get a flash drive or direct download of uncompressed music to go with it.

Nestea Plunge: A vinyl record played for the first time has comparable quality to CDs, but every play after that degrades the sound more and more. CDs made LPs obsolete, so they're good for DJs or novelty or collectors items. Even most DJs have switched over to CDs and MP3s.

I don't like mp3s because they compress the shiat out of the music and it sounds like tinny crap.

Mayhaps you should download them at a higher bitrate than 64Kbps.
256 sounds good to me on decent speakers, but I normally go to 320 in case I'm playing them on good speakers. Besides, live music is way better than recorded.

You'll still miss all of the quality unless you use the $3,000 limited edition supercooled monster cables

I tend to skip around too much on CD's. Albums are nice because listening to each side becomes more of an event. You drop the needle and go do whatever for 20 to 25 minutes. Even if there isn't a "theme" or whatever to each side.

flaEsq: You'll still miss all of the quality unless you use the $3,000 limited edition supercooled monster cables

Don't forget the $700 wooden knob set, because those metal knobs on most decks cause vibrations and interference.

/thinks "audiophiles" only listen to music to try to figure out what they can biatch about with the sound quality

I thought vinyl was what sexy pants are made of

Well, I have about 1200 to 1500 records so I'm looking for a decent USB turntable.

This is going to chew up all my time if I really get into converting all of my records... like years.

Again? (new window)

A lot of labels are offering free mp3s of an album if you buy vinyl online. I support this practice.

OlafTheBent: Well, I have about 1200 to 1500 records so I'm looking for a decent USB turntable.

This is going to chew up all my time if I really get into converting all of my records... like years.

i have one of these that i really like. then again, i'm about as far from an audiophile as you can get. hell, i don't even own any albums (a technologically challenged friend bought me the turntable so i could burn cds of her albums)

And that's how history gets written, folks. The young upstart know-it-all writes the book citing only his experience with CDs and MP3s knowing only that vinyl was before that.

We old folk remember reel-to-reel, 8-track and cassettes as well. And I'm sure someone older than me will remember those wind up tone thingies from ancient times (each metal "tooth" rubs against a bump making a tone) which led to the records (wax, I believe it was?).

When we're on our deathbeds, our grandchildren will not have known anything of the real past unless we take time to teach them properly.

Of course you youngsters are also against having kids, so I guess we won't have to worry about teaching history anyway.

/Tongue-in-cheek

Vinyl has never gone away, in certain circles.

If you like mixing or scratching (rap or techno, anyway, possibly other genres but these are the ones I've actually seen) vinyl is where it's at.

You know, two turntables and the microphone, and all that.

Megain: OlafTheBent: Well, I have about 1200 to 1500 records so I'm looking for a decent USB turntable.

This is going to chew up all my time if I really get into converting all of my records... like years.

i have one of these that i really like. then again, i'm about as far from an audiophile as you can get. hell, i don't even own any albums (a technologically challenged friend bought me the turntable so i could burn cds of her albums)

Me too...thing is AMAZING!!! I use Audacity or Goldwave to rip the vinyl to MP3s for daily listening in my car...complete with pops & hiss from vinyl ('tis a beautiful thing).

PLUS, it's really good for digging vinyl for loops & drum samples to produce the hip-hop beats I make...since I do that all digitally.

I just bought the new Modest Mouse on vinyl last week. Also bought Synchronicity and super old Louis Armstrong and Count Basie.

One thing that CDs finally returned to, after all the reel to reel, 8-tracks, and cassettes, was random access.

Zxaranthium: And I'm sure someone older than me will remember those wind up tone thingies from ancient times (each metal "tooth" rubs against a bump making a tone) which led to the records (wax, I believe it was?).

I'm not that old but I definitely had wind up music boxes that worked that way as a kid in the 1970s. Little tiny metal prongs getting "twanged" as they jumped over bumps on a cylinder, yep. The top of the box was glass so you could watch the action.

So I thought, hey, maybe it's the needle.
SO I upgraded to a Diamond tipped needled and though hey, this still sounds like shiat.
Then I went out and got a Moon Rock needle.
It's not bad for a car stereo but I wouldn't want it in my house.

I haven't bought any new records since the early 90's. I'm curious to hear something current and compare the recording and mastering differences.

Rocktacula: So I thought, hey, maybe it's the needle.
SO I upgraded to a Diamond tipped needled and though hey, this still sounds like shiat.
Then I went out and got a Moon Rock needle.
It's not bad for a car stereo but I wouldn't want it in my house.

Congrats sir, you win the thread.

/What was it... Googlephonic speakers?

"Don't call it a comeback..."

El Chode: Pocket Ninja: Because I *like* my music to sound like I'm listening to it through a piece of scratchy tin. It demonstrates my ineffably good taste and appreciation for the finer things in life.

That's only if you have a bad needle and speakers. Some stuff sounds just plain different through vinyl, and it's not compressed like MP3s, and the artists actually arrange songs to fit the album format, so you have an opener and a closer for each side.

This.

Soon, we see a generation of people who don't understand bass.
Kids will grow up listening to music on mp3 through tiny ear pods and they will never know the joy of hearing Ace of Spades played through two 15 inch woofers and having to straighten all the pictures on the wall afterward.

Pocket Ninja: Because I *like* my music to sound like I'm listening to it through a piece of scratchy tin. It demonstrates my ineffably good taste and appreciation for the finer things in life.

Yeah, it's funny to compare things to funny sounding things, but in all seriousness, you should check out proper vinyl played with proper equipment. I'm no hipster, no music snob, and a "to each his own" kind of guy, but I'd bet you'd be surprised at the level of quality compared to CDs. This assumes the master recording was actually recorded on good analog equipment too. Sure, an old 45 played on grandpa's phonograph have a sound like you described, but with the proper equipment vinyl can be an amazing music experience.

But if the experience of listening to music isn't something that's important to you, CDs and MP3s are suitable replacements. Then again, if the experience of listening to music isn't important to you, it's a wonder why trashing threads discussing such things is important.

Vinyl never went away at my house. I either listen to records or digital files...almost never a CD. Records just sound more alive to my ears. Your mileage may vary, especially if you were raised in the post-digital era.

El Chode: Bukharin: Ever notice vinyl is always 'making a comeback' without ever actually coming back?

No, it's more like every 3 months an article on this story gets greenlit.

I like to think of it more as a skipping Fark head.. Fark head... Fark headline.

Vinyl is too finicky (and I grew up in the 70s with tons of vinyl and high-end equipment).

I like my music like I like my women, non-high-maintainence, and without a lot of hiss.

In my day we had to get up to change the channel on the t.v.

Bukharin: Ever notice vinyl is always 'making a comeback' without ever actually coming back?

I would buy a ton of the stuff if I ever found it. You have any idea how hard it is to track down Meshuggah on vinyl?

OlafTheBent: Well, I have about 1200 to 1500 records so I'm looking for a decent USB turntable.

This is going to chew up all my time if I really get into converting all of my records... like years.

Here ya go (pops and scratches)


I record them from a tape out to a CD recorder. That works too. You can mess with levels and adding metadata with Audacity. Yeah, it's time consuming but some things just aren't going to be rereleased digitally. Like my two record set of babies crying with different diseases. Meant for doctors to help diagnosis. I live for finding records like that.

/6000 or so black vinyl discs
//Sumiko project 1 with a BluePoint

Analog sources retain frequencies that are lost in transition to digital formats, which means that if you're a dog or a liar you could probably hear things on vinyl you couldn't on cds.

ShiniBents So where do cassettes fit into your little history lesson gramps?

Crap.

/if pre-recorded
//not submitter

For young farkers, vinyl is what everybody listened to back when good music was made.

SockMonkeyHolocaust: Analog sources retain frequencies that are lost in transition to digital formats, which means that if you're a dog or a liar you could probably hear things on vinyl you couldn't on cds.

Stop right there. That's just a lie. Most digital formats compress the signal, and those formats tend to do that by cutting out frequencies on the edge of human hearing. But if you know what you're doing with encoding, a high bitrate lossless codec will sound just as good as an analog source.

Of course, my "sound system" is my laptop speakers, so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

I saw this really awesome record player that uses lasers to playback records. you literally have no needle touching your precious records!

Unfortunatley it ranges from $10,000-$14,000

http://www.elpj.com/main.html

I love my records.

El Chode: Bukharin: Ever notice vinyl is always 'making a comeback' without ever actually coming back?

No, it's more like every 3 months an article on this story gets greenlit.

It's making a comeback in the same circles of people who believe that they have better taste in music than everyone else.

FTFY

3 months.... hmmm.. yup... almost on cue... I remember the last 6 or seven times that vinyl was making it's comeback.

wolvernova: For young farkers, vinyl is what everybody listened to back when good music was made.

BWAHAHAHA.

Good music has never been made.

There is no era where good music comes from. In every generation, the amount of crap drowns the amount of good stuff. The difference is that history tends to forget the crap. The good stuff is remembered and still played. This is why everyone knows Beethoven, and nobody remembers the legion of parlor-room imitators that tried to compete with him.

For every Chopin, there were sixty Chopouts. We just don't remember them.

//It wasn't better back in your day.
//It wasn't better back in mine either.

t3knomanser: Of course, my "sound system" is my laptop speakers, so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

Man. I at least plug my little earbuds into the laptop :)

Still, I used to record tape off of the radio, and that was good enough for whatever flash in the pan pop song I wanted to listen to for a month.

These days I record the audio from uploaded YouTube music videos or old TV music shows put to YouTube, same deal.

If I still like the song long term, then I'll, uh, acquire a nice digital copy, or MAYBE buy the CD.

t3knomanser: There is no era where good music comes from. In every generation, the amount of crap drowns the amount of good stuff. The difference is that history tends to forget the crap. The good stuff is remembered and still played. This is why everyone knows Beethoven, and nobody remembers the legion of parlor-room imitators that tried to compete with him.

This is true of all forms of art and media, and definitely something worth remembering.

t3knomanser: Stop right there. That's just a lie. Most digital formats compress the signal, and those formats tend to do that by cutting out frequencies on the edge of human hearing. But if you know what you're doing with encoding, a high bitrate lossless codec will sound just as good as an analog source.

My vinyl records are converted at such a lossless rate that I need two iPods_(tm) to listen to one song. It's the price I pay for an unsullied listening experience.

WOOF WOOF WOOOF WOOF WOOOF WOOOF WOOF HOOOOOOOOOOOOWLLLLLLLLLLL!

I remember, when I was a teen, back in the 1920's, when you were listening to an 8-track you would hear a 'Ca-chunk' right in the middle of Jimmy Page's solo in Stairway to Heaven.