If they were recorded digitally, then there is no point in getting a vinyl pressing as it wasn’t recording in analog- why put it on a non-native medium other than to appease the hipsters.
This is an often forgotten part of the debate. For a very long time recording has been done digitally, so putting it on vinyl and hearing things that you can't hear in the digital copy is...
This is an often forgotten part of the debate. For a very long time recording has been done digitally, so putting it on vinyl and hearing things that you can't hear in the digital copy is...
My MO with music shopping now is if it was recorded in analog- I want the playback medium for home in analog (and I’m attentive to remasters that have been through a digital process- hello Mofi).
If they were recorded digitally, then there is no point in getting a vinyl pressing as it wasn’t recording in analog- why put it on a non-native medium other than to appease the hipsters.
Pressing and playback of vinyl definitely changes the source though, which can be enjoyable and preferable for some.
And that gets to the heart of it. I’ve been involved in audio for a very long time, and the further you get into it, the more you realize that the only sound that matters is the one you like best.
Only vintage vinyl is going to give you the analog experience, but even then…
Some time ago I attended a Linn night at my local audio pusher, and the head of Linn was there showing off the 50th anniversary version of the LP12. As he went over the various components of the turntable he mentioned that “this is where we convert the analog signal to digital“ and I broke out in a big smile…sometimes even when you think you are getting analog, you aren’t.
I personally have no love for the ritual of vinyl. I spent far too many years cleaning records, having to get up after 20 odd minutes to switch sides, etc. to have any love for that experience. I’m quite happy to pick up my phone, go onto the Linn app, and stream from Tidal. The focus is on the music, not the ritual…
And that gets to the heart of it. I’ve been involved in audio for a very long time, and the further you get into it, the more you realize that the only sound that matters is the one you like best.
Only vintage vinyl is going to give you the analog experience, but even then…
Some time ago I attended a Linn night at my local audio pusher, and the head of Linn was there showing off the 50th anniversary version of the LP12. As he went over the various components of the turntable he mentioned that “this is where we convert the analog signal to digital“ and I broke out in a big smile…sometimes even when you think you are getting analog, you aren’t.
I personally have no love for the ritual of vinyl. I spent far too many years cleaning records, having to get up after 20 odd minutes to switch sides, etc. to have any love for that experience. I’m quite happy to pick up my phone, go onto the Linn app, and stream from Tidal. The focus is on the music, not the ritual…
This is likely true for virtually every single album you can still buy today, including albums that were originally fully analog. The source may still be analog, but they aren't cutting the vinyl directly from the analog master any more, because every time you do that you add more wear and risk to the masters. They're virtually all digital now. For an example of this, remember Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs had to pay a 25 million dollar settlement because even their "one-step" pure analog audiophile pressings were still using an interim DSD transfer of the master tape. There's no way around it, that makes the source digital. IF digitisation were to lose anything, it would be irreversible and the "damage" is done.
I'm not a believer that analog offers any technical benefits over digital, i.e. any imperfections or "warmth" or other magic in the original masters will be captured exactly in a DSD recording. From memory all of the audiophiles lauded the one-step recordings until they realised they'd been duped. As they say in Westworld, "If you can't tell... does it matter?"
Pressing and playback of vinyl definitely changes the source though, which can be enjoyable and preferable for some. Vinyl is also just more fun. I have electronic albums which were produced on computers but I still enjoy playing on vinyl, because it's just intrinsically fun. There is something different about the ritual of putting on a record compared to clicking on an album you don't own from Spotify's servers. It's maybe a bit like checking the time on a mechanical watch instead of an Apple? 😜
Yeah same as in my reply to Archer though, I honestly don't think you're getting analog any more, even for albums which were originally analog. If you really want that analog signal chain purity, you'd have to buy used pressings from the days before digital transfers became common place.
As to the no point bit... that's a can of worms, if we're talking purely from a technical perspective, there's no point to vinyl at all as a format now if the source is either fully digital or originally analog and now digitised anyway. If the master can be digitised with perfect accuracy (it can) then why not also play it back digitally with perfect accuracy? Unless you just want to colour the sound with the pleasant deficiencies of vinyl, in which case, that applies equally to digitally recorded music. So I don't think the argument that vinyl playback is only beneficial for analog music has any validity. It's beneficial for all music or no music.
I bet I'm gonna cop it for this one. 😜
I didn't grow up with vinyl, I was born in the 90's so I got into music on the back of cassettes (awful) and CDs (excellent). I got lured into vinyl a number of years ago and I enjoy it as more of a fun hobby thing than anything else.
And although I am old enough to have grown up in the era of analog, I have never been without a turntable nor will I be for the rest of my life. Like you I find the medium far more engaging. I steam when I’m working around the house, in the car or at work. When I want to sit and listen to music and not be at a computer or interfacing with one- I’m listening to LP’s.
It's interesting - there tend to be 2 groups of people using vinyl - the people who find it nostalgic, looking back perhaps on a simpler time, and then those who didn't grow up with it and crave a more concrete experience with their listening. My nephew falls into the second category and I gave my turntable to him many years ago. Now with 3 kids I don't think he has time for it really, but that's fine I wasn't using it anyway.
To me vinyl was always a chore - when I want to listen to music to me the most simple thing is a few clicks on my phone, then I put it down and can listen for hours without having to pick it up again. It allows me to be more fully immersed in the music than any other method that has come before it.
I got a Sony Blu-ray player in 2013 that could also play SACDs, so I picked up a bunch of my favorite labels’ offerings, mostly Mercury Living Presence. The 1956-7 3-channel recording of Saint-Saen’s Organ Symphony is one of the most astonishing recordings I’ve ever heard in any format. Hearing that third center channel makes all the difference and it’s amazing.
It's a shame SACD never took off.
This is an often forgotten part of the debate. For a very long time recording has been done digitally, so putting it on vinyl and hearing things that you can't hear in the digital copy is...
