That's pretty much my requirement. It's a balance between convenience, quality, durability and cost, and i think CDs seem to have the appropriate balance for me.
Cheers
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Vinyl
- Thread starter hawkeye_a
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That's pretty much my requirement. It's a balance between convenience, quality, durability and cost, and i think CDs seem to have the appropriate balance for me.
Cheers
Are you mostly talking about CD's you burned yourself, i.e., CD-R? Just wondering as we have several hundred factory mastered CDs, including some I bought _way_ back when players were $700 and the available library was about 25-30 titles, and I've never had one spontaneously crap out (you know, vs. getting physically beat up to the point where it wouldn't play)
To me, any "better" audio technology out there like CD will always loose something in the recording to make it fit on CD. (like how compression, but leaving it uncompressed and just tossing info away).
It really depends.... Can u replace records now-days ? Maybe,, but u can always get replacement discs going forward, at least till now.
On the other hand, CD's (and DVD's Blu-ray's) can scratch just as bad if u treat them badly. These days its all about audio files, so there will come a time when you can't get CD's either.
It really depends.... Can u replace records now-days ? Maybe,, but u can always get replacement discs going forward, at least till now.
On the other hand, CD's (and DVD's Blu-ray's) can scratch just as bad if u treat them badly. These days its all about audio files, so there will come a time when you can't get CD's either.
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BTW, what kind of gear do you have? When I was considering getting back into vinyl, I was looking at the AT LP120, U-Turn Orbit and the Pro-Ject Carbon, in various colors/configs. Maybe backed up with a small tube amp (possible a matching pre-amp/amp as needed).
I tried the U-Turn Orbit, but I could hear the motor hum and a buzzing ground loop sound through the headphones, so it was a no-go for me. But I am very picky, more than many audiophiles even, and I admit the problem could've been my preamp. I just refused to use a different one. Haven't tried the Pro-Ject, but it's probably the best of those three (I saw a review of the ATLP120 that classed it as fairly mediocre compared to the Pro-Ject).
Me, I've been exclusively using vintage turntables for the time being. My current set up is a Technics SL-Q3 quartz deck with a Nagaoka MP-110 cartridge. I use a Schiit Mani preamp and Magni 2 headphone amp to listen (since I essentially only listen with headphones).
This guy's accent is a little hard to understand sometimes, but he is my go-to reviewer and is the reason I have the Schiit Mani and the Nagaoka right now:
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I lost quite a few CDs — early 80s pressings.
So nowadays my whole collection has been digitised — some 750GB.
Can't recall when last I popped a disk into a mechanical player.
Edit:
Just to add, but I am no audiophile.
I buy albums that I enjoy listening from front to back. Probably 90% of my collection is music released after 2010, it's expensive so you have to buy albums you cherish. Your listening experience is different since you can't click next or thumbs down with vinyl.
My Google Play Music streaming collection contains many junk tracks from albums I wouldn't buy for $5.
I have a manic setup though, a mixer connected to two turntables, a line input for phones, my PC and a bluetooth receiver. Whenever I don't have a record on I can easily fade into another music source.
My Google Play Music streaming collection contains many junk tracks from albums I wouldn't buy for $5.
I have a manic setup though, a mixer connected to two turntables, a line input for phones, my PC and a bluetooth receiver. Whenever I don't have a record on I can easily fade into another music source.
I lost quite a few CDs — early 80s pressings.
So nowadays my whole collection has been digitised — some 750GB.
Can't recall when last I popped a disk into a mechanical player.
Edit:
Just to add, but I am no audiophile.
Bolded = me neither, so maybe my claim of not having any bad CDs is totally untrue
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... and a microphone?
Exactly. Anytime someone claims the CD version is inferior, it's because it was mastered from an inferior source. CD's are digital. The quality is exactly the same as the source. Vinyl is analog, there will always be some degradation from the source. If they were both mastered from the same source, the CD will always be superior.
Speaking of lost, as in, misplaced ... we have CD's everywhere. I have some in my office on a shelf and in a storage cube, and there's a spinner rack in the bedroom, and my tech-overflow-server-network closet has 2 storage shelves full, and there are some in my bedroom closet, in storage in the attic ... and there are still a handful I can't find ... good grief.
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Bolded is not quite true. A source like someone singing, a guitar or keyboard playing, that's actually analog - now if you're mastering from a digital source, sure D/D can be the exact same.
But if you can hear it, it's analog, if it starts digital it's gone through a D/A conversion. With digital, you're converting the sound into a digital representation with a fixed amount of data vs. analog which has an "infinite" number of points on the sound wave.
The discussion comes in as to whether the number of bytes used to store the wave in a digital form is enough to recreate the original sound - since there is _some_ loss - with enough fidelity that there's no effective difference to the human ear. I think we can agree that as some really low sample rate, it's very detectable, it's at the CD specification where the debate gets messy
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Explain why you feel this way? There is a ton more data you can put on a cd vs an lp. LPs suffer from all the hiss and pops. It's garbage. There's a reason LPs aren't used anymore. Music on a cd paired with good speakers is unbeatable.OK , I understand the convenience of CD vs vinyl records, but to say that CD sounds better
I used to enjoy hitting up a used record store back in the 80s. I drove but that store about a year ago and saw that it was closed. Turned out it closed up about two years ago.
Always enjoyed buying all kind of albums, stuff that I would never think of buying at the $6.99-$8.99 price they were back then but were being sold for $.99-$5 or so used. There were always some gems such as bootlegs by Led Zeppelin and lots of PR copies that stations and other people would get.
I have my fair share of used and Good Will hauls. You could say I like in a city that's hitting peak hipster
. I have about 4 record stores that I could walk to and then countless 2nd hand stores that carry used records.
I have my fair share of used and Good Will hauls. You could say I like in a city that's hitting peak hipster
There are a decent amount of record stores in the Bay too. Though the one closest to me will not charge less than $15 for a single LP, and it's often more like $25. They do have some rare stuff, but their prices in general are absurd.
There's another place farther away that will charge no more than $5 for most classical records, and their "classical clearance" is even less. I've gotten 3-LP operas for $1. And they were in good condition too. Though vinyl can be more expensive than CDs, lately I've been finding it to be cheaper.
I have my fair share of used and Good Will hauls. You could say I like in a city that's hitting peak hipster
We have a
We have a couple of excellent, dedicated vinyl stores too, both have been around a long time, within 2 miles of each other, one is really cool wine/beer bar as well, so we go, have a drink, peruse some vinyl
And all of them sound so much better than CD
What kind of setup do you have (if you don't mind sharing)?
We have aBorders Books, forgot, it's officially a B&N now, in town, and they've got a nice little section of vinyl (they even sell some turntables, low-mid like the LP60). I always enjoy flipping through albums, actually the whole experience is enjoyable, they have a Starbucks inside the bookstore, tons of other non-book items like board games, collectibles, my little G loves going there.
We have a couple of excellent, dedicated vinyl stores too, both have been around a long time, within 2 miles of each other, one is really cool wine/beer bar as well, so we go, have a drink, peruse some vinyl
What kind of setup do you have (if you don't mind sharing)?
No, not at all.
Project 2Xperience with Clear Audio Maestro V2 cartridge
Hegel CDP2
The rest is more than capable to follow those 2.
So there are some great sounding CDs also, but at the end of the day if you compare good production in both Vinyl and CD, vinyl wins every time and there is just nothing in a digital world that can change this. Period.
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Very cool, thanks for the equipment sample. Hey, some folks think a Keurig makes a good cup of coffee ...
What are the used prices running these days for vinyl?I have my fair share of used and Good Will hauls. You could say I like in a city that's hitting peak hipster
Goodwill or thrift stores are usually .50/$1. Record stores that check if the vinyl/sleeve is in good condition, they're usually $3-$8.