What is it about spinning vinyl?

Maybe you should take up smoking until your Cosmos arrives. Now there’s a habit former.

@mijostyn, I feel you, there is just something about the process. Enjoy the music

It's a pain in the A#$ to spin vinyl. Cleaning, handling, gentle touches as not to print, so why.  

It just feels good. Sounds great but feels good too.

Love to stream but it is just listening, no real feel.
Spinning vinyl makes you a part of the experience not just an audience.

It is fascinating to watch rotating objects!

@mijostyn--do you own any original Vertigo Swirls? If you are in the mindset, you can just watch the record spinning....

Interesting variation on ’Everything from Abba to Zappa’, I guess you don’t like Abba? Anyway, it make me put on Trout Mask (on vinyl of course)😎

The ritual of putting on a record seems like some sort of magical act, with or without a Magic Band. It involves a tactile sensation that demands concentration, giving the impression of being involved in something substantial. It literally sets the stage mentally for an experience that has the potential of being emotionally rewarding. Performing this ritual is basically what draws you into the music. Instructing a computer to ’play’ a digital file (or hit ’play’ on a cd player) gives you none of that.

’Round things are boring’ is the closing statement on Lumpy Gravy, but we know better, don’t we?

You have a preference for a deeply rooted habit. Probably one of many. May have nothing to do with vinyl, per se. 

@whart , There was a record with vertigo swirls on the label. I want to say Strawberry Alarm Clock but I'm not sure.

edgewear, I think Zappa was referring to music, always going round to the same place vs a linear progression but what do I know?

hilde45, probably right but I would modify that to say a deeply routed enjoyable habit vs a self destructive one? Is being and audiophile self destructive? I think it is a safe place to put our quest for stimulus variation. Financially self destructive? I suppose if you haven't the money.
It's not like I refused to get my kids braces or send them to school. It may have supplanted a vacation of two. 

I do know that I love paging through my records much more than running down a list of files. I love paging through records anywhere. We have a local record store which I'll visit when I have a free moment just to flip through the record bins. So, maybe it is a derivation of the record collecting bug. Collecting files is not the same. You only get music, which is fine as far as the music goes. When I want to listen to a piece I'll happily go to whatever format it's in. It is not really a "collection" as there are no physical attributes. 

notnow0329, I never looked at it as being a PITA. It is a ritual. To me it is like shifting a car. Don't have to think about it. Totally automatic. It just happens. 

@lewm, get with it! None of us smoke anymore. We get gummies or drops;-)

The LP ritual is one of the few things lin ife that ISN'T cancerous, offensive to someone else and lowers my blood pressure without undesirable side effects.

I left a stack albums on the corner of my block last night for someone else to enjoy. My double/triple copies that didn't make my STAMPER cut.

Hopefully someone will actually enjoy them, but likely a homeless person picked them up and will try to cash them in at my neighborhood store.
They will be sadly disappointed when they are told 50 cents each!

I got this real urge to play a record. The wizard inside did not feel like turning the computer back on. It wanted a record. Grumpy, I decided to hit the sack.
Think about that. I have a terabyte and a half of digital files sitting there in a hard drive. Everything from Bach to Captain Beefheart. It had to be a record. No record, bedtime. It was not about the music.

You have just explained how digital converts music to a commodity, while playing an LP has you present to the music.

@mijostyn,
Zappa may well have suspected that the idea of linear progression is an illusion as well as a mentality that has wreaked havoc on the planet. But what do I know?

Ben Watson, the British scholar who wrote 'The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play' about Zappa's music, proposes that 'boring' might also be interpreted as 'piercing', 'probing' or 'drilling'. Perhaps too far fetched, but it certainly puts another 'spin' on it. It's a vicious circle, you got it?

@whart  - I own Patto - "Patto" on Vertigo Swirl. I love it! And it's fun to watch it spin around.....

edgewear, a mutant industrial vacuum cleaner dances about a mysterious night time camp fire. Festoons. Dozens of imported castanets, clutched by the horrible suction of it's heavy duty hose, waving with marginal erotic abandon in the midnight autumn air. This linear progression wreaked havoc on the drug laden minds of flower power adolescents.

Weasels Rip my Flesh, Neon Park, Sailing Shoes, Lowell George, Hot Rats. Circular. 

Ralph, I think you need more of whatever edgewear is taking:-)

Mijostyn

Exactly what I mean. Driving a manual transmission car is a PITA but it sure is fun. Makes you feel more engaged with the driving experience. You become part of the machine that is your car.
Spinning vinyl is a PITA but you are engaged, almost like you are part of the performance you are enjoying. The side benefit of this tactile experience is simply how wonderful it sounds.

Mijostyn, that’s quite an imaginative description of Chunga’s Revenge. If the unsuspecting hippies didn’t get enough punishment from his wrath, we could send in Nanook to rub their eyes in a circular motion with the deadly yellow snow, right there where the husky’s go.

Dropping Zappa quotes in the middle of a conversations when you least expect it is source of amusement we greatly enjoy in this household. Another harmless ritual for people who have outgrown the ordinary.

@reubent -- Bad assed album. Even the US pressing of the first album is fabulous compared to the UK, which is polite sounding by comparison. Second album of theirs, also on Swirl, is equally brilliant, but sadly, the US pressing is terrible. I was fortunate to find a UK copy in top condition. Ollie Halsall, while generally unknown, was apparently very influential, and brought a vibraphonist's sensibility to his guitar playing, doing tap harmonics on lead lines. Mike? Patto eventually went to Spooky Tooth if memory serves.
 Most people know the label, if at all, b/c of Black Sabbath or possibly Gentle Giant, but that catalog had some real "head" stuff for the era-- Patto is great, ditto the first May Blitz and if you are into "prog," both Cressida albums on Swirl are wonderful (the UK of their 2nd album, Asylum, is now 4 figures for a minty copy). I got in late, but still found some bargains along the way. Some of the stuff isn’t really "me"- the Catapilla albums, while rare (particularly the 2nd one) are pretty strange; ditto Dr. Strangely Strange-Heavy Petting and some others. However, there are some jewels in there-- and of course, Sabbath rocks really hard on the early UK Swirls. (first through Vol4 released on Swirl until they left the label).
I’m always telling people the best value in these is the 1970 Annual- UK pressing- a two record "sampler" of tracks from some pretty recherché albums. It gives you a taste of some of the great stuff without the heavy tariff, although it’s been some years since I shopped that album.
You are invited anytime! :)

You guys are funny.  And so repetitive.

We tend to forget that listening to music is a 100% subjective experience, and the state of mind is the key component that dictates the experience.

As with many things in life, the returns are commensurate with the effort we put in. With LP, we are actively engaging ourselves in the process of listening to music. With the LP ritual we leave the world and our worries behind, and we prepare our minds to listen to music. If you are healthy and able and complain about it (legitimate health reasons are exception!) shame on you - are we so atrophied as a species that taking a black disc out of its cover and laying it flat down on a spinning surface defies our abilities and endurance?
With digital we miss this step of concentration. The modern smartphone user can only handle the push of a button, and whines when he is forced to take five steps. So, we start the playlist and our brain continues in "this is usual background listening" mode and it's unwilling to zone on the experience. Our lifetime habit with playlists is superficial listening, and your brain will not forget decades of training simply because we upgraded our streamers or got a better DAC....

There is a lot to the physical act of playing vinyl that makes it interactive and fun there is no soul to a digital download or file on a computer.

I think “what it is” with vinyl is the sound. It’s better.  Not to sound like the brain police or anything (who?).

We tend to forget that listening to music is a 100% subjective experience, and the state of mind is the key component that dictates the experience.

I find that adding 2+2=4 to be a 100% subjective experience.

Oh wait. I don't. Because I don't make up the meanings behind the numbers or the plus sign operator.

Similarly, I do not make up the sound of a violin vs. a tuba, very loud vs. very soft, etc. 

@whart , Do you collect stamps also?

realworldaudio, darn that was a scorcher! High Five! I think your IQ is higher than mine.

@jollytinker , I obviously am very fond of playing vinyl however, there are some excellent files. They are easily as good sounding or better than a lot of vinyl. When I am listening it really does not matter what to. Once I am in my rocking reclining chair, eyes closed remote in the right hand rocking and toe tapping, it really does not matter, it is all about sound. 

tomcy6, you have a sick sense of humor:-) 

edgewear, Evelyn a modified (fill in the blank). You have 2 seconds.......BEEP!  (maybe that was a second and a half). My daughters are expert. My wife's a bit confused. Dynamo Hum, Zappa's curse.

mijostyn- nope, nor coins, comix, or other stuff. I was into cars for a while- had some nice ones. I'm also not a completist. Why?
BTW, how come if I tag you @mijostyn, it doesn't call you out?
And what's your name for short? I want to call you Milo but I don't want to disrespect you. 

Personally I think you just need to sit back dim the lights and dive into the sounds, I’m tetraplegic and the digital process of listening to music is a game changer, no getting up n down etc (which I can’t do) so for me personally I love it digital. 

Two second with different time zones, are you kidding?😅. But time is an affliction anyway, thanks to Gregory Peckery who invented the calender. Evelyn of course was of the canine persuasion. Apparently related to Fido, the poodle 'with the oral appendage that was much to her liking'.

It's habit forming.
How many of we vinyl afficionados also prefer mechanical clocks and wristwatches and cars with carburettors and stick shifts?
I have two big old clocks, many watches and four 70s cars as well as the vinyl rig and 3500 LPs.
Modern stuff is soul-less.

@whart, it does call me out but there are long periods I can't make it to the web site. I'm too busy documenting BS for the bureaucrats so they can know all about your health history and hang you with it. It's Mike, the mi in mijostyn. You certainly know a lot more about obscure records than I do!

mrmeaner, good for you!. I have a 45 year old patient with muscular dystrophy. He is wheel chair confined but still has a little power in his hands, enough to operate the joy stick in a wheel chair van and on his wheel chair. He is recently retired from teaching music to middle schoolers. He is worse than a dead head when it comes to Rush. Digital is a godsend for him. The secret to a successful life is learning to have fun in spite of it. Then I've  had people with "bad backs" who want to go on disability. Bends my mind.

edgwear, who wore the "nackin's" ? I'd ask why but I think that's to graphic for these light weights:-)

clearthinker, wristwatches are artwork of an insane degree. The Apple watch is junk. I just sold my 911 Turbo S PDK. I have much more fun driving my 06 C4S manual. No more PDKs for me. Been there, done that.
Now GT3 vs GT4? What do you think?

You mean 'napkins'? Pink or black? At Warner Bros executive dinner parties? Mo Austin? Miss Pinky? I'm confused.

@mrmeaner thanks for keeping it real.  

@mijostyn  I get your point. I was just pushing back against the 'we love the ritual' narrative. I understand that point of view and I share it to some extent, but at the end of the day it's the sound that keeps me coming back to vinyl. The ritual is mostly a PITA to me, so if it weren't for the sound quality - in better LPs with a well tweaked system - I don't think I'd bother.  

I actually spend most of my time listening to digital these days and over the last year I've spent a crap ton of money building a digital front end. But sooner or later I have a moment like the one you described in your original post, when I find myself craving the sound of a good LP. At the end of the day, to my ears, it's still a better illusion. 

Almost all my listening is dedicated to vinyl.
Only listen to digital when in my office.
With a nice headphone rig in the office I am interested. It sounds very good. An intellectual experience. But listening to the TT rig, I am swept away into the music. An emotional experience.
I am touched by the performers in a way that just doesn’t happen with digital.
Thankfully, even with a very bad back, I am still able to get up and attend to the record. It’s one of my nice duties. Choosing a disc, putting it on the platter, turning on the TT, brushing off the LP, “spraying” it with the static gun, cleaning the stylus, moving the arm to the run in, going back to the chair to sit back and let the sound roll over me. Truly a great joy.

Thanks for your reply mijostyn
I think not GT3 GT4.   I have a 997 GT2 530 horses to the rear wheels, turbo'd.  208mph, 7.6s to 100.  6 speed stick.  Wonderful.
I also have 1984 3.2 Carrera Sport.  Since 1986.  A keeper.

I had a drive in a 992 a week back.  Drives itself.  Much too big.  Yes it is very competent but utterly uninvolving.

clearthinker, yes, too big. GT4 is a Cayman, a little smaller. The 3.2 may be the best engine Porsche ever made. I buy cars to drive and the air cooled cars require too much work over time. My C4S is a 997.1, best looking of the water cooled cars, speed yellow. I drive it all year round, it's my daily driver. I know every nut and bolt on the car. The GT3 is a different animal. It is big but boy is it bad assed. 

edgewear! The Mammy Nuns! (Thingfish) 

Ah yes! Now that I remember how that story went I get the 'who' as opposed to the 'why' in your question. I failed miserably, but then again I'm not a native speaker. Yet I can imagine most folks living in Amnerica will have a hard time following that particular 'vernacular' as well.