Is vinyl worth getting into? I feel like instant streaming/downloading of whatever music you like has cheapened music in a sense, and relegates it to a kind of background noise you listen to while you do something else. I miss the days when I'd sit in front of the stereo and do nothing but listen to a cassette tape or a CD, so on a psychological level I can already see the benefit of vinyl.
On an audiophile level, I once listened to an interview with Steve Vai where he said that vinyl genuinely sounds better for older music that was recorded with analogue tech and has analogue masters, but that it's a totally pointless medium for digital masters. Is this really the case?
It's one of those things, I think, where all the positive aspects come from the hobbyist/tedious bore side of things. The tactile bit of buying a record, pulling it out of the sleeve, reading over the notes and what have you, physically playing the disc instead of skipping through the tracks.
The audiophile part is either complete horseshit or half-true misunderstood snake oil, depending how generous you feel. The analogue thing is technically true, yes, but if you did a blindfold test between a vinyl recording and a decent FLAC or even 320k MP3 rip, I'd bet my savings you wouldn't reliably be able to tell the difference. A nice amp and pair of speakers makes a lot more difference than the fact it's off a black circle instead of ones and zeroes- What people interpret as "that nice analogue vinyl warmth" is really just the slight loss of treble response and subtle crackle of a cheap cartridge.
So yeah get into it if you're a fan of collecting music and digging through the racks at a charity shop for obscurities and such, but don't bother if you're just hoping for a more cork-sniffing way to listen to Dire Straits.
Not really. Some people prefer the warmer and softer sound of vinyl, but it has inherently worse frequency response and dynamic range than CD (or CD-quality downloads). In the real world, you're also going to get crackles and pops from surface noise and weird resonances from the platter and tonearm.
A lot of people just enjoy the theatre of vinyl, which is absolutely fine. It's nice to have tangible artwork and there's a lot of fun in cratedigging and collecting. With that said, if you just want a really great audio experience, your money is far better spent on a decent USB audio interface or network streamer and a quality pair of headphones.
The sound quality question has already been answered, so I'll focus on the collecting side - it does sound like you'd enjoy it, but then the idea of vinyl is always far better than the reality. Yes, hunting through dusty old record shops is great, but it's an expensive habit and really quite a drawn out process.
For me personally, streaming has broadened my musical tastes and ability to explore new or interesting music by a huge amount - asking Alexa to play you south african jazz might not have a sense of romance or authenticity, but access to the world's library of music is so powerful that it's hard to wrap your head around.
There are plenty of reasons to avoid Spotify and such, plenty of ethical arguments against it - but then buying second hand vinyl is even worse still from the perspective of the artist.
Anyway, it's perfectly possible to listen to a whole album on a streaming service and sit there and do nothing else while you do so - you just have to do exactly that. While I see the value in the pantomime of using a physical format to do so, it's not adding anything material to the experience. A bit of imagination can paper over those cracks.
>>12595 How come Spotify doesn't have a vinylify filter? Add a bit of crackle onto the lead-in and out (and actually _have_ some lead in and out), leave the main bit alone to save CPU effort.
The Mrs is a long term vinyl collector, we've got a room full now. She's a raging autist, and it makes her happy, but as that chap ^ said, it's a lifetime's work. Just buying a dozen is a passing fancy. Nothing wrong with that, but I see a few people thinking 'getting in to vinyl', but it doesn't play out.
>>12595 >For me personally, streaming has broadened my musical tastes and ability to explore new or interesting music by a huge amount - asking Alexa to play you south african jazz might not have a sense of romance or authenticity, but access to the world's library of music is so powerful that it's hard to wrap your head around.
Nitpick: the problem with taking this attitude to music is that it assumes whatever database Alexa is connected to is comprehensive and somehow neutral in it's choices, when it's not. You risk putting your tastes down to an algorithm by just asking your computer to randomly play a bit of something.
Of course, record shops are not necessarily any better in terms of their selection, you could just be digging through someone else's carboot sale nonsense, but physical shopping might remove that false veneer of "perfect access to everything", if that makes sense.
I was only really using Alexa as an example because it's the most 'futuristic' way to listen to music I have, there's nothing stopping me browsing Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Youtube, Soundcloud and so on in the normal way.
And also, there's nothing wrong with an algorithm that typically eases you into a new genre with stuff you sort of already like, and then broadens the choices the more you listen to that particular style - something I've found spotify, at least, is rather good at.
I'm not saying there's anything inherently wrong with using algorithms to discover stuff, but I want to highlight how important it is to be aware that algorithms aren't perfect, or even necessarily better than browsing a curated selection like a music shop, or even discovering stuff through local scenes.
No library of music is perfect, and algorithms are designed with specific purposes in mind. I think people should use it with awareness of it's limitations.
