Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
I prefer vinyl to any digital format, even SACD ro DVD audio both of which I listened in the US with expensive equipment.
Downloads are taking off and it has been 25 years since CD was launched, yet audiophile demand for turntables and vinyl continues unabated. When did you last spin a record?
There is "NO Way" the CD's produce the same warmth & fidelity as vinyl. "Unfortunately", my newly purchased amplification/ stereo system has made audio an afterthought focusing on the home theater element. My 25+-year-old $500 system "Sonically" outperforms my new $4,000.00 system hands down! :(
I switched to CD about 17 years ago and never spun a record since. At the time, on my modest system I distinctly remember Simon & Garfunkel's PSRT CD to sound absolutely magical. I don't want to go into the Vinyl vs CD debate, because I can't judge it. I can also testify to my initial observations back then. Back then I was not as critical a listener as I am now, but the memory of that first CD is still vivid.
I still love the sound and feel of vinyl. A more relaxed listen on my Linn than CD, but I feel that CD players and discs have gotten great in the last few years, and that fact is being overlooked by the excessive coverage given the potential new formats of SACD and DVDA. Try to get the good word out that CD players are still very viable. As for records, just getting people to give theirs another listen is all that is needed!
I purchased an entry-level vinyl set-up late last year —Rega Planar 2 with Goldring 1042—and have been enjoying it a lot. Most of my music is on CD, so I don't play records all that often, but I do try to listen to my vinyl rig at least a couple of hours once or twice a week. My biggest gripe with vinyl is the tweasky nature of it—since I have no idea what VTA and azimuth are or how to check and adjust them—I constantly worry about it. Argh.
When I was three years old, I was listening the singles that my parents own. After growing up and developing my own music and audio system pleasure, I have seen that the types of music I listen to are not so appropriate for vinyl (all types of heavy metal, new age, rock, pop; in other words metallic audio tunes which mostly occupy electro guitar sounds in them). At the age of 38, situation is still the same. I can still find some new CDs to throw in money (very very rarely nowadays). Vinyl is not my friend at all. That has a danger of carrying me to the limits of obsession. I don't want to clean vinyls regularly, count the number of listens for each record, tune cartridges, carry bags of vinyls while in travel, change tubes & cables and check kitchen natural gas valve 10 times a day. Washing the dirty CDs under tap water is way easier, safer, better for body and mental health. Digital formats recorded to a hard disk are even better.
Usually listen 2-4 times a week. My arm is at SME for exchange of internal wire. I love listening to vinyl, partly because I was brought up with it and nostalgia. Also equipment improves all the time, seems like no end but also no end of price. Had a Well Tempered Classic changed to TW Acustic Raven One. Clear difference in background noise, rhythmn, and decay of timbre. Mind you WTT is not a bad table.