Here's Whats Behind the Comeback of Vinyl and Printed Photographs

[George Mann]

And just to let you know, this article is posted in the wrong subforum.

 

[blockend]

These clueless authors are always dead wrong when it comes to the so-called resurgence of vinyl records. It is driven primarily by high end listeners, and the industry that caters to us!

Not sure what a high end listener is. Vinyl fans of my acquaintance are people for whom vinyl records never went away. Added to this is a group who sold their LPs when CDs came in, and have spent the last decade buying them back again. Personally speaking, I only ever bought 5 CDs because it wasn't a format that interested me, though tbh my music buying dried up about the time CDs began to dominate recorded music. I prefer lo-fi recording media whether it be visual or audio, to the studied appreciation approach.

 

[John51]

At the low end, vinyl is Kodak Brownie quality. Fun but don't expect too much. To beat a good digital sound system, serious money needs to be spent. My compromise is to use a non oversampling dac. It has an 'almost analogue' quality to it.

I once tried explaining to my son that cameras like the Pentax Spotmatic used to be classed as automatic but are now considered manual.

 

[blockend]

To beat a good digital sound system, serious money needs to be spent.

I think it's truer to say what was once normal is the new bespoke. A guitar put through a valve amp, recorded on a 4-track to 1" tape, given a nice deep pressing and played through another valve amplifier takes some beating for audio quality but it wouldn't be to everyone's taste. It would be an expensive set up now but unremarkable at the time. Like using a Speed Graphic for lo-res newspaper photography was normal.

 

[reddesert]

Not sure what a high end listener is.

Someone who turns the treble up to 11?

There are several stores in my city selling new and used records, and they certainly aren't generally catering to people who require the utmost pristine audio quality - since quite a lot of their stock is rock or jazz records that were pressed 30-50 years ago and have seen casual use, as they should. It seems like people in these stores are, well, music enthusiasts, and quite a few of them are young enough not to have lived through the first age of vinyl. I think you could say the same thing about film cameras. If it were only super high-end camera owners, they wouldn't be buying enough film to keep the industry afloat.

 

[GLS]

The monolithic term "digital" when referring to music isn't helpful either, as there are many formats, not all created equal. Just as "analogue" could refer to cassette tapes, vinyl (33, 45 or 78 RPM) or reel to reel tapes, "digital" can mean PCM (either compressed or uncompressed) at different permuatations of bit depth and sampling rate (current commercial offerings are available as high as 24bit 352.8 KHz), or the much more niche DSD format that was originally invented for encoding the music on SACDs (anyone remember them?). DSD (although still digital) uses a very different approach to PCM, and in my view is more analogue-like in its sound. But then which type of DSD? There is single-rate (DSD64, the original), as well as double-, quad- and even octuple-rate DSD formats. A rabbit hole indeed....

 

[CMoore]

Ill just keep calling them records and film, film, even though I also have to explain its still film, not moving and b&w, b&w....except when I split tone and becomes monochrome.

This has been an interesting aspect of this thread.
I was born in 1960.
I cannot, ever, remember calling a record "Vinyl" until MUCH Later in life.
We had..... Records, Tapes/Cassettes, and (eventually) CD's

 

[Ces1um]

Growing up I always called them either records or vinyl records. I still use the terms interchangeably. I purchased a record player about 3 years ago after listening to one in a store and feeling a bit nostalgic. I remembered records just being all hiss and pop but obviously I knew nothing about needing to clean them to get the most out of their sound. I find they do sound different from mp3's or from cd's. I find mp3's are kind of muddy for sound. CD's in my mind do sound better but there does seem to be a lot of high end treble that to my uncultured ear sounds a little abrasive. Records seem to be a good mix between the two. What I like most about them though is having that lyrics sheet included. The giant album art doesn't hurt either. It's just a better experience.

As for needing a high end stereo to get the most out of records- yeah, very likely true. I have a decent amplifier and speakers that all told probably cost maybe 700 cdn. My record player cost another 400 (with an upgraded cartridge). I think about 90% of the sound is a combination of good speakers, a decent amplifier and a good quality phono cartridge. Getting that remaining 10% is where things get costly. Better quality cables, gold connectors, record weights, tubes/valves perhaps, more expensive gear in general.

 

[Helios 1984]

When I was a kid, back in the 80/90s, we referred to them as Record, Disque, 45-tours and Long Jeu. Until recent years, I had never heard anyone say “Vinyl” or “Disque Vinyl”.

Anecdote:
2-3 years ago my uncle’s neighbour dumped his whole collection. Dozens of boxes ended up in the street, hundreds of LPs. Folks cherry picked the good stuff for days before the garbage truck ultimately cleaned everything that was left.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

At the low end, vinyl is Kodak Brownie quality. Fun but don't expect too much. To beat a good digital sound system, serious money needs to be spent. My compromise is to use a non oversampling dac. It has an 'almost analogue' quality to it.

I once tried explaining to my son that cameras like the Pentax Spotmatic used to be classed as automatic but are now considered manual.

Weird. I'm very advanced in hearing, just naturally.
I have no problem with couple of old German TT, two JBL monitors, one sub and old Marantz amp to listen good quality LPs. It doesn't cost a lot of money.

 

[George Mann]

Not sure what a high end listener is.

A high end listener is one that spends a considerable amount of time, effort and money in the pursuit of perfect sound reproduction. When one spends $500 on the latest direct-to-disc pressing in order to hear it played back on their $300K analog front-end, they are at a level of state-of-the-art reproduction that sweeps any commonly conceived limitations of the format into the dustbin.

 

[MattKing]

A high end listener is one that spends a considerable amount of time, effort and money in the pursuit of perfect sound reproduction. When one spends $500 on the latest direct-to-disc pressing in order to hear it played back on their $300K analog front-end, they are at a level of state-of-the-art reproduction that sweeps any commonly conceived limitations of the format into the dustbin.

And they probably have hearing that is so relatively impeded by the vicissitudes of advancing age that they hear less than a teenager listening to low quality MP3s on their phone.
At least until the teenager damages their hearing, by listening with the volume turned to high.

 

[George Mann]

And they probably have hearing that is so relatively impeded by the vicissitudes of advancing age that they hear less than a teenager listening to low quality MP3s on their phone.

The age-related loss of high-frequency acuity doesn't always affect serious listening as much as one may assume, especially since ones hearing acuity is direct tied to ones intellectual capacity.

 

[MattKing]

The age-related loss of high-frequency acuity doesn't always affect serious listening as much as one may assume, especially since ones hearing acuity is direct tied to ones intellectual capacity.

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2011/06/mosquito-ringtones/

 

[George Mann]

Something else that people fail to realize is that there is precious little to hear (directly) in a recording past 8khz.

 

[removed account4]

That is one ad crazy web site. The content is unavailable if you're using an ad blocker, and I see why. After allowing the ads they were everywhere, dwarfing the content.

Sites like that end up loading malware...

couldn't agree more !

 

[CMoore]

Something else that people fail to realize is that there is precious little to hear (directly) in a recording past 8khz.

Does it really fall off that fast.?
That is probably about 2k past a "Normal" electric guitar... isn't it.?

 

[reddesert]

The age-related loss of high-frequency acuity doesn't always affect serious listening as much as one may assume, especially since ones hearing acuity is direct tied to ones intellectual capacity.

That's weird, I assumed from the earlier description of high-end listening that hearing was directly tied to one's wallet.

 

[TheRook]

Since there was a need to distinguish between digital and analog technology. Monochrome is for bw as well as other monotones. Never heard an lp record called a vinyl till this century. Its all confusing.

The term, "vinyl" was frequently used at least as far back as the 1970's, usually to distinguish it from cassettes. For example, "I've got that on vinyl." Even the band Rainbow put out an album titled "Finyl Vinyl" back in 1984. Using the term "vinyl" for records isn't necessarily a 21st century thing.

Even today I refuse to use the term "analog" to refer to film photography... somehow it sounds too pretentious to me. Instead, I just call it "film" as I always have.

 

[George Mann]

Does it really fall off that fast.?
That is probably about 2k past a "Normal" electric guitar... isn't it.?

The frequency range of a bass and guitar overlap more than most realize (mostly midrange). They mostly differ in pitch.

 

[awty]

The term, "vinyl" was frequently used at least as far back as the 1970's, usually to distinguish it from cassettes. For example, "I've got that on vinyl." Even the band Rainbow put out an album titled "Finyl Vinyl" back in 1984. Using the term "vinyl" for records isn't necessarily a 21st century thing.

Sure they weren't referring to their trousers?

 

[awty]

A high end listener is one that spends a considerable amount of time, effort and money in the pursuit of perfect sound reproduction. When one spends $500 on the latest direct-to-disc pressing in order to hear it played back on their $300K analog front-end, they are at a level of state-of-the-art reproduction that sweeps any commonly conceived limitations of the format into the dustbin.

I make all my own hifi components, like pictures if you make them yourself they are naturally better......I know I am deluded, but its only a problem if you don't know you are.
I agree with you that you can appreciate the difference of a quality play back even if you have less than perfect hearing. Just like someone can have an appreciation of fine wine, even if they arent a so called supertaster.

 

[blockend]

especially since ones hearing acuity is direct tied to ones intellectual capacity.

That's quite a claim, do you have a source? It would suggest Beethoven was a dunce. I've always found music appreciation a visceral activity, with distortion of various kinds part of the experience. Exhausting the last drop of audio or visual acuity is an interesting technical exercise, but only distantly related to the art and craft of photography and music.

 

[CMoore]

The frequency range of a bass and guitar overlap more than most realize (mostly midrange). They mostly differ in pitch.

They probably do, until about 3k.
But i was asking about your 8k comment, and what we hear during an audio recording.

 

[John51]

Weird. I'm very advanced in hearing, just naturally.
I have no problem with couple of old German TT, two JBL monitors, one sub and old Marantz amp to listen good quality LPs. It doesn't cost a lot of money.

Those could be used with a laptop or smartphone as the source. I was talking about the spend needed to get an acceptable source quality from vinyl. Turntable, arm, cartridge, phono amp and record cleaner.

As well as $$$, a price many audiophiles pay for their passion is an intolerance to flaws in the audio reproduction. It can destroy their listening pleasure. We're all different in what we can tolerate. Poor quality recordings drives my eldest nuts but I don't mind. It's the opposite with guitarists making squeaks. He doesn't mind and I can't stand it. When an audiophile keeps noticing a flaw in the source, they often switch to a different source for the majority of their listening.

On the opposite end, I know a few people that mainly play their vinyl when it's party time. Plenty of Rice Krispies and some scratches. Good fun had by all.