Is this vinyl revival thing just a load of nonsense?

...Turn-the-Tables, so to speak.

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I like that.   Where's the thumbs up smiley gone?

Here you go - check out this waveform comparison...no prizes for guessing which is the vinyl!

The vinyl is still a tad compressed but the biggest difference is the fact that the WHOLE wavefor is there - no distortion/clipping = full on, in your face, balls out ROCK

I find it quite ironic that vinyl may well outlast CDs. I don't currently have a record deck (but still have 200+ records) so I can't comment on the merits of vinyl v digital. I did hear Rega's LP3 playing some Brand X in AudioT Reading & was very impressed by the sound - may buy one later this year.

As for teens buying records - I find that rather reassuring. As has been noted: records are fun if not the last word in SQ terms. One thing I liked the most when I bought a CD110 (I think it was that Philips model - 2nd gen with a drawer you could stand on) was the ability to select tracks even if it didn't have a remote.

I now have my entire CD/digital collection available on my TV via Apple TV, transferred at the highest bit rate below Apple Lossless. I can't quite believe how good they sound played through my Panasonic TV into my amp - my Audiolab mDAC is yet to materialise. Having access to my digital music collection with a few clicks AND being able to see the track listings across my livingroom on a 42" plasma is heaven - far more convenient that finding then loading individual CDs.

Hi all,

I'd just like to drop my 2 pence in, maybe from looking at this arguement from a different angle...

Nowadays with vinyl, the actual master itself is a digital master, as apposed to a vinyl master which will be mastered in such a way that playing it only vinyl would get the best out of it, as it would if it was mastered for digital purposes.

Labels nowadays will not get a master for both, so will settle for 1 digital master and use that for the vinyl copy too.

Well with a digital master, it all depends how wide you open the gates. If you only set them to comply with the red book standard, then you chop the very tops & bottoms off the sine wave. But you can open the gates wider & let more information through.

I met , through my motorbike club, a guy who is a very well respected recording engineer, specialising in classical music. He said there is, theoretically, absolutely no limit to what you can record digitally, unless you set the limits. He also said there is no way on the planet that he'd want to go back to analogue recording, after working with (admittedly the very best) digital equipment.

I recently bought myself a new turntable after many years of cd players. Never got the sound I wanted from cds. First thing is finding good music which is tricky enough these days, but then it has to sound good on playback. Listening to my turntable is like lifting the veil off cd sound to let you hear everything. Id never go back to cd now and wouldnt touch digital downloads with a barge pole since getting my TT. But thats just me and my ears.

Rob, did your guy happen to mention if there was much of an audible difference between 16 bit and 24 bit.

Sorry, CNo, it was a chat over a few beers & I don't recall discussing bit-rates, other than him saying that he always records in the highest possible quality & what comes out on CD is a pale imitation of what's been recorded. He liked SACD as a format & (this was a couple of years ago) was interested in blu-ray as a high quality format. 

That's a shame. I thought I was going to get some first hand "hearsay" to back up my view.

I do remember him not being keen on downloading though, he was still an advocate of physical media. There was mention of solid state storage and he said that would be good, but he doubted it would ever happen on a commercial basis. 

if i come across him again at one of our big meets I'll ask him for you!

I'm 36 and actually use all three mediums to listen to my music, but for the best sound quality I would say this has to go to vinyl Whichever format you use its how the music played makes you feel...thats the most important part! When you are smiling from ear to ear - you have nailed it!

Cno

The recent popularity of vinyl long play records comes from several sources. One might be the recent "vintage" status of vinyl LP records, as we are now are at least two generations removed from their heyday. Historically, the LP records were at the height of their popularity in the 1980s, then replaced to a large degree by the cassette tape, and, even more so later on by the CD and the mp3 or other compressed digital music formats and related mp3 players. The other source of the popularity of the vinyl records is the popularity of the rap music and its successor hip hop. The DJs who play this kind of music are famous for their sound manipulations such as "scratches", and transitions from one song to the other, which can only be properly implemented manually, using two turntables with vinyl LP records playing on both of them simultaneously. 

[Mod] Link removed -  please see House Rule 11

Try one with Firewire then

On the serious note, For most people Vinyl never gone away, they just boxed up and kept in the loft.

Never put mine in the loft. Always kept them on display. That way if any friends came round and commented "Oh you still play records do you?" it was an ideal situation to put an LP on and blow their socks off!! Vinyl is still alive and kicking alright, in mine and many other households, by the sound of it. On a further point I have noticed a version of the lastest Leonard Cohen vinyl comes accompanied by a CD, now there's a cunning ploy!