What is there in a Vinyl?.........Just a thought.....

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jayants

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Hi!!

With all due respect to the Vinyl & Turntable Pundits here,just wanted to share my experience and some insight as WHAT IS THERE IN A VINYL THAT LURES US SO MUCH!!! Some might think why am I like many here, a staunch cheerleader of these things!! What brand equity a Turntable has and what satisfaction does it give to the end user!!

Music lovers need to understand and realise what we r missing out if u hv still not listened 2 a good vinyl in a decent setup. If some1 thinks he is happy with his mp3 files listening on his ipod or mobile, my only advice will b if u get a chance of getting hooked 2 vinyl never just let it go. MP3s u will get in hundreds downloading from the net ......but feeling the pleasure of listening 2 a vinyl,seeing that BLACK MAGIC revolving infront of u, cannot be downloaded.......no never.

I was also one amongst the crowd who always had his favourite songs recorded in audio casettes. Must hv invested few thousand jharofying from my Dad's pocket in getting these songs recorded in the late 80s/early 90s in a place at Gariahat,Calcutta,.Then that divine pleasure of free downloading Mp3 songs from Napster,Kazaa....wow......I thought then that was the ultimate.Then came the ACD phase where the medium with its packaging,usage facility seemed a much user friendly option.The Combo players like Philips Powerhouse and Sony G 80s started selling like Hot Cakes.This was all happening when I was simultaneously buying and listening to Vinyls as well.But ask any music lover who has listened songs over the years in all these mediums in that era,and he will share the same view as what I am saying.No mp3s,cd quality,in most cases could replace the pristine quality that u derive out of a vinyl.

When I started my collections of Vinyls I also thought let me only buy those films/albums which I dn't hv in ACDs but within a few weeks this desire of mine fell flat.The moment I used to see a Manzil Manzil brand new LP,or a Gurudev or a Sanam Teri Kasam......the sheer looks,design,presentation sheds all pre notioned inhibitions in me and I immediately had to buy the album. Reason? Very simple.Where in the ACD of Sanam Teri Kasam will u find such a packaging with such lovely pics and a gatefold cover?Where in the HKKN ACD u will find the song details,synopsis of the film and attractive gatefold cover,where in a Shalimaar ACD u will get 1 of the best gatefold covers of all times,with rare pics and important scene details.So,the bottomline is the packaging,the vinyl quality all compels me 2 buy the LP. The Cover Jacket plays an equally important role for me like the Vinyl..

Well I am preempting that this piece of post will not influence many......specially 2 that section who still banks on freebies OR "jitna saasta mil saktaa hai:)"............but to those who havn't yet started listening to Vinyls or have just started,please keep the basics correct and start listening NOW. Its an addiction.............and that will only grow for the good.


Regards,
Jayant
 
Nice one but perhaps only genuine collectors with deep pockets may be interested. The golden line by which most enthusiasts swear is to build networks and wait patiently. There are many FMs who have stumbled on treasures and have acquired them for almost nothing. One has to know where to look. If not, one has to spend ;)
 
Nice one but perhaps only genuine collectors with deep pockets may be interested. The golden line by which most enthusiasts swear is to build networks and wait patiently. There are many FMs who have stumbled on treasures and have acquired them for almost nothing. One has to know where to look. If not, one has to spend ;)


Thanks!!

Well I do respect ur view point but ITS LIKE HOW U LOOK AT THE HALF FILLED GLASS :)

For me life is too short. Ofcourse one need to be patient but its difficult to test one's patience when pursuing one's hobby / passion. As u rightly said it needs to be a mix of both but at times we do take steps which goes beyond our deep pockets :).

I am not a big fan of the present "Digital Pressings" which are making its rounds.Actually these are responsible for hiking the old analogue vinyl prices manifold times. But as one has to pursue his/her hobby/passion u have to accept this hike and move on as there is no other choice.
 
Fortunately or Unfortunately I am not a big FAN of the Digital medium when it comes to Music :)
Case in point, A.R. Rahman is all digital. He's never done analog. Though, I can accept he's probably an exception
 
That's perfectly okay and does not matter. No one cares, but just because you are not fan, please don't make universal statement on that.

I hope u understand the English Language as its clearly being mentioned "No mp3s,cd quality,in most cases could replace the pristine quality that u derive out of a vinyl." Whatever little English I understand that doesn't qualify as an universal statement.
 
J
That's perfectly okay and does not matter. No one cares, but just because you are not fan, please don't make universal statement on that.
That's just his opinion Koushik, not a universal statement, i would say.
Judging from his recent threads, he is apparently biased to old Hindi songs. It is in that genre that his statement does ring true. Audio CDs just don't match up to vinyl.
 
Case in point, A.R. Rahman is all digital. He's never done analog. Though, I can accept he's probably an exception

Rajiv my perspective is completely related to the "Era of the Analogue Vinyls" i.e. 60s,70s & 80s. Rahman's work doesn't fall in that.
 
J

That's just his opinion Koushik.
Judging from his recent threads, he is apparently biased to old Hindi songs. It is in that genre that his statement does ring true. Audio CDs just don't match up to vinyl.

Spot On Rajiv!!
 
Just as seeing is believing. Hearing is believing too. Try vinyl just once, out of the blue or curiosity, and one will notice the difference.
 
On another note, the CD/digital vs Vinyl saga in my opinion, is down to the listener (and not the format). A Rs.150 Chinese mp3 player with a Rs.500 home made amplifier playing a mp3 file with decent bitrate can be made to sound good to the common ear. To achieve similar sound on vinyl, one would have to have a rig worth atleast 30k. Its all down to personal preference.
 
I agree with Jayant and others to some extent - it is very very hard to match the quality of a reasonable vinyl rig via digital even in cases the medium is mastered well for both formats. Some recordings are originally recorded, mixed and mastered on analog. Digital just doesn't do justice to those recordings. It takes very high end digital to get the timing right which Vinyl seems to do so efforlessly.

The flipside of the coin is that a badly setup vinyl rig will most certainly sound bad. But even an average vinyl player can compete with mid-high end digital at least on some parameters, maybe not all.

When one hits state of the art systems, Vinyl absolutely has no peers. It has to be heard to be believed.
 
I remember those days when I used to sit in one of my friends recording shop who used to record in cassettes from LPs. When BPL introduced a CD player @5.5k, I got it immdly and then the CDs where title like bazigar, hum aapke hai Kaun, DDLJ cost 400 to 500rs which was much much more than the going price of an normal vinyl. And for me the CD sound quality was so different than vinyl or cassette. The Tseries CD s like Aashiqui,Sadak, dil hai ki maanta nahin were all selling for 90rs and still I have these CDs that are more than 20 yrs old. Even recordings shops which were earlier recording cassetes from LPs started doing recordings from CDs at a premium price as “ CD Recording” .

And then came the mp3 era that also @128 kbs at most or less than that in order to store more songs. Since this format has grown in to huge market, digital music now means mostly referred to mp3 and AAC at most 320/ 256 kbs due to which the CD price has fallen to ground and now it is 50 or 100 rs from 500 rs back 20 yrs.

But the price of a vinyl have shot up from 100 rs to 1500 rs now for a new release and taking advantage of this, old vinyl price sky rocketed to 5000/-and 7000/- with a pretext of first pressing, colour of the dog, great analogue sound.

Fact is that a vinyl enthusiast have no other option but to buy either the old one or new one. This is the only reason for the price of new LPs to go up and old Vinyl enthusiast (dealers) having number of extra copies that was never played (wonder why they purchased extra copy/ copies and kept it without playing) started demanding a price that would fit for only those having a high end vinyl system or/and money to spend on vinyl to keep the player spinning or just collecting and keeping it as near mint or never played.

Also I would say that DIGITAL MUSIC like SQ were already there during Vinyl/ cassettes era. Listen or Ask any cassette record shop owner who were doing “Equaliser recording” ( premium price ) where the recordings in cassettes were done by inflating the High frequency and bass thru equaliser though the source was from vinyl.

But still music is being enjoyed by each and every one in whatever format they could afford irrespective on the debate of SQ of each format or marketing by the particular format enthusiast.

Regards.
 
I have grown up in the era of the late 80s and early 90s to the mid 90s (my teens & 20s) & I have done enough recordings on Audio Cassettes and have seen the same being done by other fellow music enthusiasts as well BUT NEVER EVER CAME ACROSS THIS FUNDA OF CD recording to cassette :). Audio Cassettes were mostly recorded from analogue source be it directly from the Turntable OR cassette to cassette. Even the Bazigaars,Ashiqui,Sadaks were mostly recorded from cassettes to cassettes as not many people had the luxury to buy CDs and a CD Player as well.



I presume only someone who do not understand what analogue sound is all about will say that at the pretext of colour of dog/1st pressing the prices have rocketed.Not his fault though as we all r in the learning curve.Only thing is if that would have been the case then am sure all of us who are running for 1st pressings and the most sought after DOG wouldn’t have been spending a fortune for the same, as it cannot be the case that all are stupids.


The reason for Vinyl price going up is because WHO HAS AN EAR FOR MUSIC will definitely prefer Vinyls (old pressings) over anything else. Old pressings are no more made as it all stopped in the early 90s itself and as there has been a scarcity the prices went up.And well if someone is having extra copies and demanding a price now it shouldn’t bug some1.Isn’t it? Because those extra copies are his only (paying a price) and he is free to offer a price which he thinks so.Choice is yours to accept or leave. Somehow it sounds "grapes are sour" :)
 
The reason for Vinyl price going up is because WHO HAS AN EAR FOR MUSIC will definitely prefer Vinyls

There was a time, few years back, when somes "gurus" came up with ideas that if you record cassettes from vinyls on a Nakamichi deck then it will sound divine and that is the only way to listen to music.

People will come up with different ideas to sell their hoarded junks!! And that's the reason the price is going up ... :)
 
There was a time, few years back, when somes "gurus" came up with ideas that if you record cassettes from vinyls on a Nakamichi deck then it will sound divine and that is the only way to listen to music.

People will come up with different ideas to sell their hoarded junks!! And that's the reason the price is going up ... :)

What those GURUs spoke of is actually A FACT but there are so called Disciples who know nothing about what a NAK is and what it can do. The only thing they know better is to criticize and relate everything to "selling & business" because they themselves are incapable :)
 
I think discussing about the quality of a NAK recording deserves a seperate thread. It's a fact that Nak's are special machines for quality reproduction of analogue sound.
 
What those GURUs spoke of is actually A FACT but there are so called Disciples who know nothing about what a NAK is and what it can do. The only thing they know better is to criticize and relate everything to "selling & business" because they themselves are incapable :)
Haha, thats funny. Few years back it was better to record from vinyl to cassettes and then listen, and now suddenly, listening directly vinyl is better.
Later, it will depend on the things that I have hoarded in my house, may tips cassette of 90s or Venus may be ...

Some old electronic shops will come up with idea that CRT is better than Plasma/LCD/LED to clear out their go-downs, and we will buy them at premium.

In every aspects of life, science is progressing and only in Audio older technologies were better :D
 
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