LPs .... Are LPs REALLY BETTER THAN CDs ???

Three biggest draws in favour of LPs:
- Analog sound (warm, involving)
- Retro feel & eye candy
- Pride of ownership and user engagement

Three biggest dissuaders against LPs:
- Sonic disturbances (hiss, pops)
- Maintenance & Storage
- Cost

So generally, you are likely to go for LPs if you are ‘older, richer and have more leisure’. And less likely if opposite (with exceptions of course).

Personally I am somewhere between these two profiles, CDs with tube amplification is my optimum.

Warning: Whether LPs or CDs, getting the right album versions and prints makes a huge difference to the listening pleasure.
 
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Your are spot on. I am striving to LEARN.

IMHO wrong time to enter into Vinyls as an experiment..too expensive these days unless you are in it for long term ! its helps if you already have a small collection but buying now is not worth it IMHO as 7 years ago you could get these for 1/3rd the current price for good condition vinyl and 1/10th for average. The TT+Cartridge+Phono itself is expensive and starting a vinyl at 1500-2000 a piece means even a reasonable collection of 50 is an investment .

If you did have a collection of vinyls then this can get you to bliss like nothing. With a well maintained record and a good cartridge which is well setup there is hardly any other noise and even if it is there the music is so wholesome that you will not even hear it.

BTW If you do want to get into it, do also listen to the advice of those who have it and use it ;)
 
Three biggest draws in favour of LPs:
- Analog sound (warm, involving)
We will never know if record one is hearing is pure analogue or not or how many changes it went through. Some direct to disc records are there and are specifically mentioned on cover. Some direct metal mastering too. Some very well mastered analogue pre digital era must be present. but we never know. Digital delay (a process known to be used so as cutter head knows whats coming to be cut on record) was used as early as 70s. A typical vinyl in earlier days used to go through master tape > Noise reducer > Filters > Equilizers > Compression (Yes not only cds but most vinyl needed compression) > Sibilance remover controls > some controls used by mastering engineers to make vinyl sound good > Very High Power (No Class A or SET ) cutting amplifier then used to cut records. usme original jaisa kuchh bachta hi nahi. So people who are worried about speaker phases, and response, analogue sound and true to original recording are worrying too much. The content is heavily altered.
Just put a record on the turn table. Listen. if it sounds better then audio CDs. keep them in your collection. Enjoy when you are in mood. Some also collect records as a hobby. Nothing wrong in that too and I respect that. A friend who shifted to Pune had more than 5K record collection. I have enjoyed listening to records and also enjoyed knowing Mechanical aspects of its sound reproduction.
And dont forget the lure of cover art :)
They dont do things like these anymore
Regards

IMHO wrong time to enter into Vinyls as an experiment..too expensive these days ;)
Exactly. I started with 50 Rs. Things are super expensive now. To encourage I gave away players and records free. Some are with friends and they are sitting in their loft or cabinets. No longer they listen to it. They are not giving it back either. Neither are they selling it.. Such is lure of these things.
Regards
 
Three biggest draws in favour of LPs:
- Analog sound (warm, involving)

Not necessarily...you can change the sound character significantly by changing the VTA and in many other ways in a TT, and they all don't sound warm or even similar. If it is a rumbly machine, there may be some deep bass noise which falsely gives the impression of warmth. You also seem to imply that a CD Player is not involving, but that may not be necessarily true either.

Three biggest dissuaders against LPs:
- Sonic disturbances (hiss, pops)

If you play good / mint LPs, there is no noise at all.

Great !!! This is the kind of first hand experienced answer I am looking for.
can you please share the GULAM ALI CD title if possible a pic of it
Thank you.

It is called "Golden Moments; Ghulam Ali; Le Chala Jaan Meri; The Best from Live Concerts - Vol.1; RPG CDNF 152117 ADD". It is quite magical, considering it is a live recording, and usually such recordings are not as clean as studio recordings in front of a small listening group.
 
Not necessarily...you can change the sound character significantly by changing the VTA and in many other ways in a TT, and they all don't sound warm or even similar. If it is a rumbly machine, there may be some deep bass noise which falsely gives the impression of warmth. You also seem to imply that a CD Player is not involving, but that may not be necessarily true either.

These were generalised observations and not scientific truths. No wonder you find exceptions and deviations. Generalisations only help someone seeking an broad understanding, and never aim to establish an absolute truth.


If you play good / mint LPs, there is no noise at all.

Right, and they cost upto Rs 15000. Hence the three dissuader points need to be read together.
 
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IMHO wrong time to enter into Vinyls as an experiment..too expensive these days unless you are in it for long term ! its helps if you already have a small collection but buying now is not worth it IMHO as 7 years ago you could get these for 1/3rd the current price for good condition vinyl and 1/10th for average. The TT+Cartridge+Phono itself is expensive and starting a vinyl at 1500-2000 a piece means even a reasonable collection of 50 is an investment .

If you did have a collection of vinyls then this can get you to bliss like nothing. With a well maintained record and a good cartridge which is well setup there is hardly any other noise and even if it is there the music is so wholesome that you will not even hear it.

BTW If you do want to get into it, do also listen to the advice of those who have it and use it ;)

From a collector’s point of view, very true. Instead I believe it’s good time to pick good prints of CDs at good price - available typically at Rs 100-200 a piece from old CD resellers. My strike rate is roughly 1 gem, 2 decent and 2 duds in every 5 picks making it a worthwhile effort. I am not banking/planning on it, but am wary of the possibility that few years hence there could be a vintage CDs revival taking these costs to stratospheric levels making it difficult to buy them. (Already one sees some resellers selling NOS at 200-300% premium on Amazon India).


Dead horse. Already beaten many times on this forum.

But will never cease to attract wider and passionate participation. Gets some otherwise quiet members going too. Good for the forum. Somewhat like a ‘loss leader’ strategy :)
 
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These were generalised observations and not scientific truths. No wonder you find exceptions and deviations. Generalisations only help someone seeking an broad understanding, and never aim to establish an absolute truth.

I did not mean to say that in exceptional cases, CDs sound involving and LPs don't sound warm. I meant that as a general observation myself. TTs and CDPs sound equally sharp or warm or lush or whatever and there are variations between makes and in the case of TTs, due to setup. I only said that rumbly TTs may have caused the spread of a wrong impression that TTs are generally warm. Trust it is clear.
 
Just to add my own experience and an honest opinion as a music lover (not as an audiophile which I’m not), I have a fairly ok turntable at home, around 150 LPs, very resolving digital setup and I have heard different DACs at my home including chord quest and high end r2r dac. The LPs for songs recorded before mid 1980s(if recorded well and in good condition ) will beat all DACs and cds using same amplifier and speakers. this i found generally true. Especially golden age Bollywood songs dont even bother to try those on CD format and compare, it’s a waste of time. The music made after mid 1980s mostly sound good enough on cds and i dont tend to bother my turntable for most of those songs. If you still like warm and full sounding vinyls and don’t want to go vinyl route, get a good r2r dac that will add for around 50-60% of vinyl like sound and keep you satisfied alot without going vinyl route.
 
From a collector’s point of view, very true. Instead I believe it’s good time to pick good prints of CDs at good price - available typically at Rs 100-200 a piece from old CD resellers. My strike rate is roughly 1 gem, 2 decent and 2 duds in every 5 picks making it a worthwhile effort. I am not banking/planning on it, but am wary of the possibility that few years hence there could be a vintage CDs revival taking these costs to stratospheric levels making it difficult to buy them. (Already one sees some resellers selling NOS at 200-300% premium on Amazon India).

Thankfully I had started a nice CD collection right from early 2000's and hence a nice collection .. gave away a lot of bad pressings over the years and have only good ones now. in fact picked up a Chanda Dhara set from landmark when they were shutting down at Rs300 a piece..some of them still have a cover o_O since i am not that much into Classical..but you never know.
Just to add my own experience and an honest opinion as a music lover (not as an audiophile which I’m not), I have a fairly ok turntable at home, around 150 LPs, very resolving digital setup and I have heard different DACs at my home including chord quest and high end r2r dac. The LPs for songs recorded before mid 1980s(if recorded well and in good condition ) will beat all DACs and cds using same amplifier and speakers. this i found generally true. Especially golden age Bollywood songs dont even bother to try those on CD format and compare, it’s a waste of time. The music made after mid 1980s mostly sound good enough on cds and i dont tend to bother my turntable for most of those songs. If you still like warm and full sounding vinyls and don’t want to go vinyl route, get a good r2r dac that will add for around 50-60% of vinyl like sound and keep you satisfied alot without going vinyl route.
Totally agree with you that for Hindi-Bollywood, nothing to beat even an old not-so-mint Vinyl. Would rather prefer a hiss and pop rather than the strident sharpness of the cd where lata sounds sweet instead if sharp on a system that does not roll off the highs.
 
From a collector’s point of view, very true. Instead I believe it’s good time to pick good prints of CDs at good price - available typically at Rs 100-200 a piece from old CD resellers. My strike rate is roughly 1 gem, 2 decent and 2 duds in every 5 picks making it a worthwhile effort. I am not banking/planning on it, but am wary of the possibility that few years hence there could be a vintage CDs revival taking these costs to stratospheric levels making it difficult to buy them. (Already one sees some resellers selling NOS at 200-300% premium on Amazon India).




But will never cease to attract wider and passionate participation. Gets some otherwise quiet members going too. Good for the forum. Somewhat like a ‘loss leader’ strategy :)
Hi
Sachin Bhai
Very good suggestion for audio enthusiasts. If we don't collect good CDs now ,in future it will be difficult to find good CDs at a cheaper rate. Some unscrupulous sellers have already increased the price of the CDs just as the vinyls. So better to collect those now. But it is also difficult to keep track of the sellers disposing of CDs. Two years ago I came to know that a renowned shop in Kolkata would be closed and before shutdown the seller would sell the collections. But then I could not manage to go there and buy some CDs. However for the physical media lovers it is necessary to get ready and buy cds,vinyls cassettes because those will no longer be available in this digital era.
Regards
 
in fact picked up a Chanda Dhara set from landmark when they were shutting down at Rs300 a piece..some of them still have a cover o_O since i am not that much into Classical..but you never know.

@arj, if you ever decide to let go of them, consider me interested.
 
Dead horse. Already beaten many times on this forum.
Some day the horse will wake up and say. "Mujhe maaf karo bhai, I will purchase affordable turntable with built in phono to keep Analogue people happy" :p
Regards :)
 
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