Black To The Future

[altruistic.lemon]

Seems it's all about nostalgia to me, the desire to recapture lost youth.

 

[Clare Newsome]

My youth was more about my Sony Walkman and then the Technics CD player that set me on the separates route... but I love my turntable/vinyl: it's my best-quality source, and I invest the most in "feeding" it top-quality recordings. Weekends are for easy-listening analogue, even if it does mean extra effort

But it's not the majortiy of my listening - that comes via streaming and rips/downloads, which is far more convenient on an everyday basis. It's the music that matters most, plus being able to enjoy it whenever and however I want.

 

[chebby]

Seems it's all about nostalgia to me, the desire to recapture lost youth.

Would that explain why my 19 year-old daughter wants an Audio-Technica USB turntable* that she can plug into her computer and has started hanging around the second-hand record shop with her boyfriend? (It didn't come from me because I tried to talk them out of it.)

*Because it looks like a 'proper deck' unlike my boring old Regas!

 

[matthewpiano]

Maybe there is an element of nostalgia about it, but at 33 I still feel pretty youthful (though aware of time's creeping hands!).

It's less about lost youth and more about a lost connection with some of this music. I grew up with vinyl around me from an early age and had a set-up in my own room from about 8 onwards, starting with a PL12D/Amstrad amp/Wharfedale speakers and then being given a far better Sansui amp. I used to be able to spend hours quite contentedly listening to LP after LP, enjoying the music. I never gave up on vinyl voluntarily and used it very regularly right up until the point where life and the influence of another person forced me into no longer using it. A few years on everything changed again and I've been flirting with vinyl again for quite some time.

I love CD for so many reasons but it has never involved me in the same way. Much of the music I listen to was recorded in the analogue era, whether it is the 60s and 70s rock and folk/rock that I love or the truly great classical recordings and a lot of transfers and/or remasters to CD just haven't managed to bring these recordings to life properly. Somehow they sound right on LP and, yes, I do love the hobby side of it as well, and the fact that the cover art is so much more meaningful. I picked up a vinyl copy of the first Fleet Foxes album the other day, and that cover is so much more interesting on the larger scale.

Finally, portability has never been an issue for me. I don't listen to music when I'm out and about. I much prefer to soak up the ambient sounds of my surroundings and save music for special time when I'm relaxing at home. Even in the car I tend to just put Radio 2 on in the background. Consequently the ability to download/rip and use the files at home and out and about is meaningless to me.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Key to any good listening experience is the original care taken with the recording which if done well renders the medium of storage as somewhat secondary.

It may be secondary, but take the Beatles stuff for example. None of it was ever really that well recorded, especially by today's standards, or maybe it was and we just didn't realise it, but the 96/24 Beatles stuff, despite it's shortcomings, sounds Fab

As already mentioned, for me, it's about musical enjoyment, not the format it's on.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I grew up with vinyl around me from an early age and had a set-up in my own room from about 8 onwards, starting with a PL12D/Amstrad amp/Wharfedale speakers and then being given a far better Sansui amp. I used to be able to spend hours quite contentedly listening to LP after LP, enjoying the music.

Similar here. My Dad's system was a PL12D, a Sansui AU101 (I think), and a pair of Jim Rogers JR149's. Amazing sounding system. I've since re-purchased two pairs of 149's.

 

[DIB]

I like both, equally.

If I hadn't accumulated around 500 lps over the last 40 years, I wouldn't bother with vinyl as a newcomer now. Apart from the odd new LP, I now usually only buy 2nd hand for a couple of quid or so (less than the price of a pint) and if it only gets one listen then I've not lost much.

.

 

[CnoEvil]

The reason you rarely hear me use these words about digital sources, is that I rarely feel they're warranted. I would use them, and have, regarding the streaming of HD material I heard at Cyrus when they launched their streamers, and I've also used them in relation to the Cyrus/Blade system that we have in store. A 96/24 copy of some old Beatles and Pink Floyd stuff sounded amazing - they had more of vinyl's attributes.

Hearing a quality streamer (Linn, Cyrus, Naim etc) playing 24 bit, through a decent system is a real eye-opener (well it was for me). It was the first time I heard a sound that didn't have me wishing for the vinyl version.

I was also very impressed with the Cyrus Streamline when I heard it, so I can imagine what the more expensive dedicated ones sound like (and I'm not a Cyrus fan).

 

[Cypher]

LP and CD are dead for me.

Streaming is the future.

 

[lindsayt]

It may be secondary, but take the Beatles stuff for example. None of it was ever really that well recorded, especially by today's standards, or maybe it was and we just didn't realise it, but the 96/24 Beatles stuff, despite it's shortcomings, sounds Fab

As already mentioned, for me, it's about musical enjoyment, not the format it's on.

I think that Abbey Road on vinyl is a good, clear, punchy, dynamic recording with a rather odd dual mono type soundstage. It's a better recording than compressed Coldplay.