Are we at Peak Vinyl?

Posted by: Skip on 10 August 2015

http://www.stereogum.com/featu...-reached-peak-vinyl/

 

I love my vinyl and Verdier-Lyra-Morch-Superline-Supercap setup.    I am almost out of room for new records and don't buy many.  

 

But I have a hard time advising anybody to get into vinyl as good as both my high end CD and budget Audirvana-iTunes-Halide setups sound.    I hear high res downloads are better yet.

 

I am still buying CD's.   Seems like most downloads are really CD quality in the end.  I am nervous buying new vinyl because you are paying up for a digital master when you can have the CD for half the price.  And s/h vinyl for even less.

 

What am I missing?  

 

 

 

 

Posted on: 10 August 2015 by joerand
Originally Posted by Skip:

 

What am I missing?  

I've several thoughts on your post, Skip.

 

I'm an advocate of s/h vinyl, especially original pressings, and most especially from the 1970s. It was all analog and the peak of vinyl SQ, with many excellent masterers at the craft.

 

I agree with you that a well-recorded and mastered redbook CD has excellent SQ and can leave little to be desired. The issue with recent CD releases is that many are overly compressed and lack dynamic range.

 

With regard to new vinyl releases, I generally tend to buy selectively and after the pressings have been issued. That gives me a chance to look at a comparison of the dynamic range versus the CD. Many of my "new" vinyl purchases are based on the fact that they can offer almost twice the dynamic range of the CD. 

 

Two recent albums where I bought the CD upon its earlier release and then later bought the vinyl are McCartney's "NEW" and Tom Petty's "Hypnotic Eye". In both cases the vinyl mastering offered much greater dynamic range and made a huge (positive) difference in the listening experience.

Posted on: 11 August 2015 by Foot tapper

Hi Skip, Joe

I can understand several reasons for people loving vinyl over CD or streaming, including:

  1. A love of the mechanical engineering aspect of turntables
  2. The whole ceremony of cuing the cartridge etc.
  3. The larger scale of beautiful artwork on the album covers (a popular reason for under 30s to buy vinyl, apparently)
  4. The extra resolution and organic flow of music - though why on digitally mastered music is a mystery to me)

However, with most vinyl production presses now being decades old and run at maximum capacity, I have noticed a trend by some music companies to churn out sub-standard vinyl.  

 

The London Grammar album was infamous for having the centre hole being off-centre (as it were), causing music to wow very badly.  

 

Another album had circa 8 pieces of recycled rubbish plastic mixed in with the vinyl, causing properly loud pops when the stylus ran over each one.

 

Now I find the latest Sufjan Stevens album to suffer the same off-centre hole and consequential wowing issue, as well as having someone's foot print on it (this was a brand new, sealed album bought from a reputable shop!).

 

If the record companies let the quality of vinyl slide like this, then they will kill the only goose that is laying them golden eggs, as we will revert to CDs and streaming.

 

Best regards, FT