Hello Rob Swindell!
** On Monday 07.02.22 - 18:08, you wrote to me:
"I still have some vinyl records and an expensive turntable
with a couple of premium cartridges. I meant to pull it out and
digitize the albums that I don't have on CD or otherwise.
However I don't miss the surface noise, even on recordings
without any inevitable scratches; the precision and delicacy
required to place the needle; the pre-cleaning of the record
and the wiping of the needle before each play; and, the
repetitive, annoying, sound made at the end of the album as the
needle idled near the center waiting to be relieved of its, and
my, misery. No nostalgia here."
Agreed. And there's really no additinoal fidelity there,
in fact quite the opposite: measurably less dynamic range
and frequency response.
That might be true on paper, but the actual listening
experience can be different. I remember when the first CD
players came out, they made every disc sound terrible. It was
something to do with the implementation of the converters/
sampling.
I have some albums that sound much better than their CD
counterparts to this day.
I don't see why my friend whom I quoted has a problem with
"surface noise" on LPs that don't even have scratches. Maybe he
can't stand the initial "silent" noise when cueing up the
beginning of an LP and the noise at the end. He told me that
that his turntable did not feature an auto-cue mechanism nor an
auto-lift for the tonearm. Those were options for his high-end
machine.
I started buying CDs *before* I had a player of my own. But I
had a chance to play them on other people's CD players. Most of
the time they sounded terrible! When I auditioned the same
discs on later-generation "better" players at the hi-shops,
they sounded great.
My first player was the Sony 505ESD (with a dual D/A converter
and digital-OUT). It was around $500-$700 in late 80's dollars.
(I still have it, but it started to develop skipping issues
after 15 years of use.) Some people are listing theirs for
over $500 on ebay right now! But I digress..
I think most of the preference for vinyl comes from the
positive emotions of the memories that the physical
experience of handling vinyl records brings. I get this
reaction just *holding* a 12" album/sleeve. I don't even
need to play the record! :-) --
LOL. I don't stop at bemusing the LP cover like you do. I'll
will certainly not hesitate to give the LP a spin.
But how do you explain the rise in LP sales apparently amongst
a NEW generation of listeners who don't have "emotions of the
memories" reference? My guess that the rise is dominated
primarily by people who grew up in the 50's-80's when LPs were
still prominent - and this soon will fade.
--
../|ug
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