Vinyl - How often do you listen?

[matthewpiano]

I realised this morning how little I listen to my turntable these days since I got the Cambridge Audio CD player. I used to listen to vinyl quite a lot but now find that my CDs often sound better and am almost wondering whether its actually worth me maintaining a vinyl presence in my system.

How does everyone else's listening tend to split across formats? Am I the only one with an expensive turntable that just doesn't get used very often? Is it finally time to let go of vinyl?

 

[Tear Drop]

I find it a struggle to sit down and listen to CD sometimes. I listen to LPs almost everyday, the difference between the formats is so huge. It would be a shame for anyone to ditch the turntable and LP collection, but the problem with them is that they need that extra effort - care of LPs, proper turntable set-up, turntable maintenance etc.

 

[the record spot]

Mostly CD just now, but when I get time and the babies aren't in reach of the turntable (!) - 10 months old and they're getting mobile now...!

Still play it when I can though; the P3's an excellent deck, very tweakble for little money too (motor and mains wire upgrade, ringmat, service all in for less than £200). Lovely sound with the AT440 cartridge, it'll cope with CD players twice the price easy and that's the 2001 version, never mind the current P3-24.

No, plenty worth hanging on to with vinyl. Still my favourite after all this time.

 

[chebby]

Almost every day for anything from 1 side to a couple of hours or more.

I am almost the opposite to Matthew in that since I got the turntable I have hardly listened to CD.

I am considering whittling down my CDs to classical only.

My next 'electronics' upgrade will not (eventually) include a CD player at all.

I agree with 'Tear Drop' that the difference between CD and Vinyl is night and day. It is not a quality thing. I can put any CD on and my admirable Solo-Mini player will sound fine. No, it will sound excellent. BUT it does not hook me or engage me. This is not the fault of the player. A friend has both Rega Apollo CDP and Rega P3-24 with Denon DL103R feeding his Primare i30/Focal 826V Chorus system and he has found exactly the same thing. Since getting the turntable about 6 months ago he has not even had the Apollo powered on!

He actually got very angry about the whole business. He is now in his early 40's and has been using CDs all his adult life and 'bought into' the whole CD phenomena without question, as most people did. (He has only been into good hifi for about 2 years.) He actually went as far as to say he felt as if he had been betrayed and cheated by the music industry for the last 25 years. (I wouldn't argue that as he is a 6' 2" lorry driver and built like a brick outhouse!)

It was not like that for me. I had only been without vinyl for a little over 5 years and knew how good it could sound from many years of previous experience.

 

[Anonymous]

the record spot:10 months old and they're getting mobile now...!

Getting on for the perfect age to make a life long impression

 

[Charlie Jefferson]

Yep, mostly vinyl for me.

The flaws of vinyl can be a real bane but the sonic rewards when everything is right are immense.

This very morning it's been a cornucopia of vinyl delights - Utopia, The Levellers, The Men They Couldn't Hang, New Order & Wilco, all rich and sumptuous, in their vinyl form. Although I refused to pay £70 for the new Bob Dylan Bootleg Series, so have settled for the CD, which sounds great too, actually.

The vast majority of my current listening, since purchasing a Roksan Radius deck in January this year, has been vinyl. My CD/DAC combo cost just short of £3,000, and the Roksan is still my preferred playback medium.

I love CDs for their convenience and sometimes their great sound, and also for their transferability to iPods/computers, but it's always the older format that wins out when I want to hear some music.

 

[Miker]

About 50/50 since I ditched my old crackly hifi, which I came not to use, and had the LP12 TT serviced and modded. This reflects my holding of LPs and CDs. Apart from the old worn LPs, I think that they sound better than the CDs. However, my first purchase since getting the new kit has been CDs on the grounds of price and ease of use, and can be played in the car.

 

[fatboyslimfast]

Not as much as I should. But thanks for the kick, am now listening to the black stuff as we forum!

 

[fatboyslimfast]

Not as much as I should. I just find it easier to shove on a CD.

This is because I have had to have a cover built for my Radius V, and as it's made from wood, the wife piles stuff on top. This itinerate rubbish has to be safely moved before removing the cover.

I daresay that a perspex-covered TT such as a P3/24 or LP12 would be afforded a little more respect, but I rather like my Radius!

But anyway, thanks for the kick, am now listening to the black stuff as we forum!

 

[nads]

Most days i put the vinyl on.

 

[Anonymous]

I have never been tempted to return to vinyl, I listen to a fair bit of classical music and there is nothing worse when listening to a quiet passage of a piece of music and all you can hear is snap, crackle and pop,

I don't know of any musical instrument that is supposed to sound like that so why would I want to listen to it, no its CD for me...........

 

[up the music]

I've not got room any more for my LP12 and a stack of vinyl. It's a real shame to have had my LP12 boxed for 4 years now. Most of my vinyl is well loved 2nd hand and suffers from surface noise too. Given good clean vinyl it sounds better than FLAC from my PC or CD on a Cambridge 640. I'm afraid finances and lack of space means I use digital.

 

[Anonymous]

Well every day I'm at home there is at least an hour of listening done, I reckon it's probably about 70/30 in favour of the black stuff though as it's just better. If there was more stuff available off the shelf that figure would swing even further in favour of vinyl, but with todays market a cd player is necessary if you don't want to miss out on some good music. SME 20/2A and Transfiguration Spirit beat even my Esoteric UX-1 any day of the week.

Bogglears

 

[survivor]

As often as possible but it`s never enough. If I`m honest the split is probably 60/40 in favour of vinyl though that should change when I get access to some more of my record collection. The cd is as high as 40% because there are places I can listen to cds and not records and also because it`s difficult at present to get to a lot of my vinyl I am making do listening to the cd version of certain albums which I own on vinyl and cd.

AC/DC`s new album arrived in the post this week on double vinyl and as soon as I get the house to myself I shall be giving it a good old blast! No plans at present to buy the same album on cd.

For me it will never be time to let go of vinyl.

Matthew, don`t do it! If they release Mostly Autumns back catalogue on vinyl you`ll regret getting rid of your turntable!

 

[matthewpiano]

Funny that. I'm more than a bit partial to a bit of Mostly Autumn. Very fine band. Got the CD version of the AC/DC. Very good album.

On the vinyl front, I listened to Folk Songs of Olde England by Tim Hart and Maddy Prior when I got home tonight. It did sound lovely although I think I probably could do with a warmer sounding cartridge than the Sumiko and a bit more attention on set-up. Does anyone have any thoughts on my phono stage? Would I be better with a 640P?

 

[the record spot]

You could even look at some of the Graham Slee gear, amongst others which would compliment your Tecnodec well.

 

[matthewpiano]

My current phono amp is a Graham Slee but its the Gram Amp 1. I think its a bit cold sounding but I'm not sure whether thats the Slee or the Sumiko cartridge. Any thoughts?

 

[Greenwich_Man]

I don't get to listen to LP's much - but it's a real pleasure when I do - to me they are so much nicer when you can get one that is in good nick.

I do put them onto CD for ease of listening - but am glad when I get the chance to use the turntable

I wouldn't get rid of the turntable

 

[Anonymous]

Not as often as i should mate!

What i find is when i use my project turntable i listen to various LP's for at least five or six hours,as opposed to my Cambridge Azur based cd system(couple of hours or so)!

I have just bought a load of 2nd LP's(10) from several charity shops for the price of a pint £3 and one included a mint Prefab Sprout one(SteveMcQueen) which cost a huge 40 p !!!!

 

[DistortedVision]

I listen to vinyl about every other day. I've bought alot of new records recently and I can't believe how poor the quality of newly pressed vinyl is these days. I have had major problems with warped records and unacceptable surface noise. This is even with so called audiophile 180gsm / 200 gsm pressings. Every Classic Records pressing on their Quiex SVP vinyl has been very disappointing.

I'm pretty obsessive about my record cleaning and storage. I was wondering how many of you have turntables own a record cleaning machine. Any of you that don't I would recommend the affordable Cadence Okki Nokki and the excellent L'Art du Son record cleaning fluid.

 

[plastic penguin]

This is a good question. I split my hi-fi three ways, the OH, my young daughter and myself.

I suppose I listen to records about 2 or 3 times a week, for approx. an hour each time, although it's a ballpark figure. But oddly enough my hi-fi tuner gets the lionshare in terms of playing hours - just more convienent.

 

[Anonymous]

Distortedvision - I know exactly what you mean about poor quality pressings, in particular the classic recirds stuff. Their quality control must be non existant as about 50% of what I have bought from them is either filthy from new (release agent?), warped, or just plain faulted with scrapes and bubbles in the vinyl. Strange that Mobile Fidelity and Pure Pleasure don't seem to be afflicted anywhere near as badly and they are cheaper.

Hopefully with a fair bit of the black stuff being sold again they might get back to doing the job properly, but I guess a lot of experience has been lost in the intervening years.

Bogglears

 

[survivor]

More problems here with poor quality pressings of new vinyl.

Today I received a new pressing on the 4MenwithBeards label of Fairport Conventions `Unhalfbricking` and I could see before I placed it on the turntable it was going to sound awful. Really gutted actually. Looks like I will have to fork out for an original copy in as good a condition as I can possibly find.

I shall now avoid the above mentioned label as I had the exact same problem with Scott Walkers `Scott 4` album.

I`ve also noticed how much quieter new pressings are wether it`s a pressing of a new album (not quite as bad) or an old album (worse). Play an old album straight after a new one and you should hear the difference.

It`s great to see so much vinyl around nowadays but these are certainly worrying signs.

 

[the record spot]

matthewpiano:My current phono amp is a Graham Slee but its the Gram Amp 1. I think its a bit cold sounding but I'm not sure whether thats the Slee or the Sumiko cartridge. Any thoughts?

Not sure how they sound, but the Trichord Dino and a PSU is going for £295 at Heatherdale Audio just now. Long standing phono stage, well reviewed, worth a look I'd have thought?

 

[John Duncan]

the record spot:matthewpiano:My current phono amp is a Graham Slee but its the Gram Amp 1. I think its a bit cold sounding but I'm not sure whether thats the Slee or the Sumiko cartridge. Any thoughts?

Not sure how they sound, but the Trichord Dino and a PSU is going for £295 at Heatherdale Audio just now. Long standing phono stage, well reviewed, worth a look I'd have thought?

Oh yes........