I sold my collection of nearly 3000 LP's about 5 years ago and havent looked back. I am completely satisfied with my system.
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For me, it has nothing to do with it being vinyl or any other medium. There is music that I was sure I would never listen to again and then gave away. Ten years later, I found myself back into some of that music I know longer had. Tastes and feelings change on the path of life and you never know what music you may revisit and either see it anew or find a different perspective that rekindles its value. Then again, there is something to be said for cleansing oneself of all possessions and following a path free of materiality. Either way, enjoy the moment and cherish your friends and loved ones. |
Hartwerger, That's a nice meandering non-answer. Thanks for the thoughts. Actually, I've found myself in that exact situation where I am revisiting music from past decades and really enjoying it. I'm very happy that I kept my vinyl collection. I doubt that I would ever sell it. Plus, right now my vinyl sounds better than my CD's. Besides, soon CD's will probably go out of favor and I'd much rather sell those if I had to choose. Let's face it, the marketeers of large corporations are the ones who dictate which media formats we consumers will be allowed to purchase. BTW, if you want to cleanse yourself and eschew your materiality, I'd give a good home to your Mapletree preamp and Music Reference amp. :) |
For me it wasn't intentional; I lost most of my LP collection in a flood around 1980 and my turntable broke a couple years later. I made do with the LPs I'd recorded to my reel-to-reel and waited for CDs and players to become available and affordable. Replacing LPs with CDs proved to be a frustrating process: For one thing, the CD versions sounded like ass--bleached, bare, soulless, and for another, many of my favorite jazz albums took decades--if ever--to get reissued. In some cases, if you blinked you missed the reissue. There were very limited CD reissues by Quincy Jones' and Lee Michaels which are out of print and fetching $70+ on eBay. Finally, 2 mos. ago I bought a turntable and buy used LPs at $1-5 each. Since I did that I'm hooked and now I'm buying LPs for which I have CDs. I like the sound and the playback effect on my mood so much better. My regrets are: 1) I didn't replace my ruined LPs with new ones after the flood, 2) didn't replace or fix my turntable when it stopped working, and 3) didn't raid the used stores and garage sales in the late '80s and early '90s when so many people dumped their perfectly good LPs for next to nothing because they'd "gone digital." |
I sold almost all my vinyl in one fell swoop about 10 yrs. ago.I've spent the last 5 yrs. buying it back.This is not a fidelity issue.I have great sounding CD playback systems and the little silver discs are so much more convenient.It's just comforting to go through the record playing ritual.I listen mostly to CD,but every once in a while I'll clean and spin a black 12 inch disc(on my new Scoutmaster or on my vintage Dual CS 5000).It's also a heck of a lot easier for these 49 yr. old eyes to read the lyrics and liner notes on an LP. |
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Well, sort of, but you have to factor in the price of a turntable to get started. My personal resurgence in vinyl is because after 20+ years of pretending that CDs provide satisfying music, I threw in the towel--I don't get the emotional response I get with vinyl, so I bought a turntable instead of yet another upgraded CD/SACD/DVD-A/DVD player. Most new LPs cost more than CDs. They start at about $15.99 and shoot up rapidly from there. Many are around $20; the new Warner 180g reissues are $24.98--like an XRCD or nicer SACD. Nice remastered LPs from Speakers Corner or Classic Records are $30-32. I got back into vinyl for the musical enjoyment. I'd rather have a library of 80 LPs that I return to again and again than 800 CDs I dread playing. |
Johnnyb53, you cannot argue with Uranuscommittee. He is the authoritative expert on all things digital, analogue, transistor, vacuum tube and transformer. He knows it all. With his 20 y/o CD player and transformer fed Stax earphones, he hears the very best and he KNOWS you are wrong in liking vinyl. :-) Regards Paul |
I sold off (more aptly, sold out) my LPs and went digital some time ago. A couple of engineering buddies convinced me that digital was better. I should have had the presence of mind to listen to their Hifis before taking their advice. I regret selling the LPs I had before, but fortunately I have managed to replace everything I had (and then some) so it is no real train smash. I made a mistake, but I was able to correct it. I managed to trade most of my CDs in for used LPs at a local store. Now thats something I wont regret ... ever. Regards Paul |
Well, geez, I sort of knew that, but I think it's safe to say that most of the same people who sold off/dropped off their vinyl in the '80s/90s got rid of their turntables too. How do you account for the BIG upswing in turntable models available? If there weren't a general vinyl renaissance, Music Hall and Pro-Ject would be scaling back or going out of business and Rega would be down to 2 or 3 models. Instead, they've all expanded their lines. They wouldn't be doing that if people weren't going out and buying NEW turntables in increasing numbers. And I doubt that most people are ponying up $800-2000 turntables just to hit the garage sales at a quarter a pop. The vinyl resurgence mentioned in the audiophile press is addressing the increase in NEW vinyl sales. It's an easy statistic to track, much easier than tracking traffic in used vinyl. It's also easy to find out that what new LPs cost vs. CDs. A 10-second visit to http://www.acousticsounds.com reveals that most LPs are $20 and up. |
Well, geez, I sort of knew that, but I think it's safe to say that most of the same people who sold off/dropped off their vinyl in the '80s/90s got rid of their turntables too. How do you account for the BIG upswing in turntable models available? If there weren't a general vinyl renaissance, Music Hall and Pro-Ject would be scaling back or going out of business and Rega would be down to 2 or 3 models. Instead, they've all expanded their lines. They wouldn't be doing that if people weren't going out and buying NEW turntables in increasing numbers. And I doubt that most people are ponying up $800-2000 for turntables just to hit the garage sales at a quarter a pop. The vinyl resurgence mentioned in the audiophile press is addressing the increase in NEW vinyl sales. It's an easy statistic to track, much easier than tracking traffic in used vinyl. It's also easy to find out what new LPs cost vs. CDs. A 10-second visit to http://www.acousticsounds.com reveals that most LPs are $20 and up. The REAL reason for the vinyl upswing is that vinyl has returned as the high resolution medium of choice. The choices were SACD, DVD-A, and LP. The suits never delivered digital hi-rez (SACD, DVD-A) in the numbers and variety promised. Now audiophiles are voting for LP with their pocketbooks. After all, DSD may sample at 2.7 megahertz, but the resolution of analog is granular down to the oxide or vinyl molecules. |
You act like I'm trying to convince you of the superiority of vinyl. I don't care what you prefer. If anything, Whoopee! More vinyl for the rest of us. You're the one who hypothesized that a vinyl resurgence is based on how cheaply one can pick up used vinyl. You didn't even know that new vinyl is more expensive than CDs, and is as much or more than SACDs and XRCDs. When the audiophile press talks about a vinyl resurgence, it's talking about new vinyl being played on products of a thriving new turntable industry, whether that's your personal preference or not. People aren't just dusting off their uncle's Garrard and picking up Paul Revere and the Raiders at the garage sale down the street. They're buying new $350-to-$1500 all-manual turntables and playing new vinyl releases that cost $20-35. New vinyl and new turntable sales are at their highest points in over 10 years, and old turntables and thrift shop vinyl don't figure into those statistics. |
