One of the great things about Vinyl

That used to be true with me for many years, until I finally was able to raise the quality of sound in my digital end to that of my vinyl. Now both are completely engaging and I get wrapped up in the music on a CD or streaming.

At least for me, it was my subconscious not being moved by the digital music… it would get bored. The rhythm and pace was not good as well as the midrange bloom. As soon as those were improved, I no longer had any desire to change what I was listening to.

Good post ghd!

Technically, this is only for serious listening. When relatives come in for 
Christmas We'll play lots of CDs Vince Guaraldi Christmas for example.. lot's of jazz and classical as well.

One of the reasons you wanna listen to an entire side of an LP is that it just takes more coordination and physical effort to get the thing to stop or pause, not to mention getting sound out of it in the first place.

You gotta stumble over to the turntable. Lift the often balky turntable cover, making sure that it doesn't go crashing down if you don't do it right.

You gotta lift the arm and move it back to its rest.

You gotta turn the record player off.

You gotta unscrew the record clamp and safely stow it away.

You must lift the vinyl off of the platter, taking into account the sometimes goodly amount of static electricity that has built up between the vinyl and the platter in the meantime.

I'd go on, but my fingers are getting tired.

Not a Vinyl fan apparently...

lol

Dear @jjbeason14  : I think it's not if you are or are not a LP fan.

The main issue down there is that Vinyl from start ( recording process ) to end ( playback process ) is a true NIGHTHMARE against digital alternatives.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.

@jjbeason14 Jus' makin' light of the process, a process I often willingly undertake. It's even more fun when I get into a jag of playing my far too many 45rpm singles.

lmfao

Good Times!

@ghdprentice 

Are both still exactly the same after rejuvenating your ears?

or

Do they sound different, but equally enjoyable???

I can’t say that my digital is 100% of the analog, but close.

My kids interrupt my listening with some frequency.  This is more aggravating with vinyl in that the best I can do is mute.  From a different perspective, with two teenage girls, I’m thankful that they are still talking to me.

I have a vinyl and a digital system, and I spend most time listening to vinyl records. Vinyl sounds more organic and engaging to my retired ears. I love digital for streaming Qobuz and discovering new music. It seems to me, to equal the enjoyment I get from vinyl records, I'd have to spend much more on the front end.

One of my all times favorite jazz band is The Necks.

All of the albums they've released on CDs only and there's a very vast reason for that, because each album has only ONE track around an hour long give-take. Obviously you can stop listening to that at any time with your remote, but for some reason I couldn't and listened from the very beginning to the very end non-stop.

@voodoolounge …”Are both still exactly the same after rejuvenating your ears?”

They sound exactly the same. Before and after the procedure.

FYI, the wax issue began and ended in about a month. 

Wax sounds so much like vinyl.

Listening to an entire album all the way through used to be essential to get a feel for what bands tried to convey. At least a whole side. I still do it with newer music even so they may be more song to song oriented. One thing I won't do is listen to bands who's songs are all 3 minutes or under, meaning nothing but radio time frame listening offers. Screw that. Give me much longer songs and I know right away it might be of some artistic value.

for DECADES in the vinyl/shellac era, i wished for an END to the SURFACE NOISE that i just couldn't "listen past" like the audiophiles say i ought. i'm not wired like that [ASD]. when digital and digital audio restoration of noisy/damaged analog FINALLY came along, i jumped in with both feet and have not looked back in over 33 years [since CD took over and home puters became able to accomplish digital audio restoration, making LPs sound less like crackly hissy rumbly LPs and more like analog tapes]. 

You didnot mention how many $$ you have in vinyl turntable, cartridge and phono stage cartridge..  I have found if you cover from your router ,Linear Power Supplies ,quality ethernet hubs ,ethernets cables ,usb cable ,Dac server 

this too all needs to be addressed with quality throughout if you want to better analog , that’s my experience, and I owned a Audio store for 10 years 

apples to apples digital has finally arrived . Reference digital $10-15k  and UP.

analog $10 k is minimum.

I particularly do that with the classic rap/hip-hop albums.  From start to finish I raise my hands in the air like I just don't care!

I just got backi to vinyl and am amazed how great my records sound d this time around. 

I have been finding myself listening to recordings the whole way through.   Probably because I am selective about albums I buy.  I have to like the majority of tracks to buy it in the first place.   

I like the tactile aspect , cueing , flipping it over.  Its nostalgic.    

I did some comparisons of vinyl and their digital counterpart and in most cases the LP sounded better.   

I found some great records I forgot I had so the last two weeks have been fun.   I have my new SOTA Escape really dialed in, I can't believe how good it sounds with the Ortofon 2m Bronze  

If I listen to a record, it's all the way through.  Same goes for CDs.  I have a pretty varied taste and almost none of them are duplicated in the other format. Listening to a record just takes a little more work.  But that's cool......

I’m kinda amazed that apparently no one has developed a simple remoted arm lift function....an LP version of ’pause’.

Digital in general makes it easy to enjoy nearly anything, whereas an LP does commit one to The Ritual and the time to enjoy such...

Which is the Rationale behind it, but do not preach to the crowd. ;)

The eternal circle.  That will never be squared.

I am bored reading all these polarised opinions.  They're not worth a small hill of beans, except to their writers.

We should end this.

The good thing about vinyl is some albums had subliminal messages in them that you could only hear if you spun the record backwards. To my knowledge, you can’t do this with digital. So it’s good to have both. That kinda stuff impresses your friends, especially those today in our digital era who never saw turntables.

Ever vinyl record I ever heard had surface noise, pops and crackles, just one and I'm done, straight back to digital.

VINYL, a labor of love!

I can't trick my ears into enjoying digital as much as analog, it's as simple as that.

I find the same is true with CD’s. It’s just not as convenient to be impatient and jump around. Listening to an album or CD encourages a deeper appreciation of the musicians, writing, style, skill of the performance. I put on a Junko Onishi CD last night (Crusin’) and was blown away once again by her musicality, finesse and amazing talent as a pianist. Had I been streaming I may have not taken the time to listen beyond one or two cuts. Time very well spent.

I have recently subscribed to quobuz. I find myself finding albums I want to listen to and add them to my favorites. When I go to listen to them, I jump from one album to the next. I can’t remember when I’ve listened to an entire album on quobuz. I never thought this would be that way. Crazy. 

I have PVC LP Records that sound better than cd's.  No Snap Crackle or Pop! Most of mine,  Currently giving all my Records a heavy Ultrasonic cleaning.  I've gone through 243 of them so far.  Gust got about 100 to go.  Sadly or not so sadly my old Polk Audio PSW110 Subwoofer died, have a new Outlaw Audio Powered Sub coming.  I'll take a well cleaned LP Analog record over a cd any day of the week!!! When the wife and I are enjoying some drinks I just have to be extra careful changing records. Funny i'm old enough to remember when cd's first came out!  I jumped on that band wagon, have gone full circle, Back to Analog.

Analog is more emotionally engaging, since it's not music chopped into bits and reconstituted with jitter, ringing, etc.  Your brain doesn't have to sort it out.  Digital has gotten much better, but unless these issues are resolved on mega buck equipment, there's still a difference. I listen to both, but when you put on an lp, you sit and listen, and when you put on a cd you do other things.

@ghdprentice 

My nostalgic ears may require rejuvenating. What a long strange trip it's been.

JJbeason14  ? What is your digital system consist of , including Ethernet, and usb cables dac, server ? 
 

and what Is  your analog setup including turntable, cartridge ,and phonostage 

and total investment of  both Analog and Digital 

so others  can see what you are referencing  to . is it 🍎 to 🍏 apples ?

Hearing messages playing backwards like old Beatles records in nostalgic 

but records are so limited, and high maintenance  I just can5 be bother , I have been slowly getting digital when I am happy start8ng with Avery good combo router like the Motorola 8702 ,you never want a separate modem,router  too many extra wires and not as fast or cohesive and the new ones faster processor docsis 3.1 4x faster then older 3.0  allare 12 volt in newer combos ,little green computer 12 v 8 amp Linesr Power Supply $299 put a better Dc cable and a good fuse your stream8ng is that much better ,little green computer buy Sonore Ethernet to Fiber optic  media converter and decent power cords minimum Pangea awg14 se mk2  power cords.  Then on the clean side a Sonore deluxe Femto media converter out to Ethernet  with the excellent Linear Tube Audio LPS power supply .if you truly want to get to reference level you have to eliminate Everything that creates noise  in the signal path.and quality Ethernet cables as well as usb , all are parts of the weak link in the chain, the dac is most $$ and still have the better part of the year to save for a great dac like the T&A 200 dac that’s around $7k. Everything adds up.

I like my music any way I can get it. I will never go on rants that claim one is better than the other. This is all up to the individual listner to decide what they like better. I love my records, cds and streaming all for different reasons. I will say to MY EARS the one thing I notice in listening to records and then streaming is the sound of drums being different. I much prefer the drums in recordings much better on a record. Then I will also say I like the sound of a concert recording better through my dac. But this is me and me only. Enjoy the music!

My system consists of 

B&W DM 630s

Marantz 5004 CD Player

An old Denon mid 80s receiver 50 watts

Very Good Speaker and RCA cables

Technics 1500C TT

I also upgraded the cartridge to the BLUE ortofon...Will probably upgrade again to the bronze.

The TT was $1500

The Marantz was $550

+1 @clearthinker  I didn't really read any of them.  Just figured I'd add a small, non-relevant bean. LoL

I'm open to upgrading the receiver/amp.

Budget would be $2500 Max

Hey @hifiguy42 it's gonna be your ears tricking you, not vice versa.

And @henry53 are you eating dinner off your LPs??  No problem, but you've got to give them a couple of runs in the ultrasound after.

Same here. I just can't sink into digital listening easily - and some days, not at all. I don't agree with assertions that X amount is required to get satisfaction with vinyl, either. I've used a cheap $500 Fluance for a bit, and still preferred it to digital. Also got an old Pioneer R2R with some 30 year old needle drop tapes - still a more engaging listen to me than digital lol.

I like how it promotes active listening. Like, I have to be aware that the side is going to end and then move to lift the arm and change the side/record. With streaming I find myself reverting more to music as background (sometimes - however, in an earlier thread of mine I lamented how my digital rig now eclipses my analog rig in sound presence and quality).

This is one of the most useful posts I've ever seen. With all the gear-head stuff you read on these forums, it's easy to forget that the goal is really listening to music. And may I conjecture that the background listening or multi-tasking listening is not really listening. 

A few years ago, I must admit, attended an invitation only night to listen to $30,000 worth of vinyl system, all new, all pristine, new records, it still had surface noise, pops and crackles. My, then, $500 CD player did not. 

I have about 1000 lp's. Some close to virgin, some have lived thru the party wars of the 70's into the mid 80's. I am looking to sell either individually or as a bundle..any advice other than keeping them. We are downsizing and I also own about 3400 cd's and regularly listen to about 40% of those. The lp's are worth more and larger thus they go first.. i dont check this site regularly..any thoughts I would appreciate email to marbeeny@gmail.com

mambacfa

Great Post! Hear hear!

lol

My great fortune is that from the very start I had a record cleaning system. First was the old dishwasher brush with liquid squirt bottle and then an amazing little machine called a Rec O Vac. The Rec O Vac was an upright plastic machine in which you placed your LP. As it spun, the tiny , soft hairs lifted dust out of the grooves to then be vacuumed away. As a result all of my original 70s, 80s etc LPs sound quite good. For the last many years my various iterations of “Record Doctors” ( thank you Audio Advisor) have been maintaining the old vinyl and protecting the new. 

Everything about vinyl is fun.

Browsing them, buying them, looking at them, playing them, it's all fun.  

I know some will say the inconveniences outweigh the positives (or at least cancel them out) which I can appreciate.  Of course there will then be technical criticisms of the medium. I can appreciate those as well.

I think all would agree that handling/playing CDs, and scrolling through endless, homogenized letters on a screen has nothing on handling a beautiful sleeve, hearing the sound of the stylus hit the lead-in groove, and watching that handsome turntable, with it's shiny black disc, put a show on for you in your living room. The romance is rich with the latter; non-existent with the former. 

"Fun of use" is no contest.

In regards to those endless, homogenized letters on a screen I scroll through, I find the homogenization of music this way robs the individual works of their individuality.  Miles Davis may sit between Minutemen and Mickey Newbury...scroll, scroll, ho-hum..it's all the same..."files"...

Obviously they are not remotely the same. Furthermore, each individual album in an artist's catalog has its own identity.  These things are diminished in a digital format, and maximized in the vinyl format.

I want to appreciate the uniqueness of artists and their individual works from their catalog.

Music is very special, meaningful and important to me, not just another utilitarian application, appliance, another "app," another bunch of "files." 

"Had I been streaming I may have not taken the time to listen beyond one or two cuts. "

Does this make any sense?

All things being equal. Why would the fact that the music is streamed have an effect on how many tracks you listen to? 

Is it that playing vinyl or a cd requires you to get up out of your comfy seat to change albums? Whereas, with streaming you can just sit on your duff and jump from song to song.

Next time you stream, pick an album, put your iPad in the next room and then sit down to listen. 

@edcyn 

"You must lift the vinyl off of the platter, taking into account the sometimes goodly amount of static electricity that has built up between the vinyl and the platter in the meantime."

This used to make my hair stand on end.  It wasn't until I lost (most of) my hair that I realized how important this was in my life.  I moved on to digital.

One of the great things about vinyl……is not having it!

It’s easy to listen all the way to the end of side on an lp.  The timings are short.