Is the new vinyl just a fad?

[brandall10]

I don't know how much of a fad it is... it seems to be a thing with audiophiles, and I believe that market itself is expanding. Similar thing with tube amps (for music listening, not for guitars which have obviously awesome benefits .

The general idea is analog is superior to digital, but as someone else mentioned, everything is from a digital master so the notion is fairly misplaced at this point.

[loco gringo]

I bought a streaming device and subscribed to Tidal, a Hi Res streaming service. I haven't played a CD in well over a year, maybe two. I have 600 or so CD's in a closet. I never thought I would jump on the streaming bandwagon, but I did.

It also has allowed me to discover a lot of music that I would never have discovered had I continued to buy CD's. I tended to only buy CD's of artist I was familiar with. Also, the amount of jazz on Tidal is amazing. Actually, the amount of everything on there is amazing.

[DownUpDave]

Vinyl is cool, but as a 63 year old all the stuff I grew up with was cool. I remember when Pop Tarts and Eggos were introduced...... breakfast heaven.

Over one year ago I bought an Onkyo network stero receiver that operates on my home WiFi network. The bit rate is much higher then Bluetooth giving high quality sound. I stream all my music now (mostly Spotify premium) and couldn’t be happier.

[Al Acuff]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

As a holiday gift, there's nothing special about a CD. It might as well be a download. LPs are more "gifty" because they're less ordinary and, frankly, they're bigger. Bigger counts for a lot.

Some of the new audiophile vinyl remasters sound amazing! And the artwork looks better on a full size album cover than it does on a CD jewel box. In my humble opinion vinyl will be around for a long time.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by brandall10

I don't know how much of a fad it is... it seems to be a thing with audiophiles, and I believe that market itself is expanding. Similar thing with tube amps (for music listening, not for guitars which have obviously awesome benefits .

The general idea is analog is superior to digital, but as someone else mentioned, everything is from a digital master so the notion is fairly misplaced at this point.

Except it isn't true that "everything" is from a digital master.

I recommend folks go to the PBS series "chaired by" Jack White where many top performers were recorded "direct to disk" using the original weight-powered cutting machines.

It's a fascinating series and well worth the trouble to look it up an view.

I had a great vinyl-based system when my wife worked in a high end audio store. My Thorens TD-146 and cartridge cost more than some of the high end guitars I own. The last straw for me was after purchasing FOUR! copies of "Bop Till You Drop" and each one becoming unlistenable after a few dozen plays. I spoke with a person who worked in the pressing plant where they were made who told me that management would no longer let them change the pre-filters that strained out the impurities in the vinyl that came from "cut-outs" that came back to the plant and were ground up for reprocessing. All the label paper was going back into the pressings; no wonder they sounded so bad.

I'm not buying vinyl OR CDs any longer. (Can you even buy a CD any more?)

Perhaps if there wasn't such a pervasive attitude toward bilking the consumer then a lot more of those folks would still have jobs. I exercise my right to not purchase shoddy products.

[rick-slo]

Vinyl automatically, due to its limitations, provides a type of compression and equalization. If you grew up with that you will probably feel that is the way things should sound. These days a digital recording off the analog master should be able to reproduce that exactly. In the early days of digital often not so much. Also some digital releases of an analog recording may have been "remastered" for better or worse.

[Lockback]

It's so cute to watch people fawning over old technology.
We lived it. We didn't have a choice. We had scratches on our vinyl records. And warps and pops and cracks. I remember one album I had, I never got to hear the ending of the last song on Side 2 because of a bad pressing ...
When CDs came out, they were a wonder. You could program what songs you wanted to hear. The sound was crisp and clear, with no pops. And then mp3 files replaced them. Same quality, just a smaller vessel.
Nostalgia is a wonderful thing and now in my late sixties, I often pine for "the good old days".
But not when it comes to music technology. I'll take a CD or mp3 file off a thumb drive any day of the week, thank you very much. My Toyota Camry has a USB port that allows me to put a thumb drive on it with dozens and dozens of albums. Beat that, vinyl!
The only thing I really miss about an album is reading the liner notes and looking at the cover and handling the vinyl a little. There was a certain tactile quality that was kind of nice.
But the rest of it?
Fuggeddaboudit.

[dnf777]

Originally Posted by Lockback

It's so cute to watch people fawning over old technology.
We lived it. We didn't have a choice. We had scratches on our vinyl records. And warps and pops and cracks. I remember one album I had, I never got to hear the ending of the last song on Side 2 because of a bad pressing ...
When CDs came out, they were a wonder. You could program what songs you wanted to hear. The sound was crisp and clear, with no pops. And then mp3 files replaced them. Same quality, just a smaller vessel.
Nostalgia is a wonderful thing and now in my late sixties, I often pine for "the good old days".
But not when it comes to music technology. I'll take a CD or mp3 file off a thumb drive any day of the week, thank you very much. My Toyota Camry has a USB port that allows me to put a thumb drive on it with dozens and dozens of albums. Beat that, vinyl!
The only thing I really miss about an album is reading the liner notes and looking at the cover and handling the vinyl a little. There was a certain tactile quality that was kind of nice.
But the rest of it?
Fuggeddaboudit.

I think that hits the nail on the head! While I have made the switch to a streaming service, and have mp3s in my jeep, I do purchase the occasional vinyl...but only if it includes digital access. Also, new vinyl doesnt quite live up to spinning my original vinyls from back in the day. There was something special about mowing several yards during the week, then carefully deciding which new album to get on Saturday, when Dad could drive me to the record store. (And coordinating with friends to avoid duplicate purchases!)

[J Patrick]

I have a/b’ed albums on both CD and vinyl through my system...they do sound different...whether or not you can hear the differences or even care about them is entirely personal....is the vinyl revival a fad?....we’ll it goes back to 1867 when the gramaphone was invented...that suggests that it might not be...

[J.R. Rogers]

I collect vinyl. As far as I can tell the vinyl “fad” is only an American thing while music lovers outside of the US have continued to buy vinyl uninterrupted by technology “improvements”. Vinyl sounds great on a good system and the artwork and liner notes are just right at 12”x12” as was mentioned earlier.

JR

[Rudy4]

I'm old enough to remember my older brother's car having a 45 rpm record player attached under the dash.

I now pop my micro-sized flash drive in for hours of great sounding audio in the car. Now that we're not going anywhere it's a bit useless...

[fitness1]

I ran a record store from '79 to '87. Saw the major changes during that time, and my personal vinyl collection peaked at about 3200. In '91 or so I sold down to about 900 via the Metro Detroit Record shows. Did REALLY well selling collectible vinyl and memorabalia.

About 10 years ago I sold all my Mobile Fidelity and other audiophile recordings to a guy in Colorado, who gladly paid the shipping on them. By that time, those recordings were the only ones that held a candle to their CD counterparts, but I took a chance on the value being better than if I held onto them.

Just this last spring I sold my 30 plus year old JVC QL-50 table, and the last of my collection (about 400) It felt like selling one of my kids (and I don't have any!) but I hadn't listened to them hardly at all for several years, and to be honest, most of the stuff - even very obscure titles, can be found on Youtube. Between the vinyl and the table I paid for most of my Webber dread.....pretty good trade-off.

Part of my purge was also due to the fact that my musical tastes have changed greatly - I just don't listen to pop/rock anymore - don't really enjoy anything with electric instruments in it to be honest. So, next the CD collection will probably be whittled down to this end.

When I see the new interest in vinyl, I'm not sure what to think. I think some of it is 30-40 somethings being nostalgic about their parents collections and stereos. They have moved into the point in their life where they have cash to expend, and right now this seems to be the "cool" thing.

To answer the OP's question, I would expect the "fad" to last a few more years, then fizzle out. While it will always have a special place in most of our hearts (meaning baby boomers) I think the coolness factor will fade with the younger generation and they'll go back to their digital "home".

[SongwriterFan]

I tell people that I can make their CDs sound just like vinyl. How? Run it through a tube pre-amp and add a bit of digital "hiss". Wow and flutter is a bit more difficult, but I suspect that can be done, too.

[J.R. Rogers]

A bunch of acoustic players laughing at the vinyl kids - the irony.

[Lockback]

Originally Posted by J.R. Rogers

A bunch of acoustic players laughing at the vinyl kids - the irony.

You know, you do have a point there.