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Probably more used than new, but still quite a bit. I must say that I am getting to the point of dimishing returns in terms of what I would like to have, but who knows what tempting discs might fall in front of me.
Like the gopher that just won't leave your yard, vinyl continues to thrive in spite of CD and newer formats, such as SACD and DVD-Audio. Are you still a vinyl fan?
I still like vinyl, and I have kept my VPI Mk. III to play my collection of a couple thousand LP's, however, its hard to even find new records to buy. I think mult-channel SACD is the new standard, (also hard to find), and that is the format I am planning to purchase new recordings in.
Vinyl rules! There is nothing else to say. Well I'll say a little more. I received this Christmas 9 180 gram vinyl blues and jazz recordings. They sound so warm and layered, I could listen for hours. Thank you Michael Fremer and Stereophile for not letting this music source die, as so many predicted. In 1985 when they proclaimed the death of vinyl I had about 2000 record albums. Since then I have collected about 4000 more. Two years ago I purchased the wonderful Rega Planar 25 and really found out what I was missing. LONG LIVE VINYL!
Vinyl is dead? I don't think so! I've had many people here being amazed over the sound that LP's unleash. Especially the 45 RPM editions! The selections get better every year, although there is music that I dearly wish would be issued on LP.
Not only was my vinyl purchasing up for the year, I also replaced my cheap Technics table with a VPI HW-19JR/modified Rega RB-250/Shure V15VxMR combo. I would have purchased more used vinyl were it not for the sometimes outrageous asking prices here in MPLS.
Like "Astor Place," my wife has actually gone to thrift stores and estate sales to look for LPs for me. She likes the sound of LPs better than CDs. Including my daughter, who also likes to play LPs, there are three fans of vinyl records in my house!
Since I have purchased several collections this year the number of vinyl records is up from the recent past(up by 15%); more importantly, my purchase of CDs is down quite a bit(down by 50%). About 60% of my purchases are classical and there has been little to excite me in 2001.
Granted I'm new into vinyl, but most of the releases this year were crap, and the music industry is working on ways to reduce the value of CDs (via copy protection) while raising prices. Who would pay twice the price for a usually-inferior sounding format that has been nuetered by copy protection?