More evidence that LPS are still alive

Abucktwoeight- Score! I think that as the older audiophiles have passed on, their children have simply dumped their LPs at these stores since all they know is CDs. That's good for us. There will be a point at which there will be no more old great LPs available. The great news for me is that if the demand continues to grow, so will the availablity of new pressings. The mastering engineers that I read of are horrified at the compression and distortion of the new releases on CD. Let's hope that, like the "Director's Cut" on DVD releases, that we will eventually have the "Recording Engineer's Cut" on LPs. I want to hear the way it sounded to them in the booth when the album was first recorded. A pipe dream maybe, but hey, reality is over-rated anyway, so I'd rather dream.

I also agree with the above statements about tape, but that day won't come again. Digital does keep getting better, esp. SACD and DVD-A. Again, it requires expert mastering and direct to disc with minimal eq. I was listening to Bob James/Dave Sanborn last night on LP. Then I listened to a CD of Dave Sanborn. Both were great, but the CD was quieter and almost as dynamic. New CDs are now costing $15 while new LPs are even more. It means that computer based audio is the future.

In the future, bands will only release online, by download. The Eagles release of their latest exclusively through Wal-Mart shows that only the bands in control of their own releases will decide how to do it. The internet is cheaper for the record companies, they make more profit. I downloaded a sampler from HDTracks. The quality is excellent. They will soon have 96KHz/24 bit downloads, DRM free. If you want a hard copy, burn a disc. In my view of the future, you can buy the LP for quality and/or buy the download for your computer based system. The production, packaging and distribution of CDs in "jewel" cases will be obsolete, due to cost.

Johnnyb53-I am new to HDTracks, but they include the liner notes and cover art as pdf files. Not the same as LP cover art. I remember fondly Yes, Pink Floyd, rolling Stones, etc, where cover art was one of the reasons for buying the album! A recent interview I heard with Herb Alpert with the cover of the girl in whipped cream and he said a lot of people never listened to the album before they bought it! Nothing will replace LPs in the near future. CDs are just not the answer. That said, Redbook done well is still great music, ti's just not quite analog.