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You might be under the impression that, nowadays, everything is consumed digitally, including music. Vinyls have been among the first victims of the digital revolution and most press plants went out of business between 1988 and 1995, with their former employees scattering in all directions. At flea markets, entire collections were sold at knock-down-prices as if vinyls were relics from primitive, slightly embarrassing times. To the amazement of many, vinyls aren't dead- and the music industry now has to rediscover how vinyl works.
Perhaps, you can still remember the days when, with a sense of reverence, you took a record out of its sleeve, carefully placed it on the turntable and watched the pickup as it gently touched the black vinyl. Depending on the record's age, there may also have been some promising crackle before the music began playing. For most listeners, this ritual came to an end with the advent of the CD. No more wear and tear, portability, better sound - you're likely familiar with the arguments spread by the media and the music industry back then. And while everyone was in a digital frenzy and tried to drive up prices, they forgot that music was and still is an affair of the heart.
As vinyl supporters were fighting a rearguard battle, a subculture that spanned all music genres began to emerge. It united lovers of the harmonic distortions that created so many great overtones, enthusiasts who valued the gentle audio clipping that took the roughness out of overmodulated live recordings and everyone else who appreciated the warmer sound of vinyl. They also had objectively verifiable arguments like the formerly amazing large-format cover art that, locked behind a thick layer of plastic, was now shrunken down to the size of a beer coaster. Many considered this a sacrilege.
The best way to enjoy music at home?
The whole attitude towards music changed and, thanks to streaming, led to excessive music consumption. If I wanted to, I could easily go through the day listening to a never-ending barrage of songs, e.g. while I write this blog article. I'd simply type "concentration" into Spotify and that would get me a list 229 songs or 26 hours of music. Granted, the article won't take me that long but if it did, the perfect soundtrack to my work would just be a few clicks away. It's this endless supply that, while comfortable, takes away from the value of music. I could easily go an entire day without making a conscious decision as to what song I want to listen to. Songs that were originally meant to be played in succession as part of a greater fabric, an album, are now being reduced to solo experiences. What was meant as a firework has become a (single) flash in the pan. Thankfully, vinyls are no longer being craved by die-hard record lovers alone.
In England, record sales outperform CD sales from time to time, and vinyls are the only sound storage medium that is experiencing two-digit growth. In Germany, sales have increased to 3.1 million in 2016, that's a plus of 1 million compared to the previous year. Customers are surprisingly young and many of them probably bought their first ever vinyl record just recently. The industry quickly responded and vinyls could now have a place in every multimedia store - if only there were enough plants to press them. Investors who made acyclical investments are probably making a killing right now as all record companies depend on just a handful of press plants that survived the exodus. Likewise, technical skills in this area are also a much sought-after commodity with Sony struggling to acquire enough workers that remember the old production methods. I'd love to know whether a couple of Japanese retirees are suddenly being offered high-paid jobs!
Forums run by vinyl lovers paint a less nostalgic picture. It's the physicality as opposed to loading 4,000 songs onto a MP3 flash drive that appeals to so many, along with a more conscious listening experience. People also discover there's an A and a B side that often create a sort of yin and yang music experience. The huge record sleeves are meticulously studied and artistic inlays or particularly heavy pressings are met with unanimous praise. Music becomes tangible in the true sense of the word. Ultimately, it's about the subjective, the mysterious and, at times, the controversial - the sound. Users openly discuss frequency ranges, compression artifacts and dynamics to support their subjective feelings with a technical underpinning. Many also combine records with digital music for a more varied listening experience - a sensible approach. Sure, no-one honestly expects vinyl to reclaim its former glory but one thing has become delightfully apparent: it's still the customer who's calling the shots and neither industry nor marketing can take anything away from the magic of music.
What I would like to know: are you still (or once again) in love with vinyl and do you occasionally play a couple of records or do you consider this passion romantic nonsense?
Personally I have never left vinyl. Admittedly up until quite recently it was a struggle to buy it for new releases but, with the downfall of CD high street retailers and Amazon broadening its horizons (plus the odd independent specialist shop popping up in my home city), I am once again enjoying new releases the way they should be heard. What I find interesting is that many vinyl releases now offer a free download link for you to listen on your portable device or amazon offering the same once you purchase; now that's the best of both worlds and suits me fine!
Hi Sven. I really enjoyed your article, and have for many years also defended the merits of vinyl over CD. As a student (early 80's) I worked in a Hi-Fi shop which had listening rooms and I was exposed to some of the greatest equipment around then. This was where such things as the 'sound stage' and 'musicality' and other such terms were explained to me.
Well I never got rid of any of my vinyl's, having purchased my first LP around 1975 (which I played on an all-in-one platter/amp unit)! Over the years I collected quite a large library while continuing to get better components. I also got into the CD craze around 1989, but did not go with the crowd and ditch my reasonably upgraded turntable. Eventually I purchased a much better Amp and Speakers (was quite hard to find a good Amp with a phono input!). I still play many of my vinyl albums when the mood takes me, and the sound quality is still excellent. I have continued to purchase vinyl albums when released, having previously had to import these but now my local 'record' shops stock some of the newer releases. So yes, long live vinyl.
Regards, John
As a DJ in the 80's, I amassed a HUGE vinyl collection, which I have added to over the years and still treasure today. I have an analogue stereo system with turntables, a digital USB turntable attached to my desktop for digitizing music that is difficult to replace, and recently I received an all-in-one system for daily enjoyment. I still listen to vinyl regularly, and am very happy to see this revival. IMO, nothing beats vinyl. (And, back at the inception of CDs, I remember vinyl proponents bringing up that certain decibel ranges weren't captured on CD, but were on vinyl. Wonder if that was ever fixed?)
I still have an old Pioneer turntable, and a huge old Sony amplifier with some of those excessively large base boomers from some kid's back seat all wired together. We have never sold our collection of records, although I gave my old .45 collection to our daughter, and they are pretty much worn out, or walked on from years gone by and in pretty bad shape. The 33 1/3'ds though are in wonderful shape, and the Pioneer extracts that music so well, the Sony solid state stereo amp puts out all the watts I will ever need, and I even put on an old set of smaller speakers to play the highs better on the system, so now I get the full range of music when I have a desire to live in the past for about a half hour. The system doesn't put out nearly as wonderful sounds as I recall from my first real stereo that I purchased through Pacex exchange catalog while i was serving in Vietnam, but then back then, when the packages arrived in my hooch, and I unpacked them and set it all up I still had most of my hearing, that has now gone the way of the doe-doe bird, small mini amplifiers now sit behind my ears and little tubes transmit translated sounds into my ears to emulate the music as it plays, gone are the wonderful basses and those high twinkles of little bells that play in the background, but that is the price I paid for serving my country. Thankfully they buy me the hearing aides so I can understand the music without blasting my family out of the room.
I have a very large vinyl collection. I mainly collect 1960's music. With all the good software that is out there you can really clean up the clicks and pops and vinyl that the original owner caused to happen. I much rather have the original vinyl over a CD anytime. It would be great if Ashampoo made some restoration software for vinyl collectors. I have some good software at present but I would try out Ashampoo's since I use a large amount of your other software. You find a lot of recording software on the market but restoration is another thing.
Nice article.
I love vinyl as a music storage medium, for many of the reasons cited in your article. Through several moves over the years, I've lost my collection (not large), and my prized Technics linear tracking turntable was lost in a divorce many years ago.
Would I like to start a new collection and find a new turntable? Yes, but without any real urgency. If equipment and vinyl really makes a comeback in a big way, though, I'm on board for the revival!
Oh absolutely. I still have my vast record collection together with all those that were owned by my late parents and from various other sources.
It is difficult to describe but there is "something" atmosphere/sense of occasion and undeniable "warmth" from placing and playing a vinyl record through a "real" stereo system with high quality speakers.
In my view it is akin to going to the cinema to see a movie - an occasion as opposed to watching it in the television.
I am an unabashed Audiophile. Am a member of the Audio Engineering Society. Music is analog. I listen to and enjoy MP3s, CDs, "uncompressed" digital streams and whatever. When I want to capture/understand what the artist and sound engineer tried to convey in their recording session, I almost always revert to analog. Granted, this is not often, because it is not "convenient" or easy. Vinyl requires cleaning, care in handling and often substantial investment. Digital is quick and easy and relatively inexpensive.
Disclaimer: I have a fairly substantial open-reel tape library and over 40,000 vinyl records and a fairly substantial investment in playback equipment (and no earbuds.)
I have been waiting for years for a laser vinyl record reader! The sapphire needle used in a clockwork record player smooths out the grooves on a 78 after a while. With an X/Y plotter-type system and IR tracking, the record wouldn't even need to spin and with interferometry, an analog signal could be produced.
I thought of this before CDs but never could afford the bits to try it out.
C.H.
Clinton Herd. what software are you using to digitize your vinyl with? I don't see anything in the Ashampoo line that will work. I use VinylStudio.
Hello Sven
I am 81 and grew up playing 78 rpms, and today I still have
many vinyl 33 rpms from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and play them
quite often. I have the first album that Ramsey Lewis made.
Jim
That prompted me to check out Ramsey Lewis right away. :)
Hello Sven,
in our small town here in New Zealand we have a kindly gentleman who has a Huge vinyl collection (yes, I have seen it).
He has set up his own radio station (not powerful so only available locally). His vinyl classic music is played for all of us to enjoy 24 hours a day & 7 days a week, without adverts & occasionally he quietly announces that we (the listeners) are listening to music from the "Music Room" which is broadcasting on such & such a frequency& from the town.
Now that is dedication to vinyl.
What a great way to act out your passion for music!
I never gave up vinyl. In the past no one wanted to hear my vinyl collection. Now they come knocking at my door. I was buying when no one wanted vinyl and the price was low. That has all changed.
My system is vintage 70`s and still sounds great.
John
Seven years ago, we decided to downsize and move back to the area in which we had grown up. Reluctantly, I decided not to take my collection of carefully nurtured LPs( >300) and EP(>60) dating from the 1950s with us and managed time to digitally copy about 70 favourites to CD. No-one but no-one was interested in acquiring them and eventually I gave them away to a charity shop. Where I live now, the 2nd hand shops, then, were selling old LPs for pennies . Suddenly the craze for vinyl happened. Looking at prices now, even including the 1950s LPs many in pristine condition, my collection would be probably be worth £2000-3000 even at 2nd hand. Would I have them back to replace my CDs. NO!! My hearing at 80yrs of age does not deserve them.
In response to 'moi's comment below, if you think CD sound is better than vinyl, then either you used an incredibly poor turntable, or you are just plain deaf. CD's only contain a tiny fraction of the musical information that is present on an LP, so it is a physical impossibility for you to hear 'more' on the CD, because so much of that information is not present on the CD that is there on the vinyl. I worked for many years in the hi-fi industry, from 1980 to the mid 90's, and spent much of that time doing comparative demos of LP vs CD, and guess what; vinyl ALWAYS came out on top. I never had even one customer who made the comparison, who preferred the CD to the LP; there is simply no contest.
More recently, I have begun buying vinyl again, but now I use my Linn LP12/Linngo/Ekos/AT-OC9 Mk 3/Linn Kairn pre to create digital copies through my Asus Xonar audiophile soundcard at 96kHz/24 bit resolution and save them onto my network attached storage so I can access them from anywhere. Whilst not quite as good a sound as the LP itself, it is close enough, and more convenient. I only use CD if there is no better option (like SACD, DVD Audio, blu-ray audio, or hi-res download) and to play in the car, but LP is still my first choice.
And lastly, if I hear one more person say that vinyl 'sounds warmer' than digital, I will scream; that is complete rubbish; vinyl simply sounds more like real musicians actually playing music, that's all.
Apologies for bringing up the „warmer sound“. I wouldn’t want any of our readers to scream. :)
I am gradually digitising my old record collection. Thankfully, with the return of vinyl technology, I was able to purchase a good turntable and preamplifier to pick up the real quality hidden in the grooves. As age takes away my high frequency hearing, the difference between harsher digital and softer vinyl sound becomes less obvious. I am grateful I kept my record collection, and always looked after my records carefully.
The death of Vinyl for many music lovers was largely down to the very poor pressings by cynical companies like CBS who were notorious for recycling old records, including the labels and cardboard boxes which could be seen and heard in their records. I had to return many albums with paper and cardboard pressed into the records (especially during the petrol shortages of the 1970's and 1980's). Good old Linn and Nimbus produced perfect albums with no surface noise at all.
Nimbus adverts claimed to be one of the very few who used virgin vinyl, their records were flat and the hole was in the middle. How true, and the sound difference was great. Many of us will remember returning albums which arrived warped or albums that the record shop had played on their Garrard or BSR decks in the shop, once they did that the "frying" background sound was implanted on the disc for good when using real Hi-Fi turntables.
Although I have a large collection of Vinyl in superb condition, I stopped using my records simply because I became fed up getting up to change sides every 20 minutes once CD's became very good sound quality. I progressed from a Thorens with various SME arms to a Linn turntable but for most purposes my SACD player sounds just as good and I can relax for longer when listening to decent recordings. Digital has been spoilt too by the makers, with over recording to satisfy the MP£ market common on most media since the 1980's. (There are noticeable improvements by re-recording CD's at about 6dB reduction using anti-clipping software). So the manufacturers bear full responsibility for the inconsistent state of recordings whether vinyl or digital.
Dear Sven,
Could you do an article on tubes and their role in the amplification of sounds. I once read that the non-linearity of a tube's amplification characteristics (as opposed to a transistor) produces a more "human, warmer sounding" sound, that is desirable for audiophiles. I enjoy your articles. Keep up your good work!
Bob Zajdel
I’ll gladly check whether I can find enough material for a blog article. It would make for an interesting read and maybe I can come up with something that appeals to more than just a handful of specialists.
I still have an expensive turntable that I have had for years. Have not used it for some time. Have a friend who won't listen to anything but vinyl. Mind you, he the closest I've ever come to a true audiophile and has spent a fortune on his hi fi.
Maybe it’s time for turntables to come back? :) I’ll admit I’ve had a several years long break, too.
Yeah, I grew up with Vinyl. I remember with affection the hisses, the pops, the crackles. I also remember the scathing criticism of the old guard criticizing CD's as not producing a clean linear sound and that you missed a lot of what was on vinyl yadda yadda yadda.
If that was so, then how come on CD's we could hear things that we could NEVER hear on vinyl? Oh yeah, there was stuff that just never came through the needle and translated into sound. Classic example being Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Had it in a well worn vinyl, a relatively new vinyl and ultimately one of my very first CD's. A comparative listening showed that of all 3 recordings the CD was FAR superior in clarity and reproducing ALL that was recorded.
Now, what do we have? People who are effectively saying "Vinyl is dead, long live Vinyl"???? Oh puhleez, give me a break. Digital is the ONLY way to produce clean clear sound. And the space in between the bits is so infinitesimally small that the human ear cannot discern it.
Unfortunately most of my listening is in the car or on the motorbike, not ideal for vinyl. Strangely enough I have a significant number of high bit rate MP3s recorded painstakingly from my old vinyl collection alongside later MP3 versions. I actually prefer the ones with the faithfully high bit rate recorded scratches. That's how they came when I was young and I listen to them because I loved them when I was young. It's as close a digital approximation as I can get!!!
Despite wave-particle duality, quantum physics, Heisenberg and his dice........ MUSIC IS, ALWAYS WAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE ANALOG!!
I still have a reasonable size collection (mixed) and have retained a reliable turntable which often gives me great pleasure to listen to.
Thanks for your comment! We’ve already had plenty of feedback from vinyl lovers in the German comment section and I’m excited to see how our international audience will respond.
I love vinyl and collecting, if possible. A lot of old. When progress came in the audio playback, I never threw away and now collect. I'm not a fan. Just nostalgia. Sometimes it's nice to hear and remember the youth.