Just ordered a vinyl of Waylon Jennings album “Dreaming My Dreams” from 1975…greatest country album of all time to my mind. I’m not a vinyl guy, but do any of you have anything cool?
Vinyl Albums
- Thread starter 812scottj
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I bought my first album in 1956, Johnny Cash and "His Hot and Blue Guitar". I still have it. In fact I still have every album I have bought in my life which total in the 100's. They are in mint condition and I love the vinyl sound. I am glad to see them coming back. I have about every big country star you can imagine including every album Johnny Cash produced. All of Ricky Skaggs, Emmy Lou Harris, etc.
About 20 years ago I went to a Best Buy to buy a new turntable. A girl about 18 years old helped me and I said I was looking for a turntable and she had no idea what I was asking for. She called her manager and he said they may have one in the back but he doubted it. He checked and brought back a box covered with thick dust. The girl was so amazed she asked if she could open it up to look at it. What a generational culture shock that was for me.
About 20 years ago I went to a Best Buy to buy a new turntable. A girl about 18 years old helped me and I said I was looking for a turntable and she had no idea what I was asking for. She called her manager and he said they may have one in the back but he doubted it. He checked and brought back a box covered with thick dust. The girl was so amazed she asked if she could open it up to look at it. What a generational culture shock that was for me.
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I used to have some cool stuff but I sold all of it several years ago because I was broke and had medical bills to pay.
Now I just have a handful of good stuff. And my grandpa left me his setup and all of his vinyl when he passed. It's mostly classical and opera, but I found some of my mom, aunt, and uncles stuff in there too. So I have some original Grand Funk and Cheech and Chong and stuff.
Now I just have a handful of good stuff. And my grandpa left me his setup and all of his vinyl when he passed. It's mostly classical and opera, but I found some of my mom, aunt, and uncles stuff in there too. So I have some original Grand Funk and Cheech and Chong and stuff.
Actually, vinyl is making a slow comeback from what I've read. One, it's much harder to pirate. Two, the buyer has to purchase the ENTIRE album, not just one or two songs. Three, I happen to like the richness of the analog sound vs. digital (harmonics tend to get filtered out with digital). Four, the record industry saved a boatload of money as CDs are cheaper to press than vinyl but, of course, didn't give the consumer any price breaks. Well, when's the last time you have multiple releases sell > 1 million copies in a year, mister record executive?
While I don't think it'll be the medium of choice, there are a few groups who've released their latest on vinyl.
While I don't think it'll be the medium of choice, there are a few groups who've released their latest on vinyl.
For some reason cassettes are coming back too. I've noticed acts that are popular with the younger crowd (like Taylor Swift) are putting out their albums on cassettes again.
Might be the same reasons as #1 and #2 above. Artists are getting reamed by digital piracy and Spotify/Pandora paying pennies for 100,000 downloads. Putting out new music on vinyl/cassette may level the playing field a bit for recording artists. Now, if we could just find some artists that put out music worth owning...
I have a Parlophone first pressing mono release of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's album. Decent shape. Mono is worth more than the stereo version. Sounds like it should be worth a lot but truth be told, at most I might get $150 for it. Still nice to have in my collection.
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Might be the same reasons as #1 and #2 above. Artists are getting reamed by digital piracy and Spotify/Pandora paying pennies for 100,000 downloads. Putting out new music on vinyl/cassette may level the playing field a bit for recording artists. Now, if we could just find some artists that put out music worth owning...
I don't think it is that. Vinyl IMO sounds better plus it gives real music fans an excuse not to just hit skip. Cassettes sound like garbage, have always sounded like garbage, and most kids have probably never seen one before. I have a 13 year old niece and I doubt she has ever even seen a tape player. Its just the whole 'retro' thing. I'm sure at some point people will start demanding movies come out in SD at some point.
The funny thing about vinyl is that there are a lot of people out there that think old vinyl = $$$$. I saw a copy of the White Album at a used book store in Owensboro that was in terrible condition for $100. I went to CD Central in Lexington and found a great copy for about $20. Was talking to the owner (who looks like Jim Croce) and he explained to me that a record in bad condition isn't worth a damn thing. When I asked him about why he is selling such a great record for $20 he went "well there are about 10 million of them floating around out there"
This was around 20 years ago.
VHS is "analog" and thus has better picture quality than Blu-Rays, which are digital.
^That's the logic of so many vinyl enthusiasts.
I'm really not an enthusiast. I'd say 99% of my music listening is on Spotify. Its mostly production at this point.
Glad you did! I've probably made that mistake before without knowing it. Old guy syndrome.Just giving you grief for the fun of it!
Yeah, mostly true, sort of. Digital is the superior medium compared to vinyl in all aspects, but yes, there are cases where the digital master is ruined by over-compression and/or too much bad eq.
It's a pet peeve/personal issue for me. My career was in digital audio/video.
Totally get it. There was a time when MP3s and Napster were a big deal and I thought they sounded the same. Then I listened to a cd that I normally listened to on my iPod and was sorta shocked at the difference.
Setup has a big part as well. The system I inherited from my grandpa is higher quality than any CD player or car stereo I've ever owned.
Also I like the big vinyl album sleeves better than little cds. But if I'm going to go out of my way to buy physical media and vinyl is more expensive than a cd, I'm going cd.
I'm 61 and one of the few that never abandoned vinyl. Love CDs, hi-res music is phenomenal, DSD WOW. I still love the sound of vinyl just like I love the sound of digital. Never have we lived in a time where we've had such a great choice of how we listen to music. Not saying one format is better than the other. They're just different. Everyone's ears are different.
Not sure I agree with this. I've heard many musicians state their preference of analog sound over digital. It's 'fuller' and the overtones/resonant frequencies/harmonics of instruments get lost when it's a 1 or a zero.
Most guitar players prefer tube amps (analog) over solid state (digital) for the same reasons. Digital definitely has its advantages but superior in all aspects is a stretch, imo. Might just be opinion either way though. I'm not a sound engineer.
1. Most musicians don't know jacksh!t about the technology they use and don't understand digital. They just parrot what other musicians say. Neil Young is a prime example, but there are countless others.
2. Most rock musicians have hearing damage.
3. Personal preference for one technology over the other is not the same as debating the technical merits of one tech vs the other.
4. Musicians might prefer gear they grew up with, or gear that the musicians that influenced them used back in the 60s/70s/80s.
5. Analog is only "fuller" in the sense that the highs are sometimes rolled off - due to technical limitations of analog, not intentionally.
6. 'overtones/resonant frequencies/harmonics of instruments get lost when it's a 1 or a zero' makes no sense whatsoever and shows that you are also just parroting stuff you've heard or read without understanding it at all. Analog waveforms are captured in analog recording AND in digital recordings. Then they are somehow stored (digitally or in an analog format), processed (digitally or in analog), and ultimately played back. If digital, the final step is a conversion *back* to an analog waveform.
7. 'Guitar players preferring tube amps (analog) over solid state (digital)' makes no sense either. Both are analog. It's tubes vs. transistors, both of which are analog, not one analog and one digital. And that preference is about *creating* a sound, not recording it, processing it, and reproducing it. When *creating* a sound, accuracy isn't a concern. Distortion is often wanted to create a unique sound. Tubes create different distortion characteristics than does solid state. Sometimes that's desired to create a certain 'tone' or 'timbre' from the instrument.
But when *re-creating* a sound via recording and playback, distortion is now *un*wanted.
-tube amps are "warmer" and more dynamic/reactive to how one plays the guitar. Solid state is fine for clean tones...the Roland jazz chorus amps are classics for a reason. The way each "clips" is different..beav can certainly explain that in more detail.
-as far as media digital is probably better...but there is absolutely something to the process/act of playing a vinyl record. It's a helluva a lot more satisfying than pushing a button on your phone/cpu/device. Cover art/liner notes and such.
-as far as media digital is probably better...but there is absolutely something to the process/act of playing a vinyl record. It's a helluva a lot more satisfying than pushing a button on your phone/cpu/device. Cover art/liner notes and such.
Jeez Beave. Settle down. It's just a matter of preference. Can you really get into anyone's ears and hear what they hear? No real clear cut answer as to what is best. Enjoy the music!
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Tube amps sometimes are warmer, but not necessarily are. It's all in the implementation of the tubes - or the transistors. One can design either to have just about any desired sound. Tubea do have different distortion profiles than transistors when they clip, but one can design transistor amps to closely mimic tube behavior if so desired. A lot of generalizations like that in audio have *some* truth to them but aren't bulletproof truths.
As to your second paragraph, yes, you nailed it here. The process of playing records - looking at the cover art, reading liner notes, playing the LP - all get you in a mood for more active listening. People often think they hear more detail in vinyl due to some technical superiority of the medium when in fact it's all simply because they're actually more focused on the task and listening more closely.
The "rituals" of playing vinyl - the very inconvenience of it - preps the person for more involved listening.
It's like getting dressed up before going to a nice restaurant. It's part of the experience and influences how you feel while eating.
Vinyl Albums..last count over 1700 and that is after selling some of them through the years, having some get damaged when a water pipe sprung a leak and some being stolen.
I have enough music, CD's, Cassettes, 45's and vinyl to open up a music store..
I have enough music, CD's, Cassettes, 45's and vinyl to open up a music store..
90 percent of my collection are vintage/original pressings of classic (hard bop) jazz. Sonny Rollins The Bridge, Dexter Gordon GO, Brubeck Quartet Time Out etc.
I have some newer 180 gram re-pressings of others, but, IMO, they're garbage. Not ALL of them are, but none of them compare to an original in VG condition.
I have some newer 180 gram re-pressings of others, but, IMO, they're garbage. Not ALL of them are, but none of them compare to an original in VG condition.
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Got into vinyl in 2016 as all the hipsters were flocking to it as well. I initially did it because I was getting into guys like Stapleton and Sturgill and figured their music would sound best on vinyl. I didn't have the greatest setup, but the sound quality was still impressive. I upgraded everything this week actually. Fluance turntable and Klipsch speakers. The hobby is now pretty costly but it's a thing and everyone should have a thing that they're into. I honestly can't imagine just having your music in a phone and no actual movies on a shelf, just apps like Netflix. I grew up in the CD era, but I admit, it does feel good to pick out an album, slip the record out of the cover, place it on the platter, move the tonearm to the desired position, and lower the needle in a wax groove.
There are three big problems standing in the way of tape making a comeback.
1 - Almost nobody MAKES tape anymore. There is only 1 company, to my knowledge, that makes tape in the US. The owner bought old machines and had to develop his own forumula. I bought a few blanks and they're okay, but they're not near the quality of Normal-Bias tapes of yesterday.
2 - The only tape that can be made now is Norma-BIAS ferrite. Type II and metal tape can no longer be manufactured due to environmental concerns. And the new old stock of those two are almost depleted.
3 - Tape decks are hard to engineer and manufacture. A decent tape head/mechanism deck hasn't been developed or manufactured in over 30 years, and there is no real financial incentive to do so. Any deck that you buy now is going to be absolute garbage. If you really want to "do" cassette or reel to reel, you're only hope is to find a refurbished deck, and there are precious few legitimate folks out there that do it, and believe me, they are expensive. Even then, tape decks are always a year from breaking down. There are just so many moving parts etc. that you're going to be sending it in for service regularly.
If you're bound and determined, and have the ability to work on small electronics, other than the Nakamichi Dragon, I'd look for a Sony TC-D5M It's a fantastic workhorse mechanism, but they are NOT cheap. (Way cheaper than a Dragon though. More reliable mechanics, and easier to work on)
1 - Almost nobody MAKES tape anymore. There is only 1 company, to my knowledge, that makes tape in the US. The owner bought old machines and had to develop his own forumula. I bought a few blanks and they're okay, but they're not near the quality of Normal-Bias tapes of yesterday.
2 - The only tape that can be made now is Norma-BIAS ferrite. Type II and metal tape can no longer be manufactured due to environmental concerns. And the new old stock of those two are almost depleted.
3 - Tape decks are hard to engineer and manufacture. A decent tape head/mechanism deck hasn't been developed or manufactured in over 30 years, and there is no real financial incentive to do so. Any deck that you buy now is going to be absolute garbage. If you really want to "do" cassette or reel to reel, you're only hope is to find a refurbished deck, and there are precious few legitimate folks out there that do it, and believe me, they are expensive. Even then, tape decks are always a year from breaking down. There are just so many moving parts etc. that you're going to be sending it in for service regularly.
If you're bound and determined, and have the ability to work on small electronics, other than the Nakamichi Dragon, I'd look for a Sony TC-D5M It's a fantastic workhorse mechanism, but they are NOT cheap. (Way cheaper than a Dragon though. More reliable mechanics, and easier to work on)
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I did purchase a "new" LP from an artist, LuSiD (solo artist, plays guitar primarily, along with some dubs and loops etc.) and the sound quality is ridiculous. I don't know who pressed it but I don't see how digital could exceed this. Unbelievable...